About Sai Master Ekkirala Bharadwaja's Family & Childhood

'Divyajanani', 'Matrusri' Alivelumangamma lovingly called as 'Ammagaru' is born in Mannava village of Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh. Her parents Sri Mannava Balakrishna Sharma & Smt. Ranganayakamma hail from a traditionally devoted family. They named her after a goddess as 'Alivelu Manga Tayaru'. Ammagaru is the 6th child in the family of 6 girls and 2 brothers.

She is brought up in Guntur untill her SSLC examinations (age of 15). The family had a close relation with Matrusri Jillellamudi Amma's family belonging to the neibourhood in Mannava. Jillellamudi Amma is well known lady saint who was married to Sri Nageswara Rao garu of Jillellamudi village of Bapatla District. A big Ashram got developed around her at Jillellamudi and is famous for its Daily Meals donation for thousands of people every day. Ammagaru went to Jillellamudi in 1963 to render service in the Ashram. Their batch of girls belonging to Ammagaru team used to do lot of hardwork like bringing water from a distant rivulet to the ashram, harvesting the crops in season, helping in providing facilities to the alloted visiting devotees etc. They used to work 20 to 22 hours a day (!!) and were seen sleeping in standing postures during the early morning service hours just before Suprabhatam at 3 a.m. or so. They used to enjoy by giving nicknames and deny answers to those devotees who doesn't work and just enjoy the facilities. Jillellamudi Amma used to take special care & express love to Ammagaru's active group of girls. In later days Ammagaru's father has expired in 1964. And it seems like Ammagaru was drawn to the spiritual umbrella and was much involved into spiritual evagation just before that big jolt to the family.

During Ammagaru's days at Jillellamudi, His holiness Master garu came to Jillellamudi and stayed there for an year. As an active person in rendering services and maintaining key activities of the Organisation he came to know about the qualities of Ammagaru. Though he wanted to remain as a celibate for his life, Master garu was later pushed into Gruhasta-Ashrama (married life). By the consistent advice and assurance of his spiritual progress by Avadhuta Sri Chirala Swamy and later by His greatness Sri Paakalapati Guruvugaru, Mastergaru has married Ammagaru on March 6th of 1975. It is worth mentioning the process of their initial talks, Master garu wrote a letter to Ammagaru telling about his proposal and adding that he will leave the house whenever 'call' comes from Baba. It may be for a while or for ever. He asked her to think about it and be clear and known about his future spiritual endeavours.

Some day during that period Ammagru got a dream. In the dream she is doing pradakshina (circumambulating) the Brahmamgari Matham (Potuluri Veerabrahmendra Swamy temple) in Banaganapalli. SaiBaba was sitting below the Neem tree in the temple premises. He called 'Tayee, Come here'. He was calling Ammagaru as 'Tayee' which is her childhood nickname often used by her mother. Then he made her to sit in a chair, asked her to do Gauri Pooja (praying goddess Gauri is a mandatory custom for ladies just before marriage) and blessed her. Following this dream, and a sharp & good thought Ammagaru conveyed her acceptance to the marriage proposal by Mastergaru.

Vedavathi, their daughter & first child is born in 1976 November 7th at Banaganapalli. Later Dwarakanath Jnaneswar is born in 1981 July 23rd in Ongole. By the time the family has migrated to Ongole. During those days Ammagaru's condition of Rheumatoid Arthritis got aggriviated to the levels of paralysing one hand and restricting the movement of legs. Later after few years she was restricted to the sitting position only. Surprisingly, as ever with Baba & his acts, the very wife of his best if not the most beloved devotee had to suffer with worldly ties. One way it is not a surprising thing as she has to go through the karmic duties in this single life to be liberated by rule, being the wife of a poorna jnani (i.e.) Master garu. Master garu has persued medication to get it cured, he also offered Ammagaru that if she really want to get it off at any time, she can ask Baba for it and it will be done. But Ammagaru's thought was very matured spiritually and she chose to bear with it and continue the worldly medication for soothing the symptoms.

