Oh My God! Episode 1

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

OH MY GOD!

A Series By Varalotti Rengasamy

Episode 1

It was a cloudless Full Moon day. Arvind and Yamini were sitting on the terrace of their newly built house on the outskirts of the city. Their little princesses Janaki and Mahalakshmi had gone to bed for the day.

Arvind and Yamini were savouring some quality time together. Arvind’s eyes were alternating between the large sized full moon and the moon-like face of his beautiful wife.

Yamini thought for the millionth time what the handsome man had done for her. And what was the kind of happiness he was giving to her parents!

Arvind treated them like his own father and mother. How could one man’s love make so much of difference in the lives of so many people!

And he was giving happiness to the hundred thousand and odd members of WomenWorldWide.com by his weekly stories. Yamini’s eyes were full with tears of love. She held Arvind’s hands and looked straight into his eyes.

Arvind gently wiped the tears from her eyes.

Yamini cleared her throat and asked in a mildly teasing voice,

“KG Sir, what are you going to write for us this week?”

“A story of one of the disciples of Ramanuja.”

“Which disciple?”

“The disciple on whose death the Great Saint Ramanuja himself broke down and cried like a child. The man who lost his eyes for his Acharya. The man who went to pray to God for restoring his vision but ultimately ended up praying for his enemy’s bliss.”

“Oh, it’s Koorathazhwan.”

“You are right, dear. Koorathaazhwan, also called Kooresan. This week I am going to talk about his relationship with his wife. His wife’s name was Andal.

"My father, the original KG, has documented this story in his own hand in his scrap book. The letters are smudged in many places. He should have cried while writing the story.”

“Oh My God!”

Arvind placed his hand reverentially over his chest, his usual gesture to indicate that his mind was full of love and reverence for the great soul they were talking about.

“Arvind, I don’t feel like sleeping now. Can you please tell the story?”

“Sure, honey.”

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

Part 2!

Once Koorathazhwan and his wife Andal were returning to their base in Srirengam after a long pilgrimage. They had been walking for more than a week, and the last two days without having anything to eat.

In those days eating places were not as ubiquitous as they are today. Again Koorathazhwan and Andal had taken the vows of Samasrayanam and they could not eat at any random place.

Srirengam was still a day’s walk away. Koorathazhwan was walking slowly constantly repeating the Thirumanthiram, the Lord’s name. Andal was walking a few steps behind him.

Perhaps the Great Lord who was forever sleeping in Srirengam knew about His devotees’ plight. As they were entering a small village an young man appeared before them. He approached Koorathazhwan and bowed before him.

“Swami, you look famished. Will you please accept the food I have to offer?”

The man was holding a shining silver vessel full of curd rice. And a small vessel which had the side dish.

Koorathazhwan hesitated.

“Swami, you need not have to doubt me. I am a devout Brahman and I worship the same Sriman Narayana whom you worship. I live a clean life. “

Koorathazhwan accepted the food. And then he turned to his wife Andal,

“Andal, please accept the food from this pious man.”

“Thanks. And thank you, Sir. But I am not hungry.”

If Kooresan was puzzled he did not show. He ate the food, thanked the man and continued his journey with his wife on tow.

When they were out of the earshot of the food donor Kooresan asked his wife.

“Andal, I know you are also hungry. Why didn’t you accept the food?”

“I can withstand till we reach our place. And moreover…”

Andal stopped mid-sentence.

“Tell me dear. Do you mean to say that he was not a pious man? And that I should not have accepted the food from him?”

Andal was silent.

“But Andal, he had all the right religious symbols. He told us that he was regular in praying to the Lord. What more do you want?”

“Pardon me. An ignoramus like me should not be reminding you of what has been laid down in our sasthras. Forgive me if I am wrong.”

“Tell me Andal. Whatever it is, please tell me. I am all ears.”

“Our sasthras lay down that we should not accept food from the one who prays to Lord for selfish reasons. We know that he is regular in his prayers. But we do not know what he is praying for.

“May be he is praying for wealth, health, a place in heaven or worldly pleasures. To me a person who prays for anything other than the Lord’s love is a sinner. We do not know whether this man is a sinner or not. And if he is one, accepting food offered by him will be a sin.”

“But you could have told that to me earlier.”

“I did not tell that for two reasons. One I did not want to hurt that man. And two, you were so hungry that your life was in danger. And in those exceptional circumstances one can accept any kind of food. Our Acharya himself has sanctioned that in his Sri Bhashyam.”

