Dhruva told him that one needs to fly to Hyderabad, then by taxi, for a few hours, go to a village called Vedagiri. There, lives the main priest. The mountain is located in five kilometers from the village. One needs to know the pathways in the jungle. The priest goes there only once a week. If one wants to have a darshan, they have to come on the eve of the day and go with him there.
Ganeshwara did exactly that. He took two devotees and went to the village. They found the priest and went with him to the mountain. They saw the jungle, herds of wild monkeys, and snakes. In the cave they saw bats hanging above their heads, walked in the water up to a human chest, and finally got the darshan. They realized that it is unrealistic to live there and it is simply dangerous.
Ganeshwara went back to Vrindavan, then he called Pada Sevanam and said, "I went there. It's impossible to live there, just stay with the devotees and live normal life. Krishna has a different plan."
"Gopal told me to go and I will, anyway. I bought tickets and I am arriving in two weeks. Please meet me."
What should I do? Ganeshwara thought. Imagine, taking 74 years old woman to the jungle and leaving her there. Imagine a man who gets snowed under with such a sudden mission. It's like Lakshman would take Sita to the forest and leave. How can I leave a devotee of her age in the jungle where there is no water, no electricity, no food, absolutely nothing, only wild animals nearby?
Alright, he planned: we'll bring her to Vrindavan. She would see the deities of Radha and Krishna, sink in that nectar atmosphere and then we will make the right decision, that she should better stay in Vrindavan. Her heart will open and God's plans will change. That was the plan.
He meets her at the airport. She comes with all her tens of deities, what devotees were bringing to her-several pairs of Radha Krishna, a number of Gopals, Govardhana Shilas, Shaligram Shilas, different pictures, etc. That all she brought with her in her suitcases.
Ganeshwara met her and said, "A taxi is waiting. We will go to Vrindavan first and then decide what to do in a few days."
She got really tensed. "I need to go to Nrsimhadev immediately, He is suffering because no one serves Him! How can I go to Vrindavan and enjoy myself there?"
"But Pada Sevanam, you have never been to Vrindavan," said Ganeshwara. "It's only a few kilometers away, we need to go there. When would you go there otherwise?"
She said, "If you don't want to go there with me, just tell me where to go, I'll get a ticket and go by myself!"
Ganeshwara thought, I can't leave her!
Then, he buys tickets, they fly to Hyderabad, taxi brings them to Vedagiri. Ganeshwara takes her to the priest, hoping that he would open her eyes to see the reality. They go to the priest. He is around 70 years old his self, his son is 30. Ganeshwara explains through his son (he translates) that this woman is from a different country, she is from Azerbaijan, and she got a revelation that your Nrsimhadev calls her and that she needs to come and serve Him here. She packed her things and came.
When the priest hears that his eyes doubles in size.
He says, "What Nrsimha? Do you understand what you are saying? Live here? We, adult men can't live there. It's dangerous there, there are no facilities-no water, no food, no electricity. You don't know what you are talking about! I cannot provide protection for you, so as the main priest I can't let you worship there!"
Pada Sevanam becomes very serious, looks at the priest with a trying look and says, "If Krishna wants to kill someone, would you be able to protect that person, regardless of the place in this universe, even in your house? If Krishna wants to protect someone, who can kill that person?"
She said that with such faith and determination that the priest just broke into tears and said, "I don't know who this woman is, but I have no arguments to convince her in this case. Go ahead, live! I will try to give you maximum protection."
Now Ganeshwara is put in front of the fact that he has to carry all Pada Sevanam's luggage through the jungle.
They left in the morning and carried the luggage to the mountain. Ganeshwara has the last hope that she would see everything herself and change her mind. They reached the top and Pada Sevanam, is lost in admiration.
"Here is also a room for my deities!"-There was some little rickety building made of stones, with a time-skewed door, in front of the entrance to the temple-"I will install my deities here, set up a tent and begin living. Excellent facilities! Everything is beautiful, go home, I will stay and worship Nrsimhadev."
Ganeshwara and the priest were totally shocked and speechless, but left her there. The priest was so amazed that he began telling everyone in the village about it, word about this grandma spread around instantly. The next day swarms of people begun climbing to the mountain to see that woman, a saint from Azerbaijan.
They brought whatever they could: water, some kind of clothes, etc. Men looked at the tent she was in and said, "We must protect her and build a hut for her." Women joined and began cleaning, bringing water, doing other things.
All villagers received her as a saint and began worshiping. She didn't have even a tiny amount of pride about herself and was easily accepting it. People paying obeisances as she blesses them, as if she has always been doing that. People were inviting her to bless weddings, new houses, and to bless a newborn or a dying person.
