the investment in faith he made just sustains us.

What I really did not realize all these years.. all these six decades and more.. makes a lot of meaning to me now..

My father was a simple person.. 

He was a staunch believer in God, and he was a stickler to rituals as a brahmin, but he was not much learned in Vedas or Sanskrit..

I remember, he would perform Ganapathy homam at home every Friday, all days during Navarathri, and on all the days in Karkitakam.. and he would try to find some excuse to perform Ganapathy homams on other days too citing some auspicious occasion...

The finances for the family were not encouraging and to spare cash for a coconut and ghee and jaggery and other things so often for that ritual was a real strain.. and I have in fact heard other family members(including me) protest about it many a time..

And from the first day of Thulam every year, till the Thaipoosam day in Makaram, he would wake up every day in the morning at least two hours before sunrise, and chant Gayatri manthram thousand times and also the moolamantrams of our family deity.. the Pazhani Andavar. ..

Till his last year of life, he continued the tradition of carrying adimai kavadi to Pazhani for Thai poosam..

His health was indifferent, and he knew, and we did not know that he had a heart condition.. Still he would climb the whole steps upwards and downward while visiting the hill temple of Palani..

He was alive till I was about thirty four, and his finances never really improved nor he was materially blessed during his lifetime.. In fact he left a very young family of three girls too when he passed away..

And sadly, though it must have been my duty to continue his traditions, I could never hold on to them.. An occasional pooja or a homam or a temple visit was that all I could do..

I have been wondering.. what did he achieve in his life?

So possessed of blind faith in God, even to the extent of neglecting his own health and other comforts..?

In fact life was a daunting task for me and my middle aged mother when he left..

I have to confess that I used to curse his neglect of material things, and the callousness of God when he took my father away at a very awkward stage for our family..

But was it really waste.?.

He left behind fine children, who have risen fairly well in life and now he has seven grandchildren who are all doing well, some on their way to brilliance..

We the children were rather worldly, though the basic faith that God was there to watch us and even preserve us through thick an thin always clung to us, and it was not at all bad.

He did never see any of his grandchildren, and did not even see his own children doing fairly well in life..

Now, looking back after a lapse of almost twenty-eight years, I have no choice but to believe that his unshakable faith in God has worked for us. his family..

When compared to him, we the children would appear to be materialistic and lacking in faith..

But the investment in faith he made just sustains us..

Faith in God is really rewarding.. if not for us, then for the generations to come after us..

Do I need more evidence for that? I think it is not necessary..