Autobiographical musings

Srikrishna is a multifaceted personality. A wonderful set of books I will recommend is Krishnavatara series (8 of them) by KM Munshi published by Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan. The first book is The Magic Flute  which deals with His childhood. Then there are Book of Bhima , Five Brothers ,  Book of Vyasa , and 4 more. In every book, Srikrishna's personality is described - as a statesman, humanitarian and a true friend. Every incident in Krishna's life is portrayed as if happening in the present atmosphere. Srikrishna lived for Dharma, Sathya, Shanthi, Ahimsa and Bhagavad Githa amply explains these. Our Swami's teachings too, are based on these basic principles. In fact, all religions stand for these basic truths - the only problem was selfishness crept into these tenets, people started to give vicarious meanings to the religious practices and spoiled the basic principles of human values. Some religions are spreading hatred and enmity instead of love, compassion and tolerance an...

One important sad incident I forgot to write in Kamakshichechi's write up , as pointed out to me by Rema and also by Suma, is about the tragedy of (her eldest son) Ramdas' death. He was the pet of everyone in the family. I touched upon his childhood in my earlier write up. He was in SSLC when his father died and was in our house in Thrissur in Padmachechi's care along with Jayan and Mohan. Amma was with me at Badagara. When Chechi went to Madras with Kuttykrishnachettan, Ramesh was left with me and Amma in Calicut. After KChettan's death, Chechi got a job in his department, i.e. Meteorological office. Then she took Shailaja with her. And that was when we were at Kannur. Ramdas joined medical college and was a brilliant student. After MBBS, he directly joined for MD General Medicine (after a short stint of posting in Mundrothuruth ). MD also was a joke for him, and after that, he went ahead for DM Nephrology at Chandigarh - where he really shone like a star. The teachers...

(This post has some overlap with the My autobiography post, and has some added details.) Internship Before taking up a job as a doctor, we had to finish one year compulsory rotating Internship. We get our degrees only after that. Then, to get Registration, one year senior house-surgeoncy with six months in Surgery and surgical specialities, which included Anaesthesia and ENT, and six months in Medical and medical specialities, which included Paediatrics and Dermatology. By this time Chechi and family came to Trivandrum on transfer. So I started staying with them, for home-cooked food. I began by staying in the House Surgeons' quarters near the pay wards, above the then Casualty block. No food was served there, so we would get parcels from hotels - one Viswanathan brought food for Krishna Shenoy and me, only in the evenings. Lunch was in the canteen. I used to frequent Chechi's house, mainly for food to start with, and later for stay also. Chechi was staying near the Ayurveda h...

Gururbrahma Gururvishnu Gurudevo Maheswarah. Guru is everything and also God. All people wearing saffron clothes are not Gurus. A true Guru keeps his thoughts, words and deeds synchronised. He talks and does only good deeds. Such people have their knowledge from enlightened vision. All our ancient Rishis got their blessings and enlightenment directly from God. What and who was Vyasa Bhagawan - did he go to school or learnt Sanskrit? All the tons of knowledge that He had was obtained by His direct enlightenment. The amount of work he did - like the classification and coding of all the four Vedas - cannot be seen anywhere else in this world. Apart from the Vedas, he has written Mahabhagavatham, Mahabharatham and 18 Puranas. There is a story about him saying that Vyasa was still restless in his mind, Narada advised him to write the story of Sri Krishna to give him peace of mind, and he wrote Mahabhagavatham. Our Swami, Sathya Sai, was a world Guru in the true sense and people from all co...

Without hope, there is no life. Hope sustains life. But one's hopes must be for pure things and purposes. One can hope for a decent living and not for a deceitful life. One can hope for a purposeful, comfortable life, with sufficient worldly wealth. But worldly wealth is nothing when you have spiritual wealth, which can give you real happiness. With spiritual wealth, one can gain bhakthi and faith, which alone can give everlasting happiness and peace of mind. When one's mind is engaged in some thoughts, it is difficult to change - to switch over to another thought. When a strong hope is occupying your mind, don't try to remove it - but follow it earnestly and you can attain it. Never try to suppress or remove a hope from your mind because it can improve your spiritual yearning, and thereby Bhakthi, and that will give sufficient Blessings from Bhagawan to have more hopes for better living in a spiritual atmosphere. Hopes and prayers are cousins, and so never lose hope. Swami...

I will be 84 this 20th Sept (2021). I feel great, and am satisfied considering the blessings God has showered on us. I cannot count the blessings Sai, our Lord, has showered on us. But still, there is a black dot in the final stage, with Rema falling ill due to some bad fate in the form of quadriplegia. But even here, He showed mercy by giving her the strength to face all problems associated with that problem. Sai gave her such strength that she never felt it as a bad fate at all, and faced all the pain and discomfort without complaint. Usually she cannot bear discomfort at all - it is a wonder how and from where she got this immense tolerance - no doubt from our dear Sai. Oh God! We are truly blessed, Baba! So far, God has always looked after me throughout my life in all adverse circumstances, even in my professional surgical experience. I have enumerated a few in my previous writings. We never dreamt that a world catastrophe like Corona will strike like a typhoon like in the present ...

