Acharyal's visit to our house - Part III

The entrance of the apartment wearing a festive look with the huge kolam (credits to Vasanti mami, Lakshmi, Subha, Vasanti Mami's orpadi and of course Pranav and Sriram).





The builder Sri Nataraj and the engineer Sri Ravi willingly contributed their might for this important day by way of arranging for elaborately decorating the apartment main entrance and the path leading to our house, apart from getting the exterior walls painted afresh.




A banner was also put at the entrance of the house. At first look this may look as if we were all posing for the photograph. But the fact of the matter can well be deciphered if you have a closer look at everyone's face. There was no instruction given to anyone, neither did krishnamurti anna call to inform us that Acharyal had started from the other side of the bank in Narasimhavanam. Commanded and propelled by the internal force, as bees to the collect the nectar, as iron filings towards a magnet, we all assembled at this place to receive Acharyal and accord Him a welcome to the best of our might....not in terms of the paraphernalia but in terms of our bhava. As aptly said in Shiva bhujanga stotram,

bhavat gourvaram mallaghutvam viditvaa prabho raksha kaaruNya drushtaanugam maam.

I neither know now depths of my lowness nor the heights of thy glory. But our All knowing Acharyal has come to grace us propelled by no sukrutam on our part but by the glory of His unbounded and unconditional compassion.

In the pursuit, some amount of ego does definitely raise its ugly hood now and then. But by Acharyal's grace they never stayed on for long as His compassion reminded us about the great bhaktas: like nandanaar, kannappan, vidura, akroora, prahlada, uddhava, gopikas to name a few of the innumerable blessed front runners. Recalling their experiences definitely bestows immediate humility. I request to the readers to kindly brush any overtones exuding self-praise as ignorance of the author in the whole article.

The much awaited moment of Acharyal coming to set His Holy Foot at the residence of this poor man was fast approaching. I was experiencing a strange sense of relief that I am not able to reconcile even now as to how that sense of calmness prevailed at that instance in my mind. I had not checked with others on this as to how they felt but I assume that everyone was experiencing a calm induced by bliss as Acharyal was about to arrive.
The horn of Acharyal's car announced the arrival of the entourage of Acharyal. First a jeep carrying Acharyal's utensils, aasanam, arrived. Following this vehicle, Acharyal's car arrived. Along with Acharyal, Lord Chandramouleeswara and Lord Ratna Garbha Ganapati also arrived.

Upon Acharyal's arrival, Acharyal accepted the purna kumbam offered by my father amidst of the chanting of
"na karmanaa na parajayaa". I was fortunate enough to be present near my father. Subsequently Acharyal also accepted the maalai mariyadai offered by my periyappa and others. My mother performed the harati first followed by others to welcome our Acharyal. My mother will cherish this life-time experience forever. Acharyal chose her to shower His bountiful blessings that day.

Acharyal's visit to our house - Part II

We walked back from Narasimhavanam to Peshkar office to carry the provisions for Acharyal's food. On reaching Peshkar's office we learnt that the provisions for cooking for others including the sri mutt kainkaryaparas have been already despatched to our house by Sri Nagaraja Bhatta (cook-in-chief). We just carried the provisions for Acharyal by Sri KV mama's car. A small commotion was created by on-lookers as he started his car as a calf of a cow barely escaped the rear wheels of his car. Thank god the calf and we were safe.

On reaching home, we found that Lakshmi and smt. vasanti mami were mopping and scrubbing the house. It seems Sriram too lent a helping hand!!! They also had put maa kolam with semman which made the houses wear a divine festive look. In quite a while, the flower decoration guys were in to arrange the nela padis and other rooms. I finished Sandhyavandanam and went for dinner along with Lakshmi and Sriram to the mutt. I had to skip the night puja of Chandramouleeswara as there were some more work left back home. By the time we came back, the flower arrangement was already complete.

Lakshmi took Sriram to Sri Subramania mama's house to make him sleep. Along with Vasanti mami and KV mama, I seggregated the dry fruits needed for Acharyal's puja for the next day before bhiksha. I received calls from Appa every now and then about their whereabouts. They lost their way to Sringeri en-route but were quickly corrected and found their way back to Sringeri. They reached Sringeri around 12 midnight. I had booked 3 rooms in Sharada Krupa. Jai occupied one and my periappa's took one. I insisted that amma-apppa take the other and took Subha, bava and Pranav home. Sri Nagarajan, another neighbor was gracious in allowing us to use his house for a day. So they stayed there for the night. Before retiring to bed at 2:30am, Subha, bava and Pranav helped me finish the cutting of the dry fruits and arranging them neatly.

