the great poet YOGI VEMANA

                                                                                      

Yogi Vemana was a great Yogi and Social reformer who lived in 14th and 15th Centuries A.D in Southern India. His original name was Kumaragiri Vema Reddy and he was popularly known as Vemana 

Yogi Vemana's verses in Telugu language were famous around the globe for their simplicity, straight forwardness, and clarity. Yogi Vemana preached equanimity among all castes, religions, and societies etc. Being a Yogi and humanist, he gave importance to all castes and to their professions without any bias.

Vemana composed numerous poems in the vernacular of Telugu. His poems are four lines in length. The fourth line is, in majority of the cases, the chorus Viswadabhirama Vinura Vema - he thus conveyed his message with three small lines written in a simple vernacular. He traveled widely across south India, acquiring popularity as a poet and Yogi. People really took to Vemana's poems owing to their simple language and sweet message. So high was the regard for Vemana that a popular Telugu saying goes 'Vemana's word is the word of the Vedas'. He is celebrated for his style of Chaatu padyam, a poem with a hidden meaning.

Many lines of Vemana's poems are now colloquial phrases of the Telugu language. They end with the signature line Viswadhaabhi Raama, Vinura Vema, literally Beloved of Vishwadha, listen Vema. There are many interpretations of what the last line signifies.