Sorakaya Swami

Infobox_Philosopher
region = Sorakaya Swami
era = 20th century
color = #B0C4DE


image_caption =

name = Sorakaya Swami
birth = c ????
death = 9 August, 1902 (Narayanavanam, India)
school_tradition = Advaita Vedanta
main_interests =
influences =

Sri Sorakaya Swami (died 9 August, 1902) was The Sage of Narayanavaram, who lived in Narayanavaram during 1875 to 1902.His Sajeeva Samdhi is located at Narayanavaram, right opposite to the ancient Kalyana Venkateswara Swamy Temple.

Biography

The Sage whose full appellation was "Sorakai Ramaswami" "Sorakaya or Sorakai" is the vernacular name for bottle gourd or Calabash), so called from his habit of carrying "Sorakais"the shells of which is used for eating and drinking purposes.

He looked like eccentric beggar, begging alms from door to door and village to village,with big turban and matted hair on his head , eyes flickering with superhuman powers,capacious beard of grey hair tied in knot.His Holiness Sri Sorakayaswami treated all souls equally, showing mercy towards all living beings. Those who believe in him will be blessed with all kinds ofProsperity in their life and to all of his family members. Sorakaya Swami,whose origin was unknown, lived in and around Narayanavaram, blessed everyone withawe-inspiring miracles and wonderful prophecies.

Believed to be from shepherd caste,his religion was truth, kindness and help.He was first spotted by Chengalvaraya Mudaliar in April 1875 and attained Samadhi in August, 1902.

Miracles

Historical Sources

Opinion about Sorakaya Swami

"He must have been a very wonderful man and of very high spiritual calibre. He must have lived on a high spiritual plane. I have seen him clairvoyantly and got several short messages from him."

......Dr.Alexander Verner PH.D., Psy.D.,G.I.M.C., F.A.I.PFounder and Principal of the British Psychological InstituteSeptember,25th,1911

Directions to Temple/Samadhi

Sorakaya Swami Samadhi(Shrine) is located in Narayanavaram about 3 miles from Puttur RailwayStation. Ancient Sri Kalyana VenkateswaraSwami Temple is right opposite to the Samadhi.( Narayanavanam is a census town and mandal headquarters in Chittoor district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh Geography Narayanavanam is located at coord|13.42|N|79.58|E|. [ [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/IN/2/Narayanavanam.html Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Narayanavanam] ] It has an average elevation of 122 metres (400 ft).

Narayanavanam is just 35 km away from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India and 95 km away from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. From puttur you can find lot of buses to temple town Narayanavanam. From Narayanavanam you can go to kona falls, singiri perumal kona, adhala kona where water will be falling 24/7.

Narayanavaram is one of the holy villages in Andhra Pradesh. Narayanavanam is the place where lord Venkateswara swamy married goddess Padmavati. The proof is also available in the temple. There are some more famous temples in Narayanavaram like Parasareswara swamy temple, Renuka parameswari temple, Aghastheswarswamy temple, Avanakshamma temple, Lord Narasimha swamy in singiri perumal kona and more. Narayanavanam is a temple town. Narayanavanam is also famous for manufacturing lungis, shirt bits, chudidhar bits.

One of the time NarayanaVaram is the Captain of the Narayanavaram and surrounding Places. The King Name is Akasaraju. He has one son and one daughter. The daughter's name was Padmavati. Padmavathi loves Sri Lord Venkateswara Swamy and marry to venkateswara swamy. The Marriage was done at the Narayanavaram where Padmavathi Brother has Build the Kalyana Venkateswara Sami Temple.

Extracts from Publications

From "Sage of Narayanavaram" by T.Bhakthavatlam, B.A.,MBPI (Author of the Life of Sri Krishna Chaitanya in Tamil)

Three miles off Puttur, a station on the north-west line of the Madras now Chennai (Tamil: சென்னை), and Southern Mahratta Railway (Arakkonam-Renigunta Railway line of the Southern Railways), is situated Narayanavanam ( a village of some importance. It is well known for its sylvan scenery and salubrious climate. Although it is a place of untiring weaving industry, and its inhabitants are always inclined to set the Thames on fire, yet Nature seems to have designed it as a congenial resort for contemplative minds; and, if one happens to witness there the dissolving views of an evanescent evening rain, one cannot help admiring the play of colours produced by the fluid gold of the sunshine breaking through the sable clouds and illuminating the green foliage and the brown brows of the surrounding hills. It is no wonder then that the great Sage, the subject of this short treatise, should fix such an inspiring locality as his permanent habitation.

