Our Ashram - 1

On 24 Dec 2021, our Ashram land has been registered. It was indeed an auspicious day, Margashira Krishna Panchami, the 5th day of dark fortnight of Margashira month.

There is a wonderful saying of Mother of Jillellamudi, "A muhurta is never set, it just happens". Similarly, we never thought of doing this on this day, but it so happened on its own, prompted by an unseen force.

Now, listen to the importance of this day.

It was on 24 Dec 1886 that a few young men named Naren, Rakhal, Baburam, Tarak, Sasi, Sarat etc took Sanyas and changed their names as Swami Vivekananda, Swami Brahmananda, Swami Premananda, SWami Sivananda, Swami Ramakrishnananda, Swami Saradananda etc. This happened in Antpur, a village in Bengal. It was the native village of Swami Premananda. It was here that the foundation has been laid for the future Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

Exactly on the same day, after 135 years, Panchawati Ashram Land has been acquired. Next day was Christmas day. Even though fanatic Christians hate us, we never hate them. We love Jesus more than they do, because whatever he taught originally was nothing but Hinduism in a new garb. He came to India, learnt its mystic practices, lived in Tibet, learnt about Buddhism and its subtleties. So, we never entertain any feeling of animosity for Christ. What we don't like is forceful conversions and hate propaganda of Christian missionaries, abusing Hindu gods and goddesses. This we dont like.

Today, the 26 Dec 2021, is more auspicious than Christmas, because it happens to be the birthday of Sri Sarada Devi who was worshipped as Ma Kali by none other than Sri Ramakrishna himself. I see a great blessing in our Ashram land becoming a reality in the middle of so many blessed days.

There is a hamlet through which we need to pass to reach our Ashram land. The presiding deity of it is Ankamma Talli (Mother Ankamma). It is the colloquial name of Goddess Kali. She was termed as Chamundi in Devi Bhagavata and other Sakta scriptures. She is the same deity who is worshipped on the Indrakiladri hills at Vijayawada and on the Chamundi hills at Mysore. I saw her temple while entering this village. It thrilled me to the core because after searching at many places, we finally came back to the feet of Mother Kali, the goddess we worship devotedly.

During 7th Century AD, places like Dharanikota in Andhra country were important centers of Buddhist Tantra practices. Nagarjuna, the famous teacher of Mahayana Buddhism, who is regarded as second Buddha, was from Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh. Huan Tsang from China dared his life and crossed Himalayas to arrive at Dharanikota near Amaravati in Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, which is a very nearby place to our Ashram, to learn the secret practices of Tantric Buddhism. It is at this place that the Kalachakra Ceremony was done by Dalai Lama in the year 2006.

We have many female deities named Tara, Marichi, Lalita, Chinnamunda etc in Tantric Buddhism. All of them were none other than different forms of Ma Kali. You will find them being worshipped in every village in South India, in their local village names. In fact, they are the sapta matrikas, the seven mothers of the Vedas, re-emerged in Sakti forms, after the decline of Buddhism in India.

The presiding deity of nearest city Ongole is Rajarajeswari or Lalita. I assume that readers who went through my book 'Hidden meanings of Lalita Sahasra Nama' will understand well, at least theoretically, the secret theories and practices connected with Sakti worship.

So, we arrived finally to Ongole and nearby villages, who were centers of Tantric Buddhism and Sakti worship in olden days. This is how our Karmic links lead us to the places we were connected with in the ancient past.

In my book 'Musings', I briefly mentioned about my past connection with Lord Buddha and his teachings. Without this past connection, i would not have written commentaries on 'Dhammapada' and 'Maha Smriti Prasthana Sutra' two seminal works of Buddhist teaching. In fact, many more books on Buddha and his philosophy with my commentary are going to see light in the near future.

To go back a little into history, Buddhism flourished in Andhra country about 2000 years ago. We can see the ruins of many Buddhist stupas and Viharas standing as witnesses to this glorious period, down the course of Krishna river. Gundlakamma, a minor rivulet flowing in Prakasam District has many such ruins by its side, testifying to the Buddhist roots that the Andhra country had in the past.

Just 2 Km from our Ashram land, we have Gundlakamma reservoir, where a Buddhist stupa was unearthed in the year 1962. This Stupa resembles the Sanchi Stupa in its design and shape.  Chandavaram, another ancient Buddhist site of 2000 years standing, is located nearby.

One of my first books was 'Tara Stotram' which is going to come out shortly as 'Hymn of Mother Tara'. Readers who happen to read this and my similar works on Sakta Tantra will understand well my firm footing in Tantra Sadhana.

In this way, our Ashram land is directly related to Lord Buddha, Tantric Buddhism and Sakti worship. Our Ashram is coming up in such a hallowed piece of land. We are going to do these sadhanas again in this land. So, history is going to repeat itself.