Aum Namah Sivaya,

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Today we bring you a story from The Guru Chronicles. It is part of a chapter on a mystical Tamil woman who was close to Yogaswami and for a time the primary spiritual preceptor in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

One of Yogaswami's contemporaries was a saint named Chellachi Ammaiyar, whose home had become like an ashram. She was born in 1863, the same year Swami Vivekananda entered this world. Devout from early childhood, she worshiped at the temple as often as her parents would take her and learned the Puranic stories and the hymns of the Tamil saints. She lived in Chunnakam, a farming and market village about twelve kilometers outside Jaffna Town.


From the day her husband was cremated, her spiritual life was her only life. She followed a strict discipline for several years of sitting in meditation every time the village temple bell rang at puja time--reveling in the shakti as it drew her deep into Siva consciousness. One day her inner voice told her to stop doing that and to sing certain songs to Lord Ganesha. After singing them for several months, she received the message that she should now perform a daily puja to Siva, using a Lingam to represent the Supreme Absolute.
In time another inner message came: that her body would keep clean of itself, and she should not take a full bath again. She was not to go to the well and pour water over herself as she had done her whole life. She obeyed, never bathing again. Her gray hair, which knew no comb from that day, grew long and tangled. People who came to see her still remember the matted locks. Otherwise, she was perfectly clean and had a pleasant, radiant appearance.
At one point, directions came that she should prepare to go into the deepest samadhi, God Realization, direct encounter with the Divine. Instructions came to tell all members of the household that she would be sitting in meditation in the shrine room for a long time and should not be disturbed for any reason. She carefully explained this to each one individually. Then, entering her shrine room, Chellachi sat in perfect stillness, controlling her breathing for several days. Sometimes she would breathe very slowly and quietly; at other times her breathing would stop altogether. For several days she sat in that profound state.
After three days of observing that Chellachi seemed to be not breathing at all, a relative grew concerned that she had died. For hours and hours--concerned that the body, if dead, be properly taken care of so that no disembodied entity could take it over--she watched for any sign of life and saw none. Finally, she cautiously approached Chellachi Ammaiyar, opened her mouth and pulled out her tongue to see if it exhibited the tell-tale signs of death. It was a fateful mistake and a startling intrusion for the Siva-immersed saint. Without warning, her samadhi was shattered and awareness was brought crashing back into body consciousness. Several days passed, as her nerve system reeled from the horrendous shock.
The disturbance of that unusually deep state caused a severe reaction that lasted for the rest of her life. She became so sensitive to light that she could not even stand direct exposure to moonlight. The darkened veranda became her favorite place. If anyone approached who was not pure minded or had selfish motives, her body would heat up to the point of causing her pain. Close devotees were nervously cautious about whom they allowed in her presence.
Her ashram-like home radiated peace and stability. Yogaswami visited there frequently beginning around 1914. She was his elder by nine years, and he regarded her as a spiritual mentor. She addressed him as Thamby, meaning younger brother. Once she told a devotee that only by virtue of that shocking experience of having her samadhi interrupted did Yogaswami come to take her farther within than she could have gone without his grace.
Chellachi Ammaiyar was a gifted teacher. She spoke from her own experience about how important it is to follow the dictates of the divine voice within oneself and the divine laws that were perceived by the rishis. When people came to her who were having problems, she would always look to see where they were stepping outside the flow of life prescribed by the scriptures. She said that is how the ego is born and gains its strength. When you begin to twist what you perceive, what you know from within yourself is right, when you step off the path of virtue, then you build up the "I," and that "I" separates you from all of life and from that which is the very spring of life.
She spoke in a quiet, thin voice, as though she were too sensitive to hear herself speaking. But it had a piercing resonance, and everyone took note of all she said.
If you live life for its own sake, you have missed the purpose of living, for life is to be lived for the glory of God, and only God must be the center of life. Being obedient to the voice of the guru within yourself is more important than life itself.
Yogaswami often echoed those sagely words. "The spiritual path is a narrow bridge of hair over a river of fire!" was one of her well-known adages. It cautioned of the tenuous nature of the path and the abounding distractions that deter seekers. She taught that God will come in different forms, and that those forms change as you understand Him, love Him and follow His directions. "You will see more and more clearly, and finally you will be so pure that you will be only That."
During the first decade of his association with Chellachi Ammaiyar, Yogaswami was still hidden from public view. While in her company and in transcendental communication with Chellappaswami, he brought his teachings into articulation. Out of that all-important period of gestation, absorption and reflection came his emphasis on Sivathondu, "service to Siva," a potent term that embodied his compelling message to the Jaffna community and ultimately to all mankind: "Surrender totally in the pure act of service to God Siva. Be still. Know thy Self and serve the Lord who is All, in all." Two words would ultimately define his lofty public message: Sivathondu and Sivadhyana, service to and meditation upon Siva.

Toward the end of her life, Chellachi was so sensitive that she could only eat food that Yogaswami prepared. He would make the meal at his compound in the morning and carry it sixteen kilometers to her house each day. She was too weak to eat, so he fed her. Her earlier reactions to visitors grew far more intense, so much so that the inflammation caused by the presence of an impure visitor rendered her unable to breathe. Strict screening of visitors, once a cautionary rule, became an urgent necessity.
On January 27, 1929, Chellachi Ammaiyar attained mahasamadhi. Her family and some devotees planned to build a shrine and bury her body there, as is often done for enlightened beings, rather than cremate it. Yogaswami expressed his disapproval and emphatically said he would have nothing to do with it. The matter was settled when her son went to Yogaswami and agreed to cremate her body as Swami wished.
Her body was cremated on a sandalwood pyre. The arrangements were carried out by Yogaswami, Sir Vaithilingam Duraiswamy and Doctor Ramanathan. After Ammaiyar's passing, Swami, now age 57, was the sole spiritual refuge and guide for many of the Jaffna people. He remained the prominent spiritual light in that community for the next 35 years.