One day, Pakkanar went to see his elder brother, Agnihotri. (Agnihotri was a Namboothiri - a person of upper caste in Kerala.) When he reached the courtyard of Agnihotri his servant informed Pakkanar that his swamiji (Master) just entered his pooja (worship) room and it will take at least two hours for him to get out. Pakkanar decided to wait for him in the courtyard and requested his servant to inform him the names of each and every God his brother worships one after another. Accordingly, the servant told him that his swamiji just finished worshiping Lord Ganapathy (The elephant God) and started the pooja of Goddess Saraswathy (Goddess of Knowledge.). It went on like this through so many Hindu Gods.

Each time Agnihotri started the pooja of a particular God, Pakkanar dug a new pit in the courtyard. Thereby, when Agnihotri came out after his pooja of several Gods, Pakkanar had dug a number of pits in the courtyard.

Agnihotri found his beautiful courtyard damaged by several small pits, and he also saw Pakkanar sitting at a corner of the courtyard, looking really sad.

Agnihotri asked Pakkanar,

"Why did you make my courtyard ugly by digging so many pits and why are you looking so sad? You sure owe me an explanation".

Pakkanar replied,

"I was just thinking about my foolishness. See from today morning onwards, I started digging several pits. If I just dug one pit instead, and focussed on it, I would have found water by this time and relieved my thirst too. Now all my effort is simply wasted."

Agnihotry realized that Pakkanar was actually hinting on his foolishness of worshipping several Gods and was conveying that if he worshipped one God sincerely his worship would have been really fruitful!

Back to story list.

Please send your comments and suggestions to  vkn36_tvm@yahoo.com