*The photo shows Mastergaru, Ammagaru,Vedavathi and Dwarakanath

Ammagaru has ever supported Mastergaru in his life style and was a perfect match to him. Many students (and later devotees) of Mastergaru thought that it was the end of a chapter and Mastergaru may not be available as ever after the marriage. But surprisingly Mastergaru continued to be the same after the marriage. It was seen in terms of allowing student to freely move & take part in spiritual meetings etc. with him. Mastergaru used to take food anytime in the late night, unexpected number of persons used to join him.He spent all his money for Sai Tatwa pracharam (Spreading Sai Culture) and in times the family was in mud house, left to Baba though. Those were the days when Mastergaru resigned his job & moved to Ongole. He never took free money offerings and encashed only his hard efforts for Baba. We know Mastergaru worked on SaiBaba very rigorously for 14 long years. A smooth & strong support in idealogy & routine from Ammagaru made it possible. Finally the hard days passed away and SaiBaba Mission formation and funds flow from Books like Saileelamrutham were just enough to run the family and maintain the press. The bottomline is that Ammagaru was now seen as the best match and the couple is a true made for each other. Mastergaru often said, "If she doesn't support me, I could not do these things, and I might not be available to you like this". It is true by Gruhasta-Ashram as we all known the importance of a wife and her acceptance, by Manu-Dharma. Mastergaru is a person who claimed "If I miss in Dharma, it is like God Sun act of rising in the West". In lieu of it, we should see the importance and support Ammagaru rendered as great as any thing in holy scripts.

Golden Days went on when thousands of people were admired and turned towards Sai by Master garu. Many more thousands realised Mastergaru's greatness. More found him as none other than god and incarnation of Lord Dattatreya. Then were the true sweet days in A.P.'s history when strong foundations of Saibaba were layed in the region and now we all see the effect of it even in Shirdi, outclassing numbers of so many devotees are visiting Shirdi from this part of the world. Days have come in the history, Ammagaru has to face bigger shock by realising that Mastergaru has taken Samadhi, quite unexpected as it was, in terms of timing as he is just 51 & left with young kids. Ammagaru said that, she thought Mastergaru may leave to Himalayas or so, but she didn't expected this. Ammagaru has absorbed the shock and took to the taking care of the children. Her prime objecting is to see her children grown up and got settled. Vedavathi was married in 1999 to Mr. Adidam Srikanth a country manager of a MNC, coming from a traditional family from Vijayawada. They are living happily at Hyderabad. Ammagaru's second child Chi. Dwarakanath is graduated and into software industry. Spiritually both the children & the son-in-law are very much elite. Great Avadhutas like Sri Nampalli Baba, Sri Gulab Baba, Sri Polayya Swamy has specially shown there love to the family and blessed them. After all Mastergaru is known as 'Mahatmula Muddu Biddadu' (the loving son of Mahatmas).

With the initiative of Brahmachari Ramachandra (a beloved devotee of Mastergaru), a Monstery at Gaangaapuram and Sri Alivelumanga Sahita Bharadwaja Ashram at Shirid are under development.

A book, the biography of Ammagaru is under final touches and is going to be published. We shall see the golden pages in our hands soon.

Now Ammagaru is staying at Hyderabad giving a chance to various devotees to get the blessing of Mastergaru in the form of Ammagaru. She is the Gurupatni and Thus the Guru and Thus the God Almighty as defined by the holy scriptures. Devotees are experiencing the grace of Baba & Master garu ever before at Ammagaru and many miracles are unfolding. Devotees are getting their good desires met by her blessings.

This is the special occassion for all of us to feel the presence and knowledge of the great, her holiness 'Divyajanani' Alivelumangamma on her 60th Birthday on October 1st, 2005.

May all of us get special blessings on the day.

A quote from a revered devotee of Sri Gajana Maharaj says,
"We salute the very dust particles on the Feet of saints. Liberation does not hold any charm to us. Only saints are great. Nothing is greater than them. He is a Bhrahmajnyani, who thinks of saints always. Such a person treats saints as God. He doesn't need to think of any thing else."
source

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