Amazing incident from the life of MS….

“The noble couple of M.S. Subbulakshmi (MS) and Sadasivam is in a serious financial crisis and need some urgent help. Please plan something to bring them out of this crisis immediately”. In the beginning of 1979 PVRK Prasad, the Executive Officer Of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) received two such urgent telegram messages from His Holiness the Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati and from His Holiness Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai Baba Of Puttaparthi.




Messages like that from holy giants can unnerve any mammoth personality and the poor Prasad was no exception. But what shocked Prasad more at that moment was not the status of the senders but the content of their message.



“What happened to MS and why did she land in such a situation that demanded the intervention of divine personalities?” and why do the divine personalities want Prasad to help?



MS has millions of fans all over the world and they will not keep quite if they come to know that their beloved music queen is going through such a bad financial crisis. However, the noble couple will not accept any unsolicited favor and it is now for the TTD to plan something for her and see that she’s adequately compensated for that. TTD has done that earlier and something similar should be done now and that is also what the holy giants are expecting Prasad to do.



However again, it is not as simple as it sounds and there is no better person than Prasad to understand that. Prasad conducted an immediate inquiry through his official sources in the city of Madras, where the noble couple lives, and found out that “MS and Sadasivam have sold off their Kalki estate in Madras and moved into a small rented house in Valluvar Kottam, a desolate place those days in the suburbs of old Madras.Sadasivam was running a newspaper by name Kalki that unfortunately ran into huge losses forcing the couple to resort to such an extreme measure of selling their huge asset to clear off a large amount of loans”.



This unpleasant information really saddened Prasad, a great fan of MS. Wiping off his tears he stood in front of the huge portrait of Lord Venkateswara with folded hands and made a very humble submission. ”Swamy, singing your bhajans all over the world this great lady served you with utmost devotion so far in her life. Organizing everything for her in time Sadasivam was always there with her at every point.



Although she could have demanded any amount of money from the organizers of her concerts she was always happy with whatever was offered to her. Above all, she has donated most of her earnings to charity and now at this stage of her life is this what you offer her Swamy ? Don’t you think this is unfair? They are also couple of high self esteem and do not seek favors from anyone not even from God.. How do you expect them to lead a normal life hereafter? I am really feeling sad for them now and don’t know what to do. Swamy Venkateswara, it is for YOU to guide me properly and help me in doing something for her immediately.”



Without wasting any more time Prasad called for an emergency meeting of the TTD Board and sought measures from its experts to provide whatsoever relief possible to MS immediately.



Almost all in one voice all the members said “Sir, we are very unhappy and sad to hear about the pathetic state of Smt.MS and Sri.Sadasivam. However sir, it is our duty to remind you that she is already the Asthana Vidwan of TTD and is as such enjoying some honorarium and privileges from us. Although we are all eager to help her in this hour of crisis, we are afraid, there’s nothing more we can do at this juncture sir. TTD is answerable to the ministry of endowments and is not empowered to take certain decisions on its own.”



A real tricky situation arose for the government run body to offer some relief to a great personality like MS who definitely deserves a better and more appropriate attention. But quite miraculously and almost immediately that appropriate attention came from none other than The Holy Lord Sri Venkateswara Himself. And this incident is a standing testimony to that.



That evening a much disturbed Prasad went to offer his last prayers of the day to Lord Sri Venkateswara, the presiding deity of the holy Tirumala temple. After offering his prayers, Prasad was walking out of the main temple and exactly at that time a very small incident occurred there…Quite miraculously; this small incident later heralded a golden era in the history of Indian classical music. As he was walking out of the main temple Prasad found a small group of poor singers sitting right in front of the temple singing bhajans in praise of the holy Lord. As though halted by an invisible hand Prasad stood there for a few minutes. He was spellbound by the amazing talent of those folk singers and more so by their rustic style of singing.



