51. 03 March 2010 - A brief encounter with the Assassins near Salem Aadheenam

The Sanyasis arrive safely in Salem Aadheenam with His Divine Holiness

3 March 2010 : They were hounding Him to KILL Him. The Sanyasis who left the Tiruvannamalai Aadheenam with His Divine Holiness in a small inconspicuous vehicle, headed straight to the Salem Aadheenam (temple-monastery complex in Salem), three and a half hours away. Throughout the journey, their prayers were that no one should catch wind of them or follow them. They reached Salem safely at around 11 pm.

Upon reaching Salem, they emptied the vehicle of the belongings, but kept them in a state of readiness, so they could move again without loss of time if needed. Their immediate concerns were two-fold: One, the life of His Divine Holiness, and second, He had not eaten anything in the last 10 hours. Not that there was no food in the Tiruvannamalai Aadheenam but they could not pack any of it in the hurry in which they left the place.

The Sanyasis told the Salem aadheenavasis (residents) to prepare food for His Divine Holiness. They prepared food and it was served to Him. The Sanyasis felt one part of the heaviness lifting off after being able to feed Him. They were constantly in touch with co-Sanyasis in Bidadi (Bengaluru) and other places, getting information about what was happening in each place. It was late into the night, almost 12 o'clock midnight. They took turns in keeping awake. It was important for them to rest too, as they did not know where they might have to move next in the wake of the outbreak.

Enriching everyday socio-spiritual services at the Salem Aadheenam

They decided to relocate again for the safety of His Divine Holiness

His Divine Holiness rested for barely a few hours. At around 5 am, the Sanyasis decided that it was not good to be in the same location for one full night and day, and that it is better to move. While they were discussing, He expressed that He wanted to go to the Bengaluru Aadheenam, the spiritual headquarters. The Sanyasis were dismayed.

How to enter the Bengaluru Aadheenam amidst the heat of what was happening? They could not even dream of it. But they knew one thing: if He wanted it, theirs was to make it happen, because only He knew best. If there was any attack, it was up to them to encounter it and keep Him safe at the same time. They decided it was best to start as early as possible to avoid too much attention on the road. Bengaluru Aadheenam was four hours away.

The Sanyasis hit the road again with His Divine Holiness

On the 3rd of March at around 6 am, the Sanyasis prepared to leave the Salem Aadheenam, this time in a different vehicle belonging to one of the devotees to protect the identity. They felt it is better to avoid using the same vehicle as that of the previous night. Aadheenavasis were informed to prepare food for carrying.

They quickly loaded the vehicle, brought down His Divine Holiness to the vehicle as well. They left the Salem campus, watched by a group of aadheenavasis and devotees whose hearts did not know whether to rejoice at the unexpected darshan (appearance) of their beloved Guru, or to cry at having the darshan amidst such horrifying circumstances.

The Sanyasis left the Salem Aadheenam and hit the narrow road leading to the highway where two vehicles could just about cross each other.

Mercenary Mob on the very same road

Just a few hundred meters on the road, they saw a furious mob coming in their direction, towards the Aadheenam. They were wielding weapons, carrying petrol bombs, guns, iron rods and raising slogans against the name of His Divine Holiness.

The car was a nondescript vehicle and they kept His Divine Holiness well covered in the back seat. They once again started fervently chanting their prayers and moved closer to the mob and vehicles that were approaching.

Once they were a few meters away, the Sanyasi driving the vehicle increased the speed of the vehicle, getting a good control of the road space and started moving past the approaching assassins as fast as he could.

"It's Him! Kill Him!"

The group of assassins barely got a look inside the vehicle as it was moving. The vehicle passed by them and gained more speed. But as they were in the tail end of the passing mercenary mob, one in the mob screamed in Tamil, "It's Him! It's Him" (referring to His Divine Holiness in disrespectful singular), and they started attacking the vehicle, just as the vehicle accelerated. The mob got left behind. The ones with vehicles in the mercenary mob, could not turn the vehicles around to chase them because the road was too narrow to make a U-turn.

With their hearts in their mouth they drove ahead

With their hearts in their mouth, the Sanyasis drove in dead silence, till they were convinced that they had moved to real safety away from the assassins. They drove straight towards the Bengaluru Aadheenam.

The furious assassins attack the Salem Aadheenam

The assassins were infuriated that they missed their target with such a narrow gap. With all their fury they reached the gates of the Salem Aadheenam with weapons, ready to enter the temple-monastery complex. In a wild rage, they entered the Aadheenam, and headed to the buildings where the residents were doing the morning puja (ritualistic worship).

This created immediate chaos and panic in the puja hall, where people started screaming, running around, gathering their children and looking where the sound came from, not knowing what was going on. No one was in any way prepared for an attack.

The assassins forced the residents to leave the Aadheenam, man-handled the female Sanyasis and dragged them to the streets, beat them and stripped them of their dignity with onlookers watching or escaping the scene.

Effigies burnt publicly

In various places in the town of Salem out on the streets, effigies of His Divine Holiness were stamped on and burned in a clear message that they wanted His Divine Holiness dead.