“But Andal, you are also hungry. You were also walking with me.”

“Any day a woman has greater capacity to withstand hardship. Especially hunger. Please don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

Kooresan stopped on his tracks and started clapping his hands.

“What a sensitivity! What a discipline! Andal, some day you should teach me those qualities. I am really lucky to have you as my wife.”

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

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Part 3!

Arvind stopped the narration and looked at his wife. Yamini had a puzzling look on her face. “Why dear, isn’t the story good enough?”

“It’s good, Arvind. But not up to your mark. Having heard about Sridhara Aiyawal and Thodakacharya from you.. well this..story….”

Arvind’s smile was the most benevolent.

“But dear, I have not yet finished telling the story. There is another, more interesting part to it. Please listen.”

“Oh My God! I am sorry. Please continue.”

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

Part 4!
A few months passed.

Kooresan and Andal were in their small home in Srirengam. Ramanuja had gone to some other place.

On that day Andal woke up to find that there was not even a single food grain in the house. Probably there had been a famine and Kooresan leading a saintly life could not earn enough to store food grains.

Kooresan got up early in the morning, had his bath and then went to do his regular,
Thiruvaaradhanam, his usual pooja to his Lord in the morning. When he came out of his clean, well-appointed pooja room, it was already mid-morning.

Kooresan usually had his first square meal of the day at that time. Then he would spend the rest of the time studying the scriptures, the composition of Azhwars or assist his Acharya in his work. In the evening he would take something light for supper.

“Andal, I am ready. Can I have my food now? I am very hungry today. I don’t know why.”

A loud sob escaped from Andal’s mouth. It was one thing to forego food for days while travelling. That was the order of the day. But to be in one’s own home, sweet home, without having anything to eat… well that was almost the working definition of hell.

Andal did not think about her hunger. She was a woman, brought up in hard circumstances. She could somehow manage.

She could not bear to see her dear husband, the ardent devotee of the Great Lord, the main disciple of the Greatest Saint who ever lived, go without food.

“What happened Andal? Why are you crying?”

Amidst sobs Andal told her husband that they did not have even a single food grain in the house.

“I understand, Andal. But why should you cry for that?”

To Kooresan everything happened according to the wish of the Great Lord. Even an ant could not change its position by a millimetre unless the Lord so wished. So what was the point in crying? Why should one complain?

At that very point of time his bakthi increased manifold. He sat in the centre of the house and started chanting the Thiru Manthiram – the most powerful name that had ever been given to the one who is eternally beyond all names and forms.

As his mouth was lovingly repeating the great Name, his eyes were constantly shedding tears.
Andal sat by his side. She could clearly hear her husband repeating the name of the Lord with all the love in the world.

He was repeating the name of that the Lord who saw to it that the couple did not have anything to eat on that day. Tears came from her eyes as well but for a totally different reason. ‘My Lord, how it is possible for you to be so unkind?’

She did not say anything. She did not do anything. She was constantly looking at her famished husband who was chanting God’s name.

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

Part 5!

Around 12 30 in the afternoon. The sun was up in the sky and it was a hot summer day. Andal had lapsed into a kind of sleep and she now woke up hearing her husband chanting something else.
He was now chanting the Narayana Sooktham, the part of Veda which adores Sriman Narayana.

naaraayanaa param brahmaa tattwam naaraayanaah paraah
naaraayanaa paro jyotiratma naaraayanaa paraah

The Lord Narayana is the Supreme Absolute; Narayana is the Supreme Reality; Narayana is the Supreme Light; Narayana is the Supreme Self.

The Vedic mantras had a kind of inexplicable holiness about them. Having been chanted for thousands of years the words had soaked into the deepest part of our genes and when they are heard from outside our genes dance in pure joy.

Kooresan was now reciting the final mantra of the Sooktham when Andal heard the bells ringing at a distance.

naaraayanayaa vidhmahe
vasudevaayaa dheemahi
tanno vishnuh prachodayaat

We commune ourselves with Narayana, and meditate on Vasudeva, may that Vishnu direct us

It was the afternoon Pooja time at the Sri Renganathaswamy temple which was just a stone’s throw away from their house. The temple bells were happily announcing the special food offerings to the Lord at that time.

Lord Renganatha is a connoisseur of good food. The Lord’s kitchen, the Thirumadapalli, as it is called, always used the best of ingredients and the services of the best cooks to produce the best food, to be offered to the discerning Lord.

