Late Sri Premji (S.P. Premachandra Rao) of Hyderabad, India is my Guru. He is my maternal grandfather's younger brother and so he is my grandfather too. Sri Premji, was popular in the spiritual circles and he had a natural gift of water divining. He was one of the popular and top water diviners in india. He has helped sever poor and needy farmers in india to locate borewells so that they could do their agricultural activities in peace. For his service to humanity at large, Premji was awarded the NATIONAL GEM OF INDIA AWARD in 1997. He is an advanced spiritual disciple of Swami Dayananda Saraswathi. Premji was on spiritual path for about 60 years of his lifetime he got a calling from the divine in his early twenties and left his well paying job, trusting his calling and his natural gift.
sri Premji's mother Savithri Amma (Chaya Amma) my great grandmother initiated me into the sacred OM mantra when i was just two years of age. I still remember that event of my life where i was asked to close my eyes and pray before a very large photo of lord sri Rama. My great grandmother said Om and asked me to repeat it three times and towards the end she patted my head and blessed my forehead. The astrologers had predicted that i may become a thief or a great spiritual person. Their prediction proved right as today i carry myself as a modern mystic with a few divine gifts and abilities due to the blessings of Shirdi Sai Baba and after the divine dream interview of Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba. I was also visited twice in dream by Sadguru Sri Jaggi vasudev of Isha foundation. I did join the level 1 of inner engineering program online and also found the immense energy that Sadguru had. But i had to decide if i were to choose a guru in spirit or a physical guru. I opted to remain with Shirdi Sai Baba as i was initiated by my guru into the sacred and profound spiritual tradition of Sri Dattreya Sai Parampara. My guru was initiated by a mystic saint who he denied to reveal to me. He said its a rare blessing he is bestowing upon me as Shirdi Sai Baba blessings were already with me and the spiritual initiation would future strenghten my spiritual progress. For this i am deeply indebted to my guru who also taught me a mantra when i was about 12 years of age. My Guru had meditated with me in his little cottage and transferred something to me when i was 10 years of age. I never understood anything much, but today when i recall i realise that my guru was seeing a spiritual potential in me even as a kid. He never pushed me into spirtuality but gently influenced my nature to become more spiritually inclined. I was always drawn to indian mythological stories and russian mythology. I used to gaze at comic books about lord sri krishna and he became my favourite God. All this was my gurus influence upon me even me without knowing anything about it.
My guru Sri Premji, is the spiritual advisor and trustee of the famous Sri Pachamukha Vishnu Ganapthi Temple in Shirdi. The temple was built as per the direction of Shirdi Sai Baba in a divine vision. Today the temple attracts many devotees who get their wishes fulfilled with blessings of Sri Panchamukha Vishnu Ganapathy.
Please read more about my great guru, below, who remained in silence not showing off his abilities to general public but leading a rather quiet life in meditation, contemplation and prayers.
It was not yet dawn in the tiny hamlet in Andhra Pradesh, when there came to the house of S P Radhakrisna Naidu and Savitri Amma, a water diviner. He was an irascible old man of 70, and as he hobbled about the grounds, waiting for a sign that would indicate a source of water underneath, he paid little attention to the six-year-old boy who followed him around in rapt wonder. When the old man stopped for a respite he handed over the divining rod to the eager little boy. Barely a few moments had passed when the rod started vibrating in the boy's hand. The old man looked down at the uncomprehending child, knowing what this meant. He pronounced, “You have the gift. Use it for the good of the people.”
By the time S P Premchandra Rao was 10, his gift was recognised by the villagers who took him on their shoulders at times, to help locate the ideal spot to dig a bore-well, to find a perennial source of water. But it was only after he had completed his graduation and served time at a white collar job that he finally came to terms with his calling. Rao became a professional water diviner.
Forty five years on, he has a 90 per cent success rate and has been instrumental in locating spots for over 20,000 bore-wells across the country, estimating the yield and depth, direction of flow, for each one: from Orissa to Rajasthan, from Himachal Pradesh to Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
The sight of Rao at work has all the textures and tones of high drama - the man holding aloft his faithful copper rod, with a little glass bowl of water from the Ganges tied to one end, walking in silent absorption, followed by a motley group of villagers - their eyes bright with hope. When the rod remains static and does not rotate, a sigh goes up. At some point the rod starts rotating automatically and the excited muttering begins behind him. Rao explains, “It is the electro-magnetic energy in my brain that catalyzes the process. Actually all of us have varying degrees of electro-magnetism, but few ever realise it or put it to use.”
Sometimes he travels 500 kilometres a day, across hard, rocky land, parched fields, and distant villages, waiting for the good earth to give him a sign. “There was a time” he remembers, “when I would travel in a bullock cart! There were no proper roads in rural areas. But slowly things have changed for the better in our country. Today I can travel by train or car…”
Often in desperation, villagers ask whether a 40 or 50 ft. well can be dug, and Rao has to convince them to dig a narrower mouth, say 16 ft. but go much deeper, up to 650 ft. if possible. But as he says, “I am so frustrated sometimes. Most of these people have no outside funding, and their own resources can only take them maybe 100 or 200 ft. deep. That's when I realise how much all of us take water for granted!”
Appreciation has poured in for Rao's yeoman service: he has the Gem of India and the Rashtriya Gaurav Award (1997), as he is with the baskets of vegetables and coconuts that grateful villagers bring him.
And yet, there are regrets too. “In India, water divining is still perceived as a primitive art, while in places like Europe and Russia, it is highly respected and treated as a mainstream profession! Ironically, it is in a poor country like ours that a water diviner can perform what is almost a miracle! It is such an economical option for rural India.”
What is most satisfying to him is that he is an instrument of change in so many people's lives. Rao rejects the idea that he may be actually deified by many rural folk. “No I am not a magician! I take great pains to explain to them in simple terms that it is actually a scientific reaction of the body to the presence of water. The day I get arrogant about my skill, I will lose it, that is the truth…! I meditate every morning without fail. You need great purity of mind to practise this gift.”
I am Deeply indebted to my guru who as a grandfather was very kind towards me from a very young age of my life. I do my best to emulate him ( which i can never) and his noble ways of kindness, humblesness and humility. As promised to me in my dream after his demise my guru continues to help me and guide me in all my work serving others. I am also indebted to my guru as he has spiritually connected me more deeply to Shirdi Sai baba, i realised this fact in 2015 ( 3 years after my initiation) when i suddenly encountered the spirit of Shirdi Sai Baba in the Baba samdhi mandir at shirdi.
My most humble salutations at the lotus feet of my guru Sri Premji.
Om Sai Ram
