Kamadhenu Kshetra

Every person needs someone who understands their pain and emotions, someone they can share their innermost feelings with. Unfortunately, not everyone is blessed with such a companion. Because of this, many households have been shattered like broken glass — unable to come together through their shared experiences, unable to recognise their own mistakes and rise again. We see this all around us in society. People who can neither truly live nor simply survive, some even ending their own lives — this is a painful truth of our times. I have seen and heard of such struggles ever since I was old enough to understand the world. Ours was a large, joint family: an ailing father, three sisters waiting to be married, and two elder brothers at home without work. My mother held everything together with patience and composure, guiding each of us along the right path so that every child might earn the grace of God. Every Thursday she offered twenty-five prostrations to the portrait of Shree Rayaru — a practice she has continued without fail from that day to this. Hers is a gentle, devout heart that looks upon everyone as her own. These are the qualities of my mother.

It is this mother's heart, her guidance, that kindled in me the longing to offer at least some small service to society. Her words, her restraint, her patience and composure, the glory she spoke of Shree Rayaru, and the timeless story of Shree Guru Rayaru — these, I can say without hesitation, are the reasons Kamadhenu Kshetra came into being. What I have felt and experienced for myself is this: through the glory and blessings of Shree Guru Rayaru, anyone suffering from illness, from family discord, or from the hardships and sorrows of life can pour out the pain and longing of their heart before Shree Rayaru. By once beholding the Shree Rayara Brindavana, or by chanting 'Shree Raghavendraya Namaha', or by writing it, there is no doubt that one becomes a recipient of the grace of Shree Guru Rayaru.

That is why it is said of Shree Guru Rayaru that he comes the moment he is called, comes to wherever he is called, and comes just as he is called. It was this very faith — that Shree Guru Rayaru fulfils the wishes of his devotees — that gave me hope. I carried aspirations for many social works: free education, free healthcare, the revival of ancient Hindu temples, the offering of food to the needy. Yet I was an ordinary man among ordinary men, one who had known the lot of poverty, and I came to feel that the Supreme had sent us a realised soul for our sake — none other than Shree Guru Raghavendra Saarvabhaumaru. My dear ones, even after learning so much about our Guru from my mother, I had to accept the bitter truth that I could not bring these social dreams to life on my own — for, as I have said, you already know my circumstances. And so, for nearly twenty-five years, I prayed to Shree Guru Rayaru without pause, beseeching that the same Guru who had inspired my every dream should also grant the grace to fulfil it. By the constant remembrance of the sacred eight-syllabled mantra 'Shree Raghavendraya Namaha' — the very mantra through which the closest devotees of Shree Rayaru have earned his grace — I too was blessed. In 2001, as inspired by Shree Guru Rayaru, I undertook the great writing-yajna of this mantra one hundred and eight crore times. On the 14th of January 2001, at the Shree Rayara Mata in Yelahanka, this precious book was released by the sacred hands of a revered, elderly spiritual seer — one who lived in Yelahanka and had performed 'Ashtavadhana' in the divine presence of Tirupati Thimmappa and Padmavatamma — with the wholehearted cooperation of the Mata's committee members and the loving support of the elderly Shree Valli Amma and her children, Shrimati and Shree Gopalakrishna.

From that day to this, the books in which lakhs of devotees have written the mantra 'Shree Raghavendraya Namaha' crore upon crore of times have themselves been made into a Brindavana. As inspired by Shree Rayaru, we have arranged at Kamadhenu Kshetra for devotees to light ghee lamps before it. This is the only Brindavana of its kind in the world — formed of 108 crore 'Shree Raghavendraya Namaha' books. All of these events, by the inspiration of Shree Rayaru, became the very foundation on which Kamadhenu Kshetra was established.

My resolve took shape about twenty-two years ago. My dream was to create, on some five acres of land, a mrittika Brindavana of Shree Raghavendra Guru Saarvabhaumaru — a place where anna-daana would be offered every single day, a place of service, a place that would feel like a mother's own home to all who came. With this longing in my heart, I prayed ceaselessly to Shree Rayaru himself: 'O Shree Guru Raya, it is you, and you alone, who must bless this resolve of mine.' As the fruit of those prayers, in 2006 I met the generous donors of the land on which Kamadhenu Kshetra now stands — Shriman Rangayya and Mahadevappa. I took them to the presence of Shree Sarakki Ammanavaru, where Shree Rayaru himself is known to speak. As it was a Thursday, the Guru's presence was upon her, and when Rangayya prayed, asking the Guru to let them establish his Brindavana, Shree Rayaru spoke through Sarakki Ammanavaru: 'Child, there are two boulders in that place, and within them dwell two goddesses. Offer worship to them and come. Place my portrait there and let my devotees sing my bhajans — and I shall come.' Such was the voice of Shree Rayaru, given through Ammanavaru.

Later, in 2008, Shree Rangayya came to me again and said that they were no longer able to establish Shree Rayaru's Brindavana themselves, and that they wished to donate the land set aside for it to whoever would. The very moment I heard this, I opened my heart to him: if it was his wish to give the land to me, I told him, I would raise upon it a wondrous kshetra of Shree Rayaru. Shree Rayaru graced me, and through his inspiration Rangayya, Mahadevappa, Chennappa, Prakash Patil, and his own close devotee Shree B. B. Patil Kulkarni came together upon this holy ground — where Sage Agastya had once journeyed and the sacred feet of Shree Vyasarajaru had trod. By the grace and inspiration of Shree Guru Rayaru, on the 3rd of March 2009, the day of Shree Raghavendra Swami's Vardhanthotsava, Shree Raghavendra Swami took his place there through the books in which thousands of devotees had written the 'Shree Raghavendraya Namaha' Ashtakshara mantra. And just as one would expect of him, he welcomed devotees in their countless multitudes. It brings to mind what a devotee once felt on going for the darshan of Lord Srinivasa and beholding that vast ocean of people. In his song he asks: how many lifetimes of acquiring knowledge, how many havanas and homas, how many chants and austerities would it take for so many souls to gather in one place? O Srinivasa, the very place where you dwell is sacred; the ground where you abide bears the fruit of all holy waters; your darshan alone bears the fruit of every pilgrimage. So it is with Kamadhenu Kshetra — the sacred abode of Shree Guru Rayaru. His darshan is the remedy for all sins, the water that has washed his feet cures every disease and affliction, his blessed mantrakshate fulfils every wish, and his service is the supreme light of life. Such is the special presence of Shree Guru Rayaru — and that is Kamadhenu Kshetra.

My dear ones, it fills me with joy to share with you another wondrous truth. Alongside the grand emergence of this Shree Guru Rayara Saligrama-shila mrittika Brindavana, some seventy to eighty lakh devotees have received Shree Rayaru's mahaprasada — and yet, by the grace of Shree Guru Rayaru, the vessel of this mahaprasada has remained ever full, a living testimony to the motherly heart of our Guru. However great the multitude that gathers — fifteen to twenty thousand people every Thursday and Sunday — it is the great Shree Raghavendra Teertha himself who sees that mahaprasada reaches every one of them. The very name 'Kamadhenu Kshetra' carries deep and abundant meaning on the lips of all who speak it. As the name itself declares, everything in this kshetra is indeed a Kamadhenu, a wish-fulfilling bounty. And this wondrous, profound, and meaningful name was bestowed by none other than that great soul, 'Shree Raghavendra Guru Saarvabhaumaru'.