Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group IV | Mrs. Karanam Kamalamma

Mrs. (Late) Karanam Kamalamm,
W/o (Late) Karanam Lakshminarayana Rao,
Puttaparthi - 515 134

Mrs. Karanam Kamalamma was the second wife of Late Karanam Lakshminarayana Rao, Village Karanam of Puttaparthi, when Bhagavan was very young, a boy. Karanam Lakshminarayana Rao married Kamalamma as his second wife for the reason that his first wife Mrs. Karanam Subbamma had had no children. It so happened that Mrs. Kamalamma also had no children. The office of the Village Karanam at that time was a hereditary one. As Karanam Lakshminarayana Rao had had no children, his brother's son Karanam Gopala Rao, about the same age of Bhagavan, became the Karanam of Puttaparthi after Karanam Lakshminarayana Rao had passed away. Mrs. Karanam Kamalamma passed away in 2004. She had the good fortune to see Bhagavan, love Him and admire Him even when He was five years old.

'Padmanabhan requested of me a foreword to his book (Love is My Form - Volume One), even though I do not understand what is written in it - because I never went to school. I am more than eighty years old, now (2000)! What can I do?

Yet, the photos in this book speak to me and take me back to the good old days.

When I saw Swami for the first time, I was about twelve years old and had just then been married - as the second wife to the Karanam (the village chieftain) of Puttaparthi. I did not know that the little boy in shorts and half-sleeved shirt was to be revealed as Swami, an Avatar!

Tears run down my eyes when I think of the Swami of those days. After returning from Uravakonda He came to our house and said to me, "Kamalamma! You think I am a human being? No! I am God, Kamalamma! I am Eswara Himself! You will see My glory in the coming years. Believe Me!"

Several incidents appear fresh before my mind's eye:

After the bath, He stands as a very young boy, with a towel around His waist. He keeps a Shirdi Baba photo and breaks open the coconuts we carried there for the worship (offering). Then He says, "I am not a ghost. I am Shirdi Baba. I want to join this boy. I trouble this body in numerous ways, to settle down."

After that, He materializes flowers and fruits, takes arati and goes to sleep. We wake Him up and offer a dhoti and a shirt for Him to wear and invite Him for dinner. We serve Him dinner in a silver plate…others, on a leaf. He mixes all the items and eats up everything. No leftovers! Afterwards, He settles down in our house.

People would visit Him from early morning to midnight, in those days, and He would go on granting them interviews. He would hear their woes, materialize vibhuti, cure diseases, solve their problems or console them. I once asked Him "why do you grant interviews to so many people?" He said: "If I do not do it, not even a crow will come to Me, now. But a day will come when you will see people arriving by the thousands. Then, you will see Me in all My glory." How all that has come true!

Devotees would come and many would stay for months - and some, even for years! Every day, ten-bullock carts would come, filled with men and women. Subbamma (Karanam's first wife) and I would cook for all of them, until we were tired and fell asleep. Often, Swami would wake us up late in the night and say, "Kamalamma, many are waiting! Call them! I will grant them interview and send them away! Otherwise, tomorrow you will have to cook for them again!" Nobody left without an interview. Also, nobody left without food.

We used to sit with Swami for lunch and dinner. He would mix up all the dishes - curries, rice, etc and make them into large morsels! Each of us would get one. There was never a shortage! Everyone was well fed.

And, His leelas! How wonderful they were! He would take Subbamma and me to the Kalpa Vriksha (the wish-fulfilling tree) and ask us to hold its leaves. Each day the tree would give different fruits according to our requests. One day, Navaneetham Naidu's daughter wanted to eat dosa. Immediately, Swami materialized a stock of hot and crisp dosas. Sometimes, He would ask us to bring some small vessel. He would give it a pat and it would be filled up with Amrit (divine nectar)!

Yet, Swami was so simple, sweet and child-like. In no time at all, He would make garlands out of jasmine flowers brought from our garden. Sometimes He would make a bed out of them and sleep on it. He would also play many games with us. He always won! At other times, He would pull my hair and tease me! There was an old servant, Bhimappa by name, who would bring drinking water from the Chitravathi River. Bhimappa sang well and even cracked jokes. He loved chillies - and took at least ten with his meals! Swami would often ask him to sing songs for a reward of chillies.

But Swami was Swami - a hard taskmaster who never lost an opportunity to teach, even in the midst of hilarity. One day, I was serving Him lunch. He was very playful and asked for another helping of curry. Absentmindedly, and erroneously, I served Him, using my left hand. How He hit my left hand! It still pains, just to think of it! Once, He told Subbamma and me, "both of you will not have children. But I will be there as your child. You will have no rebirth."

Now, in spite of so many people coming to him every day, He still remembers me and inquires after my welfare now and then, and sends a sari for me, during every festival time.

Swami once told me, "You, Subbamma and I should have a photo taken." But nobody had a camera, then. Somehow, it did not materialize, even later. Who knows the mind of Swami, the Sathchakravarthi - the real Emperor of all the worlds?

Whatever He has done for Puttaparthi and whatever he has been doing in the hearts of millions of people, out of His immense prema, is proof enough of His Divinity. It has been my good fortune to witness all this.

Take my advice: Love Him for all that He is; have faith, and He will save you. Let this book become the medium for you to get immersed in Sai Tatwa - the Principle of Sai.'

-- Mrs. Karanam Kamalamma

(This is an extract of the Foreword to the book Love is My Form - Volume One - The Advent (1926-1950) by Dr. R.S. Padmanabhan published by Sai Towers Publishing, Bangalore in 2000)