It appears that most of you enjoyed adiyen's poorly written note on our trip to Sholingur.What ever poor the presentation to be, it is  bhagavad vishayam and your bhakthi to the Perumal has made my note as worthy. Anyway thanks for the encouraging personal mails.

Here is the second dose.. This time it is Srirangam.

Our next trip was to Srirangam and oppiliappan koil etc. This year we were blessed to visit all the three major divya desams ie Srirangam, Thirumalai and Kanchipuram in the same order.

We have choosen 1st July to visit Srirangam because one of our goshti member, who is the ubayadharar for nitya aradana on that day. Since he could not go on that day, he was kind enough to guide us to go there on that day on his behalf and we are thankful to Sri Raghu for this. For the first we have enjoyed Sri Ranganatha from very close
quarters and we were indeed blessed to be with HIM in all the six sevas.

On 31st night we left chennai by Rock Fort express and landed at Srirangam around 5.30AM. We went to Sri Radha krishnan mama's house in Melur road (father of my friend, who is working in Bahrain) and after bath left for the temple. We have just missed the visvaroopa darshan at perumal sannidhi but could take the blessings of Thayar and Swami desika. Though adiyen had been to Srirangam many times this is the first time adiyen has seen the desikan sannidhi in open condition. The timing never match to take blessings from swami desika. adiyen thought that perumal has commanded us to take the blessings from Thayar and acharya before coming to HIM.

Since there was more than an hour to have seva of Ranganatha, we have quickly decided to take the blessings of Srimad Andavan, who was at Srirangam on that day. HE was leaving to Azhvar thirunagari enroute Thiruppullani on that day afternoon. Immediately we went to ashramam and adiyen was lucky to participate in the nityanusandhanam recitation. After partaking perumal and paduka thirtham of so many illustrous acharyas and prasadam we took the blessings of Srimad Andavan and then rushed to temple. If you haven't been to this ashramam,then you should see it once. Amidst tall trees and in a calm
atmosphere it was so nice to enjoy the beauty of the nature and the veda and prabandha gosham inspires you a lot. But you must be prepared for a worst drive thru a small road which is in worst condition. Not at all road worthy. Due to shortage of time we could not visit the Veda patashala run by Srimad Andavan. My mama's son has recently joined the Veda patashala, and we wanted to pay him a visit. But bhagavad sankalpam was different.

We came to temple and had a good darshan of Sri Ranganatha. Being representative of the Ubhayadharar we could get darshan here. Sri Thiruppanazhvar's amalanaadhipiran and swami desika's bhagavad dhyana sopanam came to adiyen's mind and adiyen could recite them mentally while enjoying the beauty of Sri Ranganatha. It looks like a competition between peria perumal and namperumal who is more beautiful. How many azhvars and acharyas have enjoyed the beauty of Ranganatha. HE is the one perumal who has attracted acharayas of not just srivaishnava tradition but even Sri Krishna chaitanya and Sri
Adi Sankara. All the stories you hear about the namperumal will flash thru your mind in that short time and the spritual feeling you experience can't be explained in words. The aromatic smell, the beauty of HIS ornaments, flowers. Oh what to look and how to capture HIM into our mind. The archakas are polite in telling us that we have to give way for others. No one will ever want to leave the sannidhi but we have to give chance to other devotees who are eagerly waiting to have darshan of the Lord. Finally we came out of the sannidhi with a light heart and tears in eyes. It was noon by that time and we were
very hungry by then.

Then we went around other sannidhi's like Ramar, Andal, Dhanvantri,mettu azhagiya singar, Venugopalan etc to name a few.
Since we went on behalf of Sri Raghu who is one of the ubhayadharar for nitya aradanam on that day, we have been given prasadam at Madappalli. The officer there told us to come in the evening and night for darshan. (also for prasadams offered during that time)

After resting for a while, at about 4 PM we went to Sri Poundripuram Andavan ashramam. Sri Madhava kannan's (Singapore) father Sri Vasudevan mama was kind enough to introduce us to swami and we were wonderstruck at the soulabyam of Swami. We spent more than an hour with swami and he was very happy about the satsangh activites, our web site and about our humble contributions to various divya desams. Swami gave a srimukam blessing our newly formed trust and adiyen has shown the thiruvaradana kramam book let prepared by us. Swami was very pleased and autographed the booklet. Swami also told about the upcoming Andal sannidhi samprokshanam which is being done by Sri Madhavakkannan and others. The water scarcity in Srirangam was discussed and swami was very upset with the present condition. He felt that deep borewells in srirangam have dried up the wells and he mentioned that a vaidhika can't follow his daily routines today in Srirangam. Swami enquired whether we can stay still the Andal sannidhi samprokshanam but adiyen could not do so since Sudharshana
homam was planned at adiyen's residence on that day in chennai.We were indeed blessed to meet two Andavans on the same day.

