STORIES FOR THE INNOCENT by C. RAJAGOPALACHARI

Author:C. RAJAGOPALACHARI [RAJAGOPALACHARI, C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Published: 2022-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER – 12: THE GODS ARRIVE

SUNDER CHETTIAR was a cloth merchant. He began his business with a small capital and through his honesty and prudence made a good fortune by it. His wife Minakshi was a very pious lady. She followed the old traditional rules of life, including a strict fast every fortnight on Ekadasi day. At noon everyday she would come out of the house, scatter rice to the crows and sparrows and then sit down for her meal. Chettiar treated his wife with great respect. He believe that his business prospered only because of his wife’s piety.

“Jai Sitaram!” A middle aged man in the garb of an ascetic, brightness in his face and a begging bowl in his hand, entered Chettiar’s house with this cry.

It was the day before Dipavali. Chettiar’s wife welcomed the ascetic with both hands full of rice. The venerable man said: “I do not want rice. Give me cooked food, if you have it.”

“The cooking will soon be over. Please wait a while,” she said and placed a plank for him to sit on.

When the ascetic had been served and his meal was over, he said, “Madam, you will never suffer from want. You are virtuous and devoted to your husband. I will teach you a sacred mantra. If you rub oil on your head and bathe and repeat this mantra, you will see your ancestors, heavenly beings and sages.”

Sundar Chettiar’s devout wife was enraptured. She learned the mantra. She got up very early next morning, anointed herself and bathed and repeated the mantra a thousand and eight times as the sage had instructed her. As soon as she had done so, she heard a great welcome shout and the sound of conches. There was a big crowd in front of the place of worship where splendid seats were arranged in a circle and occupied by great beings with radiant faces.

She saw her great grand-father, her husband’s great grand-father and many others. There was one with a flute in his hands, who appeared to be the god Lord Krishna. Beside him stood one with a great bow in his hand looking like Rama. Next to him stood the aged sage Vashishta. Balarama was also there, carrying his plough. There, too, was the other terrible ‘Rama’ with the battle-axe. On another side, Bhima, Arjuna and Dharmaputra were seated. Wherever she turned her eyes, she saw rishis and the great men of sacred India. They appeared to change their forms, sometimes appearing as one and sometimes another. The place was so crowded that there was no space ‘for even a seed of sesamum to get through and fall down.’ At this sight, Minakshi was enthralled and fell into a swoon crying “Narayana!”

Hearing his wife’s cry, Chettiar came running down the stairs from the first floor. He did not understand what he saw. “Who are these people assembled here in strange garb? Who has staged this play?” he asked himself as he looked round. Being a cloth merchant, he naturally turned his attention first to the clothes that everybody wore.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.