Thanks to Sri Guruvayurappan, NJ for sharing his experience in FB on how Mahaperiyava anugraham helped to end his 30-year long coffee addiction. With His anugraham anything is possible. It is great to know that you had a fantastic opportunity to have a Darshan of the Parameswaran up close. Thanks for sharing! I wish you had any photo of you with Mahaswami too.
Out of curiosity – I keep getting corrections from my friend on “dheivathin” vs “deivathin” – I always thought that “dheivathin” is lot closer to how we say in Tamil. Is it not?
It was a very nice Darshan during April 1990, that was the last Darshan I had with my Amma by accompanying her to Sri Matam for Darshan when she was a Sumangali at that time! When we entered the Darshan area, we saw MS Amma with her husband conversing with Sri Maha Perivaa. HE signaled by hands to come near Him after staring at me for a very long time while HE was conversing with MS Amma. Devotees gave way & I did as per tradition four Namaskarams. HE was keenly looking at me bending down & up while doing Namaskarams. My mentor, one of the trustees of Guru Vara Sadas asked me to stay until we get an opportunity to see HIM still closer privately. After a few hours of normal Darshan, one of the Sishyaas brought temple Prasadams & was waiting near the well (we used to have it in Sri Matam those days). I got almost pulled by my mentor & PujyaSri Maha Perivaa & I were standing facing each other Face to Face to be more precisely Eye To Eye! We prepared so much to converse with HIM, but when we had the greatest blessed opportunity to have Darshan with nobody around at such a close proximity but not a single word was spoken by either of one. After HE was satisfied at looking at me for some short time, (must have made a complete reading of what’s after all I was upto!) HE took the Prasadams on His forehead & gave me that whole plate of Prasadams, which was accepted by me with the trembling hands with tearful eyes! That’s it, HE must have been very happy that HE has achieved what HE wanted (instead of the other way!). Returned back to USA, my mustache, long hair style, gold minor Chain alongwith a nice pair of Tiger nails all gone one by one very quickly at short intervals. I guess that HE was not satisfied with those alone AND made sure that I stop “Once And For All” my “coffee drinking addiction” – Just only about 12 cups minimum a day – all in a sudden abruptly!
How did HE make it happen, so easily which wasn’t possible by many of my family members? I used to read “Deivathin Kural” everyday during those time even while traveling! On one of those days of travel, I happened to read the attached page (which was actually a second round after a few years of first round) while traveling in Amtrak train from NJ to Boston after having just bought my last doze of coffee that night! Coffee was waiting to be consumed soon after I finished the page & while eating my dinner! “என்ன புண்ணியம் அந்த கப் காப்பி பண்ணினதோ, என் வாயினால் பலி ஆகாமல், அதற்கு ஶ்ரீ மஹா பெரிவாளின் வாக்கினால் மோட்சம் கிடைத்தது!” Without even sipping a drop of the coffee from that cup, it was trashed!
It’d have been a major catastrophe for me suddenly by stopping 12 cups of coffee a day to nothing, but since it was ordained by HIM I could survive with a very minor setback & since then for the last almost 30 years had not consumed a drop of coffee, a piece of coffee toffee or even a spoon of coffee Ice cream! That was the Grand Power Of HIS Blessings!
While I was back to normal day to day routines, HE started HIS job (I guess after cleaning me externally & internally) during my next trips of Darshan until November 1993. Remarkable changes happened in between until my last Darshan in Nov 1993, before HE attained Mukthi in Jan 1994!
Categories: Deivathin Kural, Devotee Experiences
THE ESSENCE OF THE ARTICLE IS ADDICTION TO COFFEE WAS STOPPED ….BY THE GRACE OF PERIYAVA. THANKS. FOR T THE BLOG. THATS IT
+Balaji. It is true many Tamilians cannot even pronounce Tamil properly. There are two factors here. Any language is spoken differently in different regions. Kannada is spoken differently by people in Bengalurue, Mysuru, Mangalore, Hubballi, etc.This I have seen in respect of Marathi, Gujarathi , Hindi too- in those regions where I have lived for more than 25 years. Again, different classes speak the language in different ways. Whether one may admit it or not, it is only the higher classes which speak any language well. I have had teachers from England ( Englishmen) and three of them spoke the language in three different ways, though two of them were Oxonians.
Another factor is, spoken and written languages differ a lot. Even in English, there is marked difference between the two. There are slangs, local usages, special words, etc.
Now, coming to Tamil, the problem is more pronounced. Earlier, the teachers used to take pains and spend lot of time teaching correct pronunciation. But after the Dravidian parties came to power, the accent is on ‘passing’ every one, and no one cares for correct pronunciation. But there have always been people who cannot pronounce ழ. People get over it in various ways. In Salem area, people used to say “வெஸ்ஸாளக்கிளமை”for வியாழக்கிழமை., பளி for பழிetc.
Our domestic help admitted her grandson in an English medium school, with Hindi as a language. He could pronounce neither properly. She sought our help. In spite of struggling with him for three months, he cannot pronounce the Devnagari alphabet. I am still struggling with him. ( Do you know some people coming from the Sindh/Multan area cannot pronounce ‘sha’. Measure they will pronounce as ‘meaure’. So such things exist.
