Pesaa Paechu

Theists, pseudo-theists and unsure & confused theists often wonder if God actually communicates with us. In scriptures and history (some prefer calling it, legends), five ways with which He communicates with us are cited and discussed, especially from being in archavataram; The five being - Kurippu Paechu (showing signs in the body, which are noticeable only to the target person), Urakka Paechu (as a dream in deep sleep or while half-asleep), Pesaa Paechu (illusory talk while one is with conciousness), Velippaadu (talking through priest or any other in aavesa) and Purappaadu (actual physical exposition, usually in ekaantham).

Apart from these direct communication with the devotee from being in archavatara, some of us may observe some unexplainable cues which are realised only after their effects are felt. One example I would like to cite was from our trip around Kumbakkonam area, where my mom's wish to go to Nachiyarkoil was fulfilled because of a traffic diversion, after we had turned her down in the first place when she saw the signboard. That indeed was Bhagawadsankalpam; But the one I intend to talk about in the post is a far deeper one.

In my last vacation (Margazhi 08-09), I had a number of temples on my list to visit, and one of the best planned trips was to Pazhayaseevaram, Chettipunyam and Singaperumalkoil. I came across a website for the Pazhayaseevaram and Thirumukkoodal temples, and along with them was a special mention about a Vaikuntanathar temple which was recently recovered (2002-2003), and rebuilt with the anugraham of HH SriMushnam Andavan. At the Padmagiri temple we were directed to go to Thirumukkoodal before going to the Vaikuntanathar temple as the bhattar would arrive late. The temple was in heart of the village. My atthai's chinna maamiyaar lives in the village, but we weren't sure if she was still there. After reaching the temple, my dad threw a long shot enquiring about her, and to our surprise, she lived right opposite to the temple, and it was her cousin, who took up the reconstruction of the temple.

We had to wait quite long for the bhattar to come, and till then, the treasurer opened the temple for me to go around the praakaram. I read from the website (now expired!) that many inscriptions were seen in the recovered portion of the temple, which had information about the old name of the village - Sripuram, which later became Seevaram, and it was Paranthaka Chozan (the second one, the Ponniyin Selvan fame Parantaka Sundara Chozhan) who sponsored the stone structures to the temple and also some information about the local democratic practises in the kingdom at that time. Though I couldn't read any, I did manage to find some writings, and the sculptures in the lower walls, which were lifted up from underground were close to those at Perumal Koil and Maamallapuram stone work.

It was almost 5:30 when the Bhattar came and we had the sevai. While waiting, a Gurukkal from a nearby Sivan temple came visiting the treasurer and gave us the Tiruvathirai prasadam. My parents were so pleased with the temple and everyone around there. We found the temple all complete except for the pathway in the pradakshanam. Dad wrote a cheque with a small contribution to complete the construction. We left Him with some worries that it may be too late when we would reach Chettipunyam. To our fortune, Devanathaperumal Koil in Chettipunyam is open till 8pm only on saturdays, and we managed to get sevai as the last round of devotees for the day. So blissful too was the sevai at Paatalaadri, and the day ended really well, despite brief tensions in the middle.

A week or ten days later, I was to come back to Lansing, and the day before I left was my pay day here. I checked the bank account and found that the dec-jan pay was only half of what it used to be. On my return, I found that my appointment extension did go through for the Spring semester, but there was some mix up with the payroll office that my salary for half of december alone was processed and the appointment from January went missing in their records. The hassle went on into the first week of February.

In the mean time, my dad got a call from Susi paatti, that his cheque was not accepted at the bank for some handwriting conflict, because the payee's name was written by the treasurer and Dad had filled the rest. He asked them to discard that cheque and he will mail a fresh one. It was with the scheduled pay date for February when I got everything resolved and got my paycheque for both Jan and Feb together; and the next day Dad got a call from Susi paatti that the treasurer went to the bank with the old cheque and for no special reason, it was accepted the second time!

(Ref: The five modes of communication was from Sri UVe. Chaturvedi Swamin's lecture)