Married Life - utter, dire poverty haunts venkaTanAtha
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Married Life - utter, dire poverty haunts venkaTanAtha |
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Upon returning from Madurai, VenkaTanAtha’s marriage was arranged with saraswathi, a very virtuous lady from a good family. Saraswathi proved to be the ideal wife for VenkaTanAtha, and the couple had a son whom they named lakshmInArAyaNa.
VenkaTanAtha was a skilled musician and a great scholar, but he never demanded any money for his services and accepted whatever was offered to him. Since this happened very rarely, he had little or no means to support his family and had to endure a life of utter, dire poverty. A description of the hardships faced by him will melt anybody’s heart. If other families observed EkAdashi twice a month, VenkaTanAtha’s family did that several times in a week. His poverty was so stark that he could not afford a drop of oil to take an oil-bath on a festival day like dIpAvali. His family did not see new clothes for years. Inspite of all this, he never lost his equanimity or wavered in his faith towards the Lord. He continued his self-study, and free teachings, determined to live by whatever came to him unsought and unasked.
To add insult to injury, thieves raided VenkaTanAtha’s house one day and looted whatever little he had in terms of vessels, clothes. After this, he decided to seek refuge under Sri sudhIndra tIrtha. Even though maintaining his family was the pretext for moving, his main objective was to continue his education under Sri sudhIndra tIrtha