Apart from the natural factors, Tamilians today labour under self-imposed limitations because of the political climate.. Education being state controlled, they have to follow what they are told. In their zeal to avoid some sounds like j, h, d, dha, etc, they mess up the whole thing when it comes to pronuning many words. In the old days, certain Samskrt words were neatly adapted in Tamil : Raja became ‘arasan’ அரசன் but now it is written as ‘raasan’ ராசன் a word which has no inherent meaning. They use the letter k for h eg. raaku for Rahu, Manokaran fpr Manoharan etc. But karan and haran mean opposite things! We were taught to pronounce it ஹரன் even if க was the letter, but not now. So when they write Sankata kara Chaturthi சங்கட கர சதுர்த்தி for Sankata hara chaturthi, சங்கட ஹர சதுர்த்தி, they do not realise they are misstating the whole thing, producing the opposite meaning.. Raman is written as ‘Iraman’ இராமன். But the ‘a’ sound is silent as saying it would make the meaning the opposite or render it meaningless. Today’s youngsters do not realise this and many of them say இராமன்!
For that matter, the very name Tamil Nadu is not correct. The last ‘U’ in Nadu should not be fully pronounced- it should be left half so that it sounds somewhat like Nad’ but does not end so abruptly. This is a Tamil grammar rule called ‘குற்றிய லுகரம்” where the U sound is not pronounced fully, is shortened.. But Tamilians do not care.
Though there is no direct letter to indicate ‘j’ sound in Tamil, there are indirect ways of writing it eg. பஞ்சு, மிஞ்சு, கொஞ்சு, துஞ்சு, கெஞ்சு, பிஞ்சு, etc. But Tamilians have closed their mindச் and eyes. Really learned people do not command respect.
The tragedy is that even Brahmins and others who used to speak well and correctly are subject to peer pressure or teacher pressure in schools and have to submit to lot of contrived absurdities. This has seeped into our religious literature also. For eg. Krishna is rendered as Kannan in Tamil. Though both words refer to the same person, Krishna has profound meanings which the word Kannan does not carry. Krishna is called by many names in the Gita -what would happen if people render them all as Kannan?
वेद is written as வேதா in Tamil. There is no problem in rendering it as Veda in English. But our people translate it from Tamil and so write it as Vetha. So that an orthodox astika Tamil magazine called வைதிகஸ்ரீ is written as “Vaithikasri”. Such is the magnitude of the tragedy in Tamil Nad, even among educated people..
If salt shall lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?
article referenced from deivattin kural
http://www.kamakoti.org/tamil/3dk167.htm
Divine! Thanks for sharing this great experience. Sri Guruvayurappan doesn’t need any introduction. He is an icon of KKSF. If anybody from the US visits our Matam, Sri Periyava always asks if we know Guruvayurappan and ask us to connect with him for all the KKSF activities. He is a man of simplicity and has been a staunch devotee of the Matam, contributing a lot during difficult times. For the past 20 years he has conducted Periyava Jayantis and important events in the East coast. We would love to hear more of his experiences with our Acharyas.
JAYA JAYA SHANKARA HARA HARA SHANKARA
🙏
We have read and heard so many experiences from devotees.. Somehow this one did not bring in the same bakthi emotion in me as that of others. I was wondering what that was.. ! Finally got the answer.. Its the humility that was lacking…
May be the way it was written…
If written with good intentions, and the meaning is understood, all is fine.
I did not write any intro about him as most of us know who he is. On the hindsight, I should’ve done that too As Lakshmi rigidly said, his bakthi is unshaken towards our acharyas and our matam. While trying fil explain that incident from a different perspective, it might have come across that way. all good..
Thank you for sharing this. I gave up coffee(not addiction) but restarted after work stress started building up. Again keeping away . Hoping to keep the resolve and encouraged by this beautiful post
// I keep getting corrections from my friend on “dheivathin” vs “deivathin” — I always thought that “dheivathin” is lot closer to how we say in Tamil. Is it not?//
This is the problem of writing Tamil or Sanskrit (or any other language) in English. Each one reads it differently and it is jarring for them in their point of view. To explain further — you are thinking people will read ‘deivathin’ as ‘டெய்வத்தின்’, and so you think it is better spelled ‘dheivathin’. But in other languages where there are 4 different variations (e.g., त, थ, द, ध), it is read differently. For example, a person who is coming from a language other than Tamil will find it jarring! For him, “dheivam” is read as “धैवम्” which is not correct! It is “दैवम्”, which is best spelled as “deivam”
My personal opinion is that we should write the words of a language only in that script. Writing in any other language brings in such complications.
@Chandru Raman:
You said, “should write the words of a language only in that script”. Fine, what about the people who cannot read those scripts? The true essence of source language cannot be given in target language is one part and the other part is that some time you cannot give correct pronunciation in target language because of various reasons. Unfortunately, Tamil-although being a classical language, it has such problems due to lack of letters (even Tamil letter like ‘ழ’ cannot be correctly pronunced in other languages except Malayalam). Hence, the point is, better we give nearest sound of the letter and meaning of the source language to enable the readers to enjoy the stuff. Readers who want to know the exact meaning of the stuff will seek alternate source on their own. Sri Mahesh Garu does his best in this blog, I believe.
