“Srīpāda Rājam Sharanam Prapadye”
May Lord Srīpāda protect us

Overview Incarnations Back: Srīpāda - Announcement of Birth | Continue: Srīpāda - The Mission Pithapuram

“Mother! You are very privileged for giving birth to a child who is attributeless and formless, the supreme phenomenon.”


Appalarāja Sarma and Sumatī had worshipped Lord Dattatreya very ardently and so he came to them. During the birth of Srīpāda a great light appeared and musical instruments were heard. Sumatī had fainted. Many great beings appeared in forms of light and celebrated the birth of Srīpāda. And for eighteen days, a cobra with three hoods came and held its hoods as an umbrella over the newborn.

Already after a few months Srīpāda went around and gave discourses on sacred wisdom. From the time of his birth, he appeared to different people in forms with different ages, often as a boy of sixteen years of age. Srīpāda was very humorous and playful, and he conducted many extraordinary supernatural acts even from the age of one year on, which are described in his biography. He did many miracles, changed outdated rituals and transformed numerous people in the village of Pīthikapuram.

It is a beauty in the life of Srīpāda that when a person had deficiencies and he healed them, he always gave the karmic reasons for the deficiencies and suggested rectifications. He could see the past lives of the beings and he even saw humans incarnating in the form of a bull or a cow. He also gave many prophecies and spoke about his future incarnations and of others. You are much drawn into the story when you read it.

At the age of sixteen, when his parents asked him to marry, he replied: “I have greater purposes to fulfil and therefore I seek your permission to leave the house.” His mother Sumatī said, “You are the only able son we have. Your elder brothers, one blind, the other lame, they cannot be offered a lady. If you don’t marry and leave the house, we don’t see a continuity of our lineage. You are the only one.” Then he touched both his two brothers and made them normal. He gave eyesight to the eldest brother and took away the lameness from the other one. Then Srīpāda said, “Now your two sons are eligible for marriage. Please give me permission to leave.” And thus, he left Pīthikapuram and became an ascetic, a wandering mendicant.

Continue: Srīpāda - The Mission


Sources:

• K. Parvathi Kumar: Notes from seminars. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India worldteachertrust.org
• Shankar Bhatt: Srīpāda Srīvallabha Charitāmrutam