Tour experiences of Smt Subhashini Narasimha, Geneva

Well after the half-way returning from near Thiruvahindrapuram on December 26, I was praying Devanatha perumal and Hayagrivar that at least this time They should give me the darshan. I did not want to loose any time on this and so I planned a trip on the 25th Friday the very day I landed at Chennai. After taking rest for a while we left for Ayindhai around 10.00 am.  This time the team was I, my Father, your Father, my sister Saro, her mothier-in-law, and my Father's cousin that is my Atthai Dr. Ambujam.  The team was – as per seniority – three 70 plusses, one 60 plus and two 40 plusses.  So the van was really heavy barring the driver who happened to be a younger chap.

We left around 10.00 am and picked up your Father from your place and proceeded through the internal road via Dindivanam, Panrutti to Thiruvahindrapuram.  On the way we picked up plenty of fruits and flowers for the perumal and also for the children who were to recite Desikar slokams.  We reached Ayindhai at about 1.30 p.m. and at that time, being the Panguni Uthiram day, main Thirumanjanam was just over at the temple and Thayar Sannidhi was still open for the devotees.  I was too tired to visit the temple at that time and so we decided to take rest for a while and then visit the temple in the evening after 4 pm.  We just refreshed for a while in their house, had a coffee and nice tiffin – kesari and Kanchipuram idly and around 3 pm went to see the school construction of Sri. Srinivasan. 

He is really a great personality doing so much of public service.  At the time we went to the School – being a holiday on Good Friday – there was a special class for the 10th students as their Board exam was going on at that time.  I was just wondering as to how this man is able to manage to run a school within such a small house – built in that old fashion of temple houses like the ones which are very long with very little breadth –that too with about 400 children attending school everyday.  Hats off to the man as well as his lady who really supports him in his work.  After this we went to see the construction of the new school building, which is about half a kilometer distance from the old one.  They are constructing a ground floor plus first floor building.  It is in a good locality and the water is also good there.  The plot is considerably huge and there is scope for further construction in the future.  It seems he has applied for the loan in the UCO bank and even though it has been sanctioned they are taking longer time than expected to deliver the money.  From our side, I and my brother share in giving the Rs.37000 for building construction of this school.  Actually I tried to work out something more through one of our friends here but it was not successful.  So I was feeling very bad about this.  May be next year, Hayagrivar willing we would be able to get something done for this.  Mr. Srinivasan gave me plenty of ground nuts from there which was being dried (Narasimhan likes it a lot).  Then we went and had a look at the Thirumaligai of Sri Desikar and the well which he himself had dug inside that compound.  This house is very neatly maintained and we must really appreciate the people whoever is doing it.  I am very fortunate enough to have touched the well of Sri Desikar and walked in the house where he had spent about forty years of his life.  By the way, His name is the only name of any of the Hindu religious leaders that appears in the Guinness Book of records.  What a great personality!

After this we went back to their house to listen to the recitation of Desikar slokams by some of the school children.  One good thing about it is that he and his wife organize and teach the slokams to one and all without any bar on caste or colour.  This is really great especially given our set ups.  I was very glad to note that Desikar's Hayagriva slokam was pronounced so very well by the children from Dhobi's family.  There is another girl Aparajitha whose name should also be mentioned as she had excellent pronounciations of all the slokams and was reciting them very fast.  To my wonder there were only three children from our community who were actively participating in this – it is rather a shame on the whole community.  We distributed fruits, biscuits and also kesari to all the children.  They were very happy to receive them.  I took some photographs, but unfortunately Narasimhan recorded it on a CD and promptly forgot to bring it to Geneva.  So once it reaches us (hopefully soon) I will send you the photos. (This CD has the Serthi sevai of Devanatha perumal and Thayar on the day of Panguni Utthiram).  By the way during their discussions, my Atthai (-being a social worker still) and Mr. Srinivasan were trying to work out some possible visits of Health Workers to that area and I hope they will be able to organize something useful for the poor people there.