Then we went to dasavatharan sannidhi, which is near Poundripuram andavan ashramam. Many of us don't know this temple. We can see perumal in all the ten incarnations. The beauty of the moorthis is beyond my language. One must visit this temple. Sri Thirumangai azhvar stayed here and did kaimkaryams to Sri Ranganatha. Later Swami desikan has composed famous dasavathara stotram on this perumal. adiyen also understand that 44th Jeeyar of Sri ahobila mutt who has undertook the marathon task of constructing Raja gopuram for Sri Ranganatha stayed here for many years. Such is the greatness of this
sannidhi. We performed archana. This temple is being maintained by Sri ahobila mutt. If you want to see the images of Dasavathara perumal adiyen can scan from the Nrusimhapriya and mail it. Please visit this sannidhi next time

Then we rushed to Ranganatha temple and went to Sri Sudarshanar sannidhi. Again we went to Perumal and thayar sannidhi and had good darshan. We could not do darshan at Sri Bhashyakarar sannidhi since it was beyond 7 PM. Adiyen then went to temple for artha jama darshan also. The aravanai prasadam given after artha jamam was simply superb. Fortunately the house we were staying was not very far from the temple. adiyen might have commuted between home and temple for
more than 10 times on that day, not missing even one seva.

Since we have missed the Vishvaroopa darshan on that day, we want to do darshan of this seva next day morning. We were all exhausted and afraid that we will miss the seva for which we have to be at temple by 5.45AM. We prayed to Sri Ranganatha to wake us early enough to bathe and be in time.

If you haven't seen Vishvaroopa seva, then please make a point to go for this next time. It is a treat to watch. People say you don't get thiirtham or tulasi or you can't do archana during this time. Forget all that. Then preparations to wake up the Lord is simply amazing. The Veena ganam, recitation of Thiruppalliyezhuchchi in a melodious voice, the arrival of cow and elephant are really a feast to the eyes. We were in time but the temple officials did not permit us stating that the officer have to come and we lost about 15-20 minutes. Although the officer on duty have told them about our seva (previous night), they were adament. Finally we stormed in stating that we will speak to the officer once he has come but can't wait to lose the seva. Due to this we could not get a place close to the sannidhi.

Finally the screen was opened and the Harathi was shown to perumal. Then the devotees were allowed to have darshan of the Lord one by one. Adiyen had the bhagyam of seeing Namperumal without any kavacham or ornaments. The original divya thirumeni. We trying to see HIM without even winking our eyes and in few minutes we were out of the sannidhi. When Next? This is the question. Adiyen felt that sri bhattar's statement that he will even return from Vaikuntam if the Lord over there is not as beautiful as Sri Ranganatha. The bhagavathas who are living in Srirangam and having darshan of Perumal every day are indeed bleesed.

We went to Sri Bhashyakarar sannidhi and all of you must be knowing about the Than ana thirumeni at this shrine. Adiyen will not dwell in those topics for the sake of brevity. We had an wonderful darshan in the early morning and mentally reciting Ramanuja noorandhadhi pasurams and Yathiraja sapthathi. Each sannidhi has its own beauty in Srirangam. Quickly we went to Thayar and Sudarshanar sannidhis once again in the morning to take their permission to continue our yatra. This time adiyen enjoyed the perumal from close quarters and HE blessed us with a smile ackowledging our eagerness to see HIM. Adiyen
read that seeing perumal thru the eyes of Azhvars and Acharyas will be the best way to enjoy HIM and he will be happy to bless us even though we may not know the inner meanings of the pasurams. This is true.

We came home and our next plan was to visit Anbil and Thirupper nagar and enroute Kattu azhagiya singar in Srirangam in the morning and then travel to Thanjavour for Mamanikkoil.

Adiyen will contine this in my next post.