Mahaperiyava
anand vasudevan
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Two years after his Varanasi trip, when Paramacharya was returning, he had to camp for three days in the Kyonjer samastanam of the hilly areas. His heart overflew with campassion at the pitiable conditions of the tribals in the area. He told the manager, “for all the three days we stay here, we should arrange to feed them.”
The manager hesitated with a request, “Those people are over a hundred and fifty families. We don’t have the facilities to cook food here.”
“Then give them as uluppai“, replied the sage.
Giving as uluppai is giving supplies of food articles, vegetables and fruits. For three days the tribals enjoyed the bounty of SriMatam.
In the same way, Paramacharya ordered serving three days supplies to the suffering employees of a circus company in Ilayattankudi, that was closed down.
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It seems that there was only one occasion in the history of SriMatam, when rice and other food supplies were carried on the back of the SriMatam elephant! Paramacharya, the udAra murti created history with such an incident, to fill the udarams of the poor harijan people.
It was November 1940. The village was heavily flooded when Paramacharya reached Tiruchettankudi from Tirumarukal. News reached his ears that over five hundred harijans in the area were suffering, as a hailstorm lashed on.
Paramacharya hastened the officials to rush them food supplies, but was informed that it was not possible for bullock carts to pass through the rain inundated roads.
“Then you send the supplies on the back of the elephant. This place is known as Ganapateesvaram,” said Paramacharya, poining out the harmony. “So Pillaiyar will be happy that an elephant partakes the jana seva.”
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The dog, according to shastras is of a low birth. The Guardian of Shastra also extended his bounty to the dogs.
In the year 1927, a dog came to Sri Matam camp on its own and started keeping vigil. After his biksha was over, Paramacharya ordered that the dog be fed. Strangely, after tasting the food from the matam, the dog stopped accepting food from anyone else.
The dog used to trot under the palanquin known as mena which carried Paramacharya. Sometimes it would run between the massive, moving legs of the elephant! When the palanquin was parked, it would step aside to a distance and watch the sage descend and walk, wagging its tail.
At one time, the officials thought that the dog had become mad and ordered a servant to leave it in a village, about forty kilometers away from their camp. No sooner had the servant returned, than the dog also had got back to the camp! From that time, until its death, the dog kept vigil and also kept a vow not to take food until it had a darshan of Paramacharya.
As he resumed his divine duties after a short rest following his biksha, Paramacharya would first inquire if the dog was fed.
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There was an incident when Paramacharya served food for an entire army of dogs.
He was observing chaaturmaasyam at Vasanta Krishnapuram near Tirukkovalur in the year 1947. The peak of Tiruvannamalai hill, about twenty kilometers away, was visible from that place. Paramacharya used to perform a puja for the mountain that was Lord Siva’s form at where he stayed, with a darshan of the peak.
During one such puja, when he was meditating, a dog came and put its mouth to the water in the kamandaluh. The people around were very much upset by this happening, and a devotee who was a retired government official, threw a stone at the dog, which ran howling, and stopped at a safe distance.
Paramacharya’s eyes opened at the anxious hubbub. He looked at the people aroud him and ordered: “Collect all the available dishes from the houses of the agrahAram. Also bring bucketfuls of water.”
The volunteers group that included retired official went around and brought the food and water. As Paramacharya gestured, the dog that was standing at a distance came near and stopped hesitatingly. As he gestured a second time, something very strange happened.
An army of dogs came from nowhere and calmly arranged themselves in a row, without showing any signs of hurry for the food that was before them. Paramacharya offered food and water to the dogs through the retired official who had stoned the dog earlier.
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Since the beginning of 1964, Paramacharya asked the rice donors to send the rice bags to the Rameswaram branch of SriMatam. This seemed rather strange and the manager took exception to the excessive collection of rice bags at their Rameswaram branch. There were even occasions that suggested that the manager was not at all happy with the decision and might have an argument with the sage. Paramacharya, however, was adamant, and ensured that 250 bags of rice were stocked in their Rameswaram branch.
During the month of December 1964, Rameswaram was hit by a severe cyclone. The Pamban bridge was uprooted and Dhanushkoti town sank in the ocean. It became impossible to send food supplies to the Rameswaram island, overcoming the rage of the ocean.
The 250 bags of rice that was stocked by Paramacharya in the Rameswaram branch of SriMatam helped to fill the stomach of thousands of people who suffered from the nature’s fury
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K.Parthasarathi