Since childhood, SriCharanar was, by nature, kind hearted and of a friendly disposition. After ascending the ‘Guru Peetam’ at the age of thirteen, He received formal education on Vedas (Vidhyapyasam); He told me that He got great motivation for His ‘Penance of Love’ (Maithreem Thapas) during this time. (He would never say ‘motivation in Maithreem Thapas’ in so many words; only we should infer and interpret that way !).
In His Vedic education, He was specially introduced to the history of Divine children such as Prahladhan, Dhruvan, Markandeyar and so on. They taught Him the original Puranas with meaning. The objective of such a system was to inculcate knowledge of Samskrit, knowledge of Puranas, and Good conduct in the sishyas (disciples). (After this the Child sage voluntarily learnt ‘Periya Puranam’ ‘Upamanyu bakthi vilasam’ and through them the life history of Thirugnanasambanthar ).
The histories of Dhruva and Prahladha were taught not only based on Srimadh Bagavatham, but also on Vishnu Puranam. An incident in the history of Prahladha found in Vishnu Puranam touched His inner mind and soul deeply and strengthened His belief in ‘Maithree Thapas’ (Penance of Love).
Hiranyakasipu, father of Prahladha, tried many ways such as poisoning, pushing down from the hill top, stamping by elephants, in order to get rid of Prahladha. But none of these proved useful in fulfilling his objective. Later, he called his purohits and ordered them to perform exorcism to get rid of his son. They obeyed and performed. An apparition called ‘Kruthya’ emerged from the Yagna fire.
But, instead of attacking Prahladha, it attacked the purohits and killed them !
Prahladhan, the embodiment of friendship and love, was terribly sad. He prayed to Vishnu to bring them back to life. On what justification, he could ask for rebirth to those evil minded persons ? He could not ask based on any of their good qualities.. Therefore, he mentions something about himself and pleads with Vishnu. What is that ?
“தேஷ்வஹம் மித்ரபாவேன ஸம: பாபோஸ்மி ந க்வசித் !
யதா தேனாத்ய ஸத்யேன ஜீவந்த்வஸுர யாஜகா: !!
(Although they did a lot of atrocities to him ) “ I learnt from them only the quality of friendship; I never had any evil feeling towards them; since this is true (sathyam), then for that sake at least, let them become alive so that they can perform yagnas for my father.”—He says.
They, thus, got back their lives.
“The fact that that child, exhibited love and friendship towards those who tried to kill him, without any sort of ill feeling towards them, and brought them back to life, was etched deep in my inner mind. I thought that this was the biggest lesson to be learnt from ‘Prahladha Charithram’ (history of Prahladha).’-----said SriCharanar after many many years.
TO BE CONTINUED……………………
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