A Living Siddha – Toppi Amma
Toppi Amma means mother who wears a hat which she used to wear all the time. While living in Tiruvannamalai, I saw Toppi Amma walking the streets, on Girivalam Road around the Arunachala Mountain, and at Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashram. She never talks to anyone but at times mumbles something. People say its some kind of dialect or ancient Tamil she talks in.
Always overdressed in the heat of South India, summer and winter alike. She mostly wears a long skirt with a jacket and a scarf, not the traditional way of dressing for women in South India. Her clothes are always dirty but she does not care.
Toppi Amma has a very skinny body. Sometimes she eats a handful of something but not much and not often.
One day I was walking home and she was laying in the middle of the road, arms stretched out to the side. As crazy as this may appear, nothing happened to her, no accidents. Another time I saw people touching her feet, a form of respect to saints in India. She was completely unattached to such reference.
Toppi Amma always seems to be far away, somewhere inside herself, not outwardly oriented. Some say she is an avadootha, others say a siddha.
Here is a short video about her.
*Photograph of Toppi Amma by Saran Dashnamoorty
4 Replies to “A Living Siddha – Toppi Amma”
I am so lucky that i got a glimpse of her front of yogi Ramsurath kumar ashram when i came 28th sunday, i didnt know anything about her. When come back i feel like seeing her again.
Kathir, Toppi Amma roams all over Tiruvannamalai. I’ve seen her along Girivalam Road and some backroads, at Yogi’s ashram, and other places. By chance you will see her again. Blessings.
Everybody will have a taste of non duality after dying. When it is the last birth, non duality is the state wherein one is absorbed forever. Others will experience the missing of this blessed state and that drives one to rebirth. It is rare but sometimes the connection with the body appears to have not been broken and one comes back to the body, back to the world. But bodily life has lost its attraction. It has no meaning. There is no way to feel the bliss of one own nature but in samadhi. Toppi seems such a one to me.
Sw Pradeep Anand, thank you for your insightful comment. Let’s all get to the state of blissful non-duality before death happens to the body. Blessings!