Mahayogi Lakshmamma

Residents of Adoni town owe their success in business, politics and other fields to the goddess of the town, Mahayogi Lakshmamma.

The "lady of miracles", who lived in the town a hundred years ago and stood by the people during great tragedies became living goddess during her life-time. After her death in 1933, she was buried near the dustbin where she spent most of her time. A huge temple with marble flooring has come up there now.

Mahayogi Laxmamma, popularly known as "Avva" (grandmother) had an interesting background.

Background

She was born into a Scheduled Caste family at Musanapalli near Adoni and was dubbed mentally retarded. She was married off to one of her relations near Bellary as the parents thought marriage would make her normal. However, she escaped from the place immediately after the marriage and reached home, which made her parents angry and threw her out.

She reached Adoni town on a bullock-cart and settled down near a dustbin in the marketplace. She endeared herself to business community in the area, who believed in her forewarning. According to elders, she forewarned the outbreak of plague and great flood and forced the residents to leave the village while she alone stayed back. There was a large following during her life time.

After her death, a temple was constructed with the active financial support from the business community. Her social background never came in the way of devotees who even from upper castes accepted her divinity. A silver chariot was built with 500 kg of silver, estimated to cost Rs 35 lakhs. A silver idol of Avva weighting 30 kg and a gold mask with one kg of pure gold were presented to temple by devotees. The chairman of the Trust Board, R. Ramaiah, said the temple offerings were around Rs 50,000 while on the annual festival day in May the temple earnings were about Rs 1 lakh.

With the temple funds, Kalyana Mantapam and Meditation centre were constructed. An amount of Rs 15 lakhs was deposited in the bank.

The endowments department supervised the temple activities through an inspector.

A miracle from AVVA

One day a big landlord in the town had lost a diamond neckalace at home. They couldn't find it anywhere in the house. They decided to go to AVVA and ask Her to find out if She can tell where it is. Avva had not called them for a long time. They were just sitting and waiting for Her call.

It was a belief for the business community that if AVVA touches their bag or goods, they'll have good sales that day. While the couple were waiting, a farmer selling jowar came to AVVA with a bag of jowar. Then AVVA kept Her hand into the bag and touched the jowar with Her hand in the bag thoroughly. The couple having waited desperately for a long time, left the place and headed back home in despair.

On the way back, an idea flashed for the landlord and asked his wife, "How many bags of jowar do we have at home?". His wife replied, "3. One is partially empty and the other 2 are full." They went home and started searching the first bag, but couldn't find anything there. They didn't see any luck in the second bag as well. Finally in the third bag, when they searched in the bag by keeping the hand deep in the bag, just as AVVA did for the jowar-farmer's bag, they could find the necklace.

References

[http://www.hindu.com/2004/11/16/stories/2004111608690300.htm The woman behind their success ]