Miracles by Vallalar

http://www.vallalar.org
When the self is in communion with a higher power, nature automatically obeys the will of man. The command over nature is called a miracle as comprehended by the materialist. But the miracles done by the materialists are those experienced by them from the existing mortal body. In respect of the saints and yogis, due to meditation, they attain certain powers (siddhis), which the public feel delightful and thus they used to consider them as super human beings and pay respect. This fanaticism has penetrated deep in the world and is now heading towards utter chaos.

It is entirely a different one with the Adigalar. Strictly speaking he never wished to do it nor tempted to do so. He did not cherish any selfish wish therein. On the other hand, he did not use for anu selfish design the enormous powers he acquired and attained through the Lord’s Grace. This is clearly disclosed by him in one of the poem, his intercession to the Lord to give him the power and strength to serve all in their sufferings. In another place, he has strictly warned against doing miracles and instructed others not to have any faith on miracle-doers. Though these earnest prayers were accepted by the Lord, yet his whole aim was directed towards the Inner Light, as it was the origin for all such achievements. His experience of the Lord in the form of effulgent Light enabled him to become “an embodiment of compassion”

He also says that he does not feign to have attained these powers out of an instinct for self-praise, but acquired them only out of true devotion to the Lord. In short, it can be said that he had no attraction for the worldly happenings. His ultimate wish was only to hallow the name of the Lord through service to all souls. Further his sincere wish was that the entire humanity should get rid of all sorts of violence and follow the path of love to live a Blessed life. Hence when he was empowered to perform anything he liked, he construed it to be the command of the Grace Light only. The following pages will depict some of his wonderworkings and unless they are studied in the light of the above observation the real truth underlying therein could not be elicited.

1. Simultaneous appearance in two places

Thew ‘Hall of True Wisdom’ built up at Vadalur was nearing completion. To hoist the flag, a long pole was needed. For this purpose, Adigalar instructed the contractor to go to Chennai and purchase one to suit the purpose. With due obedience the latter went to Chennai but returned stating that the traders demanded exorbitant price and thus he could not act of his own accord to finalise the issue.

On hearing the same, the saint asked him to go there again and that he would follow. Accordingly the contractor reached the timber depot and to his surprise he saw the saint walking over the pole required. The trader also gave his consent to get a very moderate price for it. As soon as the purchase was over, the saint bid the contractor to send it to Vadalur and left the place.

The very next day, the contractor arrived at Mettukuppam the place where the saint was dwelling in his last days and found the saint giving his discourses to his disciples. The former published the news of purchase of the post at Chennai in the presence of the saint. All were surprised to see that the saint was all along giving his sermon to the gathering the whole of the previous day at Mettukuppam itself. This made them to conclude that the saint was really a super man who had been vested with super natural powers.


2. About Alchemy(Rasa Vadham)

The supernal power the saint attained brought him fame not only India, but also abroad. One day a foreigner approached Adigalar and wanted to know Alchemy. Our Adigalar gave a fine discourse on the subject and the foreigner had a patient hearing. Even though he was satisfied with the saint’s approach on the subject theoretically , he wanted to see it done practically.

In the first instance, the saint hesitated to comply with his request , but felt that it is thewill of the Almighty to demonstrate it in public, and asked foreigner who was wearing a copper ring on one of his fingers to remove it and throw it upwards. This was done and when it turned towards the floor, the saint touched the piece with his finger. Alas to the surprise of the foreigner, he found the ring was transformed into pure gold. He was dumb-stricken and extolled as to how a mere touch would transform a base metal into gold, then what will be the extra ordinary feat of the saint.

The saint told him at large, that such things are common to those who have renounced their worldly poleasures and endure a complete surrender to the Feet of the Lord and thus come up to a higher level.

3. Body dismembered

One day about noon, the saint went out of the Dharmasala and did not turn up for a long time. One of his disciples grew impatient of theabsence of the saint and went out in search of him. It was a gruesome sight. He found the saint’s body dismembered and lying scattered near a bush in a remote locality. The disciple grew panicky turned his way to his original place and lamented before others explaining the scene. Everybody was at a loss without knowing what to do.

In the meanwhile, the saint appeared before them and strictly warned them not to distrub him anymore in the future. After such warning, he also told them that it is the will of the Almighty to do so. He is above all and could demonstrate anything and anywhere and the same should not be treated as a miracle.

4. Proficiency in several language:

This part deals with a phenomenon to show that the saint had a mastery over several language of the world against the general belief that he was proficient in Tamil only.

One Pinagapani Mudaliar was working as the superviser in the Telegraph office at pondicherry. He had mastered 7 languages. He used to make sarcastic observations about the saint, viz..,, his disciples are lazy people used to take food and spend the time leisurely. His egotic mind drove him into madness and thus he ventured to meet the saint and prove his ability.

As usual, the saint was delivering his lectures and in the midst, he told the assembly that one will appear there soon to deliver his own teachings to enlighten them more. In the first instance, they could not understand the meaning of the announcement. mudaliar came to the stadium soon and was sitting in a corner listening to his discourses.

In the midst of the assemble there was a boy aged four. The saint called him and questioned as to the number of languages in which he was proficient. He replied that he knew six languages. Then the saint called Mudaliar and asked him to question the boy in any language he desired. Though the boy ventured to do so, the latter could not utter any word.

He became frightened and admitted his folly. Prostrating before the saint in the midst of all he pleaded for his arrogant remarks. This was a turning point for him and in the subsequent days, he became an ardent devotee of the saint.

5. Feeding a large number people with a handful of food

There was an instance when the inmates of Dharmasala were preparing to take rest after exhausting the food prepared for the day. All of a sudden about hundred persons entered the house stating the they were hungry and had to be fed. The hosts were bewildered as to what to do as it was midnight. And there was no hope of preparing and serving food in a short time to all, they approached the saint and narrated the occurence.

