Mysuru: For 85-year-old M V Seethalakshmi, the flight of stairs outside Prasanna Anjaneya Swamy temple was her world. She begged outside this temple for several decades and had become a familiar face that devotees thronging the temple opted to ignore most of the time. However, today that is not the case because people have been coming to temple not just to seek benevolence of God Almighty here, but also to meet Seethalakshmi.
Weeks ago, the octogenarian had donated a sum of Rs 2.5 lakhs to the temple. That was her life’s savings that she had offered at the feet of the Lord as token of love and devotion. Since then life has changed completely for the lady. As against the time when she had to make efforts to earn even a single coin, after her service to God, people have been voluntarily walking up to her to make some generous ‘donations’ to her!
Sudarshan, a retired telephone officer from Mumbai who has been residing in Kuvempunagar after retirement gave a Rs 100 currency to Seetalakshmi and said that he was dumbstruck by the contribution that the lady did to the temple.
“She is a great lady and such people are very rare. People who have lots of money too think twice before parting with a share of their property. But, look at her. She has contributed all that she had,” said Sudarshan in awe of the lady.
KS Manjunath, retired Section Engineer from Irrigation Department, Amaravathi, Pune, who settled in Mysuru at Gokulam said “After going through newspaper I came across this lady’s contribution and was very eager to see her. The very next day I made it a point to visit the temple and meet her. After seeing the lady I was shocked her take on life.” “I want to frequently visit this temple and donate at least a little to this lady. I am thinking of purchasing a few new clothes for her,” added Manjunath.
Seetalakshmi has become an important person in the area. While some give her money, many others bring her eatables and other commodities just as a token of appreciation. Many even tend to click selfies with the humble lady.
M Basavaraj, Chairman of Temple said that her act of generosity has changed the way people look at her.
Speaking to Newskarnataka, an elated Seetalakshmi said that she has not done anything worthy of this kind of love and respect.”I have donated by savings to the deity on whom I have immense love and trust. My Lord is everything to me,” she said adding that initially she was very nervous when people used to click pictures with her, but now she has got accustomed to the same.