Face Life’s Challenges with Hope & a Positive Attitude, from Suri Nagamma life story!
by Kavitha Kukunoor, CCH, RS Hom(NA), BHMS, C.HP
“HAPPINESS IS YOUR NATURE.” — Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi
One day while I was listening to Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi inspiring video’s, I was enlightened to learn from this spiritual lady Suri Nagamma.
Everyone at times gets challenged by situations and problems. Learning about the life of Suri Nagamma can help us deal with these times much easier and better.
Suri Nagamma was born in a small village in the South Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, India in August 1902. She had a very miserable life: her father passed away when she was 4 years old and her mother died when she was 10 years of age. She got married at age 11 but her husband died after a few days. She was heart broken and overwhelmed with so many bad things happening in her life. She lived all her life in a small room with no light, depressed, and she cried all day for several years as no one cared for her. People didn’t let her go outside unless she shaved her head as she is a widow and she remained as a widow throughout her life.
During those times, women were not usually educated. Even though she didn’t go to school, she not only learned to read and write, but excelled at it. With lots of faith in God and a hope to find her purpose of existence, she chanted devotional songs and focused on Pothana’s Bhagavatam during that time. One day in her sleep, she had the darshan of a sage (It was the image of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi whom she considered as her Guru seated in a padmasana pose on a pedestal three feet high facing south with a mouna mudra like Lord Dakshinamurthi surrounded with a holy aura of light).
She faced great challenges, which strengthened her inner peace and resilience. She wrote in her book that living alone and seeing snakes in her room did not scare her and actually made her much stronger.
She went alone to Tirumannavali searching for the Guru and there she faced several obstacles. No one respected or cared for her. No one gave her room as she is single. She slept in Varanda & on the next day went to see Ramana Maharshi. She met Bhagavan at Arunachalla keshtram. On her first visit to bhagavan, she regretted not having brought any fruits and instead was happy to have offered her first poem called ‘manasa satakam’ to bhagavan. She considered him as the Guru & used to sit in one corner & write letters and spent nearly nine years of her life with Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.
Suri Nagamma lived for 78 yrs and wrote 273 letters in Telugu during 1945-50. She posted them to her older brother who was an executive in a commercial bank and a devotee of Ramana Mahashri. He compiled all these letters as book and published them in 4 volumes. In addition to Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, her two other books are: My Life at Sri Ramanasramam (“na ashrama jeevitham”) and Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam (Ramana Maharshi lekhalu). She used to write letters to a magazine company. She wrote Bhagavan’s Maha Nirvana in three parts and had also written about her reminiscences. She died in 1980.
God heard Suri Nagamma’s prayers – When Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi was leaving this world she couldn’t get a chance to see him because thousands of people surrounded his Ashram with security guards. In order to see him, she went to the top of a hill & from a narrow view saw him. But, Bhagavan was lying down so she couldn’t get a great view; then she made a wish that she could be able to see him clearly. Within a few minutes, Bhagavan asked people around him to put him straight. She was able to see the radiant light from him & could feel the severe pain he was undergoing. She then immediately prayed “sorry Bhagavan, just for our sake we are asking you to live but now after seeing how much pain & suffering you were undergoing we can’t take it, so please leave this body & become the whole universe. Within a few minutes of her prayer, Bhagavan closed his eyes & his soul liberated as the spirit of light on Arunachalam. She was so fortunate as she had Bhagavan Ramana’s blessings.
Suri Nagamma as a disciple of Ramana – Bhagavan talks very little and what ever word comes from his mouth is message oriented. She records all his discussions with date & time as letters, which are nothing but happenings at the Ashram and the discussion between Bhagavan and the devotees and/or visitors who come to see him. In her letters she wrote about Goshala, how Bhagavan sits on the sofa & listens to everyone’s problems & provides solutions, letters about lighting of Karthika Deepam on Arunachalam and how life of a Guru should be.
Finding fault in Guru – One time a person asks Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi that how can we achieve enlightenment in life? Bhagavan says preach Guru then you will be enlightened. Then the person asks how to find a good Guru and he begins to find faults on each Gurus he knew. Bhagavan doesn’t like if any one talks bad about others or Guru, rather he feels good if they comment on him. He says your focus & trust on a person is your Guru.
Suri Nagamma mentions Bhagavan Leela – He sees God in the whole universe. One time a dog was suffering from severe illness and insects were coming from it with offensive smell & it was trying to enter into a place where Bhagavan lives. Since it is a dog, every one started beating it & didn’t let it go inside. One midnight, Bhagavan went out and made that dog lie on his lap and the dog felt happy & died by liberating his soul into Bhagavan. He can understand feelings of all creatures. Any word he utters it becomes true. If Bhagavan digs a hole … a well develops. He sees his body as separate from his soul.
Why God gives us problems? Prarabdha karma – Indian culture believes that our physical bodies have to take happiness and sorrow based on our punya karma & papa karma. In Bhagavatam, Sri Maha Vishnu said to Vamana Murthy that on whomever I have my blessings, I will make them suffer by separating them from their loved ones or make them poor, that way they focus more on me and I will make them free from attachments where there is no rebirth.
Natures Principle of healing – Suppose person “A’s” finger was cut he cries so much and even gets depressed but if he sees a person “B” who lost his loved one then his (Person A) problem will be small in comparison of the other person’s loss (Person B) and Person A considers himself as better off & lucky. Likewise, when we read Suri Nagamma’s life story, our problems look tiny and we get inspired and face obstacles with hope and a positive attitude.
Homeopathic principle – Based on nature’s law which is “like cures like” homeopathic law of cure has formed where natural healing occurs when a homeopathic remedy is given to a person suffering from a set of symptoms (eg grief from love failure, craves salt, doesn’t like consolation) and when given the indicated remedy with the same set of above symptoms of grief then it will cure him permanently. Natrum muriaticum (which is the common salt) when diluted & potentized at an energetic level, is a very good homeopathic remedy for chronic grief.
Sri brahmasri chaganti koteswara rao garu highly recommends Suri Nagamma’s books (Sri Ramana leela & Ramanasrama lekhalu) which were circulated world wide. Crores of people are benefitting from them as their lives have changed dramatically after reading her letters / books and they were able to lead healthy, happy, & purposeful lives.
Like Suri Nagamma, we have many great people who inspire us with positive attitudes, patience, determination, and hope that we can make great achievements and reach the highest purpose of existence as Dr Samuel Hahnemann would say.