Avaiyyar had extreme bhakti to Lord Ganesha from a very young age and her goal in life was to advance in the path of bhakti and serve Her Lord and mankind. When pressurized for marriage, she prayed to Lord Ganesha and gave up her beauty and youth which were hindrances in her path to God. The Lord responded and transformed her into a graceful old woman and she was called Avaiyyar meaning wise old woman. Such voluntary sacrifice is rare and only those who can give up the fleeting pleasures of the material world and of youth, romance and sex and focus wholly on God can make Him their own.
Avaiyyar left her home and moved around the country giving advice and imparting wisdom to those who came to her. She was highly respected and honored by the pundits and scholars, the common village folks, the rich and poor, the poets and kings. A time came when traces of ego entered into her. She was unaware of this ugly fact and went on with her usual work of giving advice and help to all those who sought her advice.The all knowing Lord wanted to remove this stain from her and enable her to serve Him even better.
Once Avaiyyar was walking to a far off village and was tired. She spotted a berry tree and sat under its cool shade. A young goatherd was sitting on the tree eating the berries. He called out to her and offered her some fruits. He asked : O Grandma, how do you want the berries? Hot or cold? Saying so, he shook the branches and a lot of fruits fell down. She picked up a fruit from the ground and blew the dust off it. As she was about to eat, the boy laughingly called out: So you prefer the hot fruit? You blow on it and cool it before eating?
Avaiyyar was awestruck at this logic and play of words. She knew that the boy was no ordinary child. Few could speak this language of logic and reasoning with her. The goatherd revealed his real identity as Lord Muruga – the brother of Lord Ganesha. Avaiyyar realized the folly of her ego and fell at His Feet and sought forgiveness. The Lord tested her further to award her prize of Divine Grace. He asked her four questions: What is hard? What is sweet? What is big? What is rare?
To the question- what is hard? she said -Poverty is hard, poverty in youth is harder, harder still is an incurable disease, still more harder is a faithless lover, and hardest of all is dependence for food on someone who dislikes you.
The answer to the next question (what is sweet)was- Solitude is sweet, sweeter is worship of the Lord, sweeter still is the company of one's Guru, and sweetest is to be constantly moving around with the Guru.
Her answer to the next question- what is big?- Big is the world, bigger is Lord Brahma who created it. But, Brahma emerges from the navel of Vishnu who sleeps on the ocean. The ocean was quaffed by Sage Agasthya who was born of a pot. The pot comes from the earth, which rests upon the cosmic serpent Adishesha's head. The serpent is but a ring on the finger of Parvati, who is a part of Shiva. Lord Shiva resides in the heart of the devotee, so that alone is the biggest.
To the final question –what is rare? she said - Rare is human birth, rarer is human birth without deformity, rarer still is human birth with an inclination towards wisdom and rarest of all is human birth possessing both charity and penance.
It is believed that Avaiyyar did not die a normal death. Instead, she was transported bodily to Kailasha, the abode of Lord Shiva, by Lord Ganesha Himself. Bhaktas like Avaiyyar teach us the importance of human birth and the goals we should achieve and the heights we can rise to. Let us take inspiration from her and do the SitaRam Mantra, meditation and follow the teachings of the Guru so that we to are blessed with knowledge and wisdom and achieve the final grace of enlightenment.
