Experiences with Maha Periyava: I am Balaji

During the period when Kanchi Mahan Paramacharya was on his tour of Maharashtra, a Jamindar (a rich landlord) was providing all the necessities and was looking after the conveniences of Paramacharya’s stay there. The landlord had appointed a servant of his to be near the Paramacharya always to attend to His needs so that there were no problems with any of the arrangements.

The young lad’s name was Pawar. The boy provided flawless service and Paramacharya was very pleased with him.

When the camp was nearing its end and Paramacharya was about to leave the place, He asked the landlord, “Can I take this boy with me?” The landlord was overjoyed!! What a big honour it was that a servant of his was going to serve the Mahan!!

He immediately replied,” By all means. Please take him with you. I shall take care of his family. I will see to it that they receive all that they need and then he does not have to worry about his family. Isn’t It??” From that day onwards, that North Indian boy was one of the team at Sri Matham. 

The next camp was at a place that had no facilities of any kind. It was night time and the Matham people had all prepared their food and finished their dinner. It was Paramacharya’s strict order that there should be no fault or shortage in food matters for anyone working at the Matham.

After everyone had finished their dinner, Paramacharya came in and asked each and every person if they had had their dinner. Everyone confirmed that they had eaten. In the end he came out and there Pawar was standing as the sentry at the door.

As he did not know Tamil, Paramacharya asked him by action if he had had his food but he shook his head sadly and said “No”. Paramacharya immediately called the Manager of the Mutt and said, “This boy has come trusting us to take care of him. How come you never had the thought of feeding him? Even if he did not ask, could you not have asked him by sign language if he had his food? All of you have finished your dinner and closed the kitchen. In this remote place, where will he get anything to eat?”

Paramacharya was very angry and bombarded the manager with these questions. The manager immediately told Paramacharya that he would arrange some dinner for Pawar.

After a few minutes, a man came by cycle there with a ‘thookku’ (a vessel that has a handle) in his hand. He said that he had noticed the light in the camp still burning and had come there. When they made inquiries, he said that he was carrying food to a nearby place and had come to see the Mahaan on the way. Paramacharya immediately asked him, “Could you give some food to this person here (Pawar)? The compassionate soul was requesting the stranger for the sake of his employee!!!

That man immediately said, “I have dinner in this ‘thookku’. Let him have it. I will make some other arrangements” and left the thookku there itself and left the camp. When they opened the thookku, they found hot chappathis and sabji (vegetables) that North Indians usually eat!!! Smilingly the compassionate Paramacharya asked Pawar to eat it!! Pawar was moved beyond words seeing Paramacharya’s compassion in asking for food from an unknown person for his sake.

After that day, that stranger did not even come to the camp again or come to collect his thookku (the vessel he had left behind)!!

After Pawar became a permanent employee of the Mutt, Paramacharya became everything for him. Till the time Paramacharya went into his “Menaa” (the palanquin into which he used to cuddle his body and sleep) to sleep, Pawar took care of all his needs.

After many years, Pawar’s family came to Kanchipuram to see the Mahaan. They stayed for a couple of days and had His darshan. Having satisfied themselves here, they wanted to go to Tirupathi for darshan. When Pawar came and told Paramacharya about their wish, he blessed them and said “Let them go happily”.

Inwardly Pawar too had the wish to join them on their trip to Tirupathi. But he