Chittibaba was born Mantri Jagannadha Rao on full-moon day after the festival of Dussehra in 1921 at Sanivada on the outskirts of Vishakapatam in north-coastal Andhra Pradesh. His father Ramamurthy was the traditional village taxman while his mother, Jogulamma was a housewife. Chittibabu was the youngest of his siblings and therefore the pet name which in Telugu means, the lovable little boy, an endearment he interestingly retained as his spiritual name. Chittibaba showed unusual compassion, generosity and sagacity as a boy.

At 24 he was married to Ammajamma with whom he had a child, but slowly he was drawn to solitude and eventually left home to Vijayanagaram, a town 100 Kms north of Vishakapatam for the abode of the Sufi recluse Khadarshah Auiliya, an evolved soul in the Silsila of the Kadriyas and renowned pupil of Baba Tajuddin of Nagpur in central India. Chittibaba served the strict Sufi regimen under Khadarshah. While still a disciple at Vijayanagaram he visited the renowned saint Ramana Maharishi at Tiruvannamalai, and stayed in his abode for a few months. Chittibaba always counted Ramana as one of his mentors. In late October of 1947, Chittibaba attained revelation and left Vijayanagaram to Ragolapalli, a sleepy village deep in the dry-lands of the West Godavari district. There on the flat summit of a low hill he built himself a simple hut and remained there, interacting with people from tens of villages in the vicinity.

Dressed in white robes with a flowing beard and referring himself in the third-person singular Chittibaba had many illustrious associates among whom were Acharya Vinobha Bhave and Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan, people whom he met and befriended on several of his wanderings through out the country. He left Ragolapalli in the early 1960’s to Vangalapudi, another hamlet on the northern banks of the river Godavari falling under the East Godavari district. In the typical Sufi tradition Chittibaba maintained a langarkhana in his own inimitable way feeding every one who happened to come to his hut, thrice a day. A feat he achieved by convincing everyone in the nearby villages to contribute through rice, vegetables and groceries. This practise continues to this day as Nityannadanam.

In 1975, Chittibaba moved to the outskirts of Sitanagaram, 10 Kms south of Vangalapudi, to set up his simple hut in what was formerly the village common-land. He christened it Sriramanagaram, calling his own dwelling Sri Nama Pandari Kshetram. Chittibaba considered this his promised land. Very soon he established something called the Parameswara Seva Samiti for which he was the head, body and sole member, prophesising that eventually after his Attainment, a chosen successor, a young man of 25 would come and take charge of an establishment that would emerge to be one of the most revered pilgrimages ever. With all due love and respect the villagers were bemused. In the late 1980’s Chittibaba started the construction of shrine the deity Panduranga which he never completed, maintaining that the chosen successor would one day complete the task along with several other things.

Chittibaba left his body in February, 1997 aged 76. During the last years of his life like he had always prophesied a young man in his early 20’s came to live at Sriramanagaram and eventually became his spiritual successor. His name was Jaggaraju, who is fondly and reverentially called Babu. In 1997 he was exactly 25.