Saint Vallalar prays to Lord Shanmukha that He should
help him keep away from those who gossip and those who
indulge in purposeless chatter. We are never content with
what we have in life, and most of our time is spent in
envious talk about others. But those who recite the names
of God and spend their time talking about His greatness or
about the goodness of His devotees are people who spend
their time sensibly, said M.A. Manickavelu in a discourse.
There was a ruler in Tirunelveli, in the far South of Tamil
Nadu. He had a corrupt and arrogant minister. Among the
temple employees was a man whose duty it was to light the
lamps in the temple.
One day a devotee of Goddess Parvati visited the temple
and taught him the 52nd verse of Abirami Andadi, which
talks of diferent kinds of wealth which will come to the
devotee of Abirami. From then on, the temple servant
recited the verse every day.
One day, the king visited the temple and, in the silence of
the temple, he heard a faint whisper. Upon investigation,
he found it was the temple servant reciting the Abirami
Andadi verse.
The King, impressed by the man’s devotion, stripped his
corrupt minister of his post, handed over the minister’s
seal to the temple servant and made him the minister.
In accordance with the respect to be shown to a
minister, the man was carried to the palace in an ivory
palanquin and was given a horse, an elephant and jewels.
All the riches mentioned in verse fifty two of Abirami
Andadi were now his!
All this came to him through bhakti. Had he spent his
time in self pity and in jealousy, he would have never have
reached such a lofty position.
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