Now I was alone in our house obviously not getting sleep as my mind was overwhelmed with the thought of Acharyal coming home the next day. I was imagining as to where His Holiness would sit, what He would do, what He would say etc. I was chanting and singing as if I were mad while I was sweeping the house and cleaning, keeping vigil, and also taking care not to undo the kolams that Lakshmi painstakingly put on the floor.

I kept recalling the episode of Lord Sri Krishna visiting the house of vidura and how akroora/sudhama visited Lord Krishna. I was praying Him if I could imbibe the feelings of vidura and akroora/sudhama. While the Lord visists our house, we should be like vidura, the embodiment of love and humility, without any ado. When we visit the Lord, we should be like akroora/sudhama, longing for His darshan.

As the Lord was coming home, would I be able to get one-millionth of vidura's bhava? What could we offer him? Could I offer him a gold seat studded with precious gems? Could I offer him water from the snow-clad ranges of the himalayas for performing padyam, argyam, achamanam and snanam?Could I offer him vastram made of silk from banaras or kanchi? Could I offer him precious jewelery hand-crafted by viswakarma? Could I offer him the invaluable sandal paste obtained from the forests of mysore? Could I offer him the wonderful flower garland made with roses and lotuses and jasmine? Could I perform archana to His lotus feet with the leaves of tulasi and bilwam? Could I offer him dhoopam that is presented by nitya suris to lord narayana in sri vaikuntam? Could I offer the deepam that is shown by the yoginis to Goddess Lalita mahatripurasundari in her chintamani gruham? Could I offer him the sweet payasam with cardamom, almond, cashew, pista, fig and other dry fruits along with various types of annam in gold vessels? Could I offer the karpura mangala harati performed by all the devatas to Lord Chandramouleeswara in kailasam? Could I offer him the vedokta mantra pushpam offered to the viraat purusha by the sapta rishis? Could I offer him the saashtaanga pranams as done by Sri Hanuman to Lord Rama? What could I offer him? My Lord should accept it. Whatever is offered should be done so in line with the upanishadic command.

Shraddhaya deyam ashraddhaya adeyam

When you give something it is a contribution made by you to the universe. It is an offering to the essence of the universe. So be very careful that the process of your giving is not a whim on your part but is something that enriches the universe in a real sense. Never be careless about what you give.


Hriya deyam

Never imagine that the process of giving makes you great. You are giving to the universe of which you are only a small part. So give with humility.

Bhiya deyam

Be properly afraid of improprieties while giving. Unless all the proprieties are observed well the process of giving can not yield productive results.

Samvida deyam

Give with proper attitude. Your mind should be fully in the process of giving.

Suddenly, I was reminded of the sloka from Sivananda Lahari by Sri Shankara Bhagavadpada which teaches us the way for making the best offering.

karasthe hemAdrau girisha nikaTasthe dhanapatau
gR^ihasthe svarbhUjA.amarasurabhichintAmaNigaNe .
shirasthe shItAMshau charaNayugalasthe.akhilashubhe
kamarthaM dAsye.ahaM bhavatu bhavadarthaM mama manaH .. 27..

Oh Lord Shiva, you have the gold mountain meru, the lord of wealth (kubera) at your service, gold and other valuables in your house, kamadenu and chintamani, adorn the moon on your head, and have all auspicious things adorning your feet. What could I offer you when this is the case? I offer my manas unto you.

The best thing that I could offer to Him would be my manas. But would I offer Him or would I still cling on to this and the various thoughts that spring from them?!!!!

As such thoughts were going on in mind, I hear the call from the mosque outside of Sringeri's main gate..."Allahu akbar...." The time was 5:15am. I gave call to Lakshmi and woke her up. She let me substitute in taking care of little sriram (just lying down besides him in subramanian mama's house) her till she finishes her bath.

