Evolution of love

VELPUR MOUNA SWAMI

The daily routine for Swami starts at 2 o’clock in the morning. He steps out of the Hall to wash himself, comes in and gets immersed in meditation, with closed eyes. All the other Ashramites -- ten to fifteen devotees -- also get up, roll up their mats, and start meditating. The first ones who get up at around 4 or 5 a.m., are the ones who work in the ‘Ghosala’. The next batch of devotees who leave the Hall at 5 o’clock are the ones who prepare the breakfast.

By then, some more people from the surrounding join in the meditation. By 10 o’clock the Hall is filled with devotees. All the while, Swami is seated like a living statue deeply immersed within, in Bliss. Even if mosquitoes and flies bite him, there is not a twitch in his skin!

At 11 o’clock, Seethamma an old lady dressed in white saree, sits in front of him. With coconut oil, mixed with camphor, she rubs his limbs to get him back to body- consciousness. When that fails, she takes a big block of camphor, lights it and waves it in front of Swami’s face. The warmth of the burning camphor brings him to come back to body-consciousness. Swami’s face glows with a divine lustre and he smiles graciously with his eyes. [ Seethamma is the fortunate lady who has been serving Swami from 1985; is the lady who is an eye-witness to Swami’s “Death Experience”. ]
Attending on all devotees in the same seated position - reading their questions and answering them by writing; giving them prasad of books, smiling a bit more widely at children and giving them candies and chocolates --- goes on for another one to one and half hours.

At around 12.30, without even uncrossing his legs from sukhasana, he shoots up himself to a straight standing posture without the need of any form of support - an extraordinary yogic feat, indeed !

He then proceeds to lunch -- the first meal of his day! He mixes up every form of food -- vegetables, chappati, rasam, buttermilk and desserts -- into a semi-solid liquid and drinks it up. After a little resting period, from 2 p.m. onwards he works in the field -- plucking out weeds or helping in the construction of building or cutting grass for the cows or binding the books that are meant for distribution.