The Story of Bhadrachala Ramadasu

The Story of Bhadrachala Ramadasu

There was once a boy who lived in a small village in the State of Andhra Pradesh. One day, he found a very beautiful parakeet and, enchanted by it, brought it home. He kept the parakeet in a cage and enjoyed looking at it everyday, as the poor parakeet looked miserable and wanted to fly back to its home. Everyday, the parakeet sang, "Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama…." and so on. The boy laughed with pleasure every time the parakeet sang this, delighted by the sweet voice of the small bird. The boy kept this parakeet for 12 days before feeling sympathy for it, and letting it go. The parakeet flew away in happiness, delighted to be with its family again. Soon, the boy grew into adulthood, married, led a happy house holder life, and died in old age, satisfied with his life.

This boy got reborn as Kancherla Gopanna in 1620 C.E. in the village of Nelakondapalli in Northern Andhra Pradesh, the only son to a simple Brahmin family. His father was Linganna Murthy and his mother was Kamamba.

Kancherla Gopanna's uncle, Akkanna, was the administrative head in the court of Qutub Shahi Sultan Abul Hassan Tana Shah, the Mughal ruler of the area. Akkanna, due to his influence in the King's court, secured Kancharla Gopanna a job as Tahsildar (revenue collector) of Palvoncha Paragana. Along with his wife Kamala, who was carrying at the time, Kancherla Gopanna went to Palvoncha Paragana, and did his official duties honestly and kindly. The people of Palvoncha Paragana loved and respected Kancharla Gopanna, and listened to anything he said. It was around this time that Kancherla Gopanna became an ardent devotee to Lord Ramachandra, and composed many kritis (Carnatic Music songs) on him. Some famous compositions among many others are Anta Ramamayam and Bhadra Shaila Raja Mandira. Also, a son was born to Kancherla Gopanna and his wife Kamala. They named him Raghu Rama.

The Mughal King Tana Shah had a wife named Sitara, who disliked Kancherla Gopanna, because she had hoped the job of Tahsildar would go to her own nephew. Queen Sitara one day sent some of her trusted men to kill Kancherla Gopanna at the dead of night, so that once he died, her nephew could ascend the post. One night, when Kancherla Gopanna was walking home through a forest after collecting revenue from the people, Sitara's people jumped out from behind some trees and attacked Kancherla Gopanna, who prayed to Lord Rama to save him. Lord Rama, pleased with the humble devotion of Kancherla Gopanna, came in the farm of a fierce tiger and scared away Sitara's men. Kancherla Gopanna, with tears of happiness in his eyes, knew that the tiger was Lord Rama, and composed a kriti then and there, in which he asked Rama that, "now that you gave your darshan, I want the darshan of Sitamma talli."

One day, a few years later, Kancherla Gopanna went to Bhadrachalam for a fair, and also to see the holy site of the parnasala where Rama stayed with Sita and Lakshmana for some time during his exile. Near Bhadrachalam, there was also another site where Shabari had lived before getting moksha from Lord Rama. However, Kancherla Gopanna was very disappointed when he saw the temple of Lord Rama there, which held lots of significance for Telugu people, because that temple was the place where Potana had received darshan from Rama to write the Bhagavatham. The temple was very dilapidated, and unkempt. No priests did puja in it, and it was utterly neglected by the people of Bhadrachalam.

Kancherla Gopanna decided to raise funds and reconstruct the temple himself, with the help of his wife, son, and the people. Everyone donated something of theirs, like gold necklaces, bangles, rings, gold coins, etc, for the reconstruction of the temple, and along with Kancherla Gopanna's wealth, they made a pretty hefty sum of money. It was during this time that Shri Rama, very pleased with Kancherla Gopanna, appeared to him in a dream and gave him the name of Ramadasu (servant of Lord Rama). From there on, Kancherla Gopanna was known as Ramadasu, one of the great devotees of Lord Rama.

It's not done yet. This is only the first part. I will post the next part soon.😊

Even after emptying the coffers, Ramadasu still did not have nearly enough to build an appropriate temple for his favorite God. The people of Palvoncha Paragana asked him to use the money from his revenue, and promised to repay the whole amount after the crop harvest. After some persuasion, Ramadasu sent a message to King Tana Shah for permission to use the revenue money to build a Rama temple in Bhadrachalam. The message was given to Sitara's jealous nephew, to whom all messages for the King came first. Sitara told her nephew to not tell King Tana Shah about Ramadasu's message, so that they would soon have an opportunity to imprison Ramadasu, on the grounds that he used the revenue money without the king's permission.

After awhile, when no message came from the king, Ramadasu assumed that the construction of the Ram-alaya was approved, and began work on it. With help from the people, and his own devotion, Ramadasu soon reached the completion of his temple, spending 600,000 rupees of the land revenue. However, he encountered one problem which perplexed him highly. He was worried about how to get a sudarshana chakra to put on the main crest of the temple. One night in a dream, Lord Rama came to Ramadasu and told him to take a bath in the river. When he woke up, Ramadasu went to the river, and after finishing his bathing ritual, much to his delight he found a sudarshana-chakra on the river, and after praying to it, fixed it on the temple. Now, the temple was finished, and once more stood in its golden beautiful form. Everyday, there were numerous rituals and pujas done for Lord Rama in the Bhadrachala Ram-alaya.

One day, Ramadasu's only son, Raghu Rama, died at the early age of 12, by falling into a hot vessel. In his unhappiness and deep despair, Ramadasu composed a kriti to Lord Rama, telling him of his misery, and surrendering to him. It is said that Lord Rama sent Hanuman to Bhadrachalam, and as Hanuman's shadow passed over the dead body of the boy, they boy came back to life. All were astonished at this, but soon came to know that this was not the last in many miracles to come.

