WITH THE SAINT OF MALLIYOOR
In September 2005, I had the good fortune to meet Malliyoor Shankaran Namboodiri in the company of N.S. Venkataraman and other devotees. This eighty five year old saint was the priest of a small Ganesha temple in his village. In his youth, an incurable disease struck him. As advised by his guru, he went to the Guruvayoor temple and did a complete exposition of Srimad Bhagavatham, an ancient scripture that tells the stories of Lord Vishnu. Consequently he was completely cured! In gratitude, he dedicated his life to the Lord and to expounding the Bhagavatham. To date, he has completed Bhagavatha Sapthaaham, a traditional telling of the story in seven days, two thousand two hundred times. People now throng to him to receive his blessing. The saint however says, “I do not know why they all come to me. I am but an ordinary devotee of the Lord.”
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When I was introduced to the saint, he remarked, “How blessed you are to have been touched by Sri Ramana Maharshi! The only good fortune that we householders who live with worldly entanglements enjoy is the visit of gifted souls like you. We who are bound will not go to visit such great souls. They come to bless us.”
When with great reverence I asked him to bless me, he replied, “It is you who have to bless me. In Bhagavatham, king Prithu says, ‘I always seek the blessing of saints. I speak in front of them not to show off my knowledge, but to get corrected by them.’ This is our attitude. Some speakers begin the talk by saying, ‘I am here to tell you…’ That very moment we can be sure that they know nothing.”
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Venkataraman briefly explained to him Bhagavan’s teaching of surrender and Self–enquiry. The saint then quoted a verse from Bhagavatham and explained, “In deep sleep there is no personal ‘I’. Still, there exists another ‘I’. Who is that ‘I’? He is the Self. He is God. He can be realized only when the mind is purified through devotion and dedication. We have heard about how our eyes get the power to see treasures hidden beneath the earth when magic colliryum is applied to them. So too, when one gains subtlety through devotion and the guru’s blessings, the Truth or vastu is seen within oneself clearly and directly.”
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The saint then insisted on us having chaaya, Malayalam for tea. At this, Venkataraman, punning on the word chaaya, quoted a verse from the Bhagavatham that says that those people who take refuge in the Lord’s shadow, chaaya, in Sanskrit, will have no worldly attachments! Appreciating the pun, the saint laughed and laughed. Seeing this most remarkable laughter welling up in waves on the saint’s childlike face, all of us were inundated in laughter and ecstasy.
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Later, the saint too regaled us with a pun. “In Kerala, there were many followers of Sri Ramana Maharshi during his lifetime. I am very happy today to get this Sat sang. Today is really a holy day.” This was a pun on the word ‘holiday’ since that day was a declared holiday. He continued, “The day on which one meets a devotee of the Lord is truly a holy day. Otherwise for us, there is only contact with worldly people. Rarely do true devotees come.” Before leaving, when I asked him for some spiritual instruction, he replied, “Who am I to give upadesa, instruction? What can I talk? In the Malayalam language the word samsaram means both ‘talk’ and ‘bondage’. Some great person, with a keen sense of humor must have given the word samsaram, which in Sanskrit means only bondage, the meaning ‘talk’ in Malayalam. So talking itself is the cause for bondage –samsaram is the cause for samsaram!”
Isn’t this a great upadesa from the venerable, childlike saint of Malliyoor?
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