After a few more moments of silent listening Prasad smiled and smiled with a great sense of relief and smiled with an amazing feeling of satisfaction. Watching Prasad smile the holy Lord smiled and watching the holy Lord smile the whole of Tirumala smiled and watching the whole of Tirumala smile the five elements of Nature too smiled. And later those historic smiles scripted an epoch making chapter in the history of Indian classical music that not only provided immense relief to MS forever but also launched her into immortality in the world of devotional music that later earned her a well deserved highest civilian award of India, the “Bharat Ratna”.



The very next morning a much more relaxed Prasad left for Kanchi and met Kanchi Paramacharya in His holy abode. After he was granted private audience by the Paramacharya of Kanchi,Prasad explained Him in detail about his plan of action to offer assistance to MS . Prasad said “Swamy, after receiving your telegram about MS amma I was very disturbed.I called for an emergency meeting of the TTD executive board and asked for suggestions but nothing concrete came out. With a disturbed mind, the same evening I visited Lord Venkateswara and sought His guidance and blessings in helping MS amma immediately. As I was coming out of the holy sanctum sanctorum I saw a group of poor singers sitting in front of the main temple singing Annamacharya keerthanas in praise of the holy Lord. Not only was I spell bound by their devotional singing but also felt immensely light and happy as a great idea to help MS was born in my mind at that moment. I have then decided to visit your Holiness and explain in detail about my plan of action”



As though He knows what Prasad was about to say, Paramacharya smiled and asked Prasad to continue. Prasad continued “Centuries ago Saint Annamacharya wrote and composed a number of keerthanas (raaga based devotional songs praising the divine qualities of Gods) on Lord Venkateswara but only a few of them have seen the light of the day..However there are many more gems groping in darkness that need to be brought out and publicized further. Earlier TTD has done some work in this direction but there is a lot more that still needs to be done now”



Prasad continued “According to my plan, your Holiness,TTD will now identify a few unknown keerthanas of Annamacharya and I on behalf of TTD will personally visit MS and request her to sing those keerthanas for TTD.So far in her career she has only recorded Saint Thyagaraja’s keerthanas and never attempted Annamacharya keerthanas. That way, I am sure she will be impressed with my proposal and will agree to record Annamacharya keerthanas for us. Later, TTD shall sell those records to millions of devotees who visit the holy Tirumala every year. This will generate a lot of revenue and will help MS a great deal as she becomes eligible to enjoy the royalty generated from the sales.After that, her family will never need to look around for their survival”



Pleased with what Prasad has said the ever smiling Paramacharya stated ”Prasad, God expresses Himself in many inexplicable forms and exposes His presence in many mysterious ways. May be the Lord Venkateswara Himself appeared before you in the form of those poor singers you say you have seen in front of the temple..May be the group itself was an optical illusion created by Him.May be those singers are Gandharvas in human form and sang those Annamacharya keerthanas only for you to give you an idea about what needs to be done for MS. May be you are the only one who has seen them or heard them singing. May be those singers have disappeared after you smiled and left the place. Who knows? ”



Unable to believe what the Paramacharya was trying to convey a frozen Prasad remained speechless as His Holiness continued. “Dear Prasad, everything in this world is part of Nature’s cosmic scheme and every worldly act, whether good or bad, has a divine purpose behind it. Do you think God will keep quite when someone who served Him for decades is suffering from pain..?? Since He cannot present Himself before us, He uses tools like you and me for getting His things done..God knows His job pretty well Prasad so don’t be ignorant and do not ever blame Him for anything.”



Still unable to believe what he had experienced, a visibly shaken Prasad prostrated himself before the divine feet of Paramacharya who is revered by many in the world as an AVATAR” (reincarnation)of Lord Siva.



