On the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, 10th July 2025
10-07-25
Chapter-7
1 of 3 of Agastya Maharishi
13 of 17 of this series
My Ashram in Puducherry 75,000 years ago
“It was a residential school of Vedic learning for boys of age 4 to 18. By the age of 18, usually they would mature to become proficient in spiritual and worldly matters.
I opened the Gurukul at the age of only 22 on a very large piece of land donated by the chieftain of my village. The name of my village was Puducherry which means in Tamil – a new town or place. This name was coined because before the settlement, there were many natural orchards which were cut down to make space for new settlements for our community. In the area which was being developed for the betterment of our community, I got a large area of land to make a residential school for boys.
Water harvesting and farming by growing fruits trees in my Ashram
We had many natural sweet water wells also in the Ashram. There were three wells in my Gurukul, enough for our daily needs. Even as the boys’ number swelled in merely three years due to the popularity I had gained, there was no dearth of water in our wells. I made sure we grew many fruit trees in our compound as they not only gave shade and fruits to people, animals and birds, they also harvested water more quickly than other trees. Fruit trees are faster than other trees in recycling the ground water and moisture drops in the atmosphere, thereby irrigating the wells constantly and keeping the air moist.
I had planted at least 62 trees with my own hands in my school out of which 29 were near the three wells. The grove of trees near the well were meant to harvest rainwater. Also, as many as nine small ponds full of fish and lotus were made and maintained by the children during free time as a hobby and a course of sustainable and eco friendly living. Six large water tanks or kund were constructed by the shramdaan, service to the community to save and store rainwater, by my shishyas and their family members. This water was used in dearth if any during summer or for extra usage during a Sangham or festival of convergence of other nearby Gurukuls. Due to rainwater harvesting, tanks and ponds, water was available year round to irrigate our agricultural produce and vegetables without worries and we were not going hungry. Mostly, there was surplus which was donated to the priests, people who helped us during the year round activities of the Ashram or poor and old people of my village Puducherry. In return of the produce given, they would give us oil to burn the lamps, flowers to decorate our ashram and pots to store water in the Ashram. Sometimes if their harvest was bounty, rice sacks were given for the Gurukul or Ashramam as it was called then as their kind gesture.
My Gurukul lasted for a very long time. This was an exceptional case. Mostly due to short lives of people during that time, the teachers or Gurus could not sustain themselves for long as life was very hard, out of control and unpredictable. A verbal will was made by them about who would be the heir to their labour, planning, management and patience of many years of their Gurukul. Very rarely a woman would become a priestess or a Guru Mata. The reason was due to the high mortality rate, their child bearing body would get exhausted by the age of thirty five or so. Countless house chores and agricultural life confined them to their homes and fields. They would have many children in one life to continue their varna and gotra. Few descendents were left to whom they would in future transfer their wealth in the form of land and cattle.
Transition from a highly qualified Master to a Grand Master after more than three decades of tapasya
With Parmatma’s grace, my Gurukul was rare and blessed. It was alive with robust energy and spirit for a span of 33 years. That was a very long inning I played as I taught a very large number of boys of all ages for more than three decades. After I became 55 years old as a Grand Master, I decided to teach only the teachers and Masters of neighbouring Gurukuls to improve their faculties and build over their existing knowledge. My Gurukul was now a teachers’ training Institute.
Kaya Kalpa and longevity, life uptil 103 years for seclusion and documentation with my three best shishyas by my side till the end
With passage of time, as a septuagenarian I closed down this Institute of Teachers’ Training at the age of 75 and handed over the Gurukul to the village head and retired from active teaching.
Owing to my purushartha, tapasya and kathor anushasan of many lives and more so of the life in Puducherry, I had accomplished Kaya Kalpa and lived more than a hundred years. I was never ill or contracted infections or diseases due to a very controlled and stringent daily routine of diet, sleep and time. Yoga, Pranayam, dhyana and diet control was the secret. I fasted intermittently and took a day off to remain quiet and still in body and mind to conserve my physical energies and prana shakti in the nadis. I drank a lot of water and did Pranayam for cleansing my nadis due to the doshas contracted from ignorant people. Nadi shuddhi by nadi shodhan with anulom vilom, kapal bhati and bhastrika was the best form of regenerating the body, mind and Soul for the next 3 to 6 months.
