‘Guru is the ultimate and He can save us from any misery’
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— Smt Padma Balasubramanian

The compassion of Mahaperiyavah is endless. My marriage at the age of 40 is the biggest miracle of Mahaperiyavah. I have a schiziophrenic brother and decided not to marry so that I can continue my support to him and our aged mother. But my mother, a typical Tambram of 83 years could not accept a daughter unmarried. However, such illness in a family is considered a stigma and so no alliance was working out. My brother was also very violent and he used to hit amma a lot when I was in office or in overseas tours.

It was a bad life of violence and unhappiness for almost 2 decades. It was at that time my brother-in-law had a liver transplant and was struggling for life. So amma could not take it anymore and broke down one night. She said she along with her son will fall into the sea and commit suicide. May be after that, someone might agree to marry me. I was totally upset. Suicide is a sin in our Hindusim and that too for sake of my marriage. My mother being a bold woman may surely do something to end her life and that of her son.

So I promised her that I will go to Guru tomorrow and he will show a way. next day, being a Sunday I went to Kanchipuram. I went to the athishtanam of Mahaperiyavah and prayed – Guru show us the right path. What a terrible birth I have taken to make my own mother wanting to end her life. So show us what to do now. And I started doing pradhikshanam of Mahaperiyavah 108 times. I generally do one pradhikshanam and one namaskaram and it took me about 3 hours.

Unknown to me, a mother and son were watching me in the Sri matam. They had come for Vadama bikshai that day but I was not aware of anything around me. Then after my pradhikshanams were over and after lunch, I took a bus back to Chennai. One madisar mami came and sat next to me. Slowly she started asking questions about me and my family and came to know I was not married. She took our residence number. After 1 month we received a call from their family about their son being in London and never married and if we are interested.

It was my MIL and my husband’s elder brother who saw me. My husband who had been saying no to marriage for decades agreed to marry me without seeing me as this whole thing came through by Guru’s grace. We both never met until a week before the wedding as we both accepted this as Guru’s blessings. And here I am living and working in London leading a very happy life the last 3 years. We have seen such things in cinema but happened in my own life. So when people lose hope, I narrate my personal story and tell them that Guru is the ultimate and he can save us from any misery. My mother passed away 6 months after my wedding, happy with the thought that her daughter has settled down in life.

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Narrated to me by Smt Padma Balasubramanian today on this Holy Shankara Jayanthi May 15th, 2013.  Shankara, what a gripping account. Praying that this inspires us to have a Loving, Sincere, From-The-Heart Bhakti for our Gurus. And this, incidentally, is my 100th post in the blog. :)))

Padma tells me that her brother is taken care of by her sister. Her brother-in-law passed away a fortnight after her wedding. So her akka and her 2 daughters shifted near to their house to take care of her Amma (who passed away 6 months after her marriage) and brother. They have a cook and servant to take care of him. They also have their cousin brothers who support them totally.

This is what I tell others who are suffering:

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“The more problems one gets in life, the more should one be thankful to Ambal (the Consort of Lord Shiva) for giving them, as She reduces our sack of sins which we have accumulated over previous lives. We should be happy that She is giving us all these troubles and must welcome them with open arms. If only knew what all sins we had committed in our previous lives, then we would exclaim, ‘Oh, have I done so much wrong? My sufferings now does not seem to tally with all that I have done!’. And with the Gnanam (knowledge, wisdom) that they are all Maya (mere illusions), we should learn to treat the issues as trivial like how a vessel full of water seems lighter when immersed in water in a well. Our sufferings should be perceived similarly” — Mahaswamigal.

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Please share this with your people who are suffering. So that they will feel lighter and better.

Sarveshwara.

Categories: Devotee Experiences