Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Experience with Mahaperiayava-"If u know the whole,u can place the parts" Mr Vasudevan Coimbatore

Name Vasudevan.. Originally from Tirunelveli jilla. Grew up and lived in Madras (Chennai). Now, for the last 6 years, living in Coimbatore

[Bharath]: When did you meet Periyavaa first?

Studied in Serfoji College in Thanjavur. In 1962, my second cousin once removed (onnu vitta maamaa) came from Kualalampur for his marriage.

Though the 2 families are pretty close to each other, the would-be groom and the bride had 11 years of age difference. Also, the 'boy' is in a foreign land. These 2 points were sticking out.

So, the elders decided, lets go meet Periyavaa. Whatever he says, we will follow. Since I was around 17-18 years of age, I was their handyman

At this same time, near the would-be bride's house was another family. For their son Subramani, they have seen a bride in Tiruchi. In another 10 days, their wedding is set.

Having heard about this travel to Kanchi, they also decided to come to Kanchi, meet Mahaa periyavaa, give the wedding invitation and get his blessings. We went in 2 cars to Kanchipuram. We went first.

My great-uncle kept both the invitations infront of Periyavaa. Periyavaa engaged in the usual smalltalk.. what is the boy's nakshatiram.. what is the girl's nakshatiram, what is your native etc. After 2 minutes of this conversation, Periyavaa said, "go and conduct the wedding.. they will live a good life"

That bride's dad hesitated a bit and brought up the fact that the groom will be in a foreignland. Periyavaa said that wont be a problem.. He will come to homeland frequently

The bride's mom has a doubt.. The groom and the bride would have 11-12 years age difference. Will there be any trouble due to misunderstanding etc.

Periyavaa said, "no the groom will take very good care of the girl.. the age difference is actually a good thing.. Go and conduct the wedding" So, they got the prasad and returned.

The other family went next and gave the wedding invitation. Periyava took it in his left hand. That groom's dad mentioned about the marriage. Periyavaa said, "stop the wedding".

The grooms dad resisted.. "We have printed all the invitation".. Periyava retorted, "Tear them up".. "The bride's house has put the pandal up.. Periyava said, "take it off". Saying that, he threw away the invitation and sent them away

we were very shocked.. we know the family very well. They said this incident to bride's family. But they didnt want to hear about it.. we set this marriage only after proper horoscope matching etc., and continued with the marriage as planned.

Wedding was on Wednesday in Tiruchi. After the events on Thursday, they took the 11:30 train and came to Thanjavur at 1:30. On the way from the train station to home as they cross the 'palace', the groom complained of..

..a little bit of chest pain and leaned back.. When they reached his house, they have to get only the dead body down.

Our blood froze thinking about how this walking God can foresee this event earlier and advised them!

This was my experience in the first meet itself. This happened in 1962 and I was attracted to Periyavaa after this event.

In 1963, in Thanjavur there was a homam conducted in Bangaaru kamaatchi amman temple. Periyavaa camped for 10 days there

There will be prasad in the morning, there will be homam, Evening there will be kathaa kaala kshebam. It was a memorable event. My uncle ran a restaurant in the town. so, he took the responsibility for providing for all the groceries, vegetables etc.

It was my responsibility to deliver them. The evening before, I will take the list and I have to deliver all of the items before 8A the following morning.

The event happened at the supervision of Kunniyur Samba Sadasiva Iyer. He was one of the 5 rich estate owners around Thanjavur. He was an ardent devotee and stayed for 3 days at the site, without even going home, and was overseeing the function.

The event I am about to describe happened on the 5th day. Usually periyavaa would be ready by 7A after taking bath and he would conduct the chandra mouleesvarar poojai in the morning.

that particular day, I went there late and Periyavaa has not yet taken bath. He was telling his attendees to wait for a bit. I was curious what was happening.

After 10 more minutes, he asked his secretary to go outside and check if there is a person from Kunniyur has come. 5 minutes after Periyavaa said this, a guy came from Kunniyur and said Samba Siva Iyer has expired last night and his family wanted to communicate the news here

After hearing this Periyava said, now arrange for the bath. He was waiting for this news to take bath.

The evening before Periyavaa spoke to Samba Siva iyer and said, "you have been working very hard here. Go home and take rest". When Samba siva iyer resisted that there are important work to be taken care of here,

Periyavaa said, all of this will be taken care of by people who 'remain' here. i.e., instead of saying 'you will not remain', he said it very subtly.

