GRACE OF GODDESS JOGULAMBA

Destiny, fate, providence and manifestation, are some of the words which find place in our vocabulary, more by way of conviction than with direct verification. I am also no exception, except that I also believe that putting in best of efforts to achieve our goals is equally important and is in our hands. It is generally believed that nothing happens in our lives without a reason and is governed by providence. Recently I had an experience which made me realize that our beliefs do have basis. I will narrate it and you will be surprised how several unfinished events spanning over few years were culminated that day.

My name is Revathi Jogulamma, the latter part being my grand mother’s name. It was customary in our families to give mother’s name to the eldest daughter as a mark of respect towards mother. This was stretched a bit too far when my father’s 4 brothers chose to give their mother’s name to their eldest daughters. Partly it was coercion by the mother. A prefix was given to differentiate between them. Like, I was given Revathi as a prefix.

After we were grown up and were going to school when we noted that our names were not so very glamorous as those of others, we felt discomfort, but the feelings were not so strong to compel us to change the name. As I grew older, I realized that if my father was respectful and affectionate of his mother, the least I could do to show my respect towards him was to retain the name of his mother. So I had foregone the opportunity of dropping the name in SSC.

Though I was aware of Jogulamma being the name of a Hindu Deity, I did not know any details. After marriage, it was my husband who had shared with me the interesting details about this name. Jogulamma is the residing deity of Alampur , which is on the banks of Tungabhadra near Kurnool. It is a Shakti peetham. My husband visited the temple during one of his office visits and wished that some time we both could visit the temple together. This was more than 30 years ago but unfortunately that day never came. My husband passed away in September 2025 and few months before that he again expressed desire to make a trip to the temple. When we were young, there was no time as both of us were working and later we were struggling with chronic health issues.

In November 2025 I had visited my sister in Bengaluru and as I was planning to return to Hyderabad , the air travel was in a crisis due to internal issues of INDIGO. As matters went from bad to worse, I was contemplating travel by road. Though I had travelled to Bengaluru frequently in the past, I never ever travelled by road. My brother -in-law vehemently opposed my proposal in view of my bad health. In the end, I prevailed and I started to Hyderabad by car.

We stopped for lunch at Kurnool and as were resuming our journey, I casually looked up and saw sign boards across the highway showing directions to Alampur. A quick google search showed that Alampur was 30 minutes away from the location. I instantaneously decided to take a detour and pay our obeisance to the goddess.

Alampur is a quiet, lush green, picturesque, serene place, a sparsely populated village. It is 5th Shakti Peetham, where the jaw along with teeth of Goddess Sati fell. The temple was destroyed in 14th century by the Bahamani Sultans. The idol of Goddess was hidden and preserved till it was safe to reinstall. It seemed to be a less frequented place even today with sparse foot fall of devotees.

To me it was gratifying to have visited the place and offered prayers to Goddess Jogulamba and Bala Brahmeswara Swamy. It was Providential that airlines had problems due to which there were no flights operational. By divine providence I decided to travel by road and saw the board showing directions to Alampur. Though it took so long, there was manifestation of my husband’s and my wish.

All through, one doubt had been bothering me. it is intriguing as to how my grand mother’s parents knew about Goddess Jogulamba, more than 100 years ago, while living in Vishakapatnam, considering that it was less known and less frequented even today? What could be the purpose behind the Goddess’ divine intervention that I had the good fortune of visiting her? To make me realize that her blessings and protection are always on me? Finally, we can get the understanding of profound phenomena by interpretation of real-life incidences like these.