Shri Chandrabhatla Chintamani Ganapathi Sastry garu (known as Guruji or Guruvugaru to his followers) was born on Jyesta bahula ekadasi of Pardhiva nama samvatsaram (July 5, 1945). He was one of the 7 children (2 sons and 5 daughters) of Shri Gouripathi Shastri Garu and Smt Parvathi Garu who lived in Samarlakot, Andhra Pradesh, India.
As a child, he was very playful, and no one ever visualized him taking to spiritual path. He had keen interest in farming and was very entrepreneurial and adventurous. He travelled a lot across the country on two wheelers.
Neither the family nor his peers recognized his intuitive wisdom. At the age of 9, it is believed that he had a special experience of Devi. As early as when he was 10 years old, he was recognized as a Water Diviner which has gained him huge popularity. He helped hundreds of farmers and people in his own district as well as the neighbouring districts with his water divinity. For a long time, this was unknown to his family. Since his father was unaware of the purpose of his absence from home, he had restricted his movement, but people would still subtly take the young boy to help them out. This is the period, they started calling him Guruvugaru. He never charged people for his services then or ever in his life and forbade his family from accepting anything from people he helped.
Even as a child, he always liked to share his mealtimes and invited his friends,acquaintances and visitors , for a meal. This habit and generosity continued throughout his life and resulted in the family having impromptu guests everyday throughout the year. He was very fond of animals and he had several dogs, a deer, a tortoise, a monkey, pigeons and a parrot as his pets in his younger days. He also has a Goshala with a lot of cows till date. He took responsibility of his household at a very young age; hence his father could devote more time to spirituality.
His ancestral house that he lived in is over 150 years old and hosts a powerful yantram granted to the Gurvugaru’s great grandfather by Parthiveswara Swamy in early 1800’s. Four generations have prayed to this yantram. Guruji was of the 4th generation who prayed and meditated upon this yantram regularly. Gurugaru met and was blessed by the then Kanchi Mahaswamy Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati in 1959 (at 14 years age) and was hosted in Guruji’s home on 7/7/1967 (at 22 years age). This was a major milestone, which caused a shift in his life. He was blessed with Guru Anugraham, Veeksha, Deeksha and Upadesam. Throughout his life, he performed several activitiesin various fields like social, cultural, spiritual etc., with his Guru’s blessings and guidance. He kept frequent and close contact with his Guru and with Kanchi Peetam.
He brought idols of deities from his travel to holy places and donated it to various villages when they were building temples. He organized, supervised and guided consecrations of many temples.
He built and managed an Anjaneya Swamy temple in Samarlakota in 1987. The deity is 72 feet tall. This happens to be one of the tallest idols of Hanumanji in South India. He performed Hanuman Jayanti celebrations grandly every year. He built Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamy temple near the Anjaneya Swamy temple. Guruji conducted Sathrayagam at the Anjaneya Swamy temple for a year (2005 – 2006). He also built Swayamvara Parvathi Temple. He conducted homams every year for Navaratris. He travelled to Kanchi Peetam before the Navaratris, took his Guru’s blessing, got the Poornaphalam and Prasadam from them and started his Navaratri poojas.
Guruji Conducted Many Yagams:
- 1980 – Maharudra Yagam at Bheemeswara Swamy Temple in Samarlakota.
- 1995 to 2019 – Six, Sathasahasra Chandi Mahasourya Yagams in Varanasi.
- 2003 and 2015 – Two Sathasahashra Rudra Yagams at Pushkarghat in Godavari during the Godavari Pushkaralu.
He has given guidance, solace and blessings to several thousand people in his lifetime. These included people from ordinary walks of life and many successful celebrities from various fields of political, business and film industry. All these people approached Guruji when they were particularly challenged in life and came to him seeking his guidance. He attended to each and every one of them patiently with complete attention and gave them guidance with his intuitiveability and wisdom. Many a time, he organized remedial poojas for them and sometimes gave them consecrated Kumkum and Vibudhi as a remedy. He became so renowned for his intuitive powers that every year the number of visitors increased who sought his guidance and blessings and on special occasions the number ran into several hundred people per day. On special occasions like Navaratri, Hanuman Jayanti, etc., he organized Annadanam every year for several hundred people sometimes going up to thousands.
In memory of his father, Guruji conducted Vedasabha every year. What started as 16 Veda Pandits, now has more than 400 Veda Pandits participating from across the country. Guruji built and maintained an Ayurvedic hospital in Kakinada. Various natural healing therapies were offered here.
He was an enthusiastic, courageous, adventurous person full of wit till the end. He was kind and affectionate with everyone who came to him. His last few days were spent with his family at his ancestral home in Samarlakota. He passed away in the early hours of 10th of May 2020 due to cardiac arrest.