At the age of 103, I took sukhad samadhi, a blissful exit from the world. I completed all the duties and important tasks given to me by Parmatma. From age 75 to 103, I lived alone in a hut and only did lofty and extensively detailed documentation work with my three favourite disciples on topics Kaya Kalpa, mastery of breath, how to control breath with correct breathing and chemistry of panch tattvas and breath. I preserved my works until I died. I passed on my legacy to my three most trusted disciples. They were from three generations so that the work of documentation does not recede due to lack of energy and health in any. The work continued incessantly for 28 years until I took samadhi in the very early hours at 3.55 AM after taking a bath on Thursday morning on Ekadashi. I was on an empty stomach one day before I died. Before the previous day for three days, I remained solitary and quiet. When I died, it rained for two minutes over my body in the courtyard. The next day after my samadhi day, the villagers fasted and lit lamps in their homes at night. Donations in large were given by the villagers for my Soul to rest in everlasting peace. People worshipped me for my sacrifice and selfless service I did for every person I knew and met. My three disciples meditated for 11 days in my hut until two were asked to leave my hut by me in their meditation. One of the disciples was asked to live in my hut for 3 years to work on the unfinished documentation work after which he was free to go to live in his village nearby. The completed and final manuscript-to-be kept aside was for one Gurukul which was 18 kilometers away from Puducherry. It was handed over by the most trusted disciple after 18 days of its completion. Agastya was at peace finally!
The manuscripts were asked and expected to be kept safely for at least a hundred years by the Grand Master. Their copies were distributed to four other Gurukuls as per my command. I donated copies of my toil and labour for the brahmacharis and the shishyas. It was for a very good reason and cause – they should not sway and falter from the resolve and oath they had taken at the time of their admission in my Gurukul of living a very righteous and pious life then and thereafter too.
The name of my most trusted disciple in Puducherry was Narsimha, who later became Bogar or Bogarnath in his last life on Earth and rested in peace at Palani finally. Bogar was also a disciple of Kartikeyan who is resting for eternity at Katargama. They both are Chiranjeeva and Nitya Jyot, my Stars in the galaxy.
To become a Grand Master, three things are mandatory
1) A very high level of dedication, committment and sincerity for the task appointed to you by the Rishis or Parmatma. We all work as a community. Each person must do his or her task on time to continue the work.
2) A high-powered nervous system. All the parts of the brain must be healthy and regenerated from time to time to keep this organ young and supple till the last day.
3)An extremely fit physical body. The stem cells, the bone marrow and all the functions of the organs must work in tandem to be able to regenerate new cells continuously to stop aging. Regeneration of cells must be faster than degeneration. This is also called Kaya Kalpa.
This extremely fit body is given by Parmatma to continuously do work each day to perform all the missionary work to be executed on time every day.
You have surpassed all of us on this also because in Kaliyug, there are many opportunities for health and fitness which were not existing in the previous yugas. You are getting the benefits due to this prosperous cycle of time.
Three things Grand Masters never do
1) They never ignore their intuition, the Voice of God.
2) They never compromise on telling the truth.
3) Once they make up their mind in pursuing a goal, even if takes many years or lives, they will never forget what they wished or wanted to do or accomplish. They will sacrifice everything to accomplish the goal. Until then, they will not rest.
Three ways to recognise a Grand Master
1) Their life force is sustainable and renewable constantly. They have many divine sources to recharge immediately after a taxing job. Their supply of energy never diminishes or stops.
2) They bounce back immediately after a setback, a disheartening denial or letting down by a person, a trusted person or a friend. The positivity and faith push them back into action. They never blame others or procrastinate; they simply keep going on.
3) They walk alone. They never seek attention, courage or help and support from others. The divine consciousness in them is always ablaze with optimism, patience and peace. They receive help at the most opportune time from the good and pious people, and their mission never stops. Since they resonate divinity all the time, that Divine Consciousness attracts the best the world can offer. They prefer to remain peaceful and calm with no expectations whatsoever from anyone. Yet they accomplish rarest of rare feats in the world by the grace of God. They prefer to remain peaceful and calm with no expectations whatsoever from anyone. Yet they accomplish rarest of rare feats in the world by the Grace of God.”
Charan Vandana Amma ji – Jai Amma🙏❤️🙏