periyava

Offer grass to the cow and be rid of your sins.  _in the presence of the divine. Copyright-Sujatha vijayaraghavan

A wealthy devotee once sent his friend by his car to attend to his work, on his behalf. Unfortunately, the man left for the further-most destination. The car, which met with an accident on the way was damaged beyond repair. The friend departed to Sivaloka. There was no end to the devotee’s sorrow. His remose that a family was deprived of its head because of him did not leave him in peace at all. He helped the family with a large sum of money. But that hardly compensated for the irreversible loss. The devotee was now frightened and upset that he would have to bear the sin of death of a Brahmin. There is no one that once can take into confidence in a situation like this and seek a solution that was sanctioned by the sastra. So he sought guidance from the supreme authority. Periyaval listened to all that the devotee had to say patiently.

The car accident happened by the divine ordination. You are not guilty of any destructive thought. Somehow your mind is now burdened with unease. Besides you are also the receiving end of the society’s accusation. First of all, go and take a holy dip in the Sethu. Get up before sunrise and offer grass to cows that you may find strolling down the streets. Seek the darsan of Siva everyday and contain yourself to taking one meal a day. Do this and you will be rid of the charges of guilt. The devotee was consoled and accepting the prasada, continued to stand in Periyaval’s presence, hesitating to leave.Periyava looked at him questiongly.

“I can  do everything else. But I don’t see how I can offer grass to cows. I live in a city and cows are  not to be found in the streets in the morning”

The reply came at once. “So what? Surely there is a gosala. You have a car. Get up at five. Go by car to the gosala and offer grass to all the cows there.”

The devotee was fully consoled, his remose giving way to peace.