Games and Guruvayurappan stories

During school days, I was not very quiet. From 5th std onwards I used to go to the school playground in the evening, playing MASS, KOTA - a form of running game, KhoKho (for which I got a prize), tennikoit, and volleyball. And near our drill class, I had a go at pole vault, long jump and triple jump as well as exercises with bars and rings.

Faith in God was first instilled in me by Kochechi (my mother's sister) telling us the Dhruva story. She also told us many stories from Bhagavatham. One story which struck me and touched my mind was that of Balagopalan. His mother was very poor but a great Bhaktha. The boy came back from gurukulam and said all his classmates are bringing some present for the teacher and he too wanted to take something. His mother was helpless and asked him to pray to Krishna Bhagavan. He said a brother used to come with him when passing through a small forest to school. This brother told him not be afraid and if he needed anything call him loudly 'chetta, chetta'. Our boy's mother told him to ask his brother in the forest about his request. The next day, while going to Gurukul, our boy called out loudly his brother in the forest -'chetta, chetta' - and he came promptly. Then our boy presented his request and the brother in the forest said OK,  and asked him to go to Gurukul. In the meantime the brother in the forest went there and presented the teacher with lots of butter and curds, saying that this gift was given by Balagopalan - the teacher was happy. When Balagopalan reached Gurukul, he found his teacher happy and was thanked for all the butter and curds. Balagopalan was surprised. He went home and told his mother that his brother in the forest gave all this butter and curds and saved his name. Mother realised that the brother in the forest is none other than Bhagawan Himself. Her happiness knew no bounds. Balagopalan too was happy because his mother was happy. So both mother and son were happy and blessed. When Kochechi would narrate this, she would go into ecstasy herself, for she too was a great bhakha.

There are lots of stories like this, connected to Guruvayurappan. There was a boy whose father was the melshanthi of Guruvayurappan. One day, this melshanthi asked his son to do the pooja and went somewhere. The boy was very innocent and dedicated and did pooja very sincerely. But even after pooja and nivedyam he saw the nivedyam was untouched and intact. The boy thought he did his pooja wrong and started to cry and complained to Bhagawan why he didn't accept the paayasam he offered and said you accept from my father and not from me. That touched Bhagawan's heart and paayasam was accepted and the boy was happy. Later when Melshanthi came he found the boy happy but the paayasam vessel was empty. He was very angry with the boy thinking that he ate all the nivedyam and started scolding him very severely. The boy told him innocently that the payasam was accepted by Bhagavan. Melshanthi became more angry and started to shout and beat the boy. Immediately, there was ASAREERY (ethereal voice) from inside, 'I ate the paayasam'. Melsanthi felt sorry and realised his mistake. He took a 'DEERGHA DANDA NAMASKARAM' in front of Bhagawan.