Blessing Prasad, the Paramacharya said “Your idea is brilliant Prasad.. MS has millions of fans all over the world and they will come running to help her in this hour of crisis. But MS and Sadasivam are a very reserved couple with an unimaginable degree of high self esteem and honour. So far they lived life on their own terms and will never accept any unsolicited favor not even from God. So be careful. They should not think you have come to them to offer financial assistance. If they smell it they will reject your offer outright. This is a sensitive situation, so handle carefully. Good luck”



Later things moved in quick succession and it didn’t take much time for Prasad to get the necessary approvals for the proposed Annamacharya music album project from the TTD Board. Ramesan, the then chairman of the TTD board was very much pleased with his executive officer’s idea as he felt that it will not only empower the TTD Board to help a legendary divine singer like MS in her hour of crisis, but will also provide a great deal of publicity to many hidden melodious keerthanas of Saint Annamacharya…



One fine morning, carrying a neatly packed portrait of Lord Sri Venkateswara,Prasad along with Ramesan and a couple of other officials went to the small rented house of MS in Madras. First, MS’s husband Sadasivam came out. Ramesan handed over the portrait to him and Sadasivam very happily received it with a warm “thank you very much”. Then Prasad explained Sadasivam in detail about the reason behind their visit to the house of the noble couple.



Prasad said “Maastaaru,you know pretty well that TTD does quite a lot of promotional activities to promote rich Indian culture and traditional values. Now we want to actively promote many Annamacharya keerthanas that are so far unknown to the world..Our plan is to bring out a five volume LP records (Long Play microgroove record used for recording sound in analog format for gramophone records in olden days) containing some rare Annamacharya keerthanas. Each volume may have up to ten keerthanas and all in all there may be about fifty keerthanas in the whole album.”



Initially Sadasivam felt very happy with the offer but rejected it when he came to know that the keerthanas are written in Telugu language. He said “Our sincere thanks to TTD for coming up with this offer but you know pretty well that M.S likes to have command over the language she sings in. Though in Telugu, she has still recorded many Thyagaraja keerthanas earlier as she was practicing them since her childhood. However, to do the same now at this age will be very difficult for her since she never practiced Annamacharya keerthanas so far and it will be a herculean task for her to do it now..She needs at least one week time to practice one Telugu keerthana and you say there are about fifty keerthanas for which she may need almost an year…At this age of sixty three it’s not fair to trouble her with such a strenuous job…It doesn’t work Prasad and am very sorry for that.”



As the problem came back to square one, Prasad started feeling jittery and nervous. With all the helplessness in the world he gave a blank look at Lord Venkateswara in the portrait lying in front of him. And it was exactly at that moment, the Great Music Queen walked In Prasad and other TTD officials quickly got up in her honor and greeted her with folded hands. Requesting them to feel comfortable she then looked at the portrait of Lord Venkateswara that was kept on a small table in front of her.



What happened later was a scene to be seen to be believed. With extreme devotion MS immediately picked up the portrait with both her hands; closed her eyes for almost a minute; offered silent prayers to her beloved Lord Venkateswara in the portrait; later with tears running down her cheeks she gently placed her head at His holy feet saying in a low tone “Perumaal,ennai aasirvadhikka ithana dhooram neengale vandhuttela .. ??” (Tamil) (Oh my Venkateswara did you come all the way to bless me).



What a voice? What a devotion? And what a total surrender to her Lord Perumal? How did she get it and where did she get it from..??But why is that hidden pain in the great singer’s voice..??What happened? Is it due to the poor and stress filled conditions this evergreen queen of music is forced to live in for some time? Hey Bhagwan, what a painful time for this great lady?



Prasad who has grown up listening to MS’s devotional songs could not stand the pathetic condition of his favorite music queen, who in her times of glory walked many Red carpets around the world, now standing in front of him in a simple cotton saree.He was finding it extremely difficult to control his emotions but a tear drop still emerged at the right corner of his left eye, which he silently erased before someone else noticed it.



In the meantime Sadasivam gave a brief explanation to MS in Tamil about the Annamacharya music album proposal from TTD. She immediately said”..It’s a God sent opportunity to me and am ready to face any hardships to accomplish this task.I have got a chance to offer my services to Perumal and I will not let this opportunity go” With her firm statement MS brought smiles on everyone’s face there.



After a lot of deliberations it was decided not to burden the music queen with too much of practice and confine Annamachaya keerthanas only to first three LP records and then fill the rest of the two records with great Sanskrit literary works of other divine personalities.



