When we are alone and leisurely,thoughts make round in our mind more vigorously than usual. The mind is mischievous. It does not allow us be free. That is how thoughts about life occupied my mind. I began thinking as under.
Life is a drama . This is what Shakespeare says. That is what we realize during the course of our life too. In a drama an actor plays only a role or two. In life how many roles we play.We enact all the roles ourselves whereas a drama company engages a couple of persons to play those roles.We enact those roles one by one from the day one of our life to through out our life.In life we represent what we are whereas in a drama we try to be somebody else.Talent and skills are required not only to play a role in a drama but also to play roles in real life. Some of the roles that one comes across in their life are really challenging . Enacting a role in life is not always a smooth sailing.One may have to pass through one or another hurdle many a times while enacting a role in life .
Life is not a straight line. A drama could be either a comedy or a tragedy. So also a life could be either a comedy or a tragedy too. The roles that one plays in life brings one either fame or ill fame. Because of roles that one plays in life only one becomes either a hero or a villain in the eyes of public. Some roles that one enacts in their life are major roles and some roles that one enacts in their life are minor roles. None is assured of support and guidance to play these roles. One may or may not get support and guidance to play the roles. One can accept or reject a role that would be given in a drama company but playing of roles is compulsory in one's life. As long as one is alive, one has to play one or another role in their life. One cannot rehearse their role in life whereas one rehearse their role at least a couple of times before enacting it in drama. If one does not play their role appropriately , it affects their life and life of others too.Success and failures in life depend upon how one enacts their roles.Whether it is a role in a drama or a role in a life one could do justice to the role provided one understands well the role and enacts it devotedly.
Success or failure of roles that one plays in life depends on a number of factors .Primarily success or failure of roles that one plays depends upon individuals. It is said that one's past life affects one's present life. Acting in life is different. Some roles we play well. Some roles we find difficult to enact. How many feelings we would come across in the process. They can be natural feelings or it can be mere acting . In real life relationship , love and affection may develop or may not develop at all. Most probably, that is why Shakespeare said " A man may smile and smile yet be a villain."What role one gets to play in life is more important than anything else. Choice of roles that one plays in their life is not always in one's hands. In life sometimes only one has the option of choosing a role .One either choose their own style to play their roles in life or imitate the roles of their role models. Some only like the roles that they play in their life whereas some do not like the roles that they play in their life. Roles that one plays in life are sometimes painful and tiresome, sometimes joyful and pleasureful. In fact, how the roles that one plays in life would be it could not be predicted also. In real life one begins with the role of a child , then play the role of a boy , a youth , and a man. William Wordsworth rightly says " The Child is the father of man". A man plays the role of a son ,a brother a husband a father , a father in law , brother in law , son in law , an uncle , a grand father, a boss , a subordinate, a friend and what not . Likewise , a female child too plays many roles .Of course ,everyone do not play same number of roles. Some play more number of roles and some less number of roles . It is our life. In the modern world, we come across small families and we play less number of roles.Younger generation dominates older generation in it. As a result, roles have undergone a sea of changes. Obedience, faithfulness , moral and cultural values are all affected in the modern world.
Some people believe that everyone’s fate is written in the lines of their hands and some people do not believe that everyone’s fate is written in the lines of their hands. Whatever we understand in life it is either from our own life or it is from the life of a person or persons whom we come across. We cannot prefer only good qualities from our elders. We inherit good qualities as well as bad qualities from them. If we realize which are good qualities among them and which are bad qualities among them, we can try to disown the bad qualities. The problem is often we cannot distinguish easily between good and bad qualities that we possess. A man is a pool of qualities. Every man does not possess same qualities. Every man possess different qualities in different proportion. Man to man not only differ in appearances but also man to man differ in qualities. A man is liked or disliked on account of qualities that he possesses . A man possesses good as well as bad qualities . While choosing the qualities a man blunders. One who could distinguish which is a good quality and which is a bad quality is really a capable man. World evaluates a man not on the basis of wealth that he possesses but on the basis of qualities that he possesses. Qualities of which a man is made up of are important and precious. That is why the saying "Nothing is lost If wealth is lost, if health is lost something is lost and if character is lost everything is lost " . The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important. Qualities in a man make him remembered. Good qualities even in an enemy are appreciated too. Every life has a story. One person to another person it is not the same story.
