XIII§
Swamigal did not undertake outstation journeys for long time after He returned from His walking pilgrimage to Kathirgamam. Swamigal used to mention that He got no permission to go out of Jaffna Peninsula. He would travel south up to Murukandy Pillaiyar Temple and return.§
As far as we know only after 1928, Swamigal began to travel to Kandy and Colombo. He took those journeys for the wefare of the devotees there. In the early days, had mentioned before, Justice M.S. Elayathamby used to accompany Him. Swamigal considered him as the right person to accompany him during travels. M.S. had simple taste for food and cloth. His normal clothing was a single wrap veshti in the waist and a towel on shoulders. Very rarely, he wore shirt. He had the willpower to handle any situation. Moreover, he was very jovial. Even in his final moment, he was cracking jokes; he told the Brahmin who came to receive alms, “Sir, I am going to go there (I am going to die), if you have any message to your father, tell me, I will convey that to him when I reach there.”§
Local and nearby people will come to see Swamigal whenever He visited a place. A big Homa would be done at the place where Swamigal stays.§
Swamigal once visited Malainadu, hill region, about which Scholar Padmasani Rasenthiram had narrated in Sivathondan an incident as follows: “Once we went to see Swamigal with a desire in mind to go on a pilgrimage to India. Swamigal said, “Discard India pilgrimage. We will go some place and stay there for ten days.” On the same evening we left with Swamigal. Along the journey Swamigal said we would just go and stay in a comfortable place. On the way in Ratnapura we stopped at a devotee’s house briefly for ten minutes. After tea, He wanted us to leave without delay. From there, we straight proceeded to Belihuloya. An overseer there did all arrangements for us. We all stayed in the building of the Village Association. Devotees from Colombo, Balangoda, and Ratnapura came and assembled there. In the morning and evening we recited Siva Puranam, Thevaram, and Thiruvasagam and the rest of the times we spent listening to Swamigal’s discourses. Those ten days went by happily with the group of devotees. Swamigal preached to all of them according to their level of understanding.”§
Among the places where Swamigal stayed in outstations, specific mention must be made about Swamigal’s stay in Peradeniya Sugar Cane Plantation where the present Peradeniya University is located. For more than ten years, Swamigal visited this place every month, each time staying up to three days. Swamigal stayed in the house of Mr.Velupillai, brother of Scholar Navali Somasundaram, whom, we had mentioned earlier. Swamigal had also been to Kadugannawa when Mr. Velupillai lived there. The day when Mr. Velupillai was transferred to Peradeniya, Swamigal had visited him along with Mr. M.S. Elayathamby. The house in Peradeniya was comfortable except that the toilet was located near the kitchen and as such Mrs. Velupillai did not like that house. When Velupillai was worried about the house and the toilet facilities, Swamigal visited him. Swamigal requested one of His devotees Mr.Kandaiyah, who was an overseer in Kadugannawa to solve the problem and he made toilet facilities constructed in a different location in single night.§
After some time, Mrs. Velupillai and their children moved to Jaffna in conjunction with the children’s study. Mr. Velupillai and his servant alone stayed in that house, so it was convenient for Swamigal to stay there. That house transformed to look like an Ashram. Mr. Velupillai had recorded Swamigal’s stay there in Sivathondan (Vol. # 3 & Issue #11).§
I wanted to describe in Velupillai’s own words how Swamigal cured him from a severe disease. “One afternoon around 3pm, I became dizzy and did not recover till night 7 o’clock. Lord’s son had sent 2 doctors who treated me with medicine. I gained consciousness but, I was not able to get up or understand what was happening to me. At 8 o’clock in the morning Swamigal came by a coach. He said, “I have brought three medicines for you”. He came near me and stroked my head with His compassionate hands uttering ‘Sivayanama’ the sacred syllable. Next day Swamigal said, “Look here, I will show you Chidambaram Darshan and started dancing for five minutes with his one foot down, the other foot raised and hair unfolded. On the third day, He had brought with Him a medicine which He gave me mixed in warm water. I recovered on the fourth day.” I told this miracle incident to Dr. Ramanathan, the president of Kambala Hospital. He said, “that dance is a wonderful Miruthiyunjaya dance, a death has been avoided”.§
Swamigal was staying with Mr. Velupillai. One day He went for a walk in the garden with Velupillai. After walking a short distance, Swamigal raised His hands over His head worshipping a hill near by. Velupillai also did that without really understanding. Swamigal explained, “God’s presence is there, and Saraswathy is playing here (in the garden).” After Swamigal said this, the Peradeniya University was established in the garden within few years. The hill that Swamigal worshipped, housed a Murugan Temple. All the buildings on the garden were destroyed for building the university, but the house where Swamigal stayed was spared and is still standing there.§
Swamigal often visited Navalapittiya. Kantharodai Mr. T. Sivagurunathan, who worked in Railways, had written an article in the Special issue of Sivathondan Publication as follows: “When I was working in Navalapittiya in the “Trans” office of the Railways, Swamigal used to go there to check the progress of the Hindu Youth Association, Kathiresan Vidyasalai and the devotees there. It was during that time that my relationship and devotion with Swamigal deeply developed.§
Yogaswami and His devotees used to visit the Queensbury Garden, where we worshipped together the Samadhi of Navanada Siddhar, a mystic. One night we stayed in the village, Rambupittiya in the house of Mr. Subramaniam. After some time I was transferred to Anuradapura trans-office.§
