SWAMI SRI VEERABRAHMENDRA

A Monograph on Pothuluru Veerabrahmendra Swamy

Precept and Practice

His way of approach towards the problem was pecu¬liar. He was always a silent worker. His precept was invariably followed by practice. From the practice the precept could easily be inferred. At the age of twelve years he chose to live like a cowherd although cattle grazing was never his profession. By profession, he was a smith and sculptor of great skill and high calibre. He could have easily earned his livelihood. But he purpose¬fully chose the profession of cattle grazing i.e. gopalanam which means protection of the cattle. The word cattle stands for the animal. ‘The innocent animal should be protected’ was the motto.

While the Muslim was slaying the sacred cow for his favourite dish, the Hindu was mercilessly killing the other domestic animals in the name of offering them to the village petty dieties (Grama devatas). When these practices had reached their zenith, Veerabrahmam tried to protect the life of the innocent pet animals. His chosen profession – Gopalanam” – was primarily intended for putting an end to this cruel practice.

His life story reveals that there were many occasions and contexts in which he stoutly opposed animal sacrifices to the village deities.

When he visited the courts of the then Nawabs he was served non-vegetarian dishes which he miraculously turned into vegetarian. Thus he taught the Nawabs the noble principles of abstaining from killing any living being.

Veerabrahmam was, indeed, an eloquent revolutionary saint with great restraint. His aim was to pardon even his worst enemy. To kill the enemy it may not be difficult. But to turn him a bosom friend is something which a saint alone could do. A Buddha and a Christ in the good old times and a Mahatma in the recent times made experiments most successfully on this principle. But the fact that during the course of their experiments they had undergone a tremendous torture, should not be forgotten. They had sacrificed their precious lives for the cause of common brotherhood and co-existence. Veerabrahmam could safely be counted as one of those glittering stars in the constellation of the great souls. What was good in the past, he never missed and what was bad in his times, he never sparad.

When an intruder encroaches into the religious domains of the Hindus, they forget, for the time being, all their internal differences and bickerings. The apparent unity among them was only momentous. But, in no time, the old differences and bickering crop up as the Hindus were so intimately used to them, that they cannot part with those internal bickerings so easily.