Chapter
4
One day, I finally managed
to gather all my guts and began climbing the small steps from Kutralanadhar temple leading to Chithira Sabhai. I crossed the rough
road leading to the Five Falls and entered the small passage that led to Chithra Sabhai. I stood at the entrance
below a tall stone ceiling. I had a breathtaking view of the Courtallam hills
on one side, clouds kissing the hill tops. The place was deserted. There was an
elegant temple tank with steep steps leading to the pond of water in front of
Chithra Sabai. A small, elegant stone mandap
decorated the center of the tank.
I wondered if the waterfall in the region fed the pond here too. I got down the
steps until my knees were immersed in water. The water was cold and the
chillness pierced all the way to my bones. A shoal of fishes immediately flocked
to my feet to nibble away all the dirt. I felt very sorry that I didn’t bring
any food for those fishes. Scattered lotus leaves with flowers, floating over
the waters, presented a rich design to the landscape.
I was in no mood to go into Chithra Sabhai immediately and so I just
sat there, in the scintillating ambience, with my feet still dipped in the
water in the pond.
Abruptly my mood changed, as
though some new energy had suddenly entered me. I quickly climbed the steps and
entered the front hall of Chitra Sabhai. There was a small closed mandap on one side and a few empty
palanquins used to carry ‘Utsav Moorthy’s
were stored on the other side. In all the temples of South India, there were two
idols – one called Moolavar who sits
inside the sanctum Sanctorum and never removed from his seat and the other
called Utsavar who was taken out on palanquins
on important occasions in a procession through the four streets, called ‘ratha veedhi ’,at a few places and requiring restoration. Once I crossed the hall at the entrance, I was in the next corridor. There was another small,
covered hall that led to the main ‘Chithra
Sabhai.’ A large open corridor surrounded the Chithra Sabhai that enabled people to circumambulate.
I crossed over the hall and entered
Chithra Sabhai. The hall inside was
dimly lit. There were several paintings all over the four walls, inside and
outside. To my right was the painting of a magnificent picture of Lord Nataraja,
that seemed to engulf the whole hall. This mural painting, I had learned, was
painted more than a thousand years ago. People were not allowed to touch the
painting or do pooja in front of the
painting, to avoid damage to the paintings. The herbal paints that were used to make these pictures still remain
heretic and were known only to a select few. I stood oblivious to anything
other than the mural painting of Lord Nataraja, which captured all my
attention. It looked as though Lord Siva in the mural painting was dancing
everywhere in the hall. I thanked Lord Siva for bringing me to Courtallam.
Quite abruptly, my attention
turned away from Lord Nataraja and I saw the sadhu sitting and meditating in a lotus posture with closed eyes.
There was no one else other than the sadhu
and the place was eerily silent. Behind the sadhu , the picture of the compassionate Nataraja now appeared
frightening to me. I felt an aura surrounding the sadhu drawing me closer to him and that frightened me more.
‘Shall I run from here?’ a
thought flashed. But then, the sadhu briefly
opened his eyes, as though he knew about my arrival, stared at me to
acknowledge my presence and then closed his eyes again, never to open it for a
long time. His brief look seemed to exert irresistible influence on me and I
felt drawn to him, even while I was terribly scared inside. Silently I approached
him, sat in front and closed my eyes. As I sat, I felt the strong vibrations
all over the place and my body began to tremble. Was it fear or something else?
I couldn’t be sure.
Suddenly I was restless and I
opened my eyes. I felt frustrated having waited long for him to open his
eyes.
‘What kind of man is he? He
calls me here, knows that I am here, but refuses to open his eyes and tell me
why he wanted me here.’
I rushed out of Chithra Sabhai and looked around from
the small hillock. I was back on earth. The picturesque view of the far end of
the village and the surroundings was before me and I marveled at the beauty of
the place. The white clouds kissing the mountain tops and the rising cloud of
drops of water from the splashing waterfalls lifted me to a ‘Higher World’. It
was quiet everywhere. I quickly got back to whatever I was doing in the
village.
Days and weeks passed by. I
had nothing specific to do at Courtallam. I visited every waterfall – chitraruvi (small falls), five falls, tiger
falls and the falls at Old Courtallam. I frequented nearby villages scattered
across the muddy banks of paddy fields, trod on narrow raised bunds over the lakes, hitchhiked in
bullock carts to Shencottai, whiled away my time in the nearby hills, visited the
street side temples in a number of agraharams ,
joined the bhajan groups engaged
in devotional singing at several places, ate delicious food from the choultries and slept most of the time
under the shades of some banyan trees that were seen everywhere around the
region. Survival was never an issue. Those days, many philanthropic people owned
and ran small choultries , (otherwise
called chattirams ) and fed the poor. Annadhanam or feeding the poor was
considered to be a virtuous act liberating one from the ill effects of one’s wrongful
doings and thus providing a pathway to Heaven.
I couldn’t decide about
moving away from Courtallam. There was a growing urge in me to meet that sadhu again. So I went back to the place
where the regular congregation took place under a banyan tree. He was there and
I made no specific moves to get in touch with him. I stayed there quietly as
part of the larger crowd for some time and left.
Something strange and
mysterious was drawing me to him. I didn’t know what it was.
I was a matriculate and one
of the brightest students in the school when studying, but nothing happened within
my brain to change my mundane routine. Life was smooth otherwise. Why should I attempt
to do anything at all, I wondered?
*****
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