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Sunday, June 2, 2013

An end of an era – A tower collapsed Payarayana Chaitanya Shri Tirumalasetti Venkata Subba Rao is no more




          Popularly known  & affectionately called  as Parayana Chaitanya & Founder of Shri Shiridi Sai Baba Mandir at Kovvada, Ganganapalli post, Via Indra Palem, Kakinada Rural in East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh Shri Tirumalasetti Venkata Subba Rao merged in SAI at 3 PM on 9th May 2013, at Kakinada, District Head Quarter city of East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh.

  It resembles the incidence in chapter 50 of Shri Sai Satcharita, wherein Baba comforted Kakasaheb Dixit by saying him that in the end “He will take him in air coach (Viman)”, (i.e secure him a happy death). Without suffering from any prolonged illness, he breathed his last. He was cremated at Kakidada same evening in presence of large number of SAI Devotees, who reached & gathered at Kovvada on hearing the news.

          Born on 6th September 1953 in Peddapurappadu in East Godavari District as third child & the first male child to Late Shri Tirumalasetti Suryanaraya & Smt Chandrakantam, Shri Subba Rao had his graduation in Commerce from PR College, Kakinada & joined as Junior Assistant in Revenue Department. Retired from service last year on superannuation Shri Subba Rao is survived by Mother, Wife Smt Ramakrishnaveni, two sons Suryanarayana & Srinivas.

          Installed Shri Sai’s Murthy in his home at Kovvada on Telugu New Year’s Day – Ugadi – on 11th April 1994, Shri Subba Rao started a unique & unparalleled practice of organizing Mass Auditory Regular Reading (Shrava Parayana) of Life History Shri Sai Baba in Telugu (Shri Sai Baba Jeevitha Chariramu) translated from English by Shri Pratti Narayana Rao on & from 1st January 1996 at Kovvada Sai Baba Mandir with not less than 50 devotees. He organized Mass Auditory Regular Reading of Shri Sai Baba’s Life History at many a holy places as Shirdi, Srisailam, Annavaram, Varanasi, Thiruvannamalai & other places such as Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, Vishakhapatnam as per requests of the devotees. So far 386 readings have been completed. He had planned 352nd to 399th readings at Kovvada Sai mandir & 400th Parayan at Shirdi from 2nd September 2013.
          Just a day before breathing his last Shri Subba Rao organized & completed a Parayan at Hyderabad at a leading Telugu Film Comedian’s residence on 7th May 2013. Similarly on completion 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 & 375th Parayan he had hosted devotees’ meetings at Kovvada, where in Sai Philosophers around the country took part & got felicitated by him. Each & every Sai Devotee, Sai Philosopher, Sai Historian, Sai Writer, Sai Publisher, Sai Singer enjoyed his love & affection & every one of them felt orphaned when the news of Shri Rao’s passing away spread.
         
          Besides authoring Shri Sai Satya Vratam, he had published many a books on Sai’s philosophy, teachings & unknown facts on Sai in Telugu. He has been co-authoring Shri Sai Satcharita Bhava Suma Mala (Garland of Thoughts on Shri Sai Satcharita) in Telugu in each chapter of Shri Sai Satcharita & so far serialized 32 chapters in Sai Darshan Telugu Magazine. Kalyana Sai, Chinni Naa Biddaku Sri Sai Raksha, Amrita Bodhanalu, Amrita Dharalu, Amrita Kalasam are some of the books he had published.

          Shri Subba Rao was instrumental in publishing research & historical oriented articles by Sai Historian Shri M.P.Sainath, Hyderabad & the duo got into the details to find out the first date of Guru Purnima celebrated in Shirdi when Sai was in flesh. Many unknown facts in the life of Sadguru Sainath Maharaj have come to light due to the efforts of Shri Subba Rao & Shri Sainath

Wearing white shirt & pant, some times a dhoti as under cloth, applying white & yellow tilak on forehead, Shri Subba Rao never displayed sense of ownership & never occupied the dais though he had hosted numerous conferences, conclaves & meets. Mesmerizing  smile, eyes flowing grace & always encouraging any Sai event were his personal traits. Any one who meets & speaks with him at once never forgets him & he never leaves them.

Incidentally this writer was class mate of Shri Tirumalasetti Venkata Subba Rao during his college days in 1971-74. With sudden passing away of Shri Subba Rao a legendary personality in Sai Path has been disappeared. None could match this legend in organizing mass parayans in the magnitude that he organized. It is heartening to note that 387th Parayan  started on the day Shri Subba Rao passed away is continuing. Completion of all the 12 parayans he left to be completed at Kovvada till August last week of 2013 & hosting of 400th Parayan at Shirdi will be the real tribute to the legendary & towering personality Shri Tirumalasetti Venkata Subba Rao.

In passing away too, Shri Subba Rao had displayed a unique dedication to the cause that 11th day of his passing away on 19th May 2013 is coincides with the completion of 60 years of publication of very first publication of Shri Sai Satcharita in Telugu by Shri Pratti Narayana Rao. It was on this day that the first edition of Shri Sai Satcharita (now called so, at the time of first publication, the book was named as Shri Sai Baba Jeevita Charitamu) was published & 1st copy of it was given to Smt Dukka Leelamma garu of Kolkata. Smt. Leelamma, now known as Mata Sai Leelamma is now staying in Hyderabad.

C.Saibaba
Love SAI; Live in Sai,
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