After this we went to have the darshan of Hayagrivar in the hill temple.  We had wonderful darshan there and because of Sri.Sridhar known to your Father we could have the darshan from very close quarters.  I was almost in tears and could not express my gratitude to This Perumal as He was the one who made me pass the exam last year in which I had totally lost hope of getting through.

<>Then we went to have the darshan of Devanatha Perumal Moolavar.  The bhattar here was very rude and he was almost throwing the archanai bags at the sevarthis after finishing the archanai.  I got really furious and told him off badly in the presence of lots of bhagavathas around.  In fact I could not have the satisfaction of having had the darshan of Moolavar Padasevai because of his rude behaviour.  Anyway, I have to visit this perumal again as on that day I could not have the darshan of Thayar Moolavar due to Serthi Sevai of Perumal and Thayar which takes place in the Thayar sannidhi.  By the time we went to Thayar sannidhi Sattrumarai was going on and it was fully crowded, but later on we could have good darshan of Perumal and Thayar Utsavars.  This was a great feast to our ears and eyes. The smile on the faces of utsava moorthis made me forget all my tiredness and it looked as though I traveled all the way from Geneva only to have a glimpse of their smiles. It is a great feeling.  Only the time was not enough as it was already past 7 p.m. and we had to return to Chennai after that in the night.  We paid some sambavanai to the Veda parayana goshti that day.Around 7.20 or so we left Thiruvahindrapuram and reached home at Chennai at about 11 p.m. after dropping your Father at home and my Atthai at T. Nagar.

On the next day Saturday 26th Narasimhan reached Chennai and we planned our trip to Cochin by flight that evening to go to Guruvayur to have Nirmalya Darshan on Sunday morning.  We hired a car from Cochin to Guruvayur and with A/C to cover the distance of 220 kms (from Cochin to Guruvayur and return is 170 kms) it worked out to Rs. 1800 including the night bata for the driver.  We had an excellent driver and he knew very well the routes of that area and so we did not have any trouble in reaching the place.  We reached Guruvayur around 10 pm and as arranged stayed in the Rugmini Regency hotel and got prepared for Nirmalya darshan around 12.30 am in the morning.  When we reached the temple around 1.00 am we were surprised to see the crowd already in the queue.  They allow for Nirmalya darshan at 3.00 am. It was a very good darshan we had of Guruvayurappan and I did not feel the satisfaction of seeing the Moorthy as it was for too short a while and we have the darshan from quite a distance and on top of it there was a huge crowd for Nirmalyam.  So when we came out we decided to go for another round to have darshan again and that too for the first time it was Narasimhan who asked me whether I would like to go in again.  This is a real surprise.  I took the offer immediately without any hesitation and without thinking about the tiredness after all seeing Krishnar in the child roopam is something really one cannot miss in life.  But while we were in the queue they closed the Nadai for Swami alankaram as a child and so we were lucky enough to have this Darshan second time.  I am still not satisfied and would like to visit him again.  After this we came out and took prasadams, sandanam and the oil and returned to the hotel.  Around 6 am we got ready and went for a small shopping and bought a very nice picture of Guruvayurappan in Black and white for our house in Geneva.  After having breakfast we started around 7.30 am.

On the way we went to Thripreyar Ramar temple.  This is a beautiful temple with a separate sannidhi for Venugopalan and it is located on the banks of river Periyar.  For us, it is a beautiful scene to see a temple on the banks of a river and as usual we both did not fail to enjoy the beauty eventhough it was for very few minutes.  Then we had good darshan of Venugopalan and Ramar.  Here Ramar is in standing posture and He is alone, but I could not get to know the sthalapuranam from anyone around.  May be we can find out next time when we go there.  The thanga kavasam adorning Ramar was having that extra Polivu due to the fact that it is touching Ramar's thirumeni.  The alankaram was wonderful and the lamp lighting was also very good.  After this we went to Koodalmanickam Bharathar temple which is at about 9 kms distance from Irinjalakuda station.  There is an inscription in the entrance that Kambar has made a mention about this temple in his Ramayana.  Here Bharathalwar is standing alone, but again we have to have darshan from quite a distance from the sanctum Sanctorum that I was not happy about.  Here in this temple the Deepalankaram was excellent and Bharathar is in all smiles with such a grand festive alankaram.  In Kerala temples we have to keep the offerings on the side in the main entrance of the sanctum sanctorum and the Archakar will take it only when they do the pooja and so when we offered a lotus malai for Bharathalwar it was kept separately and we were told that they will offer it to the Perumal only after the uchi kala poojai.  We were in a hurry to return and so we were not lucky enough to see the Lotus malai adorning the moorthy.  In the outside of the sannidhi there are lots of beautiful drawings of Ramayanam.  It seems this temple is special for Anna Prashanam and even that day there were two couples with their small children getting ready for the function.  It is a nice treat to the eyes to watch the little ones having their first rice.

