To reaffirm the faith of HIS devotees, LORD conversed with HIS devotees time to time .
There are three incidents which our Elders keep saying about the compassion of OUR Supreme LORD in temples .Srirangam Sri Ranganathaswamy Kovil and Tirumala
At Tirumala – Tirupathi, Lord Venkateshwara used to converse with the King Thondaman Chakravarthy . In Kancheepuram, Lord Vardarajar used to converse with his dear devotee Swamy Tirukachi Nambigal who used to fan him daily .
Similarly at Srirangam Lord Ranganathar used to converse with “Tiruvilakku pichan”the temple servant who used to light the lamps in the temple .
It is a general practice all the devotees surrender to LORD and express their gratitude pain and love for the LORD in this material world.
Few devotees develop extremely intimate relationship with the Lord conversing freely and interact almost daily treating him as a human friend.
At Srirangam , there lived a man who was serving at temple . His job was to light all the lamps at the huge temple of Srirangam .
He used to keep the lamps topped with oil and ensure they were maintained in perfect condition . Under constant vigilance he had to ensure the lamps are lighted effectively without any flaws.
He had free access to enter the temple and light all the temple lamps being the temple servant . He had a peculiar habit of addressing the LORD daily about how his day was and was he treated well .
It was almost routine especially during festivals when LORD had to be amongst HIS devotees . For his behaviour he earned a title Pichan ( mad person ) . Unmindful of whatever people spoke of him he continued to greet the LORD and converse with utmost sincerity and faith .
Lord Ranganathar also got used to HIS devotee’s greeting . Days became months .Months turned to years .Lord out of abundant mercy wanted to reply to HIS dear devotee .
It so happened one day Lord spoke from his Archa thirumeni ,and this also happened regularly .Lord was answering his dear devotees queries .It was more of vatsalya bhavam inquiring the well being of each other . There was no barrier in the divine exchange of speech .A lowly employee of the temple speaking to the LORD who was replying too .To the devotees who were witnessing this man standing before the LORD and apparently talking to himself appeared to be a mad person conversing with himself and they called him “Picchan” ( a mad man). Combining his job title and popularity of remaining , he came to be known as “ThiruviLakku Picchan”.
One day, while carrying out his daily chores , Picchan conversed with the Lord about the great people and the huge crowd attending the festival in the temple .
There is another pastime which installs absolute surrender to LORD in Archathirumeni . The great Acharyar Swamy Nampillai was delivering a lecture in the mandapam inside the temple and as usual our Thiruvilakku Picchan was standing in front of the sanctorum with a lamp in his hand. Lord was so impressed hearing Swamy Nampillai’s divine discourse which made him get up and wished to be among the august gathering hearing the divine discourse
Suddenly , Thiruvilakku Picchan saw a huge personality near him and realizing that it was LORD himself , he requested LORD to relax and not do this and remain in his original Archa Swaroopam . LORD politely obeyed his devotees concern……………
All glories to this great devotee who had the fortune to enjoy such intimate relationship with the Lord himself who listened to Him .
Sri Venkatadri shikaralaya kalamegam
Sri Hasthisaila sikarojwala parijatham
Srisannamami sirasa Yadhusaila deepam
Adiyen Ramanuja dasan
Photos credits : Google
Video credits : Tamil gold channel
