MEHER BABA JOURNAL - Avatar Meher Baba Trust
MEHER BABA JOURNAL - Avatar Meher Baba Trust
MEHER BABA JOURNAL - Avatar Meher Baba Trust
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THE VAISHNAVITE SAINTS OF SOUTHERN INDIA 17<br />
doubt that our forefathers held<br />
women in great veneration.<br />
The life of Saint Andal is a<br />
most glorious one. Her birth is<br />
shrouded in mystery. Peri-<br />
Azhvar Chittar or Vishnu, our<br />
second Saint, who lived in Shri<br />
Villiputtur, had a flower<br />
garden. (This town is in<br />
Tinnevelly District, Southern<br />
India. It was a portion of the<br />
old Pandyan Kingdom.) This<br />
Saint grew the sacred tulasi,<br />
and offered it to God Almighty.<br />
One day he was digging<br />
in his garden, when, to his<br />
great surprise, he found a<br />
beautiful child, just as King<br />
Janaka found Sita (vide the<br />
great epic Valmiki Ramayana).<br />
We also find such a story in<br />
Homer's Iliad about Erectheus.<br />
"Great Erectheus swayed,<br />
That owed his nurture to<br />
the blue-eyed maid.<br />
But from the teeming furrow<br />
took his birth,<br />
The mighty offspring of<br />
the foodful earth."<br />
The Saint took the holy<br />
child ad brought her up with<br />
much cae and affection. It is<br />
said that she was born in Kali<br />
97, Nala year, Adi month,<br />
Purva-palguni asterism. This<br />
was aout 5000 years ago.<br />
The child was named "Goda".<br />
This slender-waisted and fascinating<br />
child was certainly a<br />
divine one.<br />
Saint Vishnu-Chittar used to<br />
prepare daily beautiful wreaths<br />
of flowers and offer them to<br />
the idol Vata-patra-Sayin<br />
(name of the God). In the<br />
absence of the father the child<br />
Goda used to wear the wreaths<br />
intended for the Lord, and<br />
placing herself before a mirror<br />
used to admire her own beauty.<br />
One day she was caught redhanded,<br />
while she was wearing<br />
the wreath, and the father<br />
threw it away as unfit to be<br />
used by the Lord. It is said that<br />
the Lord appeared in his dream<br />
and said that He would have<br />
only the wreaths worn by his<br />
daughter, and that they were<br />
not desecrated but consecrated<br />
by her use. Our Saint rose in<br />
astonishment and carried to the<br />
temple, from that date forward,<br />
only wreaths worn by his<br />
daughter whom he considered<br />
as the Goddess Lakshmi. From<br />
that day Andal was called<br />
Sudik-Kodutha Nachiyar meaning<br />
the queen that wore and<br />
gave garlands.<br />
We now understand what is<br />
meant by Motherhood of God<br />
and Fatherhood of God.
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