The story of the five holy rivers

Acknowledgements: Creative writing in Tamil by Mr Selvam, Aaduthurai!

There was a beautiful sacred land with the five holy rivers flowing across its’ dense forests, mountains touching the sky, hills, blossoming meadows, deer herds frolicking in it, a mesmerising region indeed.

There used to live a holy saint in a ashram hut in the land. On a daily basis, he used to share his wisdom to the villagers and onlookers and alleviate them from their sorrows and sufferings, created by their own karma.

But the holy saint had a question lingering in his mind for a long time. You may be wondering what question could linger in the mind of a holy saint of this stature?

‘Yes, that’s right!’.

I can very well understand your reaction.

What question could a holy saint have indeed?

The riddle

The holy saint had one question that was bothering him and he was curious to get the answer for it. Daily, he used to observe five dark women walking down the street. However, on their return daily, they shone as bright as the full moon! What was the secret behind this magic? He was curious to unearth the secret behind this.

Next day, as the sun passed it’s rays amidst the hillocks, the holy saint woke up with a resolution to solve this riddle.

As usual, the dark skinned ladies went by. The holy saint observed then closely as they passed by.

And as before, they returned back shining as the full moon, in all glory. The holy saint called them.

“Holy mothers, my salutations!”, said the saint

“Pray, resolve my doubts, please answer my questions”, he continued

The saint seeks solution

The women offered their salutations to the holy saint. “Holy saint, you are all knowing. How could we resolve your doubt? Would we be able to answer your questions? If so, we are truly blessed”, said the women.

“Yes mother! The doubt I have is very much answerable only by you! Pray, resolve my doubts by answering my question”. Thus saying, he asked his questions

“I have observed for a long time that all of you pass by my ashram. While going, you appear so dark. However, while you return back daily, you appear to shine resplendent like angels, that the bright full moon would be envious of! Am eager to know the secret behind this”, asked the saint

The mystery of the riddle revealed

The five women thanked him for granting them the opportunity of clearing his doubt.`

“Oh holy saint, we have taken the form of women. We are actually five rivers that is popularly called as ‘The five holy rivers'”

“As holy rivers, people from various places visit us for taking a holy dip. In doing so, we purify them of their bad karma and turn them into pure souls. However, these bad karma affect our body and make it dark. We then take the form of young women and go past your ashram to purify ourselves”

“There is a small beautiful place nearby. There, a young boy lovingly takes complete care of his blind parents, by accepting it as his own duty based on his past karma. A mere sight of him, doing his duties devotedly, removes all the bad karma that we had acquired. We are absolved of all our sins and we turn back into pure souls”

“Just as a stream trickles down when the water flows in the field, and as grass gets sufficient water when the paddy is watered”

“Similarly, we become pure souls just by seeing the good deeds done by him”

“The joy of seeing the boy perform his duties to his parents, relieves us of all the bad karma that the people had left behind with us. We turn back into pure souls by merely witnessing this act of good karma”

Having responded to the holy saint, they thanked him and went back.

The saint explains the secret behind the riddle:

The saint explained the secret using the above thirukural as reference.

For the ones who understand their duties and diligently performs them, by habitually practising good deeds, he is naturally bestowed with good qualities and virtues, say the learned.

The one who realises his duties and performs them good with noble qualities and virtues, without minding the hardships he faces, he earns all good karma. “By performing our duty towards our beloved parents, our fore fathers, our ancestors and our family / clan deities (kula deivam), all our sufferings and sorrows, owing to our bad karma, gets completely dissolved”, preached the saint.

Our takeaways:

We are obliged to say thanks to this universe for giving us space to live as we wish, to our mother and father who gave birth to us, to our ancestors who gave birth to us, to the clan deity (kula deivam) who protects our clan, and to our favourite (Ishta) deity.

If we do our duties with a pure mind and full of love, without any expectation of the duties assigned to us in the universe, then we can become recipients of all the virtues in this world.

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