By Sri. S. Kannan
SHIVA LEELA VIBUTHI
It was raining intermittently and the river Vaigai was flooded, its flood waters reaching as far as the beautiful and magnificent temple at the heart of the city. Vaigai is not a perennial river and the flash floods were on account of the heavy downpour during the previous few days. The king of the Pandiyas, Arimardhana Pandiyan was a worried man. He did what every Pandian king before him did. He went to the temple of Meenakshi Sundareswarar and prayed to the Lord Almighty to guide him. In a flash he got the message to scale up the embankment of the river. The king beckoned to his minister and passed on his order “Let the embankment of the river be raised and let all able bodied men, one from each household in the city be commissioned to accomplish this task”. The king had spoken and it was left to the executives to carry out his instructions in letter and spirit.
Out came the tom tommers announcing that all able bodied persons in the city of Madurai have been commissioned by the King to raise the embankment of the river. Men and women came out in the drizzle and leaving whatever they were attending to rushed to the river bank to do their mite to save their city. Only the old and infirm remained indoors.
Vandhi was a poor old woman who earned a living selling ‘Puttu’ a sweet dish made of rice flour, a specialty cuisine of Madurai. She had no family and lived with her petty belongings near the temple tower. She heard the tom tom and turning to the huge temple she prayed “Oh Sundareswara ! Neither do I have the strength in my frail body nor do I have any relative to do the king’s bidding, lest the king’s men catch hold of me and accuse me for not obeying the directives of the king. If they come and ask me who shall I depute on my behalf to work for the king?” The poor lady felt sad that she could not participate in the efforts of the others to save her dear city.
Turning around she found an able bodied youth with a basket and a shovel sitting in front of her. The man asked “Oh dear lady, what have you got here? The sweet smell that wafts from your vessel attracts me and makes my mouth water. Can you give me a handful of this wonderful dish and I shall surely do your bidding”. Looking at the hands and feet of the youth, Vandhi was not too sure whether the youth was accustomed to hard manual labour. As if reading her mind the stranger spoke "Dear grand mother, dont doubt about my capabilities. I can lift an elephant over my broad shoulders if I want to." Vandhi was overwhelmed. Here she had just made her submission to the Lord and as if in answer to her prayers this youth had come and is offering to help her. She immediately caught hold of the hand of the young man and fondly placed a leaf full of fresh, hot puttu. The stranger took his time relishing the delicacy and wanted some more and Vandhi obliged. This happened the third time and the old lady was only too pleased to offer her pudding to the young man whom she considered to be god sent to help her out of her predicament.
Having partaken of three helpings of puttu from the old lady, the youth marched on to the river bank with his basket and shovel hung over his broad shoulders. There he waited as if he did not know what to do. He was prompted by the others around to shovel sand from the river bank into the basket and throw the same at the embankment. The youth picked up his shovel and filling up mud from the bank went to the river and threw the mud, basket and all into the raging river. Then as if realizing his mistake, he jumped into the swirling river waters swam faster than the current and got hold of his basket. He then would swim to the centre of the river and float on the tree trunk being washed away. He would give a cry of joy in being carried by the river current and suddenly turn around and jump into the river and swim back against the current. This sort of playful frolic continued for some time which provided the others with a lot of entertainment and distracted them from their work too.
On reaching the bank, the youth feigned as if he was very tired after the strenuous work and laying the basket to his head lay down to rest and soon was fast asleep. The king’s guards who were supervising the work were observing all this and soon came to the sleeping youth and tried to wake him up but to no avail. At that time the king himself came to the spot to see what was happening and the guards promptly reported to him the antics of this stranger who had come as the representative of Vandhi, the old woman who sells Pittu. The king ordered that the young man be woken up and found that he was not to be awakened by the shouts and entreaties of his soldiers. Annoyed at such obstinacy even in the presence of the king himself, the king in a fit of rage picked up a stick from one of his guards and dealt the youth a good blow on his back and lo! Writhed in pain as the blow fell on himself as well as all the guards and all those assembled in the river bank, nay the blow fell on all living and non living things in the universe. Trees trembled, mountains broke into pieces, planets wobbled in their path, the gods wondered what had hit them and even Uma devi was not spared for were it not the Lord present in all beings and when the Lord was struck a blow, all the beings received the same.
It took some time for the king to recover, and when he did, he did not find the youth there. The river had subsided to a gentle flow and the sun came out shining from behind the clouds. With the hairs standing on its edge, Arimardhana pandiyan fell on his face again and again realizing that he had just been blessed with the sight of the Lord who is dear to behold even for the holy trinity of gods. He felt that he had committed a very grave sin by striking at the Lord with a stick and prayed for his forgiveness. The place where this happened is called Arasaradi (Arasar - king and Adi - blow) in the city of Madurai. He instantly realized that all these had been brought about by his own folly in imprisoning his chief minister Thiru Athavoorar accusing him of embezzlement. He knew that Athavoorar had done no crime and he had only done the Lord’s bidding by renovating the dilapidated temple at Avudaiyar Koil with the funds provided by the king for purchasing horses from the merchants of distant land.
The king rushed to the prison where the savant was kept and falling at his feet begged his pardon. The saint was oblivious to whatever had happened as he was immersed in contemplation of the Lord Sokkanathar (The lord of bewitching beauty). When he came to his senses he found the king and his retinue begging his pardon. The king requested him to return to the palace and take back his portfolio of chief minister, but Athavoorar declined saying that the call has come from the divine. Then the divine voice spoke “Thou shall be known as Manicka Vachagam, the one with speech invaluable for its content like the precious stones. Be dedicated to me and sing my praises.”
rest to follow
OM TAT SAT
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