SWAMI SRI VEERABRAHMENDRA

A Monograph on Pothuluru Veerabrahmendra Swamy

The Kalajnanam (Kalagnanam)

The sayings of Potuluru Veerabrahmam are mostly in the oral tradition as he intended them to be intelligible even to the common man. His compositions comprise mainly three categories.

1. Mystic songs and Govinda padas regularly sung by street ministrels and medicants.

2. Kalajnana Vachanas and padas and some Epistles entitlad Soujanya Patrikas.

3. Philosophic preachings such as ‘Siddha bodha’ and ‘Jeevaikya bodha’ and Satakams in conventional metre, (Ataveladi) such as ‘Hamsa Kalikamba’ and ‘Veera Kalikamba’.

Of all the three kinds, the Kalajnana sayings are the most popular. Even in the daily life of people, if any unforeseen incident happens, People use to identify it with the incident forecast by Veerabrahmam in his Kalajnana sayings. They are so popular in this part of the country that people often quote from their memory, the Kalajnana savings with the firm belief that they are bound to come true. There is ample evidence also that the predictions of Brahmam have come true although a few remain to be still verified.

At the very outset the meaning and purpose of Kalajna require to be understood in the correct perspective. ‘Kalajnana’ means knowledge of time. Time comprises mainly three units - past, present and future. Kalajnana covers all the three and imparts knowledge of time past, time present and time future. Unless one is able to visualize incidents of all times it is impossible to foretell incidents that occur during a wide range of time. It may not be difficult for one to gather information of the past and present, but to predict future is not easy and requires supernatural powers. A Kalajnani is one who has the knowledge of all times.

In our daily life we come across palmists, astrologers and soothsayers of the common variety. They attract people more by their tact, than by the real craftsmanship and knowledge of the science. Whether their predictions come true or not, they make their livelihood by displaying their tact.

Unless the predictions come true, even the most credulous people loss faith in these common palmists and astrologers. We do admit that palmistry and astrology are subjects of science which one should systematically learn and practice. The experiments in science may sometimes fail. Similarly the predictions of palmistry and astrology also may fail. But it does not mean that the very science is wrong. Likewise, a Kalajnani’s (Kalagnani's) predictions also cannot be disbelieved unless they are thoroughly examined by test to time.