Prathamai Post---ANBE..ARULE...---chapter 12.
Aug 19, 2016 8:08:51 GMT 5.5
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Post by anusham163 on Aug 19, 2016 8:08:51 GMT 5.5
ANBE…ARULE….
CHAPTER 12.
Nagarajan is a staunch devotee of Kanchi Mahan. He is my friend and younger to me. He would go to Kanchi, have His Darsan and after returning, would come and describe his experiences to me filled with emotions. He would persuade me to go with him during his next visit. He would argue with me that not having His Darsan was a great sin. Days went by without me fulfilling his wish.
When Periava came to Chennai in 1957 only, I had the opportunity to have His Darsan. Nagarajan and I had gone several times together to different parts of Chennai and had His Darsan. When Periava was camping at Nungambakkam for eighteen days, both of us were staying in SriMatam camp only, day and night. I was the secretary of ‘Nungambakkam youth association’, and he was assistant secretary. To mark the visit of Periava to Nungambakkam, we wanted to get 2000 photos of Periava printed and distribute them to the visitors to the camp, and asked Periava for His consent. He modified this plan slightly and entrusted a task to us. Nagarajan had a big role to play in the successful completion of that task.
We have to visit each and every house in Nungambakkam, note down the name and profession of the head of the family in a note book and give a copy of His photo to him. This was Periava’s wish. He told us that He would inform the next step after we completed this task.
This service went on every morning and evening. Periava would enquire in the night, about the number of houses we visited that day and how many persons we visited. Even after Periava left Nungambakkam and went to another part of Chennai, we would go there every night and keep Him informed about the distribution of the photos. When we completed the task, we went and saw Periava with the note book. He was very happy and told us that He would talk to us later. When we reminded Him two or three times after that, He just kept quiet.
We heard that Periava was going to leave Chennai. He was, then , camping in North Chennai. We went there for Darsan. It was 10 P.M. Everybody had left after Darsanam, and the doors were shut. As the last bus had left, we decided that we would stay the night there and return in the morning. But Kannan said that there was specific instruction that no one was allowed to stay there in the night. We were begging that we would sleep on the platform outside, and Kannan was vehemently refusing.
“Who is there Kanna ? Are they the ‘childran’ from Nungambakkam? “ asked Periava from inside. Kannan said “yes”
“Ask them to come inside and lie down.”-----order came from Periava.
We went inside; Periava was lying down in the ‘mena’ (palanquin). Nagaraj and I spread our towels ten feet away and slept.
Periava got up at 4A.M and started talking to us. He talked for about an hour. He talked about ‘Kannikadhana Trust’ (a trust created for helping marriages of girls) very elaborately. He asked us that the youth association should work for this trust which was created for marriages of girls from poor families. He also indicated certain ways of helping the trust.
We had visited each and every family of Nungambakkam and distributed His photo and made a list of all the residents; He asked us to collect one rupee, or fifty paise or twenty five paise from each family every month; From the collection, a quarter portion would go to the youth association, another quarter for the welfare activities there, and the balance half to the trust. This was His instruction to us.
We did this service for about three years. After that, the youth association could not function. Therefore, the monthly collection was handed over to Dattaji, an elderly person, who was in-charge of the local welfare association as well as ‘Kannikadhana Trust’. As days passed, he himself went for the collection to every home, and continued this service till his last days.
Whenever Periava says something, it would seem a very ordinary matter. When we start implementing that project, then only, the significance, relevance and usefulness of that project will be known. Kanchi Periava was the kind—hearted Lord, who motivated us to perform public welfare activities, by doing which our minds also got purified !
I lost my bosom friend Nagarajan suddenly, some thirty years ago.
It was a cruel misfortune that I was unable to go to His house nearby, to convey my condolences on his father’s death, who died of small pox. The social taboo that no one should go to that house, prevented me to go there. When I was suffering from the guilty feeling -----thinking how much he would have been pained at my not going there, the same small pox took him away within another ten days. I just wilted at hearing this news; I went and saw him in the hospital.
During the next one week, I was just wandering as a walking corpse. Mind was not focusing on anything. I was not able to stay in the house also. I was attending to office work mechanically. I could not touch any food; I was trying to forget my sorrow by taking sleeping pills. But after waking up, grief and distress came back and tortured me. I was wandering on the street like a mad man.
Unable to find an answer to my pathetic state and an end to my grief, one day, I started for Kanchipuram; where else would I go ?
I told Kannan everything and in turn he went and told Periava. Periava went to the garden, sat under a tree and called me to come near Him. He asked me to sit down.
“What happened to Nagarajan ?”
I told Him what happened, all the while sobbing. His expression on the face indicated that this news had affected Him also. That itself was a soothing touch to my wound.
“I am unable to bear this pain and grief”---I cried, tears rolling down my eyes.
“Do you feel that the whole world has become a vacuum after his death ?”—He asked.
“Yes; I do not like anything; I have lost interest in everything..”
“Do you feel ‘why I should live here after?’”
“yes..”
“Did you feel that it would be better to end the life by hanging?”
I just wept uncontrollably without answering.
Periava kept silent for some time and said lightly laughing, “You have now told me everything, and have wept, unable to control yourself, is it not ? With this all your grief and sorrow have left you once and for all; Go and concentrate on your office work…”—He asked Kannan to bring Prasadham of sacred ash and Kumkum, gave it to me and gave me leave.
The sorrow and grief slowly started to wane away, my mind became lighter and I returned to my normal routine.
(Translator’s note:---- When I read it the first time, I also wept uncontrollably; and every time I read this again and again I just let go and cry ! While typing this translation also I simply cried. Such is the effect of Periava’s Love and sympathy on the humans; we feel that our own pent up sorrow (accumulated over a period and lives latently in a corner of our mind) is wiped out and our hearts become lighter. JAYA JAYA SANKARA! HARA HARA SANKARA !)
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 13…….