Born on 29th April 1965 in a small village named Tyavanagi near Davangere, Karnataka, Gurumaatha was the eldest among three children of Sri. S.N.Subramanya Shreshti belonging to Sagar Family who worked as Joint Director & Chief Auditor in Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) & mother Smt. S.S.Bhagyalakshmi, a Homemaker. The other siblings were younger sister Smt. Shashi Ramesh and a younger brother Sri. S.S.Manjunath Sagar.
Gurumaatha did her primary education in Gulbarga, middle school in Raichur, high school & pre-university in Mysore and degree in Davanagere. She was very bright and one of the topper in her class. She graduated in the field of Science (B,Sc) and it was one of her favourite subject. She was interested in Music, Dance, playing Veena and learnt classical carnatic junior music in Mysore, Dance junior in Raichur in her young age for short span. Her main hobby from her childhood were drawing & painting. She was very artistic in Batik designs, Nib painting, Foil painting, embossing, and tile painting, thread works on fabrics, drawing sketches and much more.
She was Unique and a Perfectionist. She had selective friends and had no interest in sports because of cleanliness involved. She did not participate in debates / anything related to that, the reason being not wanting to talk / argue much, but liked to join science clubs and its activities. She used to keep her books, study table, chair, and table lamp very clean. Her school books always looked new till the end of the year. Her handwriting was very good and her English was excellent. After her degree she worked in Vysya Bank for a short span of time. She was very obedient to her parents and used to take care of her siblings well.
She at the age of 24 married Sri Sadguru Dr. Manjunath Guruji on 31st August 1988 in Banaglore. They have two children Madhuri and Suhas. She was a perfect daughter-in-law as she used to follow her mother-in-law’s words in all aspects like cooking, rituals, etc.
People used to say that they should be blessed with daughter-in-law like her. She was very down to earth kind of person as she had lot of patience and never lost her temper with anyone in her life. She used be like a friend with her children and encouraged them in their studies and other activities. She also worked as a freelance examiner in British Council, Bangalore for a period of 10 years.
She was very supportive to our Guruji in all aspects especially in His spiritual journey. Throngs of people used to visit Guruji’s house to seek his blessings and Amma used to treat all of them as a family. People visiting Guruji used to say that she used to welcome them with a smile and the same would reflect to the last person visiting them at night. In between she used to feed people visiting their home with something or other.
She use to listen “Mankutimmana Kagga”- The modern Bhagavathgeetha and proved that it can be adaptable in life.
One of her uncle explains as “Really she knows art of living and her life is a practical example for it. She knew how to manage the difficult situations with an attractive smile on her face and shown to see everything and every person with positive attitude. Till now she shared only good moments and things with others and spread happiness. Her speech was very much clean and clear, that shows she was very confident about what she is doing, what she is speaking and what she is thinking. She knew to synchronize her body and mind. She showed how to live in present without worrying about past and not getting tensed about future. She showed us the way by living her life with cleanliness (in 3 ways), tolerance, perfection and goal oriented.”
Veena Amma as Gurumaatha:
We used to call our Gurumaatha as “Veena Amma” till we lost her on 5th Aug 2014, only after that we realised she not only used to shower her selfless love and affection, but was silently guiding us in the right path of life with our Guruji.
A mother guiding us as GURU is none other than our eternal “GURUMAATHA”.
As we all know that the environment surrounding our Gurumaatha was always peaceful and the way she conducted herself in her daily life pertaining to either spiritual aspect or about normal behaviour like – how to respect elders or caring younger generation irrespective of their knowledge or building a relationship with anyone, she has taught us lot of things like how to maintain them in a healthy way till our last breath. She has transferred all these immense knowledge to us without any indication.
Our GuruMaatha’s lifestyle was very simple & different. She appreciated peace and silence, maintained cleanliness. She believed in “Talk less and Gain more knowledge” principle. She used to advise not to get into unwanted discussions if you are not gaining / transferring knowledge. The above said is the same as the tatva of positive and negative energy transfer. If you are the part of Good discussion, then you imbibe positive energy and vice versa. Instead of teaching us in a complicated way, Gurumaatha has taught us in a very simplest way like a mother teaching her kids and also lived as an example. As we all know mother is just a mother, there will be no partiality, no ups and downs in her love / caring, irrespective of her comforts & health conditions.
Our Gurumaatha’s smile was just like a pain killer to all types of wounds, whether they might be physical or mental. Her soothing voice when heard would heal all kinds of wounds. Even today we get the same feeling when we look at her smiling face in the photos.
Gurumaatha was known for her cleanliness. She used to maintain and also make others try to maintain cleanliness in the environment wherever they are. The simple reason behind cleanliness was the positive energy flowing in that environment. Positive energy tones your mind and body to think appropriately and do good work. Our Gurumaatha thought us with simple words saying “Keep your mind and your premises clean, have faith in God, accept the hurdles of life which comes as exams- face it and whatever comes as result accept it. Live happily”. She had no expectation from anyone or anything.
We all realised that our GURUJI and GURUMAATHA as “Divine Couple”, who have come all the way to make us understand the right path and also try to attain “Moksha” in life.