Brindavan in Whitefield , Bangalore, is Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's mandir just as Prasanthi Nilayam is in Puttaparthi. Both are important for us devotees. As somebody said Whitefield is Swami's home and Prasanthi Nilayam is His office. Whitefield is about 15-20 kms from the city and is connected with frequent buses. The Kadugodi bus stand and Whitefield railway station are very close to Brindavan,  on either side of the rail-road gate nearby. Many of the long distance trains stop there.  We knew one station-master of this station, Mr Radhakrishnan, many years back. He is now no more. His family - wife and 4 sons - are still there. Prasad is an advocate, Narendran is the eldest, Murali is in real estate and engineering. Sai Giridhar was in UK until recently. I gave Murali and Prasad  the job of building a house for us just behind the Kadugodi police station there. They readily agreed and started work. I was regular in payment whenever they asked. Once we went to ...

The problem with the modern society is, too many desires. The more you satisfy your desires, the more they increase. Our Swami always says, life is like a train journey - the more the luggage, the less comfortable the journey is. So reduce your desires and put a ceiling on desires.  For example, when we started our life after returning from the UK in 1975, we had no phone, no fridge, no TV etc and yet, we were still comfortable. When we start accumulating things, say a TV, we want a mobile and then a laptop, and then a car and the list goes on like that. It is all right, you must have what you need, but not anything and everything to satisfy your ego. It is difficult not to have any desire at all and that is why we must have a " ceiling on desires ", as Bhagawan says. Everybody will be happier when one can cut the desires to essential ones.  We are in Puttaparthi now, without TV (which Swami says is televisham), no gas, only induction cooker, I don't use my own car - Har...

My memories of my father are very scanty as I lost him in 1950 while I was in 7th std. My father was Mr KN Pisharoty, son of Mr Rama Pisharoty who was a Munsiff in Cochin state at Thrissur. Grandfather died while his children were very young. He belonged to Thonnangamath (now PT House) which is Rema's house. Achan (Father) had an elder brother K Krishna Pisharoty, who was only 12 years old when their father died. Achan must have been around 8 or so. He had three sisters too, all younger than him. They had an uncle who, fortunately, looked after all of them. Memories about their school years are blank.  Achan always respected and obeyed his Ettan (elder brother) very much. Achan studied for Law in Trivandrum with limited financial help and had to study at night under street lights. Going from Cochin to Trivandrum was tough in those days - no buses or trains - they had to cross Vembanad lake in a large country boat. Once, while travelling by boat, he developed diarrhea. Since t...

MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY - continued from the earlier post ... At the UK for FRCS   I had to go back to Kannur to sell my car, which fortunately was bought by the son-in-law of Dr Jamaluddin. That night I stayed in the RMO's quarters with Dr Gopala Menon and his wife Dr Sethulaxmi Menon who have a lovely daughter Priya. I had a few friends in Kannur - Dr Abdul Khader (surgeon), Dr Ramachandran (ENT), Dr PMK Nambiar (physician), Dr Gopi Kurup and Mrs Gouri Kurup (Gynaec), and a few others. I bid farewell to all of them.  First leg of journey to UK was to Bombay first. Then, on to Ahmedabad where I stayed to bid farewell to my little fairy Anju and Rema. Then I went back to Bombay to really leave India for the UK on 1st May 1973 by Air India. The flight had stops in Frankfurt and Paris. Frankfurt airport was a big place, like a city in itself, with elevators all over, a really nice place to see and wonder at. When I arrived at Heathrow, Murali (Chowara) had come to receive me along wit...

This is about me - Nandakumaran.  Young days An attempt at writing an autobiography!! I was born in 1937 (ME 1113 Kanni masam Sept 20th Pooroorutathi nakshathram) three years after my father's retirement as Devaswam Commissioner in 1934. Chechi was born in that year. They wanted another girl but were disappointed. Anyway - I was one among many and got care as anyone else. I grew up mostly in my Chechi's company because there was no one else. Since there were seven men as my elder siblings, I was an easy target for all of them to run errands - especially Balachettan to buy snuff powder. I remember how we, being children, used to get Vishukkettam from distant cousins and uncles and Ramuttyettan especially used to collect that money from us! Vishukkettam amount was 4 or 8 annas and very rarely Re 1.  Onam and Vishu were true festivals in those days as that whole week was enjoyment. Even when I had nothing to play and no company I would be loitering in our house compound among tre...