It was 5:35 am. Lakshmi was ready and Subha came to our house and checked if everything is ok and let us know that she would take bath in Nagarajan's house and prepare pranav and bava. It was dawn and it dawned on me that at 6:30am, the purohit would come for performing punyaha. I quickly completed my bath and was surprised to see the purohit was well ahead of time. So I made a call to KV mama who was putting up in Usha mami's house to come soon for perform the punyaham. He was in the middle of japam and requested 15 more minutes for him to reach. The purohit was kind enough to wait for his arrival. It was 7am when KV mama arrived. In the meanwhile, I called amma and Jai, informed them to get ready and have amba's darshan and then come home. The arrangement was that they would have their breakfast and coffee in mutt after amba's darshan. When they come home, I would have the punyaha tirtham to be sprinkled on them.

Punyaham was over by 7:45am. KV mama rushed to collect the flowers and plantain leaves sent by Sri Balaji from Bangalore which was received by the people at the sri mutt reception. It was around the same time, the cooks arrived and got busy. By about quarter past eight, the utensils, crockery and cutlery of Acharyal arrived along with Santosh, Nagendra Bhat (the personal cook of Acharyal). Sri Shankara Narayana drove the vehicle that carried vessels meant for Acharyal's anushtanam, snanam, bhiksha, asanam etc. I had the bhagyam to carry a few of them.

By about 9am appa, amma arrived with periyappas. In the meantime, the kutties, pranav and sriram were ready as well. I was running out of time as I had still not finished my daily puja. I was involved in the seggregating and arranging the udhiri flowers along with others. By about 10am, I thought, I better finish the puja soon and did a laghu puja. By about 10:45am, appa decided that he would go and have Acharyal's darshan in narasimha vanam and take the opportunity to personally invite Acharyal. He went along with Jaishankar and Meenkashisundaram Periyappa (Dandu periyappa).

They came back by 11:30 from darshan, as Lakshmi and Subha were giving last touches of cleaning the house. By about 12:00noon, all of us assembled outside our house, as if prompted by some internal force. There was no prior intimation that Acharyal was going to come at the appointed hour. But somehow, everyone anticipated that Acharyal could be there any moment and we all fell in line to offer the appropriate honor for Acharyal as he would arrive. Of course, there were rehersals as to who would stand where and what would we do, not to mention the photographs clicked then.

It was 12:10 and we could hear the horn of Acharyal's car loud and clear from around the corner of our street. A strong current of joy and fear engulfed my whole being. Acharyal's car was piloted by a qualis in which Sri Krishnamurti anna and other kainkarya paras came. Acharyal's white Mercedes car entered the gates of our compound.

to be contd...

Acharyal's visit to our house - Part I

As if the tapas done over several births came to fruition, Acharyal had given the date as 20th Nov 2010 for His visit to our house in Sringeri. I reached Sringeri on Wednesday morning to make appropriate arrangements. The day started with puja to panchayatana devatas and salagramas along with Acharyal's paduka. I offered almonds and a few plantains for naivedhyam. It was 17 Nov 2010 and ekadashi. So Acharyal was in mounam. I submitted my prostrations at Acharyal's lotus feet during the morning darshan and Krishnamurthy let me know that he would come the next day for inspecting the house. Painting the house was arranged to be done on 18 Nov 2010. Ravi, the engineer who built our apartment assured that painting of our house and cleaning of the common areas would be taken care of.


I must definitely mention the adai with then-pahu (tirunelveli special) that Subramanian mama and mami gave me so lovingly in the afternoon. The rest of the day was spent in having darshan of Amba, Sri Vidya Shankara, torana ganapati and other deities and Chandramouleeswara puja in the night. The photographer visited around 11pm and agreed to cover the proceedings on 20 Nov 2010.

On 18th Nov 2010, Lakshmi and Sriram arrived in Sringeri by KSRTC Volvo bus. The day started with a strong filter coffee that Lakshmi prepared and sriram was so tired that he started sleeping again after playing with me for a while. After finishing puja, Sriram, Lakshmi and I went to have Acharyal's darshan. As it was utthana dwadashi Acharyal gave darshan between 10-11am. Post darshan, Acharyal was heading for Narasimhapura for puja to lord Sri Lakshmi Narasimha. After having darshan at gurunivas and adhistanam, we proceeded to Tunga as Sriram wanted to play. I finished madhyanhikam there and then had darshan of the presiding deities of Sringeri. Post lunch, when we came home, painting had already begun.

