It is eight on a weekday morning – the part of the day when homes are bustling with routine chores in a race against time. Yet when the melodious ‘Kanchiyin Karunai Kadaley’ song on ‘Pudhuyugam’ channel wafts in through the box, the instinct is to rush in to catch the five-minute show, ‘Anushathin Anugraham,’ appealingly presented by the well-known, religiously-inclined writer, Indira Soundarrajan. From Monday to Friday he takes you through significant incidents in the life of Mahaperiyava, the Sage of Kanchi, and leaves you with some food for thought through the week.
Periyava never proclaimed to be God. Nor did he ever speak of miracles, but the devout could feel the aura of godliness he was enshrouded in. The divine interventions and occurrences in the lives of devotees who sought Periyava for solutions to their agony, had nothing to do with him, he would say.
Once, Sankaracharya was walking through a drought-hit village in Andhra Pradesh. It was early morning and he looked for a pond to bathe. The place was absolutely barren, but soon he found a puddle. The villagers were shocked. “We’ll get you water. Please don’t get into this dirty water,” they said. “It will do me no harm,” he said and walked into it. When he was moving towards the next village, the people from the place where he had travelled came rushing behind him with fruits and grains in their baskets. Seeing them following him, he stopped. The group prostrated at his feet and said that suddenly the puddle had become such a sizeable water body that they had to channel the surplus water into the dry fields nearby. “Your benevolence has saved our village, Swami,” they said. Periyava smiled, “I did nothing. It must have been a mere coincidence,” and trudged ahead.
Empathetic person
Soundarrajan also dwelt on the saint’s love for all living creatures, be they insects, animals or humans. On another occasion his followers were very agitated when they saw leeches sucking into the Sage’s leg. “The creatures are drinking your blood,” they cried and ventured to pull them out. He stopped them. “Don’t harm these insects. Should they take our permission before they have their meal? Do you seek permission when you pluck fruits from a tree?” They looked at him with astonishment as he waited for the leeches to have their fill. Soundarrajan fills the few minutes with such mesmerizing anecdotes!
Thus ‘Anushathin Anugraham’ exemplifies the godliness of Periyava and extols the greatness of a virtuous being who loved everyone alike. Short and succinct, the five-day five minute sojourns are worth your while.
On certain days Indira Soundarrajan pauses at an interesting juncture in an incident. We have to wait for the rest of the story till the following morning – perhaps a ploy to ensure that the viewer returns to Pudhuyugam at 8 a.m. sharp, the next d day!