Thus according to their revised plan the Annamacharya music album shall contain three LP records with rare Annamacharya keerhanas like Brahma kadigina paadamu, Naanaati batuku naatakamu,Jo Acyutananda Jojo Mukunda,Sri Mannarayana and a few more gems.



The other two LP records shall include Ganesha Pancharatnam, Madhurashtakam, Gita Govindam, Nama Ramayanam, Hanuman Chalisa, Lakshmi ashtotram, Sri Venkateswara Karavalamba Sthotram, Govindashtakam, Kanakadhara Sthavam, Durga Pancharatnam, Ranganadha Gadyam, Dwadasa Sthotram and Sivashtakam.



After all the discussions related to the music album are over, then came the most crucial phase of finalizing remuneration to the music queen which Prasad was feeling very nervous about.



Since that was the main motive behind their gathering there, Prasad mustered some courage to initiate the dialogue by saying “Amma,we are all very happy that you have agreed to take up this assignment. .May your Perumal’s blessings be with your family forever..Now with your kind permission Ammaa, I would also like to discuss about the remuneration” Prasad has not yet completed the sentence…



The music queen quickly interrupted him saying -”What remuneration? ? No remuneration .It’s a service to Perumal and am honored to get this offer.Don’t bring money in between. I will not take a single rupee for this work.”



A fully sweat filled Prasad looked worriedly at every one of his colleagues. They were all looking at him with a request to carry their burden too. Prasad knows pretty well that these are the most crucial and sensitive moments the Paramacharya cautioned me about. Folding his hands and silently offering his prayers to Lord Sri Venkateswara, Prasad started saying in a very humble tone “Amma,I agree fully that you are offering your services to your Perumal and who am I to put that to question..I also have a great respect for your feelings and your devotion towards Perumal. However Amma,I have a very humble submission to make and I hope you appreciate and understand me for that..”



MS was listening to Prasad quietly. Prasad continued.”Amma,TTD is not going to donate this album free of cost to every devotee visiting Tirupati..In fact TTD is planning to promote this album in a commercial way by selling it across all its counters in India and abroad.This will generate a lot of money for TTD and we are only requesting you to take a little amount of money from it as you are

legally entitled to receive that. The holy body of TTD is not in a position to take the services of a great devotee like you free of cost and later be blamed for that”



As everyone was listening to him, Prasad continued with folded hands. “Amma,as the executive officer of TTD am also a humble servant of Lord Venkateswara and will always be answerable to Him for every work done in the organization..I also feel that this album is the design of your Perumal Himself and that is why we are all here today. Anyways Amma, I am like your son and I said what I wanted to say. Please forgive me Amma, if you find anything wrong in what I have conveyed, I now leave the decision to you and your Perumal.”



The absolute honesty in Prasad’s emotion filled voice impressed everyone there including the noble couple of MS and Sadasivam. There was an echoing silence there for about a few minutes with blank faces staring at each other.



Finally the ice was broken as the music queen smiled and agreed with Prasad’s view point. Prasad looked thankfully at the portrait of Lord Sri Venkateswara that is there in front of him. After discussing a few more points the historical meeting concluded on a positive note leaving every one there with utmost satisfaction.



Finally Prasad shot the million dollar question.”What should be the title of this Annamacharya music album?” Prompt came the reply from the music queen-“Balaji Pancharatnamala”



EPILOGUE



Later HMV recording company entered into an agreement with TTD to market the proposed music album “Balaji Pancharatnamala” and agreed to bear with all its recording expenses. As part of their understanding TTD immediately deposited rupees four lakhs in the name of MS, two lakhs in the name of Sadasivam and one lakh in the name of their daughter Radha Viswanathan who will also be taking part in the music album project. This amount will be kept in a fixed deposit and the accrued monthly interest will be going to them as long as they so desire.



