Planning Tips for Pongal - Beginners Tips

An incident that happened many years ago. It was the time when in the Satara town of Maharashtra, the construction works of Uttara Sri Nataraja temple were going on in accordance with AcharyaaL's orders. People thronged daily to have darshan of PeriyavaaL who was camping in the town. A Sunday. 3'o clock in the afternoon. A 30 year old youth prostrated to Acharyaal, his eight limbs touching the ground, and got up. Tears were seen in his eyes. Noticing it, Periyavaa asked him with affection, "Empa, who are you? Which place, why do your eyes go red?" Without replying, he started crying. People nearby assuaged him and made him sit before Swamigal. "Which place are you from appa?" Swamigal asked him. "Palakkad, Periyavaa." "You are coming all the way from Palakkad?" asked Acharyaal immediately. "Yes Periyavaa. I am coming all the way from that place." "Alright. What is your name?" "Harihara Subramanian." "besh* (well) a good name. Right, what's your thagappanar (father) doing?" "My father is not in jiva dasha (living condition) now, Periyavaa. He was practicing Ayurveda in Palakkad. His name was Dr. Harihara Narayanan--" Before he finished, Swamigal with kutuhala (interest) said, "ada (I see), you are the son of Palakkad Ayurvedic doctor Narayanan? Very glad. In that case, tell me, you are the grandson of doctor Harihara Raghavan! All of them earned very good name in Ayurveda!". Swamigal looked at him keenly, raising his eyebrows. The youth said, "Yes, Periyavaa." Smiling, Acharyaal said, "besh! A lofty vaidhya parampara (medical lineage). It is alright. You have not added any doctor title before your name?" "I did not study for that Periyavaa. My father did not prepare me in that way," said the youth, without interest. "You should not say that way! Did your father not prepare you, or you did not have the shraddha (strong wish) in getting prepared in that way?" There was no reply. "Taking birth in that vaidhya parampara, you missed the chance to know things? Right, up to which class you have studied?" "Up to the ninth, Periyavaa." "Why? You had no wish to study further?" "Somehow I did not have the wish Periyavaa. I now feel for it!" "Your vivaham (marriage) is done?" "Done Periyavaa. I have a daughter who is seven years old." "Right, what do you do now?" Tears gushed from his eyes. "Since I had no education, I could not get any high jobs, Periyavaa. I am doing the work of a supervisor in a local rice mill. The salary is seven hundred rupees. My family is running only on that amount." "Oho... Is that so? Right. You have your own gruham (House) left for you by the periyavaaLs (ancestors)?" Swamigal asked him. Wiping his tears, Harihara Subramanian said, "There is a house Periyavaa, built by my grandfather. The very purpose of my coming here is to supplicate to Periyavaa about it. Many years ago, since her husband passed away, my father's sister came over to Palakkad bringing her two daughters. During a Navaratri festival time, my father mortgaged the house to a local person, took twenty-fve thousand rupees from him, conducted the marriage of the two daughters of my aunt, and then suddenly passed away. My aunt too passed away. "My grievance, Periyavaa, is that during the festival time of Navaratri my father mortgaged the house that was lakshmikaram (prosperous, Lakshmi-given) and passed away. The amount has now come to forty-five thousand rupees including the interest. It seems the house is going to sink!" Swamigal lapsed into contemplation for a while. His silence dissolved presently and he said as he smiled, "Alright, now you celebrate the Navaratri festival at home, raising a kolu (an assembly of divine dolls) every year?" "No, Periyavaa. I stopped the custom of raising a kolu after my father passed away, doing what he did." Acharyaal promptly interrupted him and said, "You should never talk so disrespectfully of Atthup periyavaaL (family ancestors). They are all very lofty people. I know it well! They have all gone after doing only excellent things! Keeping something in mind, your stopping the custom of celebrating Navaratri every year with a prosperous kolu is wrong! The Navaratri starts in a week from now. You revive the custom of raising a kolu in Palakkad from this year. All your afflictions will be solved and your will get prosperity!" Blessing the youth and giving him prasadam, Swamigal bid him farewell. Twenty days passed. It was a Sunday. A large crowd in Satara to have darshan of Acharyaal. An assistant of the Madam made way parting people in the queue and brought before Swamigal a respectable man of 60 to 65 years of age, wearing a saffron jippa (tunic) over a pancakaccham (tucked in dhoti), and a number of tulasi, rudraksha garlands on his neck. He prostrated to Acharyaal and started conversing in Hindi. Swamigal also did his sambhasanam (conversation) in Hindi and then asked the gentleman to go and sit on the stage opposite him. At length, a small trunk box in hand, Palakkad Harihara Subramanian came and stood before Maha SwamigaL. He prostrated resting his eight limbs to the ground. With artha pusti (wealth of meaning) Swamigal looked alternately at the youth and his trunk box. The youth opened the box slowly. Very ancient palm leaf scripts numbering 10 to 15 were kept inside the box, wrapped in a silk cloth. That Parabrahmam looked at him knowingly, yet as if it did not know. The youth said innocently, "You gave me the orders to revive the custom of kolu from this year. When I climbed up the loft to retrieve the kolu dolls, I found this box there. I had not seen it until then Periyavaa! I checked its contents and found these scripts whose letters were unintelligible to me. So I brought it straight here." Acharyaal laughed and beckoned to the gentleman in saffron tunic who was sitting on the stage opposite him. To the gentleman he said in Hindi, "The apurva vastu (rare article) you asked me about only a little while go has come here, look!" The gentleman immediately sat down on the floor, took the palm leaves and started having a glance at their grantha letters using a lens he had with him. His face blossomed. Lifting those scripts and keeping them over his head, he grinned happily and said, "O Parama Acharya Purusha! I am searching for this apurva ayurveda grantha for many years. You are the pratyaksa deivam (God present before the eyes)! Within half an hour you have brought before my eyes what I prayed to you for!" He prostrated to Swamigal with wonder. Harihara Subramanian stood amazed looking at all this. Acharyaal called him near and said, "This gentleman is a great Ayurveda Siddha research scholar of Pandaripuram. Only half an hour back he told me about his searching for such an apurva suvadi (rare palm leaves). Something struck my mind, I told him to sit and wait for sometime. And now you come and stand before me with this trunk box!" Acharyaal ordered the youth, "All these will be very useful to him. Thinking of your father and grandfather, you submit with your own hands all these things to that gentleman." The youth did as he was told. Tears of joy in the face of the gentleman who received the contents. The gentleman looked at him and said, "I have come to possess an apurva grantha by your grace! It would not be dharma to receive them without paying a kanikkai (an amount as a token of gratitude)." Then he placed five hundred-rupee-sections** (each having 100 bills in it) along with some fruits in a plate and held them politely to Harihara Subramanian. The youth looked at Swamigal, who smiled and asked him to receive the money. Hands shaking, the youth received those fifty thousand rupees! Calling him near, that walking God said, "What did I tell you when you spoke out your grievance about your family ancestors? I said they were all lofty people, they would have gone only after doing excellent things. It somehow struck in my mind. You saw the excellent thing your people had done, on the loft where the kolu dolls were kept? You said your house mortgage loan had swelled to forty-five thousand rupees in principal and interest! Now Sri Chandra Mauleesvara has done his anugraham for it. Get back to Palakkad with happiness. Let the money be safe with you!" and bid him farewell after blessing him.