All were running around her: the priests, the brahmanas, everyone. When she was coming to Shiva's temple, they would bring her the pushpam (flower) and she would offer. She would do abhisheka as the great aadhu do. People fell in love with her for her simple and cordial love to Krishna.
Although she didn't know the local language, nor did she know English, she was preaching! She only knew "Bhagavan Shri Krishna" in Sanskrit. She would preach half in Azerbaijanian, half in Russian, but people were able to understand because she was speaking from her heart.
The news and the story were spreading and more people were coming to see her and have Nrsimhadev darshan. The priest had to start coming every day and open the temple. That's how the worshipping of Nrsimhadev resumed on a daily basis. Finally, the news reached journalists of a newspaper of that region. They came and wrote an article about it, which blew the media. The article was being reprinted all around India. It was published in Azerbaijan and Turkey as well. People began coming from everywhere, just to see this woman and the Deity.
Mayor of the state of Andra-pradesh read the article and was amazed, "This happens in my state?" He turned his wife, "We have to see that woman!"
They came with an escort and winking lights and climbed up the mountain to see Pada Sevanam. Everything was happening around her, all people were doing something and she was in ecstasy worshiping the deities.
Imagine, in the beginning, to get water she had to climb down several kilometers, take bath and bring drinking water. That's how she lived before people started helping.
When the Mayor saw that, he said, "We call ourselves devotees of Krishna, but who we are, actually? Look what is a condition of our temple and compare it to our houses! We made facilities for ourselves, but not for Krishna! We left Him here and worshiped Him once a week! This is all to begin with me." This is how he addressed the people. "I take responsibility," he said, "to collect enough money to make facilities, build a road, bring electricity, water, ensure access to the temple and dignify the temple in order to ensure proper worship of our Nrsimhadev."
He started a foundation and built a road to the mountain, parking with marble steps to the temple for tourist groups. They also built Hanuman temple and refined everything. For Pada Sevanam they built a brick house. When I heard about this all I was really impressed. The main point is, we don't know anything about this woman, who is leaving now. I had to let devotees know right away.
Perhaps, some of you received my message about this Mataji, it went to Facebook. I sent it on Ekadashi day and by the end of the day replies from devotees started coming. They were thanking me, glorify Pada Sevanam, some broke into tears. One said, "My husband had a breakdown, he has not chanted the holy names for two years and after reading this article he cried and began chanting again."
In the morning, I woke up and saw Ganeshwara's message on skype. He wrote that the main priest called him and said she left the body last night. The circumstances of her departure were remarkable though. He sent me some pictures.
On that morning of Dvadashi first devotees came in and as always, they would first come to Pada Sevanam for darshan, to get the blessings. Then they would go into the temple to see the Deities. Pada Sevanam used a plastic chair, an asana for Krishna. She would take Krishna from the altar, put Him on the chair and feed.
When devotees came in, they saw her on her knees embracing Krishna's feet. Under her arm, she was holding the Bhagavad-Gita. Devotees thought she was sleeping. The priest knocked on the table.
"Mata?"
She didn't respond.
He asked women to check up on her and help her up. They touched her and realized that she had left the body.
Pada Sevanam means "the one who worships the feet." She left this world embracing Krishna's feet and holding Bhagavad-Gita, which brought her to the perfection of her life. This is a remarkable example that we have.
There are two little additional stories about Pada Sevanam. The main priest told one of them.
Once upon a time, I closed the temple at night and began going down the mountain when I heard screaming and the sound of banging dishes. I thought, maybe a monkey attacked. The next morning I came up and everything was as usual, Pada Sevanam was worshiping. I asked her, "What happened yesterday?"
She said, "Nothing, it's all good."
"I heard the banging of dishes and your scream."
"Oh, that's just Nrsimhadev, he didn't want to eat, I was swearing."
The priest said to me, "I don't understand what kind of woman she is." She also said to him at some point that Nrsimhadev told her that she would incarnate in this place for 10,000 years and then He would take her to Goloka.
Ganeshwara told the other story, he asked her once, "At the beginning everything was somewhat rough, were there any dangers, perhaps wild animals, any problems?"
He just wanted to know how she lived. She said, "No, no problems. Overall, just a cobra bit me once in a leg. That's it."
"Wow! That's it?"
"I just went to Nrsimhadev and said, 'I want to serve you, but a cobra bit me. If you want to take me, so be it. But if you want me to serve you, tell me what to do.' He told me to wash the wound with charanamrita. I did and everything was fine."
(From a lecture by A.C. Bhagavatamrita Keshava Swami. Barnaul, Russia December 18, 2016)
Translated by Ramananda das (Roman Zilber), Edited by Radha-Vilasa (Ranetta Zilber).
Following are few pictures of her. My humble obeisance to her Lotus Feet. 🙏🙏
A
bove pic is how she departed from the world.