After successfully completing its recording in 1980, the album”Balaji Pancharatnamala” was simultaneously released all over India in an unprecedented fashion…While the first LP was released by the then President of India Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, the second was released by the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Rest of the three albums was released by the chief ministers and governors in their respective states. The fifth album was released by the Peetadhipathis of various Peethams spread all over India.
In the very first year of its release the “Balaji Pancharatnamala” album received tremendous response from all over India generating a record amount of revenue recovering the entire money spent on it. This album went on to break all the previous records in India making MS a household name all over the country.
In 1998 the government of India honored MS with the country’s highest civilian award the “Bharat Ratna” for revolutionizing devotional music in India and also for earning global recognition to Indian classical music. Unfortunately Sadasivam was not there to witness this once in a life time event as he passed away just a year before that in 1997.
Most of the literary masterpieces by great sages would have remained unknown to the world if they were not given that magical touch by the mellifluous golden voice of MS.
Finally on 11th December2004, leaving behind a legacy of devotional classicism and leaving every music fan in an emotional sea of tears and melancholy, music queen MS left this human world and entered the holy abode of her beloved Lord Perumal and remained there rested in

peace at His divine Lotus feet.

Rice bags donation to Rameshwaram

Since the beginning of 1964, Paramacharya asked the rice donors to send the rice bags to the Rameswaram branch of SriMatam. This seemed rather strange and the manager took exception to the excessive collection of rice bags at their Rameswaram branch. There were even occasions that suggested that the manager was not at all happy with the decision and might have an argument with the sage. Paramacharya, however, was adamant, and ensured that 250 bags of rice were stocked in their Rameswaram branch.


During the month of December 1964, Rameswaram was hit by a severe cyclone. The Pamban bridge was uprooted and Dhanushkoti town sank in the ocean. It became impossible to send food supplies to the Rameswaram island, overcoming the rage of the ocean.

The 250 bags of rice that was stocked by Paramacharya in the Rameswaram branch of SriMatam helped to fill the stomach of thousands of people who suffered from the nature’s fury

Annadhanam to the Kurava clan

A wealthy landlord in Thanjavur district had undertaken the biksha on that day. Paramacharya had ordered him to prepare a large number of laddus.


Only a small group of people which included SriMatam officials and the family and relatives of the host was present for the dinner on that day. The landlord couldn’t understand the reason for the large number of laddus. Perhaps Paramacharya wished to send the pack to an orphanage or a vedic institution, he thought.

Contrary to his wont, Paramacharya supervised the diner’s rows. He ordered for serving two and more laddus to each diner, even if they were in excess, ignoring the individual’s protests.

After making another strange announcement, Paramacharya went to his room. The anouncement was that it was not compulsory to eat all the laddus though Periyavaa himself ordered it, and that the excess numbers might be wasted!

Nobody could understand the strange announcement from Paramacharya who usually advises children that anna lakshmi should not be sent to the dust bins. Everyone had to leave the excess number of laddus on their banana leaves.

Since it was an order from Paramacharya, the laddus were made professionally, embedded with cashew nuts, dry grapes, clove, and cardamom. Now these embeddings from the leftover laddu globes were winking at the landlord, who tried to pacify his mind that Paramacharya wouldn’t order anything without a valid reason.

Later, during his conversation with the host, Paramacharya told the landlord, “Go and check the backyard where the leftovers are thrown.”

When the landlord went to the backyard, he saw familes of the kurava clan avidly eating the left over laddus. As they saw the landlord, they heartily thanked him for the tasty dish that was never before served to them.

The landlord felt happy and grateful. When he returned to Paramacharya, the sage said, “As per their kula dharma, these kurava clan prefer only ucchishtam. They wouldn’t consent to have an anna dhanam. Such is the rule among them. Don’t they have the same mouth and stomach as we? It occurred to me to give them the same kind ofladdus that we have in our dinner. And I thought only you could do it well. Now, only you have their good wishes.”

Maha Periyava and a foreign visitor

Once a foreigner interested in the philosophy of Hinduism was waiting

for darshan of Mahaperiyaval at Kanchi to clarify his doubt. Shortly,

he got his appointment and without wasting time, he put forth his

question.

