Chapter Thirteen
Chellachi Ammaiyar
One of Yogaswami’s contemporaries was a saint named Chellachi Ammaiyar, whose home had become like an ashram. She was born in 1863, the same year Swami Vivekananda entered this world. Devout from early childhood, she worshiped at the temple as often as her parents would take her and learned the Puranic stories and the hymns of the Tamil saints. She lived in Chunnakam, a farming and market village about twelve kilometers outside Jaffna Town. §
In married life, Chellachi provided a good home for her husband and an excellent religious training for their two children. When their children were almost grown, her husband was offered a choice job in another province. He assumed his wife would move there with him, but she declined to leave their home. He relented, since it was not customary for Hindu women to travel about in those days. She stayed at their home, and he returned whenever he had leave. §
After her husband took up his new post, Chellachi turned fully to temple worship. Her worldly duties were finished, it seemed to her. She no longer could take care of her husband, and her children were old enough to be her companions. She and her husband had lived chastely since the birth of their last child, as is the custom of Hindus of her upbringing, so it was natural for her to intensify the spiritual side of life. She frequented the temple more often than ever. §
After a time, she began withdrawing into deep meditation in her home and is said to have never left her compound again. During one visit, her husband saw that she was now fully immersed in her spiritual quest. He respected this and no longer demanded any of the duties of marriage from her. He retired after awhile and died shortly thereafter. She had predicted the day of his death seven years before, saying that her inner voice told her to prepare him for that experience, which she did. §
Hindu customs require a widow to withdraw for at least a year, to mourn and do special sadhanas. They wear white from that day and live a disciplined, unadorned, chaste life, apart from society. For a time they are not to even cook for themselves. On the day of his funeral she cooked her own food, defying that custom, declaring that she no longer belonged to her husband, that she had fulfilled all her duties to him, and she now belonged to God. §
Among Jaffna’s spiritual lights in the early 20th century was Chellachi Ammaiyar, a mystic and spiritual teacher nine years Yogaswami’s senior. Toward the end of her life, she was so sensitive she could only eat food he prepared. He would cook a meal daily and carry it sixteen kilometers to her ashram, sometimes even feeding her if she was too weak.
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From that day on, her spiritual life was her only life. She followed a strict discipline for several years of sitting in meditation every time the village temple bell rang at puja time—revelling in the shakti as it drew her deep into Siva consciousness. One day her inner voice told her to stop doing that and to sing certain songs to Lord Ganesha. After singing them for several months, she received the message that she should now perform a daily puja to Siva, using a Lingam to represent the Supreme Absolute. She was concerned because she did not have a Lingam in the shrine room and was not in the practice of leaving the family compound to search for anything. Later that day, while walking in the garden, she found a natural, Lingam-shaped stone under a bush. She cleaned it up and performed daily puja to it. §
In time another inner message came: that her body would keep clean of itself, and she should not take a full bath again. She was not to go to the well and pour water over herself as she had done her whole life. She obeyed, never bathing again. Her gray hair, which knew no comb from that day, grew long and tangled. People who came to see her still remember the matted locks. Otherwise, she was perfectly clean and had a pleasant, radiant appearance. §
Inner instructions came one day to stop performing the puja and to practice Sivadhyana, meditation on Siva as the Absolute. Siva puja had filled her with great joy during this period, and she saw no harm in worshiping the Sivalingam just one more time. The puja began, but Chellachi could not carry on. Devotees would later share her tale, that she was physically thrown six meters from the Lingam when her water offering touched the stone. §
After that experience, Chellachi Ammaiyar followed her inner orders with renewed strictness. At one point, directions came that she should prepare to go into the deepest samadhi, God Realization, direct encounter with the Divine. Instructions came to tell all members of the household that she would be sitting in meditation in the shrine room for a long time and should not be disturbed for any reason. She carefully explained this to each one individually. Then, entering her shrine room, Chellachi sat in perfect stillness, controlling her breathing for several days. Sometimes she would breathe very slowly and quietly; at other times her breathing would stop altogether. For several days she sat in that profound state. §
