The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : It's simple living for the `swamis'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 15, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

It's simple living for the `swamis'

K.V.S. Madhav

Avoiding all worldly pleasures, devotees lead a disciplined life

PIOUS LOT: Ayyappa devotees leaving for Sabarimala. — PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

HYDERABAD: The otherwise pesky autorickshaw driver who sports a perennial scorn on his face welcomes you with a benign smile. The friendly bank cashier hands you the cash with folded hands! The vegetable vendor is at his generous best, the weighing balance never so perfect, putting in a few more ladyfingers into your basket.

Walk into a film set, you will invariably bump into the hotshot director, used to barking orders into the microphone, meditating upon the sublime and quiet as the night.

Well, this is the time of the year when the men in black take over the city, and immense piety too. From realtors to politicians, attenders to bureaucrats, pub owners to pan kiosk runners, the commoner and the rich — all slip into black robes and live life totally unlike how they do it for the rest of the year.

And presto, truth, forgiveness, control of senses, kindness to all living beings and simplicity become a way of life.

A long trek

It is Vrischikam and Kerala's famous Sree Ayyappa temple, nestled in the Sabarimala hills of South Western Ghats is once again abuzz, the devotional frenzy finding an echo in distant Andhra Pradesh.

Lakhs of pilgrims, mostly Telugus, donning the customary black dress and sporting a beard trek barefoot through forest routes to river Pampa.

Forty days of utmost discipline and eschewing all worldly pleasures, these men chanting mantras and fasting, smearing sandalwood paste on their forehead and sporting black beads, live life with immense discipline.

"What we are the rest of the year and what we did are immaterial. This is reality, the search for our real selves, which is otherwise forgotten in the humdrum of modern life," says Raghu swami, who runs a Chinese restaurant, but wears the `mala' come December.

Lingo change

"This is a great rejuvenation, a rebirth of sorts every year. All the wrongdoings are erased, only a surge of devotion and immense discipline," explains Ram Reddy, an ardent devotee, eating a humble meal at one of the exclusive eateries for swamis on the R.P. Road.

The lingo too changes. For the Sabarimala pilgrims, the suffix swami gets added to the name and all acquaintances too! A client becomes a swami, the man on the street also a swami and even the boss! And all hellos and goodbyes are in the name of swami too! Like the harivarasanam, the divine lullaby to Ayyappa that they chant, the conversations too acquire a lilt and that rare tranquillity.

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