After this we went to the airport directly. As Narasimhan does not like to take chances, he refused to go to the Thirukaatkarai temple which is only on the way to the airport, or rather at 10 minutes distance near Angamali station.  I was feeling very sorry that I could not visit the temple even though we had plenty of time for the flight at 12.20 in the noon.  So we came home that afternoon.

The next day Monday, by six o'clock in the morning we left for Tirupati and I did not want to miss this as I could not go to Tirupati in the last two trips.  This time I had my sister, cousin Geetha and my sister-in-law Vasumathi to go with me.  We had a good drive to Tirupati and went straight to Thiruchanoor to have Thayar darshan first.  After buying the ticket for Kunkuma Archanai, when we went in they were almost closing for getting Thayar prepared for the kalyana utsavam.  Luckily my sister-in-laws relative Sri Sridharan bhattar who is in the sannidhi itself saw us and took us inside and rather it looked as if Thayar was just waiting for us to enter in.  We were the last ones to be allowed in the batch and so we had good darshan of Thayar without any Jarugandi.  After this as we came out they were bringing Thayar and Perumal for the kalyana utsavam and it looked as if Thayar was coming out with us.  It is a great feeling.

After this we went to the Tirumalai and through my sister-in-law's office she had arranged for the special darshan tickets and so we were lucky enough to have the darshan of Perumal.  As you know these days the waiting time has increased like anything and even we were held up for more than 2 and a half hours and when we went it was such a pushing from the crowd that I was so scared that I might miss the darshan inside.  But Perumal was kind to me this time and I had good darshan when we went inside the sannidhi.  But I felt the emptiness of seeing completely demolished Ayiram kaal mandapan and the whole of the frontyard bears a empty look.  It is a miserable thing.  I wish Perumal gives a good lesson to those who have masterminded this type of a thing – can we in our generations ever imagine to construct a 1000 kaal mandapam of Thondaimaan Chakravarthy's calibre – it is just impossible.

Well, even during these busy days, I managed to take time out to visit thirunindravur temple – Bhakthavatsalar and Ennai Petra Thayar temple.  Our family has been fortunate enough to do the kaimkaryam of covering the Thiruvaasal Padi in brass for the Thayar sannidhi.  So the Ramanuja Kainkarya Trust, who had actually undertaken the job had asked me to visit the temple to have a look at the work.  The workmen have done a wonderful job and I am very happy about the fact that we could do something for this "Ennai Petra Thaayar" sannidhi and we have dedicated it in our Mother's name. Well, may be she had this wish during her last days and may be that she had forgotten to mention it to any of us and the Thayar herself has taken it from us.  Totally it worked out to Rs.49,000/-. I am very happy about the present condition of this temple as I remember the condition - even 20 years ago it was in very bad shape.  Eventhough I have visited this temple many times before, right from my childhood, this time I was very lucky to have the Padasevai of Perumal Moolavar as utsavar was in the Kannadi arai for the utsavam period.  This is the second Padasevai for me in this trip.

Well I could not go to Thirunangur as planned on the 2nd for the Kalyana Utsavam of SrivanPurushothaman Ramar.  Maybe Ramar has not yet decided to give me his Kalyana utsava sevai.

Well, I have to wait patiently.  But I am glad that even during this short hectic visit just for 10 days, I was lucky enough to visit six temples in six different places.  Surprisingly, after this trip in fact both of us feel very rejuvenated and already started eagerly looking forward to our next trip.