Remember Great People in 2011

Message I received from viji123@yahoo.com on 01.01.2011

Read further to get inspired.
viji

19 Dec 2010
KOCHI: Once a month, Prema Pandurang, the renowned preacher of
Hinduism, goes to the Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirupati. One day,
while she was standing in the queue, she noticed that the chairman of
the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam was sitting in the VIP enclosure
which is placed very near the Lord.

“I told myself, ‘You have to be a chairman to sit in that place,’”
says Premaji. “I am just a preacher.” Ten minutes after the chairman
left, suddenly a priest held Premaji’s hand, pulled her from the queue
and made her sit exactly where the chairman had sat! “It was a
miracle,” she says. “Lord Venkateswara had heard my thoughts. I tell
my devotees, ‘Send a SMS to the Lord and if you don’t get a reply, I
will give up preaching.’ The Lord is not like a telephone operator
busy with other lines. He is always there for you.”

At the temple, she says, one can experience powerful positive
vibrations which grip you. “You forget your wife, husband, children,
friends and relatives,” says Premaji. “You are moving towards the Lord
and you feel that He is pulling you towards Him. This is the
experience of everybody.” When asked for a proof of God’s existence,
Premaji says that once Mahatma Gandhi was questioned by a reporter
about whether he believed in God. When he replied in the affirmative,
the reporter asked, “Can you prove His existence?” The Mahatma
replied, “No, I cannot prove it. But to me, He is more present in this
room than you.”

Premaji smiles and continues. “Just ask God to give you evidence and
he will do so. But the thirst to know God should be there. Soon you
will see miracles taking place in your life.”

She recounts one such occurrence. On May 23, 1991, at Sriperumbadur,
two days after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had been assassinated, a
Guruvayurappa temple was going to be inaugurated. The Namboodiri
priest had come all the way from Guruvayur to conduct the puja. To
begin the prayers he needed flowers. “I said, ‘Swamiji, where can I
get flowers now?’ There is a curfew in the city. All the shops are
closed. The army is patrolling the streets.” The priest said that he
could not begin without flowers.

Suddenly, Premaji’s close friend, Krishnakumar Warrier of Ayurveda
Pharmacy, said, “Why don’t you pray to the Lord?” Premaji followed
Krishnakumar’s advice and sat in front of an idol of Lord Krishna. She
told the Lord, “I am a very small person. This is the first temple I
have built. Is there not a single flower that I can offer to you?”

A few minutes later, when Premaji stepped out of the puja room, a
villager came up and said, “Amma, do you want flowers?” Two staff
members went with him in a jeep and returned with 500 lotuses. The
Namboodiri priest said, “I have not seen so many flowers in Guruvayur
itself.”

Premaji pauses and says, “How can you not believe in God? In my
speeches, I want people to realise that this mighty power is within us
and yet we are not making use of it. You are not able to access God
because you don’t desire it. You are running after worldly pleasures.
There is nothing wrong with that but always remember that these are
the gifts from God. People tend to focus on the gifts and not the
giver.”

Premaji gives an example. “A mother buys a doll for her child,” she
says. “The daughter is so busy hugging the doll that she has forgotten
to thank the mother for the gift. So please remember God at all
times.”




I would like to share my personal experience with Prema Pandurang, when I was part of the first batch of Tamil Medium B Sc Chemistry students in Presidency College in Chennai, during 1969-72, when she was Assistant Professor of English.

The class had a combined strength of 50 , with half belonging to Tamil Medium like me and the other half belonging to English medium. It is a feeling like haves and have nots; the English medium students used to look down upon Tamil Medium students like us because we did not know how to express ourselves in English. This complex many of us had and started sustaining and nurturing.

But I do not take things lying down and wanted to improve my English. There were in total 3 Assistant Professors in English who were addressing us including Prema Pandurang. But I felt attracted to Premaji because of her mellifluous voice and dignified poise.
Emboldened , I met her in her chamber in lunch time which used to be 1 hour in College. She was referring to the wealth of critical acclaims which we normally call criticisms, on Shakespearean works. I could not recall the word criticism then, due to my Tamil academic background and requested her: Madam, can you assist me and my friend who want to improve our English? Especially what they call about Shakespeare ..... .....

Premaji asked do you mean criticism? Yes Madam.

She asked me How much time you take for lunch ; I said maximum 10 to 15 minutes; (eating yesterday's curd rice bath in a small box takes only that much time. ) She coolly said : Make it 10 minutes and I will also reduce my lunch time to 10 minutes and I will teach you for 50 minutes! Are you ready?

This happened when I was 16. I am thinking of it at 57 now. Even at that time she was coming by her own car, which was a rarity in those days in Chennai.

That I started writing poems, specialised in writing acrostic poems, later and dabbled in writing lyrics in Tamil, Sanskrit and Hindi was later day development. But the foundation was laid long long ago by a teacher who lit a candle to remove my dark glasses.

What Premaji says about Balaji is about his Compassion, which He already had endowed her enough .

It is my New Year Tribute nay obeisance to my English Teacher. I pray Mother to give her enough health to carry on her chosen Mission.

May her tribe increase.