Gita & periyava

Let me share with you an incident that reflects MahaPeriava's sense of
humour. Some decades ago, a learned gentleman from Chennai who was
well-versed in Bhagavad Gita wanted to share his knowledge and was very
keen to teach Gita. He met Mahaperiaval, expressed his desire to teach Gita
and asked for Mahaperiava's guidance on on how he should go about it.
Mahaperiaval asked him where he lived. He said, "Gopalapuram." So,
Mahaperiava advised him to start his lectures at the nearby Gopalapuram
Krishnan temple. As advised, the pandit began his Gita lectures at the
temple on an auspicious day. At the beginning, there a sizeable audience to
his lectures and the pandit was happy. As days went by, the numbers in the
audience started steadily decreasing to single digits. The pandit was very
disappointed at the dwindling numbers in his audience. He met Mahaperiaval
again, vented out his frustration at the people's lack of interest in his
Gita classes, and asked Mahaperiava, "How can I lecture to just 3 or 4
people?" Mahaperiaval smiled at him and said - "You are indeed very lucky -
you had at least three or four people to listen to you. You know very well
that Bhagawan Sri Krishna had only one person to listen to his teachings
and yet he continued with His teaching!".