As Andal’s ears heard the bells announcing the offering of food to the Lord her eyes saw her dear husband once again. As was the custom Kooresan was now repeating the final stanza for the third time

naaraayanayaa vidhmahe
vasudevaayaa dheemahi
tanno vishnuh prachodayaat

And then he fell silent. Now Andal could hear only the sound of the temple bells. The silence, the sound of the bells, the sight of her husband who could not have even a morsel of food since morning… well the last straw had already been loaded on the camel’s back.

Now tears of anger and humiliation were flowing from Andal’s eyes. She could not help the tinge of sarcasm in her thoughts. Unknowingly she had opened the communication channels with the Great Lord.

‘They say you are the most loving Lord. How true it is! And this innocent man – may he always be blessed – worships you as his Father.

‘And dear, what an affectionate father you are. Even if we search the whole universe we can’t find a more loving father than You, my Lord.

‘Tell me, my Lord, which father would be relishing a 16 course dinner when his son is starving? Very good father. Very good son. May you both be blessed.’

The Lord could not withstand the heat in Andal’s voice. Even the ocean of cool milk, the Thirupparkadal, could not protect Him from the heat.

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

Part 6!

The scene in the temple was as beautiful as it used to be every day. The screen had been pulled in. The vessels containing the food items were placed in neat rows and columns at the feet of the Lord.

An assistant was lifting the vessel one by one and handing it over to the Priest.

The main priest was showing it to the Lord. Two other elderly Priests were looking on. When food is offered to the Lord no one else except the priests will be allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum.

The Great Lord suddenly manifested as a spirit inside the body of the Assistant. His body was shivering. He was sweating profusely. His eyes had gone red. He was breathing heavily.

The main priest was simply frightened by the expression in the assistant’s face. The other Priests were also shivering in fear.

When the assistant spoke it was not a human voice; but the roar of an angry lion.

“IDIOTS! STOP IT I SAY. STOP IT.”

Even the people waiting outside to have a dharshan of the Lord after the food-offering could hear him.

“STOP IT. RIGHT NOW.”

Everything was stopped. Even the bells had become silent.

“How dare you offer this kind of food to me, when my boy Kooresan has not eaten anything since morning? No. I don’t want your food. I don’t want anything from you.”

One of the elderly Priests who was looking on was a ripe old man in his eighties who had been serving God for many decades. The assistant was a young man in his early twenties. The old priest was the first to know what was happening.

He fell at the feet of the young assistant.

“We are your children, my Lord. We are your slaves, my Lord. We are at your command, my Lord. Please have mercy on us and tell us what we should do.”

“Take all these items. Carry them on your heads. Run to Koorthazhwan’s house. Run like mad. All these items should reach him in less than five minutes. Make him eat these items. If Kooresan does not start eating within five minutes, well, you’ll see a different Lord in this place.”

A group of people ran to Kooresan’s place carrying the Lord’s food on their heads. The old priest who could not run as fast was carried by a strong man.

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

Part 7!

Kooresan’s house. Andal was still shedding tears of anger and Kooresan tears of love. The couple heard somebody knocking their door furiously. Andal ran to open the door. Kooresan woke up from his meditation to see the most incredible sight of his life.

The priests of the temple were placing all the food items in the central hall of the house. Soon it was full with barely enough room to walk.

The old priest had arrived at the door by now. He saw Kooresan and fell at his feet. He did not tell him what happened at the temple. He simply said,

“Kooresa, eat this food immediately. And bless us all, my child.”

Then the old man turned to the battalion of men.

“Come, let’s go.” He thundered to them all and soon they left the place.

Andal was now shedding tears of gratitude. She placed a freshly cut plantain leaf before her husband and placed the Lord’s food to him. Kooresan enjoyed his first meal of the day.

Needless to say that there was a divine taste in the food. It was God’s food, given by God Himself.

Andal also ate. Still a lot of food was there. Andal distributed it to the neighbours.

When she came back home she saw Kooresan sitting with a mischievous smile on his lips.

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

Part 8!

“Come here Andal. I think what I ate today was bought-out food. And you are an expert in sasthras. Correct me if I am wrong. But don’t our sasthras prohibit our eating bought-out food?”

“What are you saying? That was the Lord’s own prasadham. The food offered to Him. He was kind enough to send it our way.’

“But tell me Andal, did not somebody ask him for food? Did not somebody trade her devotion for this food? Did not somebody think ill of the Lord, for he was having a 16 course dinner while his son is starving here?”

