Biography of Mathaji
-- by “Mallika”
(Ms. Aaraddhi Vakulamala)
Sadguru Mathaji Krishnapriya was born to the blessed couple late Shri Aaraaddhi Hanumantha Rao and Smt. Jogubai on Sunday, the 18thNovember 1923,at Parlakimidi (now in Orissa State). Smt. Jogubai had done 18 recitations of “Bhaagavat Puraan”[1] before delivery and hence named her daughter as “Krishna”, the Lord of Bhagavat Puran. Krishna was brought up as a favorite sweet child and she was indeed different from other kids. Right from childhood Krishna was having Lord Krishna’s picture in all her activities – whether play or study. She used to sing Bhajans of the Lord enchanting the elders around. At the age of eight while she was at her Grand mother’s( mother’s mother)place at Vizianagaram, she had the first “darshan” (divine appearance) of Lord SaiBaba of Shirdi who became her mentor right from that tender age and taught her on spirituality. Since she was too young, her expressions were not understood by the people around.
As desired by her grandma, Krishna was married to Shri. Koduganti Sheshagiri Rao ,at a very young age. Although Krishna got married, she used to spend most of the time worshipping God. Shri. Sheshagiri Rao was working in postal department in Nagpur. During this period, Krishna got initiation in Gayatri mantra from Shri. Mangalampalli Sriramurthy and completed the prescribed chanting and recitation of the same.
She recognized Shri SAIBABA as her Guru since innumerable births. Shri Baba used to address her as “my child”. Being ardent devotee of Lord Krishna, she called herself as “Krishna Priya”.
Due to ill health Krishna used to stay with her parents frequently. She was in the family way and after giving birth to third child in 1948 her health deteriorated further. Shri Sheshagiri Rao left for Nagpur after leaving her under the care of her parents at Ramachandrapuram, East Godavari district. In the year 1950, her illness became severe. Around the midnight of 14th July 1950, her parents lost hopes of her survival. At that hour of anxiety, Shri Shirdi Sai Baba and Shri. Raghavendra Swami of Mantralaya appeared, restored her health and assured of her well being and their constant protection. There were several miraculous instances gracing their presence. Three lines of holy ash used to appear on Shri Krishnapriya’s forehead regularly; holy ash was made available for distribution to devotees; and a packet of holy-ash, a few Tulsi leaves and holy Brindavanmrithika (fine top soil of Tulsi or holy basil plant) from Mantalaya used to appear beneath her pillow.
The miracles of Shri Baba have become a regular feature and several people attracted by these miracles used to come to Shri Krishnapriya, treating her as divine Mother. Shri Baba started giving divine messages in beautiful scripts which used to appear miraculously on the tender petal of flowers like Rose, Jasmine etc as well as on fruits like Bananas offered in worship. Some of the devotees were addressed with special names by Baba which connotes their Samskaras of their past birth. They were also initiated into spiritual practices as per their samskaras. As ordained by Shri Sainath, Shri Krishnapriya had become a Sadguru Mathaji - a holy mother Guru to many aspirants and initiated them into spiritual mantras and saadhanas[2]. Some of the early disciples included Shri Joysyula Ramachandra Rao, an elite advocate; Shri Bikkini Venkataratnam, a popular political leader and social worker (who was also a minister in the Govt. in the state of Madras/Andhra for some time) and Shri Vishwanadham Chetty, registrar of cooperative societies. These disciples were addressed as Jnani, Shyama Bhakta and Shravana respectively. Shri Shyama Bhakta was encouraged to build a temple for Baba at Ramachandrapuram. While Mathaji Krishnapriya was immersed in intense spiritual regimen, Shri Baba used to appear in her form and perform the daily chores at home like preparing tea for her husband, giving betel leaf and surprised everyone. In the year 1951, Shri Krishnapriya was permitted to relinquish family life as ordained by Shri Baba. Her third sister was married to Shri Sheshagiri Rao and her children were also entrusted to her sister. Thus, shri Krishnapriya had completely dedicated rest of her life to worship of the Lord and spiritual upliftment of the devotees.
