Thanks to Sri Venkatesan Ramadurai for posting this….
The year was 1986. Sri RamaNavami Utsavam was being held in Khar Road, a suburban area of Dadar, Mumbai.
I had gone to listen to the pravachana (exposition) alone. Within minutes after the pravachana started, I could not sit down properly. I had no idea of what went wrong with my health.
Encouraged by the thought that I will have co-passengers to help me (if anything went wrong), I boarded a bus back home. I had also kept in my shirt pocket a note containing my address and telephone number. I was reciting the Vishnu Sahasranamam.
As I alighted from the bus and walked home, I came across a doctor in our colony who asked me, “Are you not well?”
He took me inside immediately and checked my pulse. Then, with a frown of worry, he checked my blood pressure.
“The pressure is high. Do you have any problem of blood pressure, or of the heart?” he asked me.
“I haven’t experienced any such problem it seems to me,” I replied.
He said, “I shall come to your house after half an hour. Just lie down on the bed until then. If the pressure does not subside, we may need to admit you for an emergency.”
My wife Kamala opened the front door of our home. As the doctor who accompanied me conveyed the news to her, my wife prostrated to Sri Paramacharyaal’s picture with worry and started praying manifold, “Only you are my God. I do not know anything. Save my husband. It is your responsibility to save him. Only you I am depending on. Give me the bhiksa [of my mangalyam (wife’s holy pendant of marriage)].”
Half an hour later, the doctor came and checked me. He did not have the traces of worry in his face as before.
“No worry. The pressure has come down. But have bed rest. I shall see you in the morning.” His words were comforting. Again my wife prostrated to the picture of Periyavaa. I slept well during the night.
When the doctor checked me in the morning, he said with a smile, “The pressure is normal.” He advise me not to go to office for a week.
Later, a friend of mine who was a cardiologist visited my home and checked me thoroughly. “Everything is normal. No cause for worrying”, he declared.
A telephone call on the next day.
Pudukkottai Rajamma Maami’s daughter Smt. Rajeswari Mahesh came on the line. She said, “I had gone to Kaasi Hanuman Ghat to partake the Vasanta Navaratri Bhiksa Vandanam. Came home only today. When he gave me the prasadam to me, Sri Pudu Periyavaa gave a separate prasadam and said, ‘When you reach Bombay, give this prasadam at VedaNarayanan’s home. VedaNarayanan’s wife prayed to me. Ask her not to worry.’ With those words he closed his eyes, did prarthana and gave me the prasadam along with his anugraha.”
The day Sri Pudu Periyavar did anugraham of the prasadam and the day my wife prayed deeply before Periyavargal’s picture were identical! We understood the truth that Sri Maha Periyavaal and Sri Pudu Periyavaal were not different, but were one and the same.
author: A.S. VedaNarayanan, Model Colony, Pune
compiler: T.S. Kothandarama Sarma
book: Maha Periyaval – Darisana Anubhavangal