Andal could not hold herself any longer. She fell at her husband’s feet.

“I did that. I could not bear to see you hungry. I could not help thinking like that.”

“I bow down to your love, Andal. Your love for me. But someday try to understand His love, Andal. When He wants us to starve, when He wants us to suffer in pain, when He wants us to be insulted by others, well, should we not bear it without complaint?

“If He wants to see me hungry, do you think that there could be a better prayer in the whole world than just remaining hungry? If my suffering could give him happiness, then to go through that suffering will be the happiest heaven for me.

“He knows, Andal. The other day when we were returning from our pilgrimage didn’t he appear as a brahman and give food to us? How can you think that He would let us down today? He would let us be hungry. He would let us suffer. But He would never let us down.

“I tell you Andal, even if He lets us down, to go down to the bottom-most hell as per His wish should be the only expression of our love. Not to rebel against him. Not to complain to him. Not to pass sarcastic remarks against Him.

“He is our only Master Andal. And there is no other Master to hold on to if he lets us down. There is no refuge apart from Him. There is no greater way of showing our love to him than to suffer silently.”

Andal was taken aback by that outburst.

Of course Kooresan was not shouting in anger. His words were very soft. And he was placing his hand gently on his wife’s head.

Andal was crying for a long time. Finally she told her dear husband in a choked voice.

“The other day you asked me to teach you the discipline I had in the matters of food. Let my discipline go to dogs. Please teach me, if you can, the kind of love you have for your Lord.

“You always say that you are lucky to have a Lord like Sriman Narayana. But I tell you He is equally lucky, if not luckier, to have somebody like you as His devotee.”

Kooresan wiped the tears on his wife’s face as he softly chanted the final mantra of the sooktham once again

naaraayanayaa vidhmahe
vasudevaayaa dheemahi
tanno vishnuh prachodayaat

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

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Part 9!

“Your father is a great man, Arvind. And you have fully inherited his love. “

“Thanks, honey. But what do you think of the story?”

“My mind is blank. It is devoid of all kinds of thoughts. The only response I could think of for a story like this is, “Oh My God!”

varalotti · Mar 27, 2009

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Epilogue Part 1!

An epilogue like the one you are going to read is totally out of place for a story you just read.

If only I had a little more sense I should have posted this as a separate thread, probably a few days later in Wednesdays With Varalotti Forum. But certain things need to be said then and there.

Life is full of uncertainties and it would be sheer stupidity on my part to delay talking to you above some ‘fundamentally important’ things.

For the past few days I have been disturbed by what’s happening in the world. Especially in the <st1:country-region><st1lace>US</st1lace></st1:country-region> and in <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region>. Let me first tell you what disturbed me and what made me lose my sleep.

A working woman in the <st1:country-region><st1lace>US</st1lace></st1:country-region> spent $82,000 (Rs. 41 lakhs) for her pedicure and manicure treatment. In itself it’s just a piece of amusing news. The world is full of eccentrics like this lady. But what made it a disturbing news is the fact that the lady is a top-ranking executive working for a failed <st1:country-region><st1lace>US</st1lace></st1:country-region> company which is getting bail-out money from the US Government.

And the bail-out funds were used to pay for this lady’s crazy indulgence. Bail-out money is the <st1:country-region><st1lace>US</st1lace></st1:country-region> taxpayer’s sweat and blood; it has come from the common man who these days could not even afford a square meal a day. And this lady thought it fit to spend that kind of money to polish her nails and clean her legs.

Another company spent $92000 (Rs. 46 lakhs) on a dinner to celebrate the fact that their bail-out package has been approved by the Government.

Another US Insurance major took all its executives to an exotic French island in a luxury yacht to celebrate their getting some billions of dollars as bail-out money. Cost of the celebration - $ 5 millions. (Rs. 25 crores)

Back home conditions are no different. A man has been raping his own daughters for nine years – not because he is a sex-pervert or a sex-maniac, but because his family astrologer told him that it was the only way for him to get richer.

Mind you he is not starving. He is already rich with his own house, car and all. Yet he was prepared to commit the most heinous crime of raping his own children only because he wanted to have more money.

In Chennai a 35 year old man by name Andrews working as a Senior Auditor in Accountant General’s office stole the brand-new car of an IT company executive.

A final year medical student – somebody who within months is going to be a Doctor having the noble mission of saving the lives of people – has killed a first year student in the name of ragging.