Right from the year 1951 Mathaji started celebration of BABA’s birthday which coincides with ShriRam Navami (which usually falls around 1st April every year), as well as ‘Guru Purnima’ -also known as Vyasa Purnima (which usually falls in the month of July every year) when worship of Guru is perfomed. Many devotees congregate for these celebrations at Ramachandrapuram where it is continued ever since.
BABA taught immense spiritual practices to Krishnapriya including ‘mouna vrat’ (observing silence) for a year in 1953. As a culmination of her intense spiritual practice Krishnapriya attained “darshan” (holy Appearance) of Lord Krishna and was also declared as a Sadguru, one who can teach and take along others towards attainment of God.
In the year 1953, a temple for BABA was built by Mathaji in the piece of land bequeathed by her father at Ramachandrapuram, with the help of Shri Bikkini Venkataratnam.
Shri Mathaji treated the devotees and disciples just like her children and imparted divine teachings in a lucid way. People always felt happy and blessed in Her presence. She made simple songs and poems on BABA and Lord Shri Krishna and used to sing daily while decorating the Lord and during the evening Bhajans at the Temple. Decorating the Lord was indeed Her specialty. Her worship of the Lord was example for others. When Mathaji is immersed in worship and falling in a trance, BABA used to speak through Her quoting Slokas (stanzas) from BhagavadGita and Upanishads and explaining their esoteric import. The tone in which these speeches were given was totally different from Her usual voice and was touching the fathoms of the heart. BABA was also bestowing divine experiences when Mathaji was following the regimen of spiritual practices. She was identified as belonging to Golok, the heavenly abode of Lord Krishna and several hallowed visions re-living the association of Lord Krishna were experienced which were later described by Mathaji to her close disciples. Mathaji’s ‘dhyana’ used to last for three hours in a firm posture. She used to drop unconscious when Lord Krishna appeared in her Visions. Although the nearby disciples used to hold her in those instances for safety, still sometimes she sustained injuries due to falling unconscious. In the state of such ‘bhavaavesh’ she used to laugh or cry fervently for hours together, sometimes. Her state of mind was explained by none other than her guru, BABA, who cautioned the devotees on how to take care of her on such occasions.
As word of mouth spread, many devotees started flocking to Mathaji , which became a hindrance to her meditational practices. Taking the permission of BABA, Mathaji built an ‘ashram’ at the hill-station of Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh. She also built a temple for BABA and developed a flower-garden in the Ashram. She spent about 12 years at this ashram worshiping the Lord and having many divine visions and experiences as though that was a period of penance for the welfare of devotees and disciples and peace of the world. From this period only Krishnapriya came to be better known as Mathaji. In the year 1969 Mathaji made her disciples perform japa of Vaasudeva maha mantra of 12 lakhs each followed byhoma along with her. This is known as ‘japayajna’ which culminated in a ‘purnahuti’, the final homa.
In the year 1971, she toured the holy places of south India taking some disciples along with her, and they were fortunate in having some divine experiences during the tour. Later, as desired by her disciples and after taking permission of BABA, she shifted her ashram from Pachmarhi to Nagpur, into a newly constructed building with adjoining temple and re-installed the deities shifted from Pachmarhi in the year 1974. It was a grand celebration by Her disciples on that auspicious occasion. Several rounds of japayajna were performed at this ashram by devotees most enthusiastically. Mathaji established practice of japayajna during the month of Kaartik (usually around 2nd week of November) every year performed with mantras of Shri Radha and Krishna culminating in a grand worship of Shri Radha- Krishna on the Kartik Purnima day (full moon day in November). The participants involved in various services of the Lord and became ecstatic in singing Bhajans and Kirtans during these celebrations. All that was possible due to the grace of Mathaji.
In the year 1977, another japayajna of Vaasudeva mahamantra was organized by Mathaji at Ramachandrapuram in a grand scale with the participation of all her disciples.