The Sage, whose full appellation was Sorakai Ramaswami (????-1902) (Sorakai the vernacular name for bottlegourd or calabash), so called from his habit of carrying Sorakais the shell of which is used for eating and drinking purposes, was a person rather of a short stature and brown colour. To all shallow observers, he looked like an ordinary but eccentric beggar, begging alms from door to door, and from village to village. He was ill clad, with a big turban on his head, but his face beamed with intelligence and in his eyes were flickering certain lights which undoubtedly showed that he was a man with superhuman powers. His speech was highly coloured and figurative, although he was by no means very communicative and loquacious. At times, however, he would condescend to hear grievances, pour balm into wounded hearts, cure the sick, relieve the oppressed, suggest remedies, and, wherever the worse had to come to the worst, predict the inevitable and prepare the minds of the suffering. Where and when he was born is a question shrouded in mystery. Some say that he belonged to the shepherd caste and that, while tending his flock he had the fortune of meeting a Mahatma who then and there initiated into the secrets of yoga practices. Some deny all this and assert that the Sage was born in a village near Tirupati and having subsequently for a very long time been a beggar in Thiruvallur in the Chinlgleput District with a garuda (the sacred kite) on his hand, intuitively developed the rare psychical powers which he exhibits later on. Some say that he centenarian, his age according to them being above two hundred when he gave up his physical body. All these assertions are mere ipse dixit hanging by a thread. They are conjectures and may very be discarded for historical purposes. But this much can be conceded that he lived up to a very advanced age and that, instead of appearing in the sere and yellow leaf, he looked as if he were in the flower of life and gave the lie to the poet's description of an old sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything'. A halo of dignity and mystery surrounded to such a perceptible degree people began to flock in numbers and worship him. The rather capacious beard of gray hairs that, hung loosely on his chest, now tied in a knot, set him off to a great advantage and was to a degree responsible for his grandeur.

Much less do we know about the Swami's religion. Broadly speaking, his religion was Truth, Kindness and Help; In front of the Swami, his attendants and devotees kept, according to his injunctions, firewood always burning, the ashes of which the Saivaites took as Vibhuti and the Vaishnavites as Yagnya sesham. The Sage himself was not very particular about painting his forehead with any sectarian mark, but he did not knit his brows whenever any sectarian devotee put on the Sage's forehead the mark the devotee favoured most. The Swami taught, both by precept and by example, the most universal maxims of ethical code, it being not in his nature to wound the feelings of anybody unnecessarily, or with a rhinoceros hide, not to care a straw for the affliction of others. He always made it a point to beat into the heads of his votaries and devotees the golden lesson of showing kindness not only to human beings but also to the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and all denizens of the day. The Sage had two dogs with him, and the way in which he fondled them, fed them and almost dissolved in tears when they breathed their last, teaches a perpetual lesson for the propagation of Hindu Buddhist principles of showing kindness to animals and avoiding cruelty and torture at all cost.

While his religion was thus highly cosmopolitan and strongly based on the cardinal doctrines of all persuasions and the fundamental tenets of all philosophies, his courtesy was unlimited and his love unbounded. He paid attention to one and all, to the poor and to the rich alike. Whether one's purse was long and well lined or was empty, was no consideration with him. In pronouncing blessings on and consoling the afflicted, he observed even-handed justice, and perfect equality. The fact that one wallowed in wealth and lolled in the lap of luxury, or held high position and was considered by one and all to be lucky in speedily acquiring the loaves and fishes of official preferment, did not turn the tables with the Sage, who discarded it as of no value and treated the difference between wealth and penury as zero--they were mere tweedledum and tweedledee! There are instances when men earning hundreds of rupees had to wait for mong long time to win the grace and favour of the Sage, while people as poor as a church mouse very easily gained admission and succeeded in procuring his benediction. This shows that the Mahatma was thoroughly impartial and did not care an iota for Mammon or for high position.

