Sanyasa:
In the year 1953, she went to visit her younger daughter in Delhi and from there went with a party of devotees to Rishikesh. Circumstances and a calling from within led her to the steps of the Divine Life Center in Rishikesh. Swami Sivananda sensed her innate divinity. He asked his assistant, one Sri Viswanathan to find out who she was. Coincidentally, Vishwanathan had worked in her father Sankaranarayana Sastry’s house and knew about her and was able to enlighten Swamiji about her. Swamiji put her to the test and decided to give her Sanyasa. Swamiji set her on a path of privation and rigorous duties. He initiated her in the ‘Shadakshara Mantra’ as Bala Murugan did when she was nine and asked her to do Purascharana (one crore mantras) in Kaivalya guha (literal meaning - a cave, but here it denotes the cave of wisdom). Nothing deterred her from the path she had set upon – not meager food, cold weather, insufficient clothing, nor her humble surroundings. She answered but to the call of Muruga, who kept urging her to come and get Him. One day, she could ignore the voices no longer and her footsteps led her to an opening above the cave, where she came upon the idol of Bala Murugan. Followed a colloquy, where the voice of Muruga asked her what had kept her so long. He further adjured her to establish Him in a suitable place. The idol was consecrated by Maragathavalli’s own hands in the music hall at the Divine Life Center, where she offered worship daily.
Her husband, Sri Narasimha Sastry and her children were naturally upset by this and requested Swamiji to send her back. Her daughter, Kamakshi and her husband went to Rishikesh to plead with Swamiji. He told them that she was meant for greater things in life. However, when her youngest son Sri Venkatraman and his wife went to Rishikesh at the behest of their father, Swamiji acceded and told Maragathavalli that she needed to go back. In 1954, just before she left, she was given ‘Deeksha’ by Swamiji and became a sanyasi. When she asked how she could live the life of the householder now that she was a sanyasi, Swamiji told her husband also to take Apad Sanyasa and called him Swami Murugananda.
Thereafter, she got full support from her husband and children. She looked after her husband’s needs until he passed away.
Her husband had made provision for her, by securing a kutir (small hut or room) in Vaishnavi Shrine, Ambattur, Chennai, where she spent a few years, before heading back to Rishikesh, where she stayed until she became feeble. She was brought back to Chennai and stayed with her youngest son, younger daughter and grandson in turn. When it was time to attain Samadhi, all her children were beside her and recited the ‘Mahamrityunjaya Mantra’ till her last breath.
Maragathavalli came to be called ‘Andavan Pichai’ and later ‘Andavananda Mataji’. There was nothing new in this name. Lord Muruga himself called her Pichi, one who was mad with love for him. Also, since she was mad for the love of her Lord, she decried herself as ‘Pichi’ for ‘Andavan’ – i.e. crazy for God. In fact, she wrote her entire biography addressing herself in third person as ‘Pichi’ . Sankaracharya Chandreshekhara Saraswati later bestowed the name Andavan Pichai on her.
It is not doing justice to the divine essence that Mataji’s life was to compress it within a space of a few words, nor in her biographies, or in Andavan Pichai’s Arut Padalgal. The glory that her life was, a life spent in service and devotion to God, giving her devotees in simple terms the essence of the ‘Truth’ shine through her songs forever. When the time came for her to leave her earthly trappings on November 19, 1990, she suffered briefly as though in expiation for her ‘poorva janma karmas’ (previous births’ karmas), and has been freed from the birth-rebirth cycle.
She explicitly stated this in the following Prathanai (prayer):
ப்ராத்தனை :
பாமாலை பூமாலை பரந்தாமனுக்கு - ஆடிக்கொடுத்தாள் ஆண்டாள் ஆனந்தமாக
பாமாலைகையால் அலங்கரித்து பால முருகனை - பாடி மகிழ்ந்தாள் ஆண்டவன் பிச்சி
காமாலை கண்ணனுக்கு கண்டதெல்லாம் மஞ்சள் நிறம் போல் காணும் பொருளெல்லாம் பிச்சிக்கு முருகனே
ஏமாற்மாடான் பிச்சி யமதர்மரஜனிடம் - ஏற்றுகொண்டான் முருகன் அண்ணையாகித் திருவடியில் –
திருவடியில் இடமளித்து இனி பிறவா வரமளித்து இரு வினை விலங்கறுத்து இதயத்தில் ஒளி காட்டி
குரு க்ருபா கடாக்ஷமேன்றும் ஞனாக்னியால் ஒரு கணத்தில் - கோடி ஜன்மம் செய்த பாவங்கள் பஸ்மமாக செய்தான் பரமதயாளன்
(Translation:
Garlands of flowers in the form of songs did Andal give with joy to Paranthaman
With garlands of songs on Bala Murugan Andavan Pichi
Just like everything looks yellow to a person with jaundiced eyes, for Pichi every object looks like Murugan
He will not cheat Pichi in Yama Dharmarajan’s presence – and took me for his mother at his feet
Granting me place at His feet, freeing me from birth-re-birth cycle, breaking the chains of the duality of life, He showed me the light in my heart
Like the blessings the Guru grants of divine vision, in one kshana (second), the sins of a many lives were destroyed by Paranthaman.
It is also evident in the songs on Rajarajeshwari, each song describing the chakra or stage at which the soul is resting, ultimately reaching the Dwadashantam Chakra, where everything is bliss. ‘Anandam yenna solven!”: ‘How do I describe this bliss?’ wherein she mentions having achieved the ultimate state of bliss, beyond which there is no more suffering in life.
Andavan Pichai had 6 children who survived and through them she is survived by 20 grand-children, 35 great grand-children, 15 great-great grand-children. Other than this, she has multiple nephews and nieces and their children. All of them are devoted to the legacy of Andavan Pichai.
Atmabodham:
Her treatise on ‘Atmabodham’ (Self-knowledge) is an affirmation of this.
Her intimate knowledge of the soul and its journey notwithstanding, she was a simple soul at heart and was always tender and gentle towards her devotees.
While her treatise on her own salvation does indicate the path of Advaita, like the Bhagwad Gita, it also delineates the simple path of Devotion to the Lord for the lay person.
In the centuries to come, she will remain a beacon to all simple folk. Those who sing her songs and recite her Kavachams will always be protected.
Sources: Hand written notebooks by Andavan Pichai, her biography dictated by her to one Sri Ramani and Sri E.K. Vemban, and her daughter Kamakshi, and Journals kept by her daughters Kalpagam and Kamakshi. Many of her works were brought out by TT. Pani and Company, Sri E.K. Vemban and the Andavan Pichai Bhajan Mandali.