Benefit Of Chanting

Sri Annamalai Swami

When one group of villagers who had just been given Arunachala Stuti Panchakam to recite left the hall, a devotee asked, "How can such uneducated people understand the literary Tamil in these poems?"

"They don't have to understand the mind. They will get some benefit from merely repeating the verses.", replied B.

Whenever Echammal's granddaughter came to see B, he would ask her to read out loud Upadesha Undiyar. If she made any mistakes, B would correct her pronunciation.

Since she seemed to be a rather worldly girt I once asked B, "This girl does not look as if she has any desire for jnana. Why do you ask her to repeat Upadesha Undiyar each time she comes?"

B explained, "In future, when troubles come to her, the remembrance of these verses will help her."

The girl is now an old woman. When I saw her a few months ago, I reminded her about these lessons that B had given her.

She told me, "The verses have stayed in my memory all my life, but it is only recently, by the Grace of B, that I have begun to understand their meaning."