Panduranga - 25

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Thukkaram - 9
       Radhekrishna! Human birth is for realising God. But we seldom aspire for that. We are so immersed in worldly matters that we forget our source itself. We have to divert our mind from the worldly matters towards the Lord. For that again we have to depend on the Lord Himself. The easiest way to attain our aim is namajapam only. Many acharyas have stressed the importance of namajapam. Bhagavan sends mahans among us to prove the power of namajapam. Their charithras inspire us to the divine path. We are seeing the story of Sri Thukkaram maharaj through the past few issues. How he clings to chanting of the holy names at each and every situation he had to face. We saw that his thirst to see the Lord became so intense that he forsook everything and adhered to chanting. The Lord was forced to give him darsan of Panduranga as he wished. 
        Thukkaram could not take his eyes away from the beautiful form. The Lord was pleased with His bhaktha's devotion. Bhagavan made Thukkaram sit on His lap. Bhagavan's karunyam brought tears to the devotee's eyes. He couldn't bear the grace. Both of them lost themselves in each other blissfully unaware of the surroundings. At this time Thukkaram's brother Kanniah came searching for him. He was searching for the bhaktha for the past few days. His search for the bhaktha gave him darsan of bhagavan Himself. He was wonderstruck at the sight of Bhagavan and His bhaktha! He folded his hands and worshiped them both. Bhagavan disappeared suddenly. Kanniah came rushing to his brother and held on to his feet. It is always better to hold on to a bhaktha because that will defintely give us Bhagavan! Thukkaram hugged his brother. Since he had Thukkaram dhyanam in his heart he could experience the Lord through him. "Samsare asmin kshanarthopi sathsangah sevadhir nrinaam". All the efforts to see the Lord was taken by Thukkaram. But just by thinking of him Kannaiah attained the experience very easily!
      Kannaiah invited Thukkaram to his home. Thukkaram was very reluctant to come back to this world. Kannaiah convinced him to come at last. Thukkaram could not be in that atmosphere after seeing the Lord. He took all the promisery notes of many who owed Thukkaram money for the things they bought. Then he proceeded towards Indrayani river. Knowing his intention Kannaiah requested him not to do so. Thukkaram was content with the darsan of the Lord and needed nothing more. But now Kannaiah had the responsibility of looking after the family. He needed money for that so pleaded not to throw them away. Thukkaram laughed and gave half of the papers to him and took the other half with him. He threw them all in to the river. Again returned to the bhandara hills. Nowadays he spent most of his time there only. He would come down to take bath in the river and go to the temple to have darsan of the Lord. The rest of the time would be spent on the hill only chanting. He completely stopped coming home. He spent his nights at the temple. He struggled to win his sleep and kept awake doing chanting. 
        As usual people started criticising him. Kannaiah was looking after the family. Jijayi used to take food to him where he was. Just below the hillock there was a farm. The farmer was cultivating corn in his fields. The corns were ripening so birds kept coming to eat them. The farmer requested Thukkaram to sit there and watch the birds. Thukkaram obliged as he was always reluctant to refuse anything. He always accepted whatever came as Panduranga prasadam only. He took bath in the river had darsan of his Lord at the temple and came and sat down in the farm to continue his chanting. He was expected to ward off the birds which came to eat the corns. Jijayi was searching for Thukkaram to give his food. She got tired looking for him. She entrusted her daughter to search him. The girl at last found him and invited him home for food. He told her that he was taking care of the farmer's field. Jijayi was happy that he was doing some work. 
        His food was daily taken to the field. Thukkaram kept chanting loudly. The birds hearing the sound were scared of him and kept away. Thukkaram saw that and prayed to the Lord to ward off the fear in the birds and let them come there. Well slowly one by one the birds started coming and pecking at the corns. As Thukkaram did not drive them away they started coming in groups. Thukkaram was happy to see them feast in the fields. He told them to come daily there for their food. Now all the birds in the area came to the field and started eating without any fear now. Radhekrishna! Radhekrishna!
       
       
 
       

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