After three days of observing that Chellachi seemed to be not breathing at all, a relative grew concerned that she had died. For hours and hours—concerned that the body, if dead, be properly taken care of so that no disembodied entity could take it over—she watched for any sign of life and saw none. Finally, she cautiously approached Chellachi Ammaiyar, opened her mouth and pulled out her tongue to see if it exhibited the tell-tale signs of death. It was a fateful mistake and a startling intrusion for the Siva-immersed saint. Without warning, her samadhi was shattered and awareness was brought crashing back into body consciousness. Several days passed, as her nerve system reeled from the horrendous shock. §
The disturbance of that unusually deep state caused a severe reaction that lasted for the rest of her life. She became so sensitive to light that she could not even stand direct exposure to moonlight. The darkened veranda became her favorite place. If anyone approached who was not pure minded or had selfish motives, her body would heat up to the point of causing her pain. Close devotees were nervously cautious about whom they allowed in her presence. §
Chellachi neither blamed nor allowed others to criticize the well-intended relative. She believed her condition was arranged by the Gods as part of her mission on Earth. §
A Spiritual Oasis
Her ashram-like home radiated peace and stability. Yogaswami visited there frequently beginning around 1914. She was his elder by nine years, and he regarded her as a spiritual mentor. She addressed him as Thamby, meaning younger brother. Once she told a devotee that only by virtue of that shocking experience of having her samadhi interrupted did Yogaswami come to take her farther within than she could have gone without his grace. §
No one knows for certain in what way each influenced the other’s spiritual work, but their mutual respect and reverence was undeniable. The informal meditation and satsanga gatherings, held randomly every month or so, were attended by Yogaswami and a few close devotees, including Kalaipulavar K. Navaratnam, Sir Vaithilingam Duraiswamy, and Dr. S. Ramanathan. §
Chellachi became prominent in the community, in part due to her radical outlook advocating freedom for women, but more importantly for her pursuit of Hindu mystical practices. In those days, spirituality was considered a male preserve, but she felt no restriction and became revered as one of the gurus of the time. §
Gradually people began coming to Chellachi Ammaiyar for advice, solace and just to bask in her darshan. Visitors took great care to inwardly prepare themselves before they visited. Upon reaching her cottage, they would sit outside for awhile until they felt in harmony with her vibration, lest she be disturbed by any residue of worldliness. §
Everyone remarked about the serenity she emanated, a soothing, motherly energy. Oddly, the space around her was cool. Even on Jaffna’s hottest days and warmest nights, here it was comfortable. She sang devotional hymns often, especially in praise of Lord Ganesha. Silence descended when she sang; the world disappeared, and only her beautiful, delicate voice remained, intoning the ancient Tamil hymns. §
In her deeply introverted state, Chellachi naturally developed certain siddhis. One day a businessman arrived at her home, leaving his driver outside in the car. This was his first visit, and he was obviously testing Chellachi as he sat in her presence. He was rather agitated and preoccupied, and left before she was satisfied that he had gotten what he had come for. Returning to his car, he ordered the driver to go, but the engine would not start. As the driver tried and tried, the man grew exasperated, even angry, because the car was new and should have been in perfect condition. Finally, he barked to the driver, “Go find someone who can make the necessary repairs,” then returned to the veranda to sit with the saint. §
Now that he had nowhere to go, nothing to do, the sublime peace he had heard about flooded his being, washing through him like a gentle wave. After what seemed a long time, he heard her sweet voice, “You can go now.” Refreshed and rejuvenated, he stood up and honored her with hands pressed together in anjali mudra. Floating down the steps, seeing that the driver had not yet returned, he got into the driver’s seat and turned the key. The engine started on the first try. §