Yes, balaji. I am aware of the limitations.. here in the blog, we’ve moved away from a Tamil to English blog long back as much as possible. When it comes to poems etc. It is still posted as it is.. particularly ffg ir Dheivathin kural, I want non Tamil readers to know at least the title. Still I come across some situations where I make exceptions.
+Chandru Raman. You have pointed out a real, and serious, problem. Samskrt sounds cannot be reproduced/written in English or any European language accurately. Scholars therefore adopt their own scheme of trasliteration and it is shown in the beginning of their works.. Many letters carry diacritical marks. Above all, the correct way of pronouncing a word can be learned only by oral /personal instruction in the beginning. Writers follow their own conventions, and once we get used to them, it works.
Tamilians have also this problem, especially those of the modern/younger generation. This is due to several reasons..
1.Tamil script does not have letters for all the Samskrt aksharas. The earlier generation used Grantham lipi and could then reproduce all sounds. This is how our priests read their mantras. But we have given up Grantham letters.So there is a real problem.
2. Tamilians follow some peculiar conventions.eg. Mantram is written as மந்திரம், and pronounced as such,which is actually incorrect. We have learned to manage with it. The correct form would be மன்த்ரம். Sankhu is written as சங்கு and pronounced as such. So most Tamilians do not even recite Vishnu Shasranama correctly.
3. Since most Tamilians do not know Samskrt, they translate Samskrt words from English transliteration, which distorts the original.
4. Nowadays, many Samskrt words are rendered into government-determined or enforced Tamil, and this is then translated into Englsih. eg. Durairaj is rendered in Tamil as துரைராசன் and this is then translated into English as “Thurairasan”. Dilipan is rendered in Tamil as திலீபன் and this is then written in English as Thileepan. This is a very peculiar mindset. Tamilians do not want to pronounce D , J etc especially from Samskrt words. But the same sounds would be reproduced from English eg David, George, Joseph, etc. [ Durai and Thurai mean totally different things.]
5.As a result of modern school education in Tamil Nad, most Tamilians cannot pronounce even Tamil words correctly- they confuse ந/ ன and ண, ல and ள etc.
6. Be it as it may in secular matters, we have to follow better and more accurate methods in dealing with religious subjects.
– The scripture books of ‘Anna’ Subrahmanya Iyer published by Ramakrishna Math, Chennai follows its own convention in the matter of writing ஶ, ஸ, ஷ, प, फ. . ब, भ etc. This is at times confusing or causes eye strain.
– The Gita Press, Gorakhpur follows another convention. It gives numbers to the Tamil letters so that all the Samskrt sounds can be correctly pronounced in Tamil. This is a very easy method to follow, and very convenient and accurate.
– We may use Grantha letters to some extent- like ஶ, க்ஷ, ஜ, . Many people use ட்சி for க்ஷி மீனாக்ஷி is written as மீனாட்சி., which is not the same thing.
So where does it all leave us in respect of Deivam and Dheivam? தெய்வம்
In Tamil this problem cannot be solved at all, unless we adopt Grantham letters or use numbers along with letters: த, த1,த3, த4; ப, ப1, ப2, ப3 for p, f, b, bha etc. The number is written in smaller size so it does not look clumsy. The Gita Press has brought out Valmiki Ramayana , Bhagavatam , Gita etc in this manner which are quite easy and pleasant to read.
In English too it is a problem, and so the method we follow has to be explained to a stranger. For us, I suppose it is not such a problem: Dakshinamurthy, Dandapani, Duraiswamy etc are pronounced quite right by our people. It is only strangers to the concept who have to be tutored.
There is no problem in writing Samskrt in other Indian lipis like Kannada, Telugu or Malayalam.
Most Tamil religious books containing Mantras or Shlokas published commercially are incorrect. Serious readers should seek better standards.
Dear Nanjappa Garu, you are right all other Indian lipis except Tamil do not face such problems. However I differ one point of you. You said, “For us, I suppose it is not such a problem: Dakshinamurthy, Dandapani, Duraiswamy etc are pronounced quite right by our people. It is only strangers to the concept who have to be tutored.” Believe me even Tamils cannot pronounce Tamil correctly. Eg. வாழைபழம் as வாலபலம்; விழாயக்கிழமை as வேலக்கிலம. etc. I am not making fun of it, but that’s the pathetic situation. My brother used to say பிளாட்பாரம் as ‘Blatparam’ for ‘Platform’. I tried to correct him serveral times, still you pronounces the same as he used to. That’s how Tamilnadu schools spoil(ed) the children there.
We need to come out of this pronounciation problem. Numbers are temporary solution, if needed we can incorporate new letters for giving correct sound ( I know State govt will be reluctant and our beloved great Tamil politicians who pretend as Tamil language saviors will never this to happen).