This series chronicles interesting experiences recounted by the devotees of HH Maharanyam Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji. These articles are translations from the series, “Madhuramaana Mahaneeyar” that is published every month in Madhuramurali Tamil monthly magazine. The original article was written by Dr. Bhagyanathanji, Personal Secretary of Sri Swamiji in July 2016 issue.
Mental Peace; Physical Comfort
Every devotee nurtures a deep desire to visit and enjoy the places where his favourite deity lived and performed divine lilas, like Ayodhya, Mathura, Vrindavan, Chidambaram. Mahans are able to perceive the divine sanctity in such places.
Similarly, holy places where saints took birth are also filled with divinity. For a devotee, his Guru’s birth place where he lived is a holy kshetra. To the disciple, the Guru’s holy feet itself is Ganga and Cauvery. Such is the tradition found in India since time immemorial.
The town Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu is in the region of ‘Nadu-naadu’ (literally, ‘middle-land’). There is a Tamil adage that says ‘nadu-naadu saandrOrudaitthu’ (Nadu-naadu is filled with great souls). Vedanta Desika, Swami Gnanananda, Ramana Maharshi, Seshadri Swami, Yogi Ramsuratkumar and many other saints are associated with this region. This Nadu-naadu, which enjoys such great glory, is also the birthplace of our Guru Maharaj.
Recently a group of devotees from Virudunagar satsang decided to visit the house in Cuddalore where Guru Maharaj had lived. But when one of the devotees learned that the train travel would cost one thousand rupees, she hesitated. She lamented, “I deeply desire to go. But, due to my family circumstances, I wonder if this spending is really necessary.” Her friends pointed out to her mahans’ words that sincere spending of money, time, service and articles for the sake of satsang never goes in vain, and encouraged her to come along. Then she consented to join them.
While the thought of visiting her Guru Maharaj’s birthplace filled her with joy, in the train she still felt disturbed over the money spent.
Sri Swamiji’s mother’s name is Savitri. Hence this house where she lived is now named ‘Srimati Savitri Sadanam’ and houses the Cuddalore Namadwaar. The satsang group reached Cuddalore and with loud Mahamantra chanting eagerly entered Savitri Sadanam.
That lady devotee also entered. She prayed wholeheartedly and sang the Mahamantra. She felt her mind glow and felt blissful. All the questions, confusions, thoughts that had filled her mind until then slipped away and dissolved as the Divine Name was chanted. Her eyes filled with tears. Isn’t this peace priceless, she felt. She felt that her entire burden had been lifted off! What joy!
Guru’s grace so casually bestowed the peace that cannot be enjoyed by the mind even through thousands of years of spiritual austerity! Our mind does not have the power of realizing the depth of it; this is the truth.
On the return journey, her mind was totally content. Overwhelmed by joy, she felt, “Can this experience be attained even with several crores of rupees?”
This devotee was in for another pleasant surprise. When her group entered the train, they found their reserved seats occupied by others. It turned out that both sets of tickets showed the same seat numbers! Now what was to be done? Praying to Guru Maharaj mentally the devotees waited for the ticket-checker to arrive.
Checking the tickets, the ticket-examiner, without further ado, allowed the group to travel in the A/C coach! The lady, who had never before travelled in an AC coach was bestowed with the comfort without her seeking it! At the Guru’s birthplace, the mind had found peace; now it was time for physical comfort! Both the mind and the body were cool and soothed.
When we start the journey towards the Guru and Satsang, we have both fulfilled – worldly desires and spiritual needs.
Translated and excerpted from the original Tamil article written by Dr.Bhagyanathanji, Madhuramurali Tamil monthly magazine, July 2016 issue
