.Follow sasthraas

HOW MAHAPERIAVA STUCK TO SASTRAAS WITHOUT HURTING THE CONCERNED DEVOTEEMahaperiava never drifted away from His strict following of sasthras whatever be the predicament, and at the same time, He did it ,not only without hurting the feelings of the devotee, but also He made them feel very happy and blessed. 

Here is an excellent incident which demonstrated this. It is narrated by Sri Ra. Ganapathy anna, in his book,"KARUNAIKKADALIL SILA ALAIGAL", published by Divya Vidhya Padhippagam.

SRI SARANAR, was camping in a temple in Kanchipuram and was giving darsan to devotees. One day, a couple ,with their little daughter, came in a highly emotional state of body and mind to see Mahaperiava. The lady was the daughter of a famous Telugu magazine editor, who was also very close to Mahathma Gandhi. In later days, the whole family became deeply devoted to Mahaperiava.

They poured forth their thrilling experience and narrated that incident to Him.

They were living in London then. Once ,when they were flying to another country, the air craft developed a major snag and the captain announced that there was no chance whatsoever to have a safe landing and asked them to prepare themselves for any eventuality. One can imagine the status of the passengers!

This couples' mind ran and caught hold of Mahaperiava and prayed for saving the situation. Because of their unfailing faith in Mahaperiava, they explained to other passengers about His Greatness ( " HE IS GOD'S REINCARNATION"---WAS WHAT THEY CONVEYED TO ALL OF THEM) and asked them also to join in their prayers.When their very lives are in danger, who will not catch hold of anything that can save them? Immediately ,the entire aircraft became the Prayer room, meditating and praying Mahaperiava.

A little later the instruments of the flying machine, which the crew were desperately trying to correct the fault, STARTED RESPONDING. The aircraft, safely landed and the whole crew and all the passengers called IT nothing short of a miracle.

All the co-passengers surrounded our blessed couple and profusely thanked them; not only that, they requested the two to convey their heartfelt gratitude to HIM.

The couple decided to immediately return to India and perform Padha pooja to Periava.

And that is how they reached here, with flowers and swarnam. All the people who were present there at that time were simply awed. 

But ,Mahaperiava, listenedto all this narration, without any excitement as if He had no part in this!With a smiling face, He talked to them and asked His paadhukaas to be brought there.

Then He called the girl child and asked her to do archchana to the Padhukas with her hands! 

The child did the Archana lovingly and the parents were enjoying that blissfully.

Mahaperiava ,then told the couple," This child is yours, so, the pooja she is performing is as good as you ,yourselves performing it.More over, when the child does the poja with her little hands , the archana becomes more and lasts longer"

The couple felt truly blessed and their happiness knew no bounds.

Srisaranar told the mutt assistants to see thar they were well fed.

After they went away, He told the people who were with Him," When persons born in this Punya bhoomi ,go abroad and live in circumstances not acceptable to our Sastras, I can not permit them to perform any sasthra karma . So the couple were not eligible to perform Padha pooja.I could have permitted them to perform it through sasthrigal,( acharya mukena), by asking them to give the flowers to him and perform with his hands. But, they wanted to perform it by themselves so much, that way would not have satisfied them. At the same time, when their own child performs it, and that too on my behest, they would have been more satisfied than if they themselves had done it.

One may ask ," The child has also crossed the sea. Then how the child is eligible to perform the pooja?"

It is not the same. That child was not born in this punya bhoomi and crossed the sea and went to a place where the living conditions are not acceptable. It was born there and came to this punya bhoomi. Besides,childhood is pure. That is why, without going against the sastras and at the same time, to satisfy those devoted souls who were so eager to perform the pooja, I asked the child to perform it!