Soon, King Tana Shah soon came to know that Ramadasu had used the funds for building a temple without his permission and became enraged. He had him brought to his court and questioned him of his actions. Ramadasu replied that he had sent a message, but Tana Shah believed him to be lying. He asked him whether he felt what he did was wrong, and Ramadasu replied that he did not. He said that money does not belong to a King, but Lord Rama, the ultimate salvation, and if money is used for Lord Rama, it is never wrong. Ramadasu then started praising Lord Rama in the form of kritis, and recounted Shri Ram's story to the court of King Tana Shah. Being a Mughal King, Tana Shah was not pleased at all, and after dismissing him from his job, had Ramadasu imprisoned in the Golkonda Fort, which is near Hyderabad. Ramadasu would only be released when the 600,000 rupees he had spent was replaced, and if he promised never to pray to Lord Rama again, and never sing kritis on him.

Ramadasu had full faith in Rama that he would release him from prison, and for many years composed hundreds of kritis and keertanas on Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana. From his prison cell, he composed a number of kritis which are still famous today, such as Paluke Bangaramayena Kodanda Pani, and Taraka Mantramu. In some kritis, such as Nanu Brovamani Cheppave, Sitamma Talli, he asked Sita Devi to ask her husband to liberate him, because Lord Rama does not seem to hear him. In many of his kritis, Ramadasu took a sorrowful tone, and when in despair that his Lord Rama had forgotten him, wrote kritis like Ikshvaku Kula Tilaka, in which he reminds Rama of the temple he built him, and the jewelry he bought for his, Sita's, and Lakshmana's statues. Ramadasu accuses Rama of being indifferent to his devotees' suffering, but then feels repentant and writes kritis of total surrender.

King Tana Shah had Ramadasu suffer lots of physical pain also, to make him lost faith in his Rama. He had hot iron rods burned on Ramadasu's bare back, ground spices sprayed on those burns to make them more painful than they already were, make him carry heave iron weights, had him whipped hundreds of times everyday with not only a leather lash, but a spiked iron ball, and fed him spoiled food. No matter what Tana Shah did, Ramadasu never lost faith in Shri Rama, and continued praying to him through his compositions.

There was once, when after a strenuous day of physical labor, Ramadasu was extremely tired and weak. Tana Shah had salt-less bitter bread brought for Ramadasu, so that he could enjoy the sight of a hungry Ramadasu trying to take down the horrible food, but Ramadasu, after taking a bite of the bread, sighed in pleasure and composed a song called Entho Ruchira, in which he praises Lord Rama with relish, saying that Rama's name was so sweat that by saying it, one was filled up with happiness and peace.

Ramadasu suffered endlessly for 12 years, when Lord Rama decided that his devoted servant had suffered enough. Rama and Lakshmana took the form of two young warriors named Ramoji and Lakshmoji and came into Tana Shah's bed-chamber in the middle of the night. They woke up Tana Shah and presented him with much more than 600,000 rupees, asking him to release Ramadasu. After obtaining a receipt of release from Tana Shah, Ramoji and Lakshmoji went to the jailer of Ramadasu and presented him with the receipt. The jailer then released Ramadasu, but before Ramadasu could see who had saved him, Ramoji and Lakshmoji had disappeared.

When examining the coins that Ramoji and Lakshmoji had given him, Tana Shah saw that they had a strange emblem on them, and after referring with his ministers, he realized that the emblem was that of the son of Dasharath, Lord Ramachandra himself. Tana Shah's eyes were opened, and he realized that Ramadasu's Rama really did exist, and he had been fortunate enough to receive darshan from him.

Ramadasu also realized that Ramoji and Lakshmoji were none other than Ram and Lakshman, come to release him from the prison of Tana Shah. But he was distraught that while he, who had served Rama with devotion since a young age, did not receive darshan from him while Tana Shah, who had lived a life of materialism, had received the blessed darshan of Ram and Lakshman. He was so miserable about this that he was about to end his life, when Rama appeared to him in a dream and explained to him the reason of his jailing. Rama told him that in his previous birth, Kancherla Gopanna had imprisoned a parakeet for 12 days, and had made fun of the parakeet while it was chanting Rama's name, so the boy had to suffer his bad Karma. Rama told him that caging any animal is very bad karma, so the boy had to suffer 1 year for every day that he jailed the bird, while Tana Shah made fun of him for singing praises of Lord Rama. Rama then told Ramadasu that his Karma was now liberated, and he was free from any sin. Once he died a natural death in this life, Ramadasu would get moksha. And then, Rama showed Ramadasu his true form, with Mata Sita at his side. Thus blessed, Ramadasu spent the rest of his life doing service to his temple in Bhadrachalam, and at the age of 60, died and merged with Lord Rama.

Before that, Tana Shah, who thought of all this as a miracle of Allah, donated the money given to him by Ram and Lakshman to the Bhadrachalam Temple, and thus, every year at Ram Navami, the temple at Bhadrachalam, built by Ramadasu, received gifts from the people.

Hope you all enjoyed this story. Some time, I'll post the story of Saint Tyagaraja, another great devotee of Lord Rama.

Jai Shri Ram!

Originally posted by: dhirajdhuria

hey godisone................i have read d storey. its is awsum.......👏n also teach us a lession................abt imprisoning a bird wich is very bad😲........also wanted 2 say thanx for posting such storey abt ram bhakt.😊..................n eagerly waiting for saint tyagaraja;s storey............thanx again👏

Does anyone want to hear some Bhadrachala Ramadasu kritis? I can post some if you want.😊