Our trip to Melkote

This is not the first time we had a darshan at Melkote, but it was special because we had been on the auspicious day of Chithirai Thiruvadhirai - The birth Star of Swami Ramanujar. The previous trip was indeed memorable as we had been to Thondanur and Saligramam as well, since it is special due to the blessings of Swami Mudaliandan who had been to Saligramam and Swami Ramanujar who had been to Thondanur.

On our previous Utsavam trip to melkote, it was the fourth day of 10 day Utsavam, and we could attend the goshti where they recite the hymns sung by Azhwars each day. On the final day of the Utsavam, being the Saattrumurai, Thirumanjanam, Purappadu ( Swami blesses the people around the temple going through the streets) and other recitals.

This time, Srishan was the highlight, I have been telling him since morning, that we were going to Melkote to prostrate before Ramanujar ( Thamar Ugandha Thirumeni - One who was idoled by his most beloved disciples ) He was overjoyed, in first place becoz we were taking him out, so he could see traffic, lot of trees, and things of interest. Half way through, he slept in the car seat. We took the Nice road, and cut down our time on traffic by almost half an hour. We started by 12 noon and reached by around 3.15. Srishan woke up, and so I fed him with some cerelac. He also did his usual routines. Then we went inside the temple to find the Thirumanjanam over, and alankaram done. The goshti was there, and around 250 to 300 people. We got the thirumanjana theertha prasadam and also Swami's blessings. Srishan was startled seeing too many people around, but delighted with the prasadams he got. One of our relatives also recognised us and spoke. Then we had a close darshan of Ramanujar. Then we went to have lunch, around 4 PM. Though it was quite late, we had good lunch( Thadhiyaaradhanai) at Vanamamalai Mutt. The highlight was Swami Akkarakani Srinidhi serving us all. I was telling Srishan that he is the one whos CD we play daily to listen to Poorvacharya Stotra Mala. Then we came back and saw that the sannidhi was closed. Srishan had walked inside the temple as a full pradakshinam, and was even more delighted on climbing the steps to the sannidhi of Pillai Lokacharyar. We could not stop him from doing that , he kept on insisting that we hold his hands when he climbs. At one point of time, We just left him, and saw that he was trying to climb the steps on his own. He was too enthusiatic to climb. The next event was Purappadu at around 7 pm. It would be too late for us to return to bangalore, so we left around 6.30 pm. Reached by around 10pm.

Two things amazed me in this trip!!! We were blessed to be there on Swami's thirunakshatram and Acharya purushas were serving and showed their humility

http://picasaweb.google.com/chudamani.ravi/ThamarugandhaTirumeniOnChitiraiThiruvdhirai2010#

Try to follow them - Emberumanaar Utsava kondaattam

10 Principles Koorathazhwan

FALL IN LOVE WITH GOD

Pray with sincerity humility and gratitude for atleast 15 minutes a day.

RESTRICT FOOD CONSUMPTION

Eat anything only after offering it to God.

MEDITATION

Meditate on the beauty of God, at least thrice a day,

atleast a minimum of 3 minutes each time. Chant Sri Vishnu

Sahasranamam (the 1000 Holy Names of Lord Vishnu) once a day.

RESPECT FOR ALL THAT IS HIS

Strive to lead a life in which you will never hurt

a fellow living being for any reason.

MONEY

Earn to live, educate, support and serve and not for

the sake of pursuing materialistic desires.

CHARITY

Donate however little it may be to noble causes.

Feeding the needy is the highest form of charity.

CONTENTMENT

Be happy and content that you are His. Thank your preceptors at least

once a day for blessing you with this awareness.

ABSOLUTE FAITH

Place complete trust in the supreme LORD. Do not go against His way.

SELF – CONTROL

Strive to live a life free from selfish desire and anger.

