LIFE WITH MOM #3 [LAST DAYS -2]

Beginning May 1st (2011) mom’s conditions were deteriorating. She came back home on the 28th of April after being discharged from BGS Hospital. When she was discharged she looked hale and hearty. She was so happy, that on some of those days I had applied leave, to be with her. Sharada Periamma gave a lot of service to mom in those days. The service she rendered need be described in detail. There was a feeling of uneasiness but I kept pushing it away. The food they gave at the hospital, mom felt, was very bland and inedible. Well, it was nutritionist recommended food! They took into account the fact that she was a diabetic. We carried food for Periamma or sometimes we had breakfast/lunch in the hotel opposite. Periamma always requested for coffee and flask-fulls of it, just to keep her going. Periamma survived on over-sugared coffee.
Two days after mom reached home may be on the April 30th or so Periamma left for Hyd. Mom was disturbed that there would no one with her in daytime. Periamma reassured mom that she would be back in a week after attending to the receipt of her pension and settling some commitments at Hyd. Each day I tried to put her back on her heart management medication. The day she took those she lost appetite and sleep. She complained of pain in her legs and asked me, or Li or Ananya to keep pressing her feet, massaging her feet, in downward stroke, knee down. With the doctor’s permission I stopped the heart-related medicine regimen, and to let her sleep gave her mild sedative tablets-sleeping pills. The first two days i.e 1st and 2nd May she sort of responded. She had a reasonably good sleep. May 3rd and 4th I gingerly doubled the dose as it was warranted- the one nightly dose hardly worked; she had a disturbed sleep. She pleaded with me not to resume the cardiac medication. They did more damage to her peace than good she had said. I stopped them all. I used to sit with her in the nights to see her sleep for a few hours. She would just manage a light sleep for, say 2 hours and then she would be wide awake. On 5th May I felt an eerie feeling: may be mom’s not going to survive this! I called my sis Gita and told her she should try to reach Bangalore as early as possible. She talked to her boss and confirmed she would be there on the 7th Morning. Mom was happy and eagerly awaited Gita’s arrival on the 7th morning. I went to receive Gita and Shalini. Mom was so happy to see them come. I had gotten late for office, so I applied leave on the 7th May even though it was a Saturday. The three of us kept mom busy, talking to her about many things. Gita took care of her feeding by making soft rice and rasam mix. Li had, on Friday, fed her successfully this concoction.
On 7th night I had a special request from a colleague of mine. He was to meet a god man who was a Malayalee. Their family was to meet the god man to ask his advice on some family problem. Though I was a little embarrassed, having been asked to be an interpreter when they were discussing something private, I accepted since they didn’t mind. This meeting was fixed in some house which the god man frequented. We were supposed to meet him at 1900 hrs that evening. My sister also accompanied me so that we thought we would ask the god man about the prognosis about our mom’s health.
That evening we reached the place and waited in queue, after an initial puja wherein we –my sis and I recited LS along with the god man, who, I noticed was looking at me very frequently. My colleague’s family entered into private audience and had their ‘consultation’. They came out after 30 minutes. My sister and I entered and started talking to the “swamiji” – I spoke Malayalam while my sis asked him her questions in Tamil.
The swami went tangentially off into saying that I had the blessings of Saraswati, that I knew everything about Mantra Shastra but “cleanliness” [what is called ‘madi’ in most South Indian Languages] was missing; He said shuddham porA. I asked, “In which sense?” I said, “I don’t go to puja unless I take bath- and that too Keralite style a full bath!” He said, “I do not observe the separation needed for menstruating women- i.e. my wife doesn’t observe these!” Now this is a very controversial topic. It would be very difficult to get modern day women to accept such things. “In that case” he said, “Just give up your spiritual practices. Satisfy yourself with just the remembrance of the Lord/Dev!i”, was his caveat. Because of this one thing, he had said, even though Parashakti is pleased with the correctness on the application part of the Mantra Shastra alongside is the kShudra devI who buts in uninvited and was playing tricks with the results.” I asked him about the place of Cleanliness of the Mind and Heart. Wasn’t that important? He declined to answer. He kept insisting that bodily cleanliness was more important in Devi worship. I wanted to put a stop to this conversation as I found that we wouldn’t be able to find common ground.
I was a bit annoyed for my sis and I were there only to know about my Mom’s health and prognosis and not to be lectured on the proper way of dealing with mantra shastra. He then returned back to the subject and gave us what we needed to set some things right. He talked of getting some pujas performed to “cleanse” my mom’s family of accumulated karma born of insufficient caring to the manes. There were some correct statements he made about events in my mom’s life and family background, so I resolved to do the needful should my mom be out of this spell of ill health. The man was so vociferous in his warning that unless I mended my ways about bodily shuddhi in rituals, I mustn’t be seeing him. Fine! I resolved not to see him ever again. I wasn’t in the least bit convinced about his reading of my spiritual engagements. I had better confirmation than that. All said and done I did want to take some of his points and apply though I had zero belief in his way of looking at things from a typical Keralite outlook. Does that mean Keralites are the only ones who had powers of mantra shastra based Divine Intercession? I did not want to buy this. God is for all. Devi included. If Keralites are obsessed with bodily neatness to the point of being fastidiousness, yea it has a weather- basis for that and nothing more. What would someone from say Bengal or Assam or any other cold clime do?
That night we returned home by 2200 hrs. All along my wife was very unhappy about my consulting this god man. Since she refused I had taken my sis along. Even on our return, my wife, after being narrated the whole conversation was very indignant. She was cross with me for having thought about this “consultation”. I just kept quiet. I resolved to do the needful corrective pujas soon after my mother’s recovery from the ill-health.