The Sage was by no means very particular about his food. What was given him, he ate with great satisfaction. Whether that consisted of the choicest viands or the daintiest sweets or the ordinary porridge or the despised Mulligatawny rice, he considered them all equal, caring only to appease his hunger. All the devotees repairing to the Sage did, of course, vie with each other showing their culinary skill; but it was on the Greek calends that he showed his preference of one to another. Traits like these stamped him as holy man of no mean caliber and attract thousands of men to him. Though he was a perfect ascetic in himself and observed self-renunciation, it was rather a matter of spontaneity with him than a conscious, deliberate mortification of the flesh. In fact he did neither torment his body nor preach Puritanism to others. The Sage seemed to have thought that for the inclusion of the deepest doctrines of occult science the uninitiated are not the desirable students and would prove to be round men in square hole. Nay it would be actually stretching them on the Procrustean bed of super human spirituality. So what he always emphasized was not to make undue and unnatural efforts to rise above the ordinary level of humanity, but above all to obey the plainest dictates of conscience, not treading the primrose path of sensuality.

The Sage was running over with the milk of human kindness. His temper was genial, and bearing dignified. His motto was to help those that were in distress, and lift those that fell. He was what is call a Trikalagnani, one who could know the past, the present and the future.Accordingly, his feelings and thoughts very often had no reference to things visible to ordinary observers, but hinged on the spiritual panorama of his second sight. Suddenly the sage would work himself up intoa passion, and everything with him would be fire and fury; and as suddenly again he would quiet down to his normal temperament. Now he would laugh, now he would weep. All these, however were not instances of St.Vitus's Dance,wild goose chase or mere "tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing".They were the natural manifestations of the Sage's emotions and thoughts, having reference to some realityin the wide vista of his spiritual sight. Again the Swami was very active and nimble footed. Eventhe sturdiest of men found it difficult to keep pace with him. He walked any amount of distance, hewed wood and begged alms, though any casual observer would take him for a decrepit old manwith one foot in the grave. For the major portion of his life, his circuit extended from Narayanavaram to Nagalapuramand it was not till a few years before his Samadhi, that he condescended to frequentthis city of distances, Madras. During his journeys from Narayanavaram to Nagalapuramhe never cared to travel by carts but used to walk right through with the whole of his paraphernalia to boot.

Such are some of the important particulars requiring preclusive expression.

Even a century after his physical disappearance, he continues to exert spiritual influence on those who worship him and bestows the best of this world and the next.

Press extracts

From MADRAS MAIL,(Daily News Paper from Madras) Dated 27th January 1903

A MODERN HINDU ASCETIC

FEW persons outside the Hindu community have probably ever heard of the subject of this sketch;and yet his was remarkable career of which few particulars may not be devoid of interest to the general reader. About three miles from Puttur, a station on the North-West line of the Madras Railway is situated the ancient ad sacred town of Narayanavaram. It was the head quarters of Revenuedivision of that name and was till lately the scat of public officers. It is still aconsiderable place with a large weaving industry and a population largely composed of silkweavers. the silk cloths turned out of the looms there are particularly sought after by the natives for the fineness of their texture and the excellent blending of their colorsbut the industry has for some time past been a decline for want of public patronage and chiefly by the placingof the cheaper fabric in the market.

The country around Narayanavaram is specially rich in legendary lore as haunts of Sages andholy men in days some by. the surroundings hills of which the most prominent is the Nagari Range, which its conspicuous peak the "Doctor Nose", and whose steep sides were once cladin dense virgin forests; but which alas! are now denuded almost to baldness are studdedwith numerous grottos or rocky caves, known locally by the quaint name of Kona. TheseKonas are reputed by tradition to have once been the temporary haunts of the great hermits, and ascetics of ancienttimes in the course of their penitential wanderings through the land. The largest and mostimportant of these is one known as Sadasiva Kona, named after the god Sadasiva swami at which the Maha Siva Rathri Festival is celebrated on a grand scale yearly, a large number of devotees resortingto worship at the shrine. Kailasa Koa , situated at a short distance from Narayanavaram, is also held sacred by the pious Hindu, who never fails to pay the hallowed promises a visit, if in close proximity, and perform ablutions in clear and limpid waters of the cataract that flowsin an incessant stream over the rocky sides of the grotto to a considerable depth below, making an ideal shower bath. Itis however as a pleasure resort that this Konda is noted as it is the rendezvous of picnic partieswhen all are want to enjoy the beautiful scenery, and the invigorating bath. The appearance of thisKona, lying in the depth of the ever green forest, and shaded by a thick over growth of gianttrees making a leafy canopy well nigh impenetrable to the sun’s rays, is so romantic and peaceful in the midstof sylvan scenery that it almost converts the cynical to a belief in the pretty legends that speak of these grottos as the homes of departed holiness.