“Swamiji, I understand all your concepts, value them but for one

particular faith (i.e) same soul taking various births, papa, punya

being carried forward to the next births etc…Can you please make me

comfortable on this aspect?”. Because, in all our religions, we get

the reward for what we do in this birth only. (i.e) if we are honest,

God is pleased and blesses us with benefits and we are dishonest, we

get punished by Him.

At this point, Periyaval asked him, whether he owns a car and if he

could do a favour of collecting some statistical information within

Kancheepuram using his vehicle. The guest readily agreed, at the same

time wondering why his question was not answered spontaneously.


Please, swamiji, go ahead, “What is the service you expect me to do now?”.

Periyaval said, ‘Please go around 10 maternity centres within

Kancheepuram and collect the data of children born within the last 2

days – Child’ s gender, health condition, parents name, status,

educational qualification, time of birth.

The man said “Fine, this is nothing, immediately rushed in his car

like Lord Muruga goes in Thiruvilayadal and within a day he was back

in the matam with exact statistics in front of Mahaperiyaval. He went

through the statistics, about 15 children were born in 10 hospitals, 8

female and 7 male infants, out of which 3 children had malnutrition

defects, 2 children were the first child of highly rich parents born

in luxury hospitals while 4 were children of coolie labourers who

already had few children.

Mahaperiyaval now looked at the gentleman and started asking few questions:

Do you think any of these children have been honest / dishonest within

2 days of their birth? Probably they could not even recognize their

own mother. So, they have neither earned papa or punya in this birth..

According to your concepts, all these children should be living

exactly identical to each other, but not so practically – some are

ill, some are healthy, some are born to rich parents, some are born to

poor parents –

Remember all children born in the same day, same longtitude, latitude,

you can’t blame their horoscope which is going to be almost

identical….

The gentleman was dumb folded!

It is here the concept of previous birth erupts! All these children

have taken their present birth according to their deeds(karma) and the

resultant papa, punya which they have assimilated in their previous

births.

Sanatana Dharma was smiling at the gentleman through Maha Periyaval.

A Russian Scientist’s experience with Kanchi Maha Periava (Sri Chandrasekara Saraswathy Swamigal)

A Russian Scientist’s experience with Kanchi Maha Periava (Sri Chandrasekara Saraswathy Swamigal) Many years ago, some Russian scholars had come to Chennai for a research on Hindu culture. Maha Swami was then camping at Mylapore and so they had darshan of Him and took many photographs of Him. They gave the photographs to the Russian Ancient Culture Academy in Russia also.


In 1987, Russia held a festival of Indian Culture in the Soviet Cultural Academy in Chennai. Dr.Padma Subramanyam (PS) gave a lecture on Bharatham, Kutchipidi, etc. Then, she was invited to Russia, where she met Prof.Ribakov, who was the chief of Russian Scientific Academy and Russian Ancient Culture Institute.

She was surprised to see a portrait of Maha Periava in his room. When asked, he said it was given by a friend who had visited Him in Chennai and he also wanted to meet Him and clarify a few doubts. Subsequently, he came to Chennai and Dr.PS accompanied him to Kanchipuram. But, Maha Swami was down with fever and the sishyas said they cannot meet Him. They were disappointed and didn't know what to do.

Just then another sishya came to them and said that Periava asked them to come in. They went in, and Prof.Ribakov and Periava kept looking at each other for a while. Then, Dr.PS asked the Prof to clarify his doubts. But the Prof said that all his doubts have already been clarified.

Now comes the best part. Periava asked 'Russians speak their language mixed with Sanskrit, but in Northern Russia do they speak the language without any mix of Sanskrit?' Ribakov was surprised and said 'yes'.

Then Periava said, ' you say Russia now. In the ancient times it was known as Rishivarsham. You know why? That is where Rishis like Yagnavalkiyar were running a Vedic Research Center. Then he spoke about the history of Russia at length. Then the Prof said that he wanted to become a Hindu.

Periava said 'you already are'. But the Prof insisted on a Hindu name for him. Periava laughed and said ' he has grey beard like Rishis. So, from now on his name is Rishi'.

Well, that Rishi, runs a branch of Ramakrishna mutt in Moscow now.