He cooly replied that he would look after their plight, and asked them to provide plantain leaves to feed them. He himself took the handful food left in the kitchen and began to serve. All were fed sumptuously and to the astonishment of the inmates, it was found that the quantity of the food left in the kitchen remained the same as it was before feeding the huge gathering.

This solitary instance will prove that those who have taken refuge in the holy feet of the Lord, will not be let down at any cost and their needs will be provided instantly.

6. Water poured in a lamp kept it burning for the whole night

In the village, Karunguzhi where the saint had his residence in the house of one Venkata Reddiar, one of his devotees, the saint used to go for writting poems, throughout day and night.

One day the inmates of Reddiar’s family had gone out to a nearby village to attend a function and did not return in the night also. There was no oil in the lamp burning in his room. A vessel had been left by his side, and the saint who was much absorbed in writing the poems, without verifying the contents of the vessel, simply poured it in the lamp and it burnt the whole night.

The next day all the family members returned home and found the vessel containing the water empty. Instead, the lamp was found filled with water and it was burning. Quite astonished to see the miraculous deed, they used to worship the saint as God with due reverences for his godliness.

In one of the poems written by him subsequently, the saint refers to the incident as not a miraculous deed, but treats it as an occurrence for exhibiting the real truth. We shall try to learn about the same in the paragraph coming hereunder. Generally a lamp is kept burning with the aid of oil. When it is exhaysted, the lamp flickers and ceases to burn. So also for the existence of the human body, food is the main criteria. Without food the body cannot stand. But in the above case, the lamp is kept burning with the aid of mere water. If that be the case, one can infer that the human body also can survive with the water alone. The saint peersonifies the lamp as the body of the human being and the water as compassion. Thus he proved that he was an embodiment of compassion and did not discard it at any time. His love for humanity at large and the other living creatures was so intense that he always used to extend his help to the needy. In course of time, this compassion filled the entire body was transformed into a pure one (suddha dega) and finally immortalised and began to live there for ever with eternal bliss.

Subsequent pages will throw more light about this subject and so we shall proceed further.

The house where the saint lived in Karunguzhi was a tiled one and Thiru Uran Adigal of Vadalur took possession of the same Subsequently and has since constructed a building with modern structures to have a new look, thereby attracting a large number of people to visit this place at the time of festival.

7. Remaining at one end and viewing things at the other end

with distinct vision.

An incident relating to his life history in connection with the construction of the Hall of True Wisdom (Sathya Gnana Sabha) at vadalur reveals the possession of such power by the saint.

It is said that after giving instructions for the construction of the building at Vadalur, he was retiring at Siddhivalagam, a room in the village Mettukuppam, just 3kms away from vadalur. The construction was nearing completion, but he did not burn up. When his followers went to Siddhivalagam to convey the news of completion to the saint, he pointed out certain omissions in the contruction of the building and urged them to carry out the same. Finding the observations of the saint to be true, they were duly carried out.

From this it has to be construed that though the saint was at Siddhivalagam, Yet he was capable of seeing things happening at vadalur. Such attainments are very rare but the saint possessed all such powers.

8. Appearance in a judicial court

The bickerings in the minds of men drive them to courts even though the issue involved therein will be of a trivial nature. The saint was also not spared in such circumstances. His fame remained unchallenged. One of the contemporaries field a suit against the saint just to bring disreputation to his name. Such an incident occurred during the life time of the saint and it is narrated below.

One Arumuga Navalar of Jaffna is remarkable among those who contributed much to Tamil prose literature. He did memorable work in spreading saivism and saivite literature among the public. He became so much jealous towards the saint the questioned the literature in ‘Arutpa’ (gift of the Divine Bliss)-the renderings of the latter complied and published by his disciples. Accordiung to Arumuga Navalar, it should be termed as ‘marutpa’ meaning that the renderings were made out only by a materialise, and not as ‘Arutpa’ the name with which it was published. The said Navalar thus filed a suit against the saint in the court of the District munsif at Manjakuppam praying for a decree for the withdrawal of the name ‘Arutpa’ by the defendant.

The case was taken on file by the court and it ordered the issue of notice to the defendant. On the date of hearing, Navalar was present in the court before time. Soon the Munsif resumed his chair and called on the defendant by name. No sooner his name was called on, the saint entered the hall. The plaintiff stood in reverence and greeted him with folded hands. His followers who had assembled there also followed suit. The munsif himself got up from the chair and paid reverence to the saint but it is said that it happened so without his own knowledge. A divine atmosphere then prevailed in the court hall, Afer hearing the heated arguments from both sides, the court delivered the judgement.

In the course of judgement, the court held that ‘Arutpa’ is a valuable treasure to the world in Tamil literature and its outcome is entirely based on Divine inspiration. The Plaintiff, who was questioned about the respect he paid to the saint, said that the defendant is a wise and noble soul possessing extraordinary powers as a gift from the Almighty. This is the reason that made him to give reverence to the saint. The court also held that in as much as that on his own admission that the saint is a wise cultured soul, it cannot be argued that his renderings were of a worldly nature. In these circumstances fully respecting the wishes of the saint the court decreed the case in favour of the defendant.

It is to be seen that this district munsif who was elevated to the position of a judge to the chennar High court, is none else than justice Muthusami Iyer whose judgements are of a sane nature and as a memorial to him, a statue has been erected and seen in the High court Buildings, chennai.

Countless were the miracles performed by the saint and pages will not be enough in this small book to bring out all his miracles. It is enough to know that he is an embodiment of all powers. With this we shall proceed to the next.