Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur / Mangalore (GA/MB)

Puttur, Mar 13: Living longer and living better are two distinct things.  While the first one can add years to life, the latter adds life to living.  It cannot therefore be said that all those who have lived for long have lived a better life and vice versa.  But there are a few exceptions that some live a better life for long.

Puttur Ajja

Here is a story of a man who claimed to have died in 1952 and then proclaimed that he was no longer his old entity, and then lived for another 55 years. Was he a mystic or just a mystery? It is for our readers to judge.

Over the years

Ramchandra Bhat Nettar (91), known as "Puttur Ajja" (or the The Grand Old Man of Puttur) to the outer world, is a perfect example to this.  An eternal preacher of monotheism (Adwaita philosophy), Puttur Ajja lived what he preached. For the last 55 years, he had been preaching life after death and that body does not die.  He finally completed his earthly journey on Monday, March 12 and went into Samadhi.

Ramchandra Bhat was born in Nettar in the year 1916.  He led a normal life as an agriculturist, a family man till 1952.   He had studied up to class 8 and had married Parvathi.  The couple even had a male child.  But a sudden and acute chest pain in 1952 changed the path.  It was general believed that he had died of heart attack.

However, within few minutes of breathing his last, he woke up and started decalring that his body no longer belonged to him and he was not Ramchandra Bhat anymore.  While many said that he had gone out of his senses, Ramchandra Bhat went into to deep silence for a decade.  He abandoned his family, wealth etc and started living alone.  He started preaching that the soul and the body were immortal and that they would exist for eternity.

Anand Kutir

He came to Puttur in 1970 and started sharing his views with like-minded persons, thinkers etc.  He came to be known as "Puttur Ajja".  He lived in Anand Kutir at Kemmayi.  Despite public jeers and even opposition from many, he lived by what he preached.  But he always stayed away from the limelight.  He stuck to his famous buzzline, "This body is not mine," to the end.  It was only in 1990's that his philosophy and life came to light to the entire world when the leading Kannada weekly 'Taranga' published a detailed article about him. 

With the support of thinkers and like-minded people he started Satya Shodhana Trust under the leadership of writer-critic Lakshmish Tolpady in 1999.  One of his followers had published his details of his unique philosophy on the Internet which was a major a breakthrough.  A scholar from America picked this from the website and published in print form. Having gone through this information many people from America, Russia and other places of the globe started visiting Anand Kutir to listen to Puttur Ajja.  So forming of Satya Shodhana Trust was also to help and guide the ever-increasing number of followers of Puttur Ajja and to make known his philosophy to the entire world.

Some of the distinguished personalities such as litterateur Dr U R Ananthamurthy, Shri Raghaveshwara Bharati Swamiji of Shri Raghavendra Math, Hosanagar, Bannanje Govindacharya, Swarnavalli Swamiji and others often visited Anand Kutir and spent time with Puttur Ajja.

He had prepared a Samadhi (grave) a couple of years ago in order that his body be laid to rest after completion of his earthly sojourn.  But his deteriorating health was a major concern for almost a year now.  He was admitted to Adarsh Hospital at Puttur initially and then to KMC Hospital at Mangalore.  He finally bid adieu to his earthly existence in the early hours of Monday March 12.  Puttur Ajja's body was brought to Anand Kutir and was kept in Samadhi state.  His followers and fans came in huge numbers to have a final view of their beloved and respected Puttur Ajja.  The interment took place later in the evening.

Though his teachings and philosophy seemed strange and even weird to many, there was no question about Puttur Ajja's in-depth knowledge about life, soul and death. His advised his followers to learn to die first and then only to learn to live.  This philosophy was bitterly criticized highly by a section of the society.  But Ajja never bothered but lived his life to the ultimate.

Those who asked questions about the earlier phase of his life, his name etc received only one answer that Ramchandra Bhat had died in 1952 and that he is no more living. Even for notices and letters received from government department in the name of Ramachandra Bhat, he used to reply in the same manner. 

Whatever, Puttur Ajja whose life-story always remained as a bundle of mystery, a riddle that no one was able to crack, is no more.  In his own words he has abandoned the body and has gone for eternal life.  It is not death but a phase of life, a passing on or a passover.

All said and done, we leave the judgement to our readers.