It is aforesaid thoughts made me remember Mr.Vaman Achar, a palmist. It is said that our fate has been written in our hand. Whole of palmistry lies in human hand and quite a large number of people make their living by reading others’ hand. Udupi brahmins are well known all over the world especially for hotel business. As any community is brahmin community also comprises of rich and poor people.Majority of brahmins are learned and intelligent. Normally, rich brahmins establish hotels whereas those who are poor among them get employed in hotels as cashiers, suppliers, storekeepers and cooks. Vaman Achar was from Kunjur near Kaup in Udupi District. He belonged to a poor brahmin family. He studied up to eighth standard only and was working as a primary school teacher. He was well versed in Sanskrit language.
Early marriages were common in those days. Vaman Achar was married at the age of sixteen. His wife was only nine years old at that time. He was interested and good at Yakshagaana. One morning he was singing a song and one Mada who was drawing water from a well through a wooden crane was playing drum to it in the adjacent field . It was Tala Maddale. Tala Maddale (tALa maddaLe) (ತಾಳ ಮದ್ದಳೆ) is an offshoot of Yakshagaana the popular theatrical art form of coastal Karnataka. While taking part in such an art one forgets the whole world. As a result Mada forgot that he was operating wooden crane. Three ladies were working along with him. When Mada left the crane inoperative, it badly hit the women. They were badly wounded. Due to the misfortune of Vaman Achar and Mada, Mr Raghuram Shetty, landlord happened to come there. He was furious. He shouted at Vaman Achar. He threatened Vaman Achar that he would kill him. Vaman Achar had no other go than to abscond from Kunjur and go to nearby Mangalore for his livelihood. In Mangalore , he joined his cousin Ananthachar who was running a small canteen . Several months elapsed, in Mangalore. Mr. Vaman Achar found that stay in Mangalore was not at all beneficial financially or otherwise either to Ananthachar or to him. So one fine morning , Mr. Vaman Achar boarded a bus and landed at Mysore for better job prospects.
Mr Gurajachar was running Hotel Raghavendra Bhavan at Mysore. It was a famous and popular hotel at that time. Hotels always have shortage of staff. Hoteliers always prefer workers from Udupi or nearby places to it. So Vaman Achar had little difficulty in getting into that hotel. Vaman Achar was suffering from myopia. Customers at that hotel were not liking the way Vaman Achar was serving eatables to them. It was a little more than two months when Vaman Achar approached Mr Gurajachar for remuneration. Instead of paying something , Mr Gurajachar scolded Vaman Achar for serving customers awkwardly.Vaman Achar had no other go than vacating Hotel Raghavendra Bhavan. As a consequence, Vaman Achar took refuge at Sri Raghavendraswamy Mutt in Mysore. He was offering daily prayers to Sri Raghavendraswamy with great devotion. The power of devotion is always immense.It is in fact, immeasurable.God is always sympathetic to His devotees. The path of devotion is one of the surest and easiest ways to reach God.
Vaman Achar was attending one or another work in the temple premises. Temple authorities and devotees were kind to Achar. They used to provide him food and shelter. Yet, Achar could not make his both ends meet. He knew not what to do. He could not send-home money. He was frustrated. He surrendered to God.
One day,he knelt before Brrindvan of Sri Raghavendraswamy. He hit his head to floor continuously without stopping. As a result , his head started bleeding. He fell unconscious. He had a dream. In the dream , he was directed to go to nearby library.
Next morning Vaman Achar walked into Oriental Library.The Oriental Library was started in 1891 on instructions from Chamaraja Wodeyar, the then Maharajah of Mysore State. It is located at one end of the road Krishnaraja Boulevard, in the architecturally attractive Jubilee Hall built in 1887. The Oriental Library has large collection of manuscripts in both Sanskrit and Kannada.It houses over 33,000Palm leaf manuscripts. The manuscripts are palm leaves cut to a standard size of 15 cm by 3.5 cm. One of such manuscript which was lying idle on a stand in a nook of library caught his eyes. Vaman Achar simply pocketed the manuscript and returned to his shelter in Sri Raghavendraswamy Mutt . The manuscript was in Sanskrit. It contained numerous verses . Each verse was beautiful and meaningful. Verses were about palmistry. Vaman Achar began thorough study of those verses. Some days rolled in that fashion. Vaman Achar could not control his desire to be at Lords feet. He dragged his feet to Mantralaya .
