Appa, my teacher, guide and friend - III

Appa studied in Kannada medium in Mysore. His second language was Sanskrit. He did not confine himself to just the text, but studied works of scholars like Vedanta desikar and understood their meaning fully. He used to quote Sanskrit phrases or slokas and Kannada sayings at appropriate times to drive home his point. Many of them have helped me to stay rooted.

"annam na nindhyaat  thath vratham'" was told to us when we were very small. Do not criticise food.This should be your value system. He used to impress on the key words. Thath vratham was what he used to impress upon. So it was not a simple, 'eat what is given to you, as food is sacred and has the effort of so many people'. It was given to us as a value system to make it part and parcel of our lives. Till today I have never found any food that is given to me worthy of being criticised badly and discarded. Even recently a friend was narrating an incident when we were in college. We had gone to a classmates house and they had served us upma. While my other two friends just could not even take a morsel as it was not palatable, I just quietly polished it off. I do remember vaguely that it was not very tasty. But 'annam n nindhyaat thath vratham' was already a part of me.

"Sarva dharman parithyajya maa mekam sharanam vraja
Aham tvam sarva papebyo moksha ishyami    maa suchaha"

This was saranagathi philosophy at the purest. It is what Krishna tells Arjuna in Bhagavad gita. 'Leave out all other beliefs, just take refuge in me. I will mitigate all your sins and give you moksha. Do not have any doubts. Appa used to give special emphasis on 'maa mekam"(only me) and ' maa suchaha' (do not have any doubts). I can, everytime I recite this sloka, hear the clear inflection of his voice when he  taught us these phrases with their meaning. It has helped me steady myself many a time when tossed by events which were a bit too much for me to handle at that time.

" sura sura sevitha paada pankaja kare viraja kamaneeya pustaka
virinchi pathni kamalasana priya, saraswathi nruthyathu vaachi me sada"

This is a sloka in praise of goddess Saraswathi. One of the first slokas he taught us. It is invocation to the goddess and after describing her, invokes on her to perennialy be dancing in whatever I speak. "saraswathi nruthyathu vaachi me sada". He used to give special emphasis on vaachi and sada. How would we be if we know forever that saraswathi is in our spoken word? We will be very careful of what we say. I used to recite this sloka before attending any interview or important presentation or meeting and it sure helped me to settle the butterflies in my stomach!

After a hearty meal that amma had served(which were quite a good number!) he would get up with the sweet words " anna dhata sukhi bhava!" Amma would feel good and would be quite keen to do a repeat performance. Such a pleasant ending to a homely meal and such good feeling for the person who has taken so much trouble all for love of the family.

Later when he was not so well and could not move out of the house, he would say good bye with the words, 'punaraagama nayacha' meaning, please come again.

I am now telling you appa,

 punaraagamanayacha!