SFV Narayaneeyam Coaching Completes its session

A group of fifteen ladies barged into our home this evening in a highly, wait a minute, congratulatory mood, as I watched Dhoni walk back to the pavilion, run out, when I still had hopes of India making it to the final. “What is there to be happy when India is losing?” I wondered hearing their ecstatic joy.

They were no strangers, but familiar faces. Yes, they had their own reason. Tomorrow they complete the Narayaneeyam course under the tutelage of Aunty (the lady of the house).

With overflowing love, affection and infectious smiles, they brought along with them gifts for Aunty – silk sarees, sweets, different varieties of fruit, jasmine flowers, garland, and what have you, replicating the scene of a bride’s party visiting the groom’s house in a brigade. Not just that. They had some gifts for me too, shirt, dhoti with angavastram – totally unjustifiable from my standpoint. I said I played no role whatsoever in the class. When it was in session, I just confined myself to my computer room. “Precisely for that only Uncle,” said the lady who takes liberty with me. “And for putting up with our mispronunciations of the slokas, and posing unending queries to Aunty close to lunch time, all which must have trickled into your room,” she confided. “Partially agreed,” I conceded.

When we moved in to SFV in May 2016, one of Aunty’s wishes was to impart Narayaneeyam to ladies who might be interested in learning it. Making a modest beginning in July 2016 with four or five students, her list now runs to 20. For her it was Teaching for Better Learning. And she is still grateful that the students stood by her firmly – her explanations combining English, Tamil, Hindi, and rarely Malayalam, notwithstanding. Also the likes of Prema, Usha, Shashi, and a few others had to go to Gurgaon, San Diego, London, Rajasthan and other places to be with their near and dear ones for months on. But the silver lining was that they were all back into the fold once they returned to SFV.

All this gives rise to a basic question – What is Narayaneeyam? To quote from Google, Narayaneeyam is the condensed version of Srimad Bhagavatam, or Bhagavata Purana. Narayaneeyam, on Lord Narayana, gives in 1034 slokas the gist of Srimad Bhagavatam running into 18000 slokas. The author or Narayaneeyam, Shri Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri, was born in Kerala in 1560. He wrote it sitting in Guruvayoor temple.

Thus, more appropriately, the members of the SFV Narayaneeyam group should visit Guruvayoor to commemorate their successful completion of Narayaneeyam.

By completion would you mean the members can now recite Narayaneeyam by heart, or, at least, at ease? Perhaps not. Precisely why Aunty has planned the second phase starting from next week. In each class 15 chapters would be selected, and each member would be allotted one chapter to recite all by herself as the rest watch her. That would introduce an element of healthy competition among the students to do a shade better than the other. Not bad planning, perhaps.

Our heartiest congratulations to the members for their untiring efforts, and best wishes for an early total command for self-recitation.

As we, menfolk, commence Rudram Chamakam chanting, here are the ladies miles ahead having just completed a book of 1034 slokas. But then comparisons are invidious.