Petals of Sacrifice - Swami Vandanarupan Jnana Tapaswi

By Mukundan P.R.

Gurucharanam Saranam


Sri Devadas was a youth with robust health and a strong mind. Whatever others may talk, he had his independent decision concerning matters in life. He was engaged in contract work in his native town, Palakkad. It was in 1992. He went to Olassery, near Palakkad as he had heard that bricks were cheaper there. When he reached Olassery, he saw a group of white clad men and women moving along holding colorful parasols. ‘Have Christians come here too’, he murmured to himself. When he enquired what it was all about, somebody in the group said that their Guru was coming and they were waiting to welcome the Guru.

After sometime, the Guru came. Devadas watched. He saw Guru. The things were not as he imagined. Devadas’ heart began to beat a different tune. He did not know why. He was attracted to Guru’s figure immensely. The experience pounded his heart and pulled him to Guru. He was getting transported to a divine and joyful plane by the sight of Guru and the chanting of devotees.

In the subsequent time he began to visit the Ashram at Thiruvananthapuram and got an opportunity to be associated with the activities of the branch ashram at Palakkad. However, it took him some more years to accept and assimilate the ideology of Guru. The change of mind came through the monthly prayers at the branch ashram, which gave him an avenue of peace and realization. It dawned on him that it was the truthful way of life in harmony – harmony with home, harmony with community, harmony with Guru and God and harmony with himself.

The soul of Devaduttan was in readiness to receive Guru, the Light of life. But he never knew about Guru before. He neither knew about his own struggles for truth and light in past births. But Guru knew and spontaneously drew him to Him at appropriate time and place. After the Adisankalpam of Guru, when Sishyapoojita, as per Guru’s command, asked him to lead the life of a brahmachari, he obeyed like an obedient child. When Sishyapoojita, as per Guru’s command, asked him to renounce all worldly desires, he obeyed that too innocently and became a sanyasi – Swami Vandanarupan Jnana Tapaswi, a sanyasi with strong verve, looking after the building activities of the Ashram, under Aroodda Suddhi, as its in-charge.