Twelve hours of non-stop listening feat!
Deserves Guinness record!
He, who does it twelve hours a day, is the one who also says, “I don’t do anything other than lending an ear to them”!
Who else can perform that, Sir?
This is the routine, which used to happen very often:-
Sri Saranal, after completing the tough daily tasks, would have just gone to have some rest. When devotees come at that time, to see Him, the attendants used to tell them that He cannot be disturbed then. The devotees will be about to return , though reluctantly.
Exactly, at that time, Periava will come out ! Or, He will say from inside, “Has some body come? Looks like some person has come! I could see some shadow! Call them!”
This way, He will start His ‘Anugraha Karma’ which, according to Him, is the antidote to His tiredness!
And He will tell the attendants, “You are only thinking about my tiredness! Why don’t you consider their difficulties also? They all come from different places, leaving their duties, spending time and money, by travelling in crowded trains and buses . For many of them, it may be necessary to return to their places to attend to some urgent jobs. Is it fair to break their hearts by sending them back, considering only my difficulties, and ignoring theirs?”
We often hear the phrase ‘the one who lives for others’; Our Periava is the most suitable example for that phrase!
He says that He simply hears what we tell Him! Then, says, “I have not done anything” !
We will not agree, Oh! Great Soul! All our appeals, from stupid and silly requests to Prayers from the heart of our soul, have been fulfilled , just by lending Your ear to them , haven’t they? How many thousands of prayers from each one of thousands of people have been fulfilled this way! When You say that the problems of the ‘petitioners’ have been solved chiefly because of their faith, that will be putting it very very mildly, from Your point of view; but from our point of view, it is an exaggeration! Because, we know who we are—- fickle-minded, and full of suspicion! We do not possess any such strong faith as You say!
From the devotees’ articles of their real experiences published in hundreds of books, and magazines , we can prove that MahaPeriaval was an emperor without parallel , who not only listened to their worries and problems, but also solved them!
Bhaktha Meera appealed ( to Lord Krishna), “Oh! Lord! Remove the worries of the people!” ( ஹரீ, தும ஹரோ ஜனகி பீரு). Hari means ‘thief’; the thief who steals your heart; Meera prayed that, THAT HARI should steal the peoples’ worries. He takes an avatar now and then, to do that job! There is no doubt that Sri Saranal is one among the few Great Mahans who have come to this earth for that very purpose!
Such a Great Soul, who possesses this great strength of Divine Love, is the one who says that hearing peoples’ appeals to solve their worries, gives Him the strength!
He became one with the Ambal, meditating on Her always! She, who is called “SHAKTHI’, is the One who is the origin of all the sakthi (in this universe). When the Sakthi personified says that He gets His strength from the weaklings that is us, we cannot ‘lend an ear’ to that statement!
From His own mouth, which does not reveal any of His inner thoughts, has come this statement, that ‘His mortal body and the worldly life have been created for the sole purpose of reducing the burden of sorrow from the peoples’ lives!’ Does it not mean that His is not an ordinary human birth; it is an ‘avatar’ of the strongest among all the Powers , which is the ‘Power of Love’ ?
Even if one considers Him as the best among the humans, and not necessarily as a Divine incarnation, the power of His wisdom, of devotion, of Penance by performing the Karmas, of Intellect, and the Power of Love which excels all others, are not ordinary ones!
Dennyson, wrote this poetry,
“My strength is as the strength of ten
Because my heart is pure”
Our Periava, who is the embodiment of the purity of mind, was as strong as one thousand elephants. The tough Karma Yoga which He, with His fragile body, observed for over eighty years , could be achieved only due to that power !
We can only partially accept His statement, to the extent that whenever a setback creeps into Him as to ‘what will happen to ‘Asthikam’ in future’ He gets rejuvenated by the ‘petitions’ which had removed the setback and added strength to Him, but we can never agree that those ‘petitions’ only had given Him the necessary strength.
‘நிர்பல்கே பல் ராம்’ — He is the strength for all of us, who are mere weaklings!
It is not the strength of the mortal body, but it is the strength of the Soul; the power of Love in the twin act of the single soul. That power of Love is eternal, even after the mortal body perishes.
ONLY THAT POWER IS THE STRENGTH FOR ALL OF US– FOREVER.
We started this article with the title “My Strength”. We will complete it with the realization that He who said thus, is our strength.
Will conclude with a small epilogue from the translator………………………
Categories: Devotee Experiences
People who spend twenty hours reading for c a and twenty hours for civil services could spend only twelve minutes of listening to periava and twelve second looking and thinking of Him will see and know the result.