During Navratri festival every year, the idol of Shri Krishna installed in the Nagpur temple is decorated as Durga and various rituals of yajna are performed with utmost fervor. During Kartik Purnima Shri Krishna is decorated as Shri Radha. It is like transformation of the Lord into these Deities as if to prove that it is the same God whichever form you worship.
As ordained by BABA, Mathaji wrote “Sri Sai Satcharitra” , a comprehensive biography of Shri Shirdi Saibaba and dedicated to Him. This book was made into seven chapters for daily recitation so that one cycle of recitation would be completed in a week. Mathaji has prescribed a method of repeated recitations for fulfillment of vows or life’s ambitions and goals. Having the blessings of BABA and being the words of Sadguru Mathaji , the recitations have proved to be of immense benefit – devotees report till date their achievement of objectives with the power of these recitations. Thus it is a great service rendered to the believers giving them happiness and peace of mind.
Mathaji’s love and compassion to her devotees is such that she protects them from disasters of life in several ways. Cases of her having taken over the suffering of her devotees in order to give relief to them are innumerable. She had even saved some disciples from accidents and untimely death. To her mother Jogubai, she served with great devotion in her last days taking care of medical treatment as well as constant physical care and on the night of 10th October 1981, Smt. Jogubai left for heavenly abode by the rare yogic path of ‘kapaala moksha’ . (Soul leaving the body thru the tip of the head is known as kapala moksha). This is possible only by the grace of a great Sadguru.
Sai Krishna Seva Samithi , an association of the devotees, was started on 07th November 1981with blessings of Mathaji. The association is formed to propagate the ideals and teachings of Mathaji as well as to socially alleviate the suffering of needy people.
In the year 1983 Mathaji’s 60th birth anniversary was celebrated with lot of fanfare at Ramachandrapuram and “Mrityunja japa homa” rituals were performed by Her disciples. On the concluding day of the celebrations, the devotees witnessed divine experiences like hearing the music of celestial flute of Lord Krishna, miraculous appearance of idols of Shri Radha and Krishna. It was as though a birth day gift of BABA to Mathaji that these beautiful jewel- studded idols descended suddenly and appeared in the folded hands of Mathaji seated amidst devotees singing Bhajans.
It was a promise Shri SAIBABA made to Mathaji long back that he would make his presence felt at the temple for six hours a day, and whoever devotee comes there with faith and devotion will get the boon of fulfillment of his desires. This fulfillment is witnessed even today and can be seen for ever. That is the divine power of Mathaji’s Bhakti.
Mathaji left for Golok, her heavenly abode on the 5th December, 1987 which coincided with the festival of descent of Lord Shri Dattatreya, leaving her disciples and devotees in a state of irreparable loss and sorrow. The renovation of temple at Ramachandrapuram was in progress and along with other deities Mathaji’s idol was also prepared and installed in the year 1989.
Although Mathaji left her mortal body, Her divine presence is felt by her disciples and devotees till date and several experiences are recorded by them. On several occasions of congregation of Her devotees such experiences are seen; one small example is the swinging of the garland in the temple at midnight of Shri Krishna Janmastami day in 1988. The life-time experiences of Her disciples are recorded in a special commemorative volume published in the year 2004, on the occasion of Golden Jubilee celebration of the temple at Ramachandrapuram.
Mathaji’s divine life-story written and dedicated by me was published in Telugu in the year 1982; and its English version –translated by Dr. M.Srinivas Rao was published in the year 1985. Those who wish to know her biography in detail may please go through that book[3].
Mathaji’s work on Shirdi Saibaba’s biography as a holy book for daily recitation is a specially blessed Book of the Lord and bestows Her Love and compassion on the devotees fulfilling their ambitions and taking them on the path of Devotion and Faith.
May all the devotees get the benefit of Her Grace through Her teachings and be Blessed.
-- “Mallika” (Aaraadhi Vakulamala);
Nagpur, India. President, Sai Krishna Seva Samithi.
