I had written a post on my travel blog about the various places associated with Sarguru SriBrahma, a fiery yogi that happened in South India a 100 years or so back. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev has a deep connection with this yogi, thus it is of keen interest for a lot of us Isha meditators. And in general, I find various yogis and spiritual path related stories interesting.

One thing I have heard often in context with Sarguru SriBrahma is that the places which supported him saw much prosperity, while those that didn’t, failed to become prosperous. Specifically, this is said about two villages in Tamil Nadu, Subbalapuram and Naduvapatti.

Subbalapuram & Naduvapatti

Naduvapatti was Sarguru SriBrahma’s native village. He lived there with his family as a gruhasta (householder). When the time came, he tried to go into a 10 day underground samadhi but the local villagers started gossiping and caused trouble. They spread rumours that he had been killed and the police were called in to investigate. His pit was dug up, and his samadhi failed, he was disturbed before the time was up. After that he left the village in search of more conducive places.

He found this conducive place for his samadhi and other requirements at another village, Subbalapuram.

A friend @PremKV created a documentary on Sarguru’s life. Which is an amazing piece of work, I feel we should do this for a lot of our lesser known yogis and great people. This documentary has highlighted the sequence of events in a more detailed manner.

At that time, I guess these two villages Subbalapuram and Naduvapatti were fairly commonplace villages and similar to each other in most aspects. Now they are two contrasting villages. It is said, and I have heard from a many different people, that one supported Sarguru and saw much prosperity. The other left him helpless and thus, remained in poverty.

Prem KV also tells me that Subbalapuram looks strikingly better off than other villages in its vicinity. Add to that, the experiences of the locals when asked about how they afford a grand 3 day Guru Pooja celebration every year, they say, ” We don’t know all those things, we just start this and the money comes“. Maybe their dedication to Sarguru’s instructions about conducting an annual guru pooja event with free annadanam (food offering to all visitors) very naturally, due to the activity ecosystem, leads to a better economy.

A few years back, the grand daughters of Sarguru built a temple for him in Naduvapatti, so maybe after a few years this village may glow again.

Blessed Places….

These things are a matter of belief / faith. One could always point to other factors that explain the change in prosperity status. However, I think a lot of us Indian folk do accept that places can be blessed (or cursed). One can also call it mojo, vibe or something else.

And then there is also the very real impact of temples, poojas and religious/spiritual activities on the economy of the place. Here’s an interesting video I recently spotted on YT on temple economics, something to ponder on.

That’s the story of the two villages and Sarguru SriBrahma. 🙂

I would like to visit them some time. For more Sarguru related places, you can refer to my travel blog post, Sadhguru SriBrahma Pilgrimage Spots.