Mahaperiyavaa life incidences........

A bhakta from Trichy. Photographer. Owned a small studio. In the puja room of his house Kanchi Mahaan's picture would be prominent!

Getting up in the morning, after taking bath, he would keep some offering in front of the picture and pray, and only then would commence his daily work! His lips would be always chanting PeriyavaaL's naamam.

Once Periyavaa visited Kurnool in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It was a hot region, and the sun was radiating intense heat.

This photographer from Trichy got the desire to have PeriyavaaL's darshan. Before he boarded the train that morning, he poured hot milk in a tumbler and kept it as offering before Periyavaa's picture.

The crowd of devotees at Kurnool exceeded the capacity of the place where the sage was staying. Floods of people wherever one turned. Our photographer couldn't make it in from any of the sides. He got up on a heap of sand at some distance and tried to have darshan of PeriyavaaL. The intense heat of the sand scorched his legs. He started to move away thinking that he would have darshan in the evening after the crowd becomes less in number. He had the yearning that he could not have darshan of the sage after travelling this far.

He would have walked a small distance, when it seemed to him that somebody was calling him from behind; he turned to have a look.

A disciple came to him running. "You have come from Tiruchy?"

"Yes."

"Periyavaa asked me to bring you to him."

"Bring me?" The photographer was surprised.

"You are a photographer?"

"Yes."

"In that case, you come with me."

The disciple took the man with him and produced him before Periyavaa. His palms joining, his eyes watering, the photographer stood before the sage, forgetting his outer self.

Looking him over, the Mahaan said, "You come this far to see me. What is the meaning if you go back without seeing me?"

The photographer stammered: "The crowd was heavy. Thought I could come after it lessened..."

"Alright, did you have a meal?"

"Yes, I had."

After pausing for a few seconds, the Mahaan said, "Had a look at my mouth?"

He thrusts his tongue out. It looks red, as if affected by heat! Then he asked: "Even my lips have got blister, you know why?"

The photographer could not understand.

"You kept the milk very hot and came away in a hurry, that is why."

The man from Trichy remembered only then about his hot offer to the sage. He fell at the sage's feet, his eight limbs in touch with the ground and wailed, "Maha Prabhu, kindly pardon me!"

The wealth of devotion that the photographer had and the immense grace of the sage who took the devotee's offer forthwith! It was a bhakti that was sAtvikam (good and gentle), a bhakti that considered God as everything to the devotees