Other Activities

As one of Deepam's spiritual-humanitarian (Anma Neya) charitable services, lifelong livelihood assistance has been given to many families of the visually impaired and of persons with disabilities for more than the past ten years. Rice and groceries are given on the first Friday of every month.

Bowing at your lotus feet, we appeal to you to take part in this meritorious service and gain spiritual benefit. We lovingly request you to generously provide, every month, one visually impaired person or person with disabilities with a month's supply of 25 kg of rice and groceries such as toor dal, oil and other items.

We would also like to let you know that the rice and groceries given to one person cost up to ₹2,000/-.

In keeping with the verse of dharma, “If one does charity and penance, the way to the land of the celestials will open”, and with the words of Thayumanavar, “May all living beings be happy; I know of nothing else, O Supreme One”, in keeping with the golden words of the Manimekalai, “Those who give food to all who live on this soil-packed earth are the givers of life itself”, and in keeping with the true path of virtue of Thiruvarutprakasa Vallal Peruman, “Go forth and remove all the hardships that befall the living beings of the world, and rejoice”, we lovingly invite you to join us and live according to dharma.

Clothing is one of the basic needs of human beings. To help those without clothes, new clothes and used clothes in good, wearable condition are collected from donors and given to those in need. As part of this, every year in the month of Margazhi, in the severe cold, we go in person at midnight to give blankets to those sleeping on the roadside.

We have all seen visually impaired people selling goods on trains. To support their livelihood, various goods such as stationery, notebooks, peanut candy (kadalai mittai) and burfi are given to them.

Every year during summer, to quench the thirst of people suffering in the scorching heat, a buttermilk (neer mor) pandal is set up and buttermilk is served to many hundreds of people every day. Currently, buttermilk is served every day from 11 am near the arch of the Dandeeswaram Sivan Temple, Velachery.

The special significance of the Margazhi dawn!

“Among months, I am Margazhi,” says Lord Krishna. When the month of Margazhi arrives, people rise at dawn, bathe, draw kolams at their doorsteps and sing the Thiruppavai and Thiruvempavai; many temples play devotional songs over loudspeakers, and the “Saranam” chants of devotees going to Sabarimala pierce the sky. Rising at dawn and worshipping God in the month of Margazhi brings goodness, of this there is no doubt. Jesus was also born in this month, and those who follow his path also celebrate Christmas and the New Year in the month of Margazhi.

Although rising at dawn is the speciality of this month, when this month comes, some people have no need to wake up at dawn, because they do not sleep at night. On roadsides, at bus stops and railway stations, on drain covers and on shop steps, folding their knees until they touch their heads, a six-foot man shrunk to three feet, covering the whole body with a small, worn, dirty cloth, they lie curled up and shivering in the cold, and sleep does not come. This is how their Margazhi dawn has been destined.

In our land, where the last seven great patrons (Kadai Ezhu Vallalgal) lived, one of them, King “Pegan”, took the expensive shawl he was wearing, covered a peacock that was shivering in the cold, relieved it of the cold, and rejoiced to see it begin to dance, so says a Sangam-era poem.

Waking at midnight those who lie half-asleep, shivering in the Margazhi cold, Deepam Trust, operating in Velachery, Chennai, has so far given 6000 blankets. If we have been speaking of and marvelling at King “Pegan” for a thousand years for giving a single shawl, should we not praise the Deepam donors who covered people with these 6000 blankets for ten million years? For this work to continue, the only wish of the Sanmarga Sangam members is whatever act of benevolence you think of doing this Margazhi month. May the special significance of the Margazhi dawn shine with an entirely different change.

Those who wish to earn merit by giving blankets and rugs to the poor suffering in the Margazhi cold can help by donating to Deepam Trust.