Though the whole world is against you ..We are always for you ……… Naattuku Pollan ……Namakku Nallavan …

Nallan was a disciple of Swamy Ramanuja .He was an ardent devotee of LORD VARADAR at Kancheepuram . Attending classes at Ashram of Swamy Ramanuja , his bhakthi towards Lord Varadar increased manifold . Any services for his Acharyar was cheerfully obeyed .

Once it so happened , Swamy Ramanuja had to leave Kancheepuram on an important  mission .  Nallan accompanied till the banks of the river vegavathi and seeked permission to return .

While returning on the banks of the river he found some object floating from a far distance .He moved near the banks and saw a  corpse floating . He looked closely and found the corpse bore vaishnava symbols of discuss and conch on its shoulders . Nallan immediately jumped into the river .He carefully brought the corpse to the shore .

With deep respects he carried out the funeral rites . The ceremony went on well with his  dedication . However his relatives abandoned him . During the final rites  when food was to be  served to the brahmins . No one supported his noble en devour  in taking places .

Exhausted , he prayed his adorable LORD VARADAR to help him ……………………

All of a sudden ,  an  attractive  vedic priest  approached  him . He was looking very handsome  showering opulence .

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Braving himself , he offered his obeisances and requested him to  accept the food being served . The priest smiled  at him and  accepted the honors .

Nallan could not move his eyes from his radiance .He had tears gushing on the priests  humility in accepting his service when the entire village were aghast with his noble act .

At the end , he took his blessings and  thanked him for considering his request , when the whole village were  against him  .The priest replied with a bewitching smile …….

.. Nattuku Pollan ..Namakku nallavan ….. …. ….meaning ….

 Though the whole world is against you ..We are always for  you … and then vanished in thin air ……..

Nallan understood …

It was Lord Varadar who walked down to save him …

 Another incident similar to this took place in Maharashtra few hundred years back . Santh Eknath was an ardent devotee of Lord Panduranga  of Pandharapur . An advanced saint who moved with all  the people seeing Hari in every one .

One day Eknath was performing his ancestral rituals. Two strangers   happened to pass by his house and understood that a feast was being prepared smelling  the aroma in the surroundings . They were discussing that it would be good if they could get this food. Eknath on listening , called them and  offered them the food that was being prepared. They were pleased with Eknaaths humility .

The invited  Brahmans who had come for the ceremony  could not digest the respect given to the strangers  .They immediately left the place on seeing this.  The news spread like a fire .

All  the Brahmins in the village on  hearing  this started speaking ill  for  distributing  the food that was prepared for ancestral ceremony to some out castes before completing the ceremony.

They decided that no one  shall attend the  ceremony . They then  decided  that none  in the village would mingle with him and  have any contact with him .

Eknath had to prepare food again for the ceremony  though it was getting late .  Eknath was now worried that he would not be able to feed the Brahmans after the ritual is over as no one would come to his house .

Eknath  offered prayers to Sri Hari and  started performing the rituals . As no one was prepared to attend the ceremony , he kept the 1st kurcham thinking of Sri Hari .  Lord Vitthal  arrived  and sat down to have the food.

As soon as LORD arrived , other  demi gods  along with  his forefathers who were  invited  during the ceremony came down and took the food directly. After the ceremony ,  they blessed Eknath  and disappeared.

. Another  incident in the life of Santh Namdev is related to illustrate this truth. Namdev along with fellow devotees once undertook the pilgrimage  and brought  the holy water of the Ganga  on return .

This pilgrimage was undertaken at a time when there was no transport available and devotees often undertook the entire journey on foot. The weather was unbearably hot and the terrain they had to traverse tested the endurance of even the most faithful among them.

When they had almost reached their destination they came upon a frail donkey on the verge of dying due to thirst. Everyone except Namdev passed by without any consideration for its predicament but not the saint. He stopped and alleviated the donkey’s misery by quenching its thirst with the holy Ganga water he was carrying with him.

All his friends were taken aback by his act and ridiculed Namdev for throwing away all the merit he would have gained by completing the pilgrimage. No sooner had they chided Namdev the donkey became transformed  to the wonder of his friends. The saint had seen only the Lord suffering in the form of the donkey and hence did not hesitate to offer it water.

True to the unitize vision Namdev had,  LORD HARI  appeared to him at the spot   as he made his offering……

Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita  says , “  A  Yogin is the  one who, out of a sense of identity with others on account of the perception of the same Self in all, feels their joy and suffering as his own………………………

Adapted from a discourse shared by an advanced devotee 

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pics : courtesy google images