TAKING BIRTH🔗

It was under the glow of the spiritual magnet Arunachala and in the energy center reinforced by Arunachaleshwara that Paramahamsa was born as the second child of Arunachalam and Lokanayaki.

-Paramahamsa

The Arunachala Hill is a spiritual incubator that has time and again given birth to enlightened Masters who have touched and transformed millions of seekers in the world. Just like how a clinical incubator preserves a baby, a spiritual incubator is needed to provide these enlightened beings with the right ambience when they take birth. Great Masters like Seshadri Swamigal, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi and Yogi Ramsuratkumar, to name a few, hail from Arunachala.

Paramahamsa as a baby

Paramahamsa's mother discovered that she was pregnant with her second child when she was on a pilgrimage to the holy temple town of Tirupati in South India. On 1st January 1978, past midnight in the spiritual nerve center of Tiruvannamalai in South India, Paramahamsa was born. He was named Rajasekaran.

Arunachala

“My mission is not to prove my divinity. My mission is to prove your divinity.”

- Paramahamsa

When the family priest drew up Paramahamsa's astrological horoscope, he found that the stars and planets had aligned themselves in an exceptional manner that he had seen for the first time. He declared to the startled parents that the baby would grow up to be a raja sanyasi - king amongst holy men. The priest considered himself blessed to have been able to cast the horoscope and stopped practicing astrology from then on.

Paramahamsa's parents watched as mere guardians, without interfering, the spiritual growth in their child.

When Paramahamsa was about 3, he met Yogiraj Raghupati Maharaj. Raghupati Yogi was a yoga practitioner of great skills and powers. With a body as taut as a bowstring, disciplined by years of rigorous penance in India, Tibet and Burma, Raghupati Yogi was a friend and Guru to young Paramahamsa. With apparent foresight into the future, he prepared Paramahamsa's body through rigorous yogic training so it could hold the energy of enlightenment.

Raghupati Yogi

Parashakti (Existential energy represented as a female form) who appeared as a vision to Paramahamsa which he immediately carved out of soapstone as seen here.

“Yoga is union of man and God. Worship is plain gratitude to Existence.”

- Paramahamsa

It was Raghupati Yogi who arranged for Paramahamsa to deliver his first public lecture on the Patanjali Yoga Sutra at the age of 10 in Tiruvannamalai. Distributing flyers for the occasion, he gathered over 1000 people for this unique event.

“Worship is never 'of' the idol, it is always 'through' the idol.”

Paramahamsa would offer food to this Ganesha deity everyday. He would plead and sometimes threaten the deity to eat the food he served him. One day, he heard a mythological story of a young boy who offered food to a deity that actually ate it. Determined to make his Ganesha eat the food that he served him, Paramahamsa resolved not to threaten him anymore. Instead he stopped eating until his Ganesha ate the food that was served by him.

At the end of the third day, the food disappeared! Overjoyed and feeling tremendous gratitude, he cried his heart out. He felt the power of devotion and faith strengthening further.

At the age of 12, Paramahamsa had a vision of a golden figure while at the altar of Goddess Parvati at the Arunachaleshwara temple. The vision made a deep impression on him. He took a copper sheet and with a nail etched it from memory.

The figure he drew was the sacred Sri Chakra believed to be a powerful and mystical representation of the Cosmos. When asked how he managed to carve with such ease this complex diagram that baffles even skilled artists today, Paramahamsa explained, 'It is just nine triangles placed at different angles to each other. Once you understand the concept it becomes easy!'

Ganesha

Sri Chakra

Brahmayogini Vibhudhananda Devi Mataji Kuppammal was a spiritual guide and caretaker to Paramahamsa during his early days of spiritual growth in Arunachala. At the tender age of 12, when Paramahamsa was having deep spiritual experiences, Kuppammal took care of him physically and emotionally, explained to him his growing consciousness and trained him in various spiritual practices with an apparent foresight into the future.

Kuppammal & Paramahamsa

Isakki Swamigal

Isakki Swamigal, an enlightened master, was a main source of inspiration to young Paramahamsa. Fortunate to be with many enlightened masters, Paramahamsa grew up watching how ecstatic they were all the time. By seeing their brimming fulfillment and utter simplicity, his own yearning to attain, deepened.

Atma Purana

Olai chuvadi

Yogi Ramsuratkumar or Visiri Swamigal was an enlightened master, who was a contemporary of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi in Tiruvannamalai. He was well-known and well-liked in Tiruvannamalai. Paramahamsa became a regular visitor to this sage.

Yogi Ramsuratkumar would sit like a beggar amidst a pile of garbage that he collected on the steps of the building adjacent to Thermutti, where the temple chariot was parked. It was customary for people to stop by and ask him questions about their future. Children on their way to school would stop and ask how they would fare in their exams. They could rarely elicit a response from the intriguing mystic. One day, Paramahamsa stopped on his way to school and asked him if he would pass in his test in school that day. He got a reply, 'You will pass the test of life, my boy!'

Paramahamsa could not comprehend the meaning of those words at that time. A lady who sat nearby hearing this told him, 'Go on child! You will not understand these words now, but you will remember the truth of these words in time!'

At a festival graced by Yogi Ramsuratkumar in Tiruvannamalai

“The courage to experiment with the Truth is the key to realizing it.”

- Paramahamsa

Annamalai Swamigal

Annamalai Swamigal was a direct disciple of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi. Around the age of 10, Paramahamsa started going to the Ramana ashram in Tiruvannamalai. He sat with Annamalai Swamigal's disciples regularly at the lecture sessions. One of the attractions of going to Annamalai Swamigal was that he used to distribute candies after his discourses!

One day, Annamalai Swamigal explained the concept of maya or illusion, when he said, 'We are not the body; this body is not real; what is real is the spirit; there is no pain that can affect this spirit; we are beyond pain and suffering.'

With these words ringing in his ears, Paramahamsa ran back home that day and taking a kitchen knife cut his right thigh to verify if he experienced pain. Intense pain resulted and scolding from his mother as well. He had multiple stitches from the doctor.

He went back to Annamalai Swamigal and demanded an explanation. Annamalai Swamigal said to him, 'The pain will go away. I will give you a technique to practice. Your very courage to experiment with the Truth will lead you to enlightenment.' This incident further deepened Paramahamsa's search.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

"Meditation is the master key that can to open the door to your Self."

- Paramahamsa

Arunachala was Paramahamsa's everything. There was not a single crevice or rock that had not felt the fervor of his yearning. He could be perpetually seen meditating and basking in the glory of his beloved Arunachala. His structure was lean, but his eyes were always ablaze with an intensity that softened only upon seeing the inner Light. (Raghupati Yogi and Kuppammal were instrumental in shooting many pictures of him meditating, with apparent foresight.)