Knowing the time is coming for Samba siva Iyer, without letting any stigma come to the place where homam is getting conducted and at the same time making sure he will spend his last moments with his near and dear, Periyava orchestrated the whole thing so beautifully

this also touched my heart very deeply. In '65-'66, I was in Madras. My friend rangarajan and I will go to Kanchipuram in 2-wheeler at least once in 2 months. we will have periyavaa's darshan, have prasad and return. Couple of events from these trips.

Once we went there, there were 4 chinese people who came there to visit Periyavaa. My friend and I were in close proximity to periyavaa and them. There was also a translator there. Those 4 chinese visitors started talking amongst themselves in Mandarin (or may be cantonese)

Once they started talking amidst themselves, Periyavaa also started talking in the same language. For around 10 minutes, the question and answers were going on in their native language without the translator. After talking, Periyavaa gave them prasad and sent them away.

Even those who work there told me that they don't know the limit of Periyavaa's knowledge (though he has not gone anywhere outside of India). There was an IAS officer who was my acquaintance from Thanjavur by name Mr. Veda Narayanan.

we were recounting this fascinating event outside.. Will we see this kind of visionary anywhere? For us even talking in a second language (English) is difficult.. where did he learn Chinese language from etc.

Then, the IAS officer said, this is the mark of a person who has attained Siddhi. “If you know the whole,you can place the parts”.. What I learnt from this incident is that there is no knowledge that is alien to Periyavaa.

This also made a big impression on me. One time when we went, Periyavaa had acute peptic ulcer. He rested himself up the wall and we can see that he is in pain. His secretaries asked the visitors not to hang in there for prasad.

Do the darshan and keep moving. We stood in a corner without blocking.. There were 2 doctors from Bombay (Mumbai). they ignored the secretaries and told periyavaa, "we take care of all sorts of patients"

we cannot bear to see the pain that you are going through. Just say the word, we will give medications to you. Periyava smiled a bit and took a dried grass in his left hand, put it on the floor and sprinkled some water on top of it and said some chant.

That dried grass started bouncing. Immediately, periyavaa sat erect and engaged them in a conversation as usual without any pain. Once the conversation is over, after sending them off, he put the dried grass into his water pot.

Right then, he again got the acute pain and leaned back on the wall. From the expression on his face all of this was very apparent. He moved the pain in his body around like how we move a pen in our pocket. Then, he said a statement.

I can relieve myself of this pain and transfer this to something else. But for that, I have to take one more life (janma to suffer that pain). Whatever need to be experienced, let us experience the karma (phala) in this life itself.

After this event, one of the next visits, one of our friends joined us. We'd booked a matinee show back in Madras. We planned to have a darshan, eat the prasad and come back in time to catch the 3P show.

That particular day, the crowd was in excess. Periyavaa cameout for darshan only at 12 noon. So, they stopped serving lunch at noon. After the darshan, the time was 1:10. My friends said let's not wait for food. We will be delayed

Having come to Kanchi, after having the darshan of periyavaa, I was a bit upset that we were leaving without partaking of the prasad. But I kept mum and was about to get out through the back door. That time a stranger came running towards us.

Just before we headed out, Periyavaa gave prasad to around 4-5 people and went inside. Only after seeing him go inside, we started out.But the stranger held our hands and said, "Periyavaa asked you 3 to eat before you leave".

The usual practice there is that they will not let anyone in once the serving started. They will be asked to wait until this round of serving is over. But this person took us all the way to the front, made us sit 2 on one side and 1 on the other and have lunch served to us specially.

We came back after eating. How does periyavaa understand what was in my mind. What have I done to deserve such a kind treatment? This event personally affected me.

After marriage, my wife and I visited Kanchi and had his darshan. On the way back, my fuel tank was running on empty. My wife and I were concerned but I was confident that Periyavaa wont let us suffer. Exactly when we reached the entrance of a petrol station, the vehicle came to a stop.. (looking at his wife), "Do you remember that?"

We went again to give invitations related to our kids. For whatever reason, due to prarabdhaa, I didnt get the fortune for seeing Periyavaa more often. But all these events and Periyavaa's form are deeply embedded in my mind.

This is my experience. He has not come in my dream. But we discuss a lot about Periyavaa. Those days, Periyavaa experiences always come in Vikatan, Kalki (Tamil magazines) etc. We can talk for days on those. But I limited to just my personal experience in this video.

I have not gotten the good fortune for him to appear in my dreams. But we always keep Him in our discussions. Very happy to talk to you maama.. thanks.. thanks.