Many who came sought to be healed. For such visitors, Chellachi had a special routine. She would observe a few moments of silence, as if sensing the ailment, then instruct the visitor: “Go to the well and drink some water” or “Go and bathe with the pure water from the well.” A change in living conditions or diet was often part of her prescription. Many ailments, some quite serious, would vanish in the weeks to come. Family wells are outdoors here, an eight-foot-diameter hole, rock-clad, with a simple coconut tree log holding a wooden bucket that fetches the water from three meters or more below the ground. §
Once a young village boy suffered from a raging fever. Unable to bring his temperature down, the doctors gave him up for lost, confiding to his mother, “It will be a miracle if he lives another day.” Chellachi Ammaiyar’s face flashed before the desperate mother’s inner vision. Realizing that the saint was her last resort, she rallied the family to take the child to her house. Chellachi’s remedy: “Pour three buckets of water from my well over him, then take him home.” §
Not without extreme hesitancy, since the prescription seemed unrealistically simple, they obeyed—one bucket, then two, then three, until he was completely soaked. Bare-chested in his drenched sarong, the deathly ill boy stood, hunched over, shivering in the evening breeze. Quickly drying him off, the family bundled him back into the bullock cart and took him home, hopefully for a restful sleep. By the next morning, to their amazement, the fever had broken, and the boy weakly asked for breakfast! In a few days he was back to normal, running around and playing with his friends. §
One story shows how Yogaswami protected this fine saint from difficulties. One day, when he was on the veranda with Chellachi Ammaiyar, a group of people came for an audience with her. They had started an ashram and wanted to do sadhana, but they had no swami. Chellachi, they hoped, could be convinced to move there as their spiritual leader. Knowing this was not the right thing for Chellachi in her delicate condition, Swami suddenly lit a whole box of matches on fire. Because of her hypersensitivity to light, Chellachi went into a trance immediately and remained that way for hours. The visitors waited and waited, then finally left in disappointment. Soon after, she emerged from the trance.§
Prior to this advanced stage, many people came to be with Chellachi. Some came only when they needed help. Others came more often just to be with her. A few came in search of enlightenment. She spent most of her time with these few. She gave them disciplines to follow and discussed profound topics with them. §
C. Kandiah Chettiar was one of her disciples who sought the ultimate goal. He was a teacher of English hailing from Alaveddy village, a 30-year-old man of deep spirituality who would later in life introduce Sivaya Subramuniyaswami to Siva Yogaswami and thus secure a key link in the parampara’s chain of succession. Ammaiyar trained him with bold strictness. §
One of the special sadhanas she had him perform for years was to sleep on a narrow wooden bench. If he rolled over even slightly to the left or the right he would fall to the floor, so he learned to sleep the entire night without moving. One would see him lie down, fold his hands over his chest and immediately fall asleep. In the morning he would be in exactly the same pose. §
One day Chettiar was transplanting a young palm tree near a temple. He had dug the soil out around the tree quite deeply, but was unable to uproot the palm. He just couldn’t get enough leverage. It was nearing noon, and the scorching heat was almost unbearable. He was tired, sweaty and looking forward to lunch. §
Suddenly, it dawned on him: he could tie a stout pole horizontally to either side of the tree, lash the poles together, then pry against a nearby short piece of log to wrench the tree from the ground. Rushing to the rear of the temple where supplies are kept, he spotted the two smooth illupai-wood poles that are used to carry the parade Deity on festival days. “Perfect,” he thought, taking possession of the poles and some hemp rope. §
He rigged the poles as he had visualized, placing the short log upright under one end of the pair of poles, then took hold of the other end and pushed up will all his might. It worked. With the extra leverage, he separated the root ball from the earth. Then, pulling on the poles, he dragged the palm to its new hole and set it in place. He then cleaned the poles and returned them to the temple. “Good work,” he complimented himself, walking home for a well-deserved bath and rice and curry lunch that his wife had prepared for him. §
The next day, when he went to see Chellachi, she greeted him with a thorough scolding. Why had he used the special poles for his landscaping—artifacts that have been held sacred for over a hundred years? What was he thinking? This was not good at all. “The poles were made for one purpose and should be reserved for that alone,” she admonished. “By using them as you did, you desecrated them. They can’t be used again in the temple until they are properly purified and reconsecrated,” she said, and sent him away immediately to perform that duty.§