During that time, one day I had to go to Navalapittiya to solve some problems in the administrative board of Kathiresan Vidyasalai. Swamigal also was in the same railway compartment as me. When I got in the rail compartment, Swamigal asked, “Who is implementing and shouldering the good work of Arumuganavalar?”. When I told the names of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Sir Arunasalam, Sir Kanagasabai, and S. Rasarathinam, Swamigal replied that it was Rasarathinam who had established Tamil Vidyalaya in many places and was following Navalar’s way.§
Another place Swamigal used to visit regularly is Diyatalawa in the hill regions. The main reason was to visit a person by the name Markandu who was working in the land survey office. This is the same Markandu who now lives in Kaithadi by the name Markandu Swami. Swamigal used to meet him in Diyatalawa since 1931. Later, when he was transferred to Colombo, Swamigal used to meet him there too. When Markandu got retired, Accountant Mylvaganam arranged him to stay in the Ashram near his house.§
Markandu Swamigal had written down all the upadesams given by his Guru. His appearance reminds us of that of the Sages described in Thirumurgaatrupadai.§
“Dressed in stitched bark neatly§
Knotted pure white hair on the right side On their spotless shinning bodies§
Deer Skin drapes their thin breast Their bodies like skeletons moving§
Many middays have passed, with no food eaten Minds free of wrath§
Erudite, none knew their knowledge§
Their heads filled with endless knowledge Passionately they show beyond rage-vision Sorrow is not known to their nature§
These are the sages who first enter.Ӥ
The relationship between Swamigal and Markandu Swami reminds us of the relationship between Apputhiyadigal and Thirunavukarasu Nayanar. Apputhiyadigal lived “praising arasar’s Holy Feet and seeing that all the things and all days are his Holy Feet.” Markandu Swamigal was also like him. He exalts “everything is Swamigal”. For him, Natchinthanai songs are the Manthiram (sacred words) and Thanthiram (magical action). He had memorized all the Natchinthanai songs by heart. He will sing those songs to devotees and uses them to quote for all the matters.§
Swamigal used to visit Chilaw where Dr. V.R. Pasupathy was working. Once when Swamigal was there, the doctor’s son, Muthukumaraswamy (now partner in Satchitha-nanda, Shockman, Wijeyaratne and Company) took a photo of Swamigal without His knowledge, while meditating. This is the photo that all the devotees use now for worshipping. He apologized for taking a photo without Swamigal’s permission but requested again to take another photo. First Swamigal refused, then he said “Since that is your wish, I will sit on the chair and you can take the photo.” This is the photo in which Swamigal was seated on a chair. Credit goes to Muthukumaraswamy for taking these photos and made it available for all devotees.§
I was blessed to stay with Swamigal for two days when I went to Colombo in connection with teacher’s association work in 1939. When I finished my work, I heard Swamigal was staying in Kandiah’s house, the son-in-law of overseer Thillaiyampalam at Rajasinghe Road. So I went there to pay homage to Swamigal. I saw Swamigal was sitting surrounded by devotees. Since the owner of that house had gone to Jaffna, the neighbour Amma Mrs. Selvarajah was taking care of the meals arrangement for Swamigal and devotees. Amma had made special preparations for midday meals for Swamigal. When the lunch time came, Swamigal told Amma, “Pillai my breakfast still has not digested, so feed these devotees with your food.” Amma was very disappointed. But the close devotees would not be surprised with this. Nobody can predict how Swamigal would act; as the saying goes, “Siddhar’s action is Siva’s action.” He was not bounded by any human laws or any tradition. When nightfall came, all the devotees retuned home. Only Swamigal and me stayed there. In one of the rooms, there were two beds for us. Those were spring beds with mattresses, bed spreads and two pillows. On seeing this bedding arrangement, Swamigal said, “Tonight my position going to be like the fisherwoman who slept under a jasmine-flower bush.” In those days Swamigal never slept on a cot or a mattress. It must be pointed out here that Swamigal agreed to sleep on a cot only after He became sick.§
Later that night, Swamigal narrated the fisher woman’s story. “One night, a fisher woman happened to sleep under a jasmine-flower bush. She could not bear the smell of jasmine flowers and was unable to sleep. Her mind craved for the familiar and usual fish odor as she is a fisherwoman. She kept a fish basket near her but still the jasmine-flower smell was overpowering. Then she sprayed a little water on the fish basket, and the fish odor started to pervade suppressing the jasmine smell. Only then she could fall asleep”, Swamigal finished the story.§
Swamigal stressed the moral of the story, i.e. “We should learn good habits at young age; those habits are hard to change even by Saints.” Then we talked about many of the devotees, their merits and demerits. Then Swamigal said, “These are all mundane things. Truly, we have no rights to talk about somebody’s demerits. Every man is living according to his Karma. We should learn to see Siva in everybody and every body in Siva.” He had stressed this point in many verses in Natchinthanai. Among those, here are two lines as an example:§
“See All in Easan§
See Eesan in AllӤ
We see this same point in Esavasiya Upanishad. “He who sees all existence in Atman and see the Atman in all existence, one cannot hate anything,”.§
Swamigal had traveled to India several times with devotees. Many of those devotees who travelled are no longer with us now. We could not gather any information on these travels. But, some of the letters written by Swamigal from India had been published. One of those is as follows:§
Kasi(God)§
30.11.40§
I wandered searching and arrived at Kasi and found (God) Viswanathan in me. So, do not wander, despair and worry. There is a delightful saying, “The medicine you are looking for lies just underneath your feet”. Here also people are like us. There is nothing unusal in the world. I have completed doing all the funeral rites for all Jaffna people – the dead, the living and those going to live. Hereafter, live in this world according to your ability and love and take refuge beneath God’s Feet.§