This incident happened about 35 years ago.
Paramacharya was staying in Chennai for a few
months, blessing people and
giving discourses. From Chennai, he continued his yatra out of
the city and
stayed for a few days in a brick tiles manufacturing factory at Noombal in the
Poonamallee high road past the city border.
I went have a darshan of Paramacharya one evening,
accompanied by a Sethji from Calcutta
who was a wealthy philanthropist. In the
usual way I prostrated to the Sage, my eight limbs
touching the ground. Sethji
also prostrated in a similar manner. I joined my palms and
stood meekly.
Looking at us once and raising his head,
Paramacharya asked, "You told me earlier once…
was it about this man?"
He was matchless in his powers of estimation and retention. I
agreed to his
words and said with humility, "This man was pestering me for a long time
to
take him for darshan, which is the reason I brought him here."
I need to tell you a few things about this man.
This Sethji is very pious. He used to come
daily to my upanyasas on Mahabharata
and Ramayana, which I held in Calcutta. Since I was
giving explanations in
Hindi also, a number of North Indians used to come to my discourses.
Before I started my discourse, I would always talk
about the greatness of Sri Kanchi
Paramacharya for some time, after the initial
prayers. My speech would be about Acharya's
immense knowledge, power, tapo
shakti, and his greatness with examples that highlighted
them. Only then, the
actual discourse would commence. This is a principle I have been
following for
a long time.
Though God has given the Sethji all sorts of
fortunes, He had also left him with a large
deficiency. It was the misfortune
of not being able to take food through the mouth: his
gullet was not
functioning. His regular food was supplied to his digestive system artificially
through a hole in the stomach. With this intense suffering he was living his
days.
There was no treatment that he did not take to get
this deficiency rectified. He had met all
the world experts in the field of
medicine. There was no count to his temple darshans,
prayers and the efforts
using mantra and tantra. Still there was no cure in sight. Since he
had heard
about the greatness of Paramacharya from my daily discourses, he desired to
have a darshan of the Sage and check if at last that would cure his malady.
During a recess in the discourse, he held on to it
firmly that he and I should go to Chennai
and have a darshan of Paramacharya.
I was apprehensive about taking him without the
prior consent of Paramacharya. I told him
that I would go to Chennai and get
Acharya's consent and then take him. He immediately
got me a plane ticket to
Chennai.
On reaching Chennai, I informed Paramacharya about
this Sethji at an opportune time and
asked for his consent to bring the man for
darshan. Though he discussed with me about the
satkarya (good deeds) in
Calcutta, he did not say anything about my request. When I
reminded him again
after sometime, he curtly said, "Not now". Since Sethji might be
shocked at Paramacharya's reply and lose hope in the ultimate cure, I simply
told him that I
would take him when I left Calcutta after my discourses.
In a way it was a mistake to have brought him,
though I did it as a service. All the good and
bad that happen in our life are
due to our punya and paapa spread over many births. Man is
bound to face them.
The sins can be reduced only by suffering their effects. If there is
continuous
suffering, it only shows the quantum of accumulated sins. If the sufferings are
faced with faith in God, their effects will be felt less, and good things would
reach us when
the sins are exhausted. With his foresight, Paramacharya is clear
giving such explanations
for the good and bad that we face in our life.
One of the reasons that he would not encourage
meeting such sinful people who suffer now
is that they would simply look for
pariharas without realising that they have to suffer for
their sins.
I stayed a little distance away from him and kept
on reminding him about giving darshan to
Sethji. He did not give a positive
reply. It was getting late at night. I approached him with
an intention of
taking leave and coming the next morning.
He sensed my thought and said, "Nothing can be
done in his matter! Take him away. Ask
him to be devoted to God, do good deeds
and God will save him!"
I became a little bold and said, "He is doing
such good things for years together now. Is
there no parihara at all?
Everything should have a parihara! Don't our Dharma Shastras
provide vimochanas
for curses and sins? In God's creation, should there not be a parihara
for
everything? You should kindly give him your anugraha." I argued strongly
in favour of
the Sethji.
Paramacharya listened to me carefully, kept silent
for some time and then asked me to
come near him with the words, "If that
is so, come nearer."
"Will he do what I ordain for him?"
"He will do it; I shall ask him to do
it."
"If he doesn't do it?"
"If he does it, let him get prosperity; or
else let him suffer."
"It would require a large amount of money for
what I ordain for him. Can he make it?"
"He is a millionaire. He would even spend all
his wealth to get well."
"He should publish in Sanskrit the eighteen
Puranas in our Veda Shastras in separate
volumes on good paper in good print
and distribute the volume sets free to eligible Vedic
Pundits. Will he do this?
Can he do this?"
"He can. I shall ask him to do it."
"You know the eighteen Puranas? Give me their
names."
I told him the
names in this order:
1.Sri Matsya
Purana
2.Markandeya
Purana
3.Bhavishya
Purana
4.Bhagavata
Purana
5.Brahmanda
Purana
6.Brahma
Vaivarta Purana
7.Brahma Purana,
8.Vamana Purana
9.Varaha Purana
10.Vishnu Purana
11.Vayu Purana
12.Agni Purana
13.Naradiya
Purana
14.Padma Purana
15.Linga Purana
16.Garuda Purana
17.Kurma Purana
18.Skanda Purana
I was happy that my act had a happy ending.
I called Sethji and told him the matter. He was
immensely happy and said, "Yes, I would do
this", as he prostrated to
the lotus feet of Paramacharya, shedding tears. Paramacharya
blessed him
profusely and asked his assistants to give him prasada.
As soon he reached his place of domicile, Sethji
started this task as the first thing. He
allotted an entire floor of his large
building as office for this venture. He called Vedic
Pundits and scriptural
experts from many states, consulted them, and printed the Puranas in
good print
on high quality paper in large-sized books, spending a fortune on the task, and
distributed them free to eligible Vedic Pundits as ordained by Paramacharya.
The word
prem (love) was mentioned in the part of the book that mentioned its
price.
Without checking if his disease was lessening and
without even worrying about if it would
reduce, or feeling skeptical about it,
he was totally and fiercely engaged in the publication
of the Puranas as
ordained by Paramacharya. Seventeen Puranas came out as books, but
there was no
ease in his condition! Even during the days of this Dharmic activity, he took
food only through a hole in his stomach.
As the work on the eighteenth Purana, the 'Skanda
Purana' started, Sethji had suddenly
started eating with his mouth as everyone
did! His tongue got back its tasting capabilities!
He got the bhagyam of his
birth that was not in sight all these days. The cruel disease that
gave him
untold suffering every day and minute was at last cured and gone with
Paramacharya's anugraha.
When I got the news, I met Paramacharya and told
him, "Acharya's Shakti is the Shakti!
Sethji has come alive due to the
boon, the anugraha you gave him! Only Paramacharya's
anugraha saved him, after
he resorted to all kinds of measures. Only you are the God!" I
stood
before him, drowned in gratitude, shedding tears.
The words that Maha Shakti spoke at that time gave
me a darshan of him as the God seen
with my own eyes (Kankanda Deivam).
"It is the Shakti of Dharma Shastras of our
country that has saved him, is it not?" he said.
Neither I nor has anyone
ever heard him declare at any stage that it was his or was done by
him. After
knowing about this miraculous incident, the experts from the Western countries
started crowding to seek His darshan.
This rare incident was narrated by Mukkur Srinivasa
Varadacharyar Swamigal, the man
responsible for Ashtalakshmi Temple in Chennai.
Source: Book Paramacharyar pages 142-151, 1992
edition
Author: 'Paranthaman' (V.Narayanan)
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