“Make God the Center of Your Life”
Chellachi Ammaiyar was a gifted teacher. She spoke from her own experience about how important it is to follow the dictates of the divine voice within oneself and the divine laws that were perceived by the rishis. When people came to her who were having problems, she would always look to see where they were stepping outside the flow of life prescribed by the scriptures. She said:§
That is how the ego is born and gains its strength. When you begin to twist what you perceive, what you know from within yourself is right, when you step off the path of virtue, then you build up the “I,” and that “I” separates you from all of life and from that which is the very spring of life. §
She spoke in a quiet, thin voice, as though she were too sensitive to hear herself speaking. But it had a piercing resonance, and everyone took note of all she said. §
If you live life for its own sake, you have missed the purpose of living, for life is to be lived for the glory of God, and only God must be the center of life. Being obedient to the voice of the guru within yourself is more important than life itself. §
Yogaswami often echoed those sagely words. “The spiritual path is a narrow bridge of hair over a river of fire!” was one of her well-known adages. It cautioned of the tenuous nature of the path and the abounding distractions that deter seekers. She taught that God will come in different forms, and that those forms change as you understand Him, love Him and follow His directions. “You will see more and more clearly, and finally you will be so pure that you will be only That.” §
During the first decade of his association with Chellachi Ammaiyar, Yogaswami was still hidden from public view. While in her company and in transcendental communication with Chellappaswami, he brought his teachings into articulation. Out of that all-important period of gestation, absorption and reflection came his emphasis on Sivathondu, “service to Siva,” a potent term that embodied his compelling message to the Jaffna community and ultimately to all mankind: “Surrender totally in the pure act of service to God Siva. Be still. Know thy Self and serve the Lord who is All, in all.” Two words would ultimately define his lofty public message: Sivathondu and Sivadhyana, service to and meditation upon Siva. §
The following account by Chellathurai Swami indicates how Chellachi Ammaiyar and Yogaswami worked together to assist members of the community:§
A devotee went to Yogaswami’s hut and complained about his wife’s sickness. Another gentleman had gone to Chellachi Ammaiyar. As he left she asked him to carry a bunch of plantains to Yogaswami, so he delivered them to Swami. As he did so, Swami demanded, “Who asked you to bring these plantains?” Swami shouted and scolded some more, so the man went outside and placed the plantains on the ground. Swami called him back inside. After talking to him for a while, Swami turned to the man whose wife was ill and instructed him to take the plantains home for his wife. He took them and fed one each day to his wife. When the plantains were finished, she was in good health.§
Toward the end of her life, Chellachi was so sensitive that she could only eat food that Yogaswami prepared. He would make the meal at his compound in the morning and carry it sixteen kilometers to her house each day. She was too weak to eat, so he fed her. Her earlier reactions to visitors grew far more intense, so much so that the inflammation caused by the presence of an impure visitor rendered her unable to breathe. Strict screening of visitors, once a cautionary rule, became an urgent necessity. §
On January 27, 1929, Chellachi Ammaiyar attained mahasamadhi. Her family and some devotees planned to build a shrine and bury her body there, as is often done for enlightened beings, rather than cremate it. Yogaswami expressed his disapproval and emphatically said he would have nothing to do with it. The matter was settled when her son went to Yogaswami and agreed to cremate her body as Swami wished. §
Her body was cremated on a sandalwood pyre. The arrangements were carried out by Yogaswami, Sir Vaithilingam Duraiswamy and Doctor Ramanathan. After Ammaiyar’s passing, Swami, now age 57, was the sole spiritual refuge and guide for many of the Jaffna people. He remained the prominent spiritual light in that community for the next 35 years. §
The mystics of Jaffna—Chellachi Ammaiyar, Yogaswami and the rest—were strict Saivites, monistic theists who understood God to be both immanent and transcendent, form and formless. While others called Him the God of Destruction, they knew Siva as pure light and love.
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