Some actions and gestures are very difficult to understand primarily..

Some actions and gestures are very difficult to understand primarily..

But we would come accustomed to them and would even realize the meaning and spirit behind such acts after long periods..

Most of the time we would understand that such actions had a lot of right in it..

Even as a boy and upto the time he treacherously left for heaven when I was just thirty..

I used to watch my father and his methods of worship.

Of course he was very hawkish in performing the Sandhyavandhanam, and chanting some mantrams which he had acquired from his father and certain most revered Nambuthiri gurus, especially the Arithoittathil Swamigal and Madangarli swamigal  and he gave most of the mantram to me too.. so if I start my pooja and rituals in the morning I would have to be engaged at least for one year..

But more than that he would start praying calling the names of every deity with whom he had grown or visited..

Lord Shiva of Thrikkandiyur near Tirur.. and the Vettakkaran there would be the first in his list as he grew as a child there..

This would be followed by Visvanathaswamy and Visalakshy of Koduvayur, Sreeraama of Thrikkandiyur and the list would contain a hundred addresses of Gods,

Vishnu, Shiva, Ayyappa, Ganapathi, Devi..And our Swamy.. the Pazhani Andavar.the murugan

God is same everywhere..

God has no religions even..

I was wondering why such a simple and straightforward believer was calling so many gods every morning and evening..

I could not find any rational answer to this while he was alive, and I have even tried to make fun of him for reading aloud the address list..

But in retrospect, I understand the spirit...

The man was living his whole life over and over again by mentioning the Pratishtas in various temples with which he had occasion to be in touch..

For his simple frugal and straightforward life, the focal point was always God and the deities in the temple

A son understands his father only when the son is sufficiently old and most probably the father is just a memory.

For the last few years, I would add to a written list kept in a book the names of all the deities I have got in touch in my life including the temples of Jesus, Allah or for that matter any God or God in any shape, and just would read the list at least once in the day..

Maybe it is raw idolatry, obscurantism.. but there is some peace in that process.