"Kavacham Sollungo.." (Recite The Kavacham), Sri Venkat Giridhar told him gently as he was receiving the Prasadham set . He had finished the Dharshan of Bala and had duly prostrated. The Prasadham bag contained a Sri Chakram, a Bala dollar, Kumkumam packet and a booklet with literature containing slokams and hymns about Bala for everyday recital.
"What is the Sthala varalaru?" he asked as he was receiving all these. Sri Venkat Giridhar proceeded to tell him about how Sri Bala appeared in the dream of Sri Subramanya Iyer, how she came floating in the river and how she came to the Peetam and made it her own home.
"A Siddhar had predicted all these about 600 years ago", he said "the 'olai chuvadi' he wrote even contained names of all those persons who will come visit Nemili worshipping Her.
Kanchi periava had apparently set out to Nemili when he had a mild obstruction en-route. He had that divine foresight to deduce She had not given her command yet to give him Her Dharshan, so he returned.(But then at a later point of time he had stayed in Bala Peetam for a few days offering prayers and poojas to Her).
As that divine eventful day came to an end, he was about to retire to bed when he remembered Sri Venkat's words. He took out the booklet from the prasadham bag, turned to the page containing the Kavacham and read it silently. Finished, he kept back the booklet in his near vicinity and reminded himself he would recite it everyday.
Some days later something eventful happened. What started as a normal day led to an incident. He got initially anxious, tried to contain the situation . It got worsened and led to a great mental turmoil.
He came home and sat dejected. He felt helpless, thought he could do nothing about it and was almost looking forward to a sleepless night. "Unless".... a thought flashed and he swung into action. How could he have not thought of it earlier. He took out the booklet, stood before the picture of Bala and recited the kavacham with total involvement. He stood still, and went to bed. He felt his state of agitation had vanished away like a fog absolving on daylight. He felt hopeful and contrary to what he had thought , he ended up sleeping well that night.
They planned to take some alternate action the next day, by now he was hopeful that the situation he was facing was not really troublesome at all.And not so surprisingly everything cleared up.
But the test was far from over. He had a wisdom tooth extraction that evening. Even though he felt calm, he was exhausted and the travails of the day kept him at his nerve's ends. The dentist injected the local anesthesia and called him in after few minutes.He did a visual inspection and satisfied, started with the extraction.
The upper tooth came out easily, problem started when the extraction of the lower molar began. About half way through, he started bleeding profusely. The dentist placed a cotton plug deep inside the mouth and took it out after sometime. He focussed the light on the dark recesses of the inner mouth and started plying away the tooth again. He stopped and declared "you are bleeding too much. Relax , you will do good. With this bleeding, i am unable to locate the tooth clearly inside. Let's wait for sometime" and placed a fresh cotton block. He tried to distract himself with other thoughts, but inside his heart rate increased. . The dentist removed the cotton and started again. Plying away a portion of tooth he said again "look, you really need to relax. There is too much bleeding happening.
If you remain in tension, blood pressure will be high, pulse rate will be high. Bleeding won't stop unless you remain calm. Lets wait for a few minutes, i will leave you here ". Lying on the dentist's chair with mouth wide open, he tried to relax but in vain. He hoped the bleeding would stop this time, only to find the dentist coming back inspecting his mouth with a frown. "It's all drenched in blood" the dentist said, he asked him to rinse his mouth, kept another large piece of cotton on the exposed molar and said "this time if the bleeding doesn't stop, then we may have to inject you with something, it would take a really long time, i want to avoid it" and left.
By this time, his heart rate had doubled. He started thinking about Bala, she had helped him the previous day, why can't she now? Relaxation was impossible, but he kept chanting on with focus.
Bala,Bala,Bala,Bala,Bala,Bala,Bala..............
Couple of minutes would have elapsed. The dentist came back looking unsure. He removed the cotton and did a visual inspection. "Hmm, the bleeding has now stopped" he remarked.
All he could do was thank Bala. He kept on chanting Her name for the rest of the procedure and it soon got over without any further complications.
Bala yena chollu Bala yena chollu, Pava Vinai yaavum thallu
Bala yena kooru Bala yena kooru padaara vindame seru
Bala yena paadu Bala yena paadu Balavin karunaiyai thedu
Bala yendre odhu, Bala yendre odhu Balavinal maraiyum theedu..
No surprise when you chant Her hymns with surrender and utmost faith, She not only accompanies you through your travails, but She will guide you through it as well.
Sri Bala Charanam.
