It was a saturday as Mala was finishing her breakfast, Bala stood in the backyard and signaled her to come to the coconut grove closeby and vanished. Mala finished her breakfast quickly, gulped a glass of water and hurried outside to meet Bala with jathi malli flowers which she had kept aside to give bala. She took her bike and quickly raced off to meet her.
The whole town had pockets of mango and coconut groves and both mala and bala never used the main road because it was too noisy; they always used the service road which was cut across by this coconut grove. The grove is beautiful and well maintained with a lovely garden in front. The owner of this grove was mala’s father’s friend, kalyana kannu dikshathar who had this land leased out by the temple authorities to his family as they were also the caretakers of several temples in the area.
The land was well maintained with pooja flowers one one side and herbal plants on the other and rows of coconut trees with a small vaikal to pump water to the roots of the trees, it was one of the best places which Mala often visited and she would sit there painting and diksathar mama would sometimes come and sit there to see her paint the beautiful flowers in the garden.
Mala got down from her bike as she reached the gates of the grove and found Bala waiting for her. She waved at mala and mala waved back.
“ What happened? Anything important?
“ No,'' replied Bala, '' I am going to visit a person who is kind and gentle, he is staying in the Rangoon chatram on the main street. Do you want to come?”
Mala knew it was not an invitation but a command, otherwise why would Bala pull her out of the house in the morning?
Mala nodded without a hesitation , as she knew exactly what Bala wanted.
The two girls hopped on the cycle and mala asked : “which way ?”
Bala waved her hand to the right, mala turned her cycle to the right towards the temple main street.
This chatram is for the temple devotees it was built by rangoon chidambaram reddiyar as a welfare measure for tourist, Mala has seen it from the outside, it has big wide steps, steps were on two levels from the main road and the place looks big with huge pillars and the chatram is so popular that in all seasons people come and stay here.
Mala parked her cycle and joined Bala at the stairs. Both the girls went in and Bala went straight into the dorm area and in a corner behind a pillar she stopped. Mala quickly went and joined her.
In front of them was a fragile man in his 40’s seated in a yogic posture, he had thiruneeru all over his body with a jada mudi tied up on the top and a dhoti around his waist, beside him was a small bag folded and neatly kept near him. His eyes were closed, his face was very peaceful, the skin was glowing and it looked as though he was meditating. Bala sat in front of him and signaled mala also to sit. As though sensing their arrival, the man opened his eyes, seeing Bala his eyes grew wider and with folded hands and tears rolling down his cheeks he fell at her feet. Bala touched him and lifting him wiped his tears and mala quickly ran and got him a glass of water. The man drank the water without taking his eyes off bala.
Bala said “ Kandasamy, why did you come here?”
Kandasamy replied “ in search of peace”
Bala asked “ what is peace?”
Kandasamy replied “ I don’t know, am I looking for it amma?”
Bala asked “ if you don’t know something, then how will you find it?”
“ Amma, you know me, I am a scientist, I am trained to search for new things, my discovery gave me happiness but not peace; I wanted more and more of happiness; I was successful; but found no peace in it; it gave me money, name and fame but it did not give me peace. I accumulated wealth for my family, I wanted more but that too didn’t get me peace; so I took to denouncing everything to start fresh, a new path, away from the maddening crowd, I roamed high up the hills and down the deccan plateau, traveled far and wide, the road is tough, I know, searching all the time, but i didn’t find peace anywhere, my guru gave me the mantra to reach out to you, hence this journey,please help me in my journey amma“ saying kandasamy was weeping uncontrollably.
Bala wiping his tears said
“ Listen kandasamy, peace is the end game in the journey of life”.
“I asked you what is peace? You couldn’t explain because we haven’t seen peace like material things; you haven’t experienced peace like the emotions; you haven’t read about peace because those who have attained peace are either disconnected from this world or have attained mukti.”
She paused for a moment for kandasamy to absorb those words and then continued
“ Learned men and women are all on their way to attaining it, reaching out to it,just walking slightly ahead of you, like walking on a highway, they are only few steps ahead, peace cannot be heard,peace cannot be seen, peace can only be experienced, when you reach there”
“ just like you cannot see without opening your eyes, likewise peace cannot be got without experience so go and experience life see where it takes you as you go if you are unable to proceed, she put her hand into her pocket and pulled out something and tossed it in the air,it was small stone glowing like a minmini poochi, it stood in front of kandasamy, he touched it and the next minute it was in his hand.
Bala said “ utter my name and hold it in your hand, it will guide you to your next destination, I will come and see you at your destination, saying she looked at mala, and said:
“ Shall we go?”
Mala nodded, Bala took Mala’s hand and both melted away as kandasamy stood watching…
Padam thodarum…
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