Always adorn a peaceful smile; it will work on others and on you too

Stack building

http://www.youtube.com/user/chudamaniravi#p/a/u/0/3utpXsWAJtc

SRISHAN building stacks

Bugs here and bugs there

After Darisanam of Thiruvengadamudayaan at Thirumalai, we came down and went to Govindarajapatnam, and had the blessings of Govindarajar. Since the time was 6pm already, we decided not to proceed to bangalore, and instead stay there overnight, and then drive the next morning. So we took a room at the Srinivasam Complex there, and stayed that night. When we checked in , it was already 10.30 pm, so we thought we could sleep until 5 am and then start. We had shock after we switched off the lights. In few minutes, my son who was in deep sleep started to cry like he had seen a monster :( We were wondering what could be the reason. I thought he might have had dreams about the head shave, and frightened. We switched on the lights and saw that he was crying with his eyes closed. Then we saw bed bugs all over his bed. We took him out of the bed and thoroughly searched him all over, and made sure he did not have any on his body. Then we removed the bed spread and saw that there were more bugs. I was reminded of the MUMMY movie, I felt really sad for taking this decision to stay there for which my toddler was suffering. Then we took him to another room where we applied odomos and i put him on the lap and made him sleep. I had to sit for the rest of the night and wrap him in towel, to keep him away from bed bugs and mosquitoes. It was a very horrifying experience which I hope doesnt happen to anybody else.

Back home we took out all our luggages carefully and kept them on the veranda, searched them thoroughly before putting the clothese to wash. People going to stay in such places, beware of bed bugs!!!!

Blessings came in bundle

Offlate I was not getting any time for blogs. But i thought this was worth a blog, as i experienced it myself. When we started to come to chennai, it was already 7.45 am and we wanted to reach before 2pm as the VIPs of the inauguration of Assembly were coming on the same day. To make things worse, my son could not digest the milk he had in the morning and threw up. We had to change his dress and then make him feel comfortable, after all he was a toddler. He had 1 idli and then after some play he slept. Thanks to the car seat my Sis in law has given me, he could sleep comfortably. We were crossing Sriperumbudur around 12.15pm, my husband asked me if we could try a chance to worship at the temple there. We changed our course to the temple, and reached in 2 mins. There was absolutely no crowd, i was surprised, as it was a saturday. Then we found that the temple was almost closed, and there was one small portion of the door open. We still did not leave hope, and wanted to check if the sannidhis were open. So we rushed in. For me, it was like a dream. I have been showing Ramanujar's photo to my son, and he used to recognise it, and say aaaa aaaaaa. He says that for every other thing though. The grill was locked, but there came a person from inside, he opened the grill for us, and the Swami incharge of the sannidhi asked us to wait a minute. He then pulled the screen and let us have the blessings of Emberumaanar, which was when i got tears in my eyes. My son was asleep when we had just reached the temple, and as i had taken him on my hands, he had woken up, wondering where he was, pointing to Gopuram and Dwajasthambam and a lot of other things which he usually keep pointing. This time, he was in joy, and when i asked where is Emberumaanar, he pointed his finger to the Moolavar, and then we felt so blessed. We then came back with prasadam and realised what a timing it was, that Ramanujar gave us that drive to go and seek his blessings. Indeed in bundle!!!

Krishna Consciousness

Now time to write another blog, and i thought it is very necessary to say that we often forget who we are, what is the purpose of our life, and our very relationship with God. My niece is 2.8 years old, she came here to spend time with my son. She loved doing all that I do to him, except that she could not feed him cerelac. She used to give him bath, apply powder, and also change his nappy. My sis in law used to tell her eat time stories and also sleep time stories. All Krishna leela. When we were going on a jolly ride through ECR, we happen to cross the crocodile park, and I asked her, if she was interested in watching crocodiles. She immediately said that if she goes inside, then crocodile will catch her legs - "kau nu kaala kavvidum". Then I asked her what she would do??? She replied that she would call "Krishnaaaaaa". I asked her "What will happen?" , she replied, Krishna will come down on Garuda vahanam,and will let his Sudharsana chakra to open the crocodile's mouth and save her from it's clutches. I was simply stunned by her reply, and the way a bedtime story has seeded in her mind. We often think that any success or failure occurs because of our efforts only and fail to accept that we are not independant identities, but God's creations. If we are always conscious about this,then we can realise that all our efforts are only due to his grace and all the result attributes to him. So we can perform our duties without worrying about the result. If such small stories can impact the minds of young child, why not we give our progeny all the satvic thoughts as early as we can, not worrying about how they would take it, ofcourse. :)

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