Mantralaya is a town in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh . It lies on the banks of theTungabhadra river on the border with neighboring Karnataka state. It is also called as Manchale. This town is noted for the holy presence of the Vrindavana of Guru Raghavendraswamy , a Madhwa saint and follower of Sri Madhwacharya. It is believed that Guru Raghavendra Swami is in the Vrindavana from the past 339 years and is believed to be in the Vrindavana for another 361 years. While entering the Vrindavana, Guru Raghavendra Swami stated that he would be in the Vrindavana for 700 years.
At Mantralaya Vaman Achar completely surrendered himself to Guru Raghavendra Swami. He continued his study of the manuscript.He was offering prayers to Guru Raghavendra Swami day and night. Every day free food is served to devotees there. There was nothing to worry for Vaman Achar about food and shelter. He was having twice or thrice bath in the nearby holy Tungabhadra river that flows just by the side of temple. The place is blessed by nature God. Atmosphere at Mantralaya is so good that one could forget the whole world there. Of course, now a days Mantralaya is so busy that thousands of devotees from nook and corner of country flock there. Faith has no bounds.
Despite such an excellent atmosphere at Mantralaya,Vaman Achar was discontented. He could not send money home. He was penniless. He was frustrated . One night he stood in front of Vrindavan of Guru Raghavendra Swami with burning camphor on his palms. He had closed his both eyes. He was chanting slokas after slokas. The flame and heat made him faint. He was enlightened. He had in that state a dream. In that dream he was directed to go to Hirekerur. At Hirekerur a rich Brahmin couple namely Mr and Mrs Madhavrao too had a dream where in they came to know that a person would call on them and read their palms and prepare their horoscope for them and would make predictions. They were also great devotees of Sri Raghavendra Swami of Mantralaya .They were expecting a brahmin to arrive at their place.They made all arrangements to receive him. Hirekerur is a panchayat town in Haveri district of Karnataka.The name Hirekerur means "the village of the big pond".It was at a distance of 336 km from Mantralayam .
As such, at Hirekerur Vaman Achar received a red carpet welcome from Mr and Mrs Madhav Rao at their bungalow. Mr and Mrs Madhav Rao washed feet of Vaman Achar with warm water and dried it with a new Turkish bath towel. They sprinkled water from his feet over their head with devotion. Thereafter, Vaman Achar had a nice hot water bath. He wore the new dhoti and shawl provided by the couple. When one is filled with good qualities and knowledge a glow automatically appears on their countenance. He chanted slokas spontaneously and performed puja. He read the palms of the couple and prepared their horoscopes. He made numerous predictions. The couple was immensely pleased .They honored Vaman Achar in every possible way and expressed their gratitude. Vaman Achar was also immensely pleased with their hospitality. He stayed with them for a couple of days. As it was a long time since he left his native place Kunjur, Vaman Achar left Hirekerur for Kunjur. Mr and Mrs Madhav Rao were at the bus stand to see him off.
Vaman Achar safely landed at Kunjur. He started practicing palmistry there. His predictions were accurate. His popularity increased day by day. Mr Ram Rao manager of three famous mutts there could not bear his popularity. Mr Ram Rao was egoistic. In front of a large crowd he inquired Vaman Achar when he would die. Without waiting for a second Achar predicted at 5 p.m. next evening. Next evening exactly at 5.p.m . Mr Rao died of heart failure. The news spread like wildfire. It was quickly known all over. This case, added much to his popularity. People started queuing him up. His name and fame spread all over Karnataka. Even, His highness came to know of his capabilities. He called him to his palace. It was Achar who revealed the extra marital affairs of the queen with a mahout at that time.
Fame is not everything in life.It comes and goes.In fact, many times it 's a curse. It doesn't allow one stay calm. One who is after it would do anything. Often it makes one mad too.Many are carried away by it. Fame and money usually do not come all alone at anytime. Everything has a price to pay. The popularity and money brought vices to Achar. Divine power relinquishes one as they tread wrong path. Vaman Achar was no exception,as he became more and more popular and moneyed, he started playing cards . He became drunkard and debaucherous also . He married for the second time from some other community. He moved to Bengaluru. His popularity took a downward trend. His predictions became inaccurate. His followers deserted him. He fell sick .His end was miserable. He was in Victoria Hospital for a period exceeding over two months. He was unconscious for quite a long period there. One fine morning he passed away. Thus, life of palmist came to an end.
An astrologer or a palmist do horoscope and palm reading of everyone who approach them. They make predictions to whoever who ask them. Do they do not read their own palm or horoscope ? Are they not aware of their future ?Are they not aware how their life would end ? These questions haunted my mind. I concluded that hands can bring fame or ill fame to anyone.