Tamarai – Part VI: The 21 Year Pilgrimage

• Tamarai has suffered years of barrenness because of a curse once laid on her father-in-law. As a last resort, she and her husband set off to ask Lord Shiva for help. At first Kunnutaiya takes the lead. The two walk together at night.
  

• The determined pair also walk during the heat of the day. Rocks and thorns soon raise sores on their feet. But they think only of their destination. Their goal is to reach the Council Chambers of Lord Shiva himself, high in the Himalayas.   

• As the two walk farther and farther into the unknown, the path being followed becomes more and more difficult. Eventually the Himalayas come into view. Those hills look so steep! The couple wonder how they can continue.
  

• The path is now fulls of boulders. Tamarai has more determination and more stamina than Kunnutaiya. At times he walks but at others she must carry him on her back. Bravely hoping for a brighter future, the two soldier on.
  

• Eventually Tamarai and Kunnutaiya find themselves at a crumbling gateway. This is the starting point of a long staircase leading into the sky. Alas, Kunnutaiya is about to faint from weakness. He does not have the strength to go any further.
  

• Fortunately, Lord Vishnu quickly appears. He understands Kunnutaiya’s weakness and decides to put a kind of stone-like trance over him. Vishnu himself will now accompany Tamarai further, while Kunnutaiya safely awaits her return.  
  

• Lord Vishnu puts Kunnutaiya’s spirit in a little box to make sure it stays safe while he waits. Vishnu knows it will be twenty one years before Tamarai returns to these gates!
  

• Tamarai and Lord Vishnu start up the staircase to heaven together. For the first time on her long, long pilgrimage, Tamarai can depend on someone else to lead the way.
  

• Near the top of the staircase Vishnu introduces Tamarai to the Gates of Hell. There she see a strange sight. Vishnu tells her to close her mouth and not ask any questions.
  

• Tamarai is asked to follow Vishnu through the long tunnel. It is lit by many hot fires where the sinful are being tortured. Despite Vishnu’s warning, she can not resist asking why these people are being made to suffer so much.
  

• At the end of the hell tunnel the two emerge into the light. Tamarai now sees a tall meditation post next to a huge banyan tree. Vishnu supplies the proper clothes for her new life. He will also make sure that she stays safely focused on her goal.
  

• Tamarai focuses hard on her meditation routine. Her skin is the color of death and she looks ashen. Her eyes are closed. She is immobile.
  

• The deep determination Tamarai feels as she meditates on this tall and lonely pillar is written on her face.
  

• The determined yogini remains motionless during many long, hot and hazy days.
  

• The determined yogini also remains motionless during the many icy Himalayan nights.
  

• The determined yogini remains motionless. Not even a beautiful sunrise or sunset can distract her.
  

• Finally Lord Shiva himself recognizes Tamarai’s pleas. She enters his hallowed Himalayan Council Hall and pays her respects. The weary yogini asks for three children. The heart of the great Shiva melts and he agrees to help her.
  

• Lord Shiva grants Tamarai the spirits of three children-to-be. He also makes a surprise gift: a magical pot. Its water droplets, when distributed on Earth below, will spread Lord Shiva’s promise of fertility to all who ask.
  

• Tamarai starts down the staircase from heaven and finds her husband exactly where she had left him. Lord Vishnu helps awaken him, rejoining his body with his spirit to give him a new life as well.
  

• Tamarai and her husband finally reach home. It has been twenty one years. Her first job is to share her pot of magical water with all the women in Ponnivala who are hoping for children.

[Continue to Part 7==>]

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