I said all around Narayanavaram is hallowed ground to the pious Hindu. It is therefore perhapsno wonder that such sacred soil should have produced one of the most remarkableHindu Ascetics of Modern times in the person of Sorakayala Swami who latelyjoined the majority after a long and eventful life, in the course of which his reputed sanctity and gift of second sighthard raised him to no mean eminence among Hindus of all castes, both high and low. He was a man of humbleorigin, a shepherd who tended his flocks. According to tradition he one day met Yogi orreligious as acetic whom he thenceforth served and was by him induced to relinquish his worldly vocation and embrace a religious life.He was called sorakayala swami from his habit of carrying Sorakayalu the vernacular name fora calabash, the shell of which is used, when dry, as a vessel for eating and drinking by certain class ofmendicants. From Madarpak, where he originally resided, he appears to have wandered about as a religious mendicant for some time, and finally he settled down at Narayanavaram, where his piety and gift of foretelling future events soon became widely known and drew large numbers of votaries fromall parts of the country including Madras, who came with offerings of rich gifts, clothes and choice viands to obtain his favours. It was not, however the richest votary that was most favoured for the ascetic was impartial and cared not more for the rank or wealth of his visitors. He have out his oracles in a very impartial manner and it often happened that a client had to repeat his visit to the holy man before he was vouchsafed a hearing; and at each visit the Swami would be feted and feasted in right royal style by the anxious votary.

Persons of all sorts and conditions repaired to him for having their fortunes told or their anxieties relieved. Men holding high positions who were besides alumni of the university, and those possessing considerable pretensions to culture and intelligence as wellas wealthy merchants, and Hindu ladies of rank were among his votaries, and regarded it as a great honorto pay their homage at the feet of the Holy man, and obtain from him some balm of consolation or gleam of hope in theirworldly concerns. The anxious lover, the aspiring office man, the neglected spouse and the strugglingtradesman; each, in turn sought consolation and advice at the feet of Swami and went away comforted or in despair, according as his decree was favourable or otherwise. The Swami always clothes hisutterance in high metaphor, which mystified his clients not a little; but at the same time hispronouncements on each occasion were so trite that their real significance, though hidden in figure, could not be mistaken. To the stranger, however his dis-jointed muttering resembling nothing so much as the idle vapourings of a demented mind.

In appearance the Swami was venerable, with a snow white beard and hair matted through years of neglect. He was reputed to be a centenarian, a supposition which his appearance fully bore out. He was clothedin conventional style of the religious Hindu, in yellow garments, and wore the sacred beads around his neck.

On the appearance of a votary, coming to consult the holy man, he would give vent to a fusillade of apparently irrelevantremarks, which the visitor, however on carefully noting, would find applied to the particular businessthat brought him to the Swami; while mumbling out his oracles, the holy man would not design to casta glance at his visitor; but with bowed head, and averted eyes, he would pour out his disconnectedwords, which the anxious votary had to sift to find their hidden meanings. In the Asrama (hermit's cell)at Narayanavaram he let a retired life of disciples, who had a continual good brim of it from the various offerings which the Swami's admires showed on him with no stinted had.Frequently it happened that the old man who loved nothing so much as to be left in peace in hisrural retreat, would be bodily carried away, in spite of expostulations, to the homes of his wealthyvotaries at Madras, and elsewhere; for to secure his presence on occasions of great feasts, marriages, or sickness in anyhousehold was of itself regarded as sufficient to call down peculiar blessings from on high. Even theremnant of food or drink left by the Swami were eagerly appointed by those near him, as though the same becameendued with peculiar qualities by his mere touch. The Swami was a very benevolent disposition and devoted all the offerings by his votaries, to charitable objects. There is good reason to believe that his deathleft a wide gap in the life of the religious Hindus in his neighbourhood, and is sincerely mourned.

References

External links

* [http://www.srisorakayaswami.org SriSorakayaSwamiSamadhi HomePage]

Bibliography

* SAGE OF NARAYANAVARAM (His Life, Miracles and Prophecies) by Shri.T.Bhakthavatsalam B.A,M.B.P.I.
* SRI SURAILLAI SWAMI (The Sage of Narayanavaram) by Dr.V.A.Devasenapathi M.A Ph.D Director(Retd.) Dept.of Philosophy, University of Madras.
* SRI SORAKAYA SWAMI CHARITRA by Prof.B.Ramaraju & Dr.B.Rukmini