At around 3:45pm, Krishnamurthy arrived with Santosh, Kumar and Shankara Narayana to inspect the house. After they departed, our neighbor Sri K. Venkataraman mama came along with his wife from Bangalore. I skipped the evening darshan and decided would go only for the night puja. I went to the market along with Lakshmi and Sriram to buy decorative items and incidentally also bought a wall-clock. Sriram lost his chappals in the temple in the morning so we bought him a pair of slippers as well.

When we came back, it was already half-past six. I had a quick bath, finished sandhyavandanam. Lakshmi did some arrangement of the house in order to help the painters finish their job without ado. We had dinner in the mutt at around 8pm. While Lakshmi and Sriram headed home, I proceeded to Narasimhavanam for attending the puja.

But, I stopped near the tulasi madam opposite sri Janardhana swami temple as there was a special puja on account of utthana dwadashi. In the process, I also lit a couple of laps around the tulasi madam. It was almost 9:25 when I reached Narasimhavanam. By this time, purushasuktam was about to get finished. After puja, Krishnamurthy rolled the paper chits that he had in his hand. They were rolled to choose the house when Acharyal would do bhiksha on 20th Nov 2010. Krishnamurthy picked up the chit and asked me to open it. I opened it and to my dismay found that my name was not there. I was grief-stricken to say the least. I wanted to console myself in several different ways but I would bluff myself if I said that I was totally reconciled to the fact. I tried to put a happy face to hide my disappointment without success.

I walked along with Subramanian mama and mami back home. It was almost 11:05pm. Had a long discussion with Sri KV mama and Subramanian Mama on the dos and donts on they day of Acharyal's visit.

I came home and announced that Acharyal would visit our house for Padapuja while he would have his bhiksha in Sri KV Mama's house. Lakshmi was extremely delighted. She also did not fail to take note of the disappointment written boldly on my face and the irritation that exuded in my actions and speech. She tried to console me in several different ways. She told that while one chandramouleeswara would have food in Sri. KV mama's house, 50 odd chandramouleeswara's would have food at our place. Well, I must admit here that these words of hers were defintely soothing but did not completely ease me out of the pain.

The next morning, ie on 19 Nov 2010 began with Lakshmi's coffee, followed by bath and puja. We went to Narasimhavanam to have Acharyal's darshan. En route, Lakshmi and Sriram completed their darshanam of Acharyal and Ambal. I could only have Acharyal's darshan as he had come to grace the purnahuti of a homam but did not have Amba's darshan.

At narasimhavanam, we were just behind Sri KV Mama's family. When we approached near Acharyal, Krishnamurthy announced to acharyal that the chit was rolled and the place of Acharyal's bhiksha on 20 Nov 2010 was decided. After we prostrated at Acharyal's lotus feet, Acharyal gave an apple for Sriram as usual. As we were taking a retreat, Acharyal summoned me nearer and asked, "What is the programme tomorrow?". I was bewildered so Acharyal repeated, "What is the programme tomorrow?" I said, "Acharyal is coming to our house in balemane apartment for padapuja and bhiksha". "Do you know where padapuja would have and where bhiksha would happen?", asked Acharyal. "Yes", I said, "Padapuja in our house and bhiksha in their house". Acharyal affectionately said, "Hope there is no change in this and you dont have any regrets about it. Dont feel bad". I said, "It is true that I wished Acharyal to have bhiksha in our house but as the angya has come like this, I have to accept it and I will accept it with my whole heart". Readers may feel that I was bluffing at this point. But the truth is that I was undergoing an internal transformation when Acharyal was talking to me and the words spoken were a result of that transformation which readily reflected on my face and I could feel as if I was unburdened.

What was need for Acharyal to talk to me and console me? The readers may wonder so. The answer is Acharyal's state is akin to

adveShTA sarvabhUtAnAm maitraH karunNa eva cha
nirmamo nirahaN^kAraH samadhukhasukhaH Kshami (B. G. 12-13)


[One who does not hate any creature, who is friendly and compassionate, free from (the notion of) ``I'' and ``my'', even-minded in pain and pleasure, forgiving]

In the morning puja, I was almost in tears and submitted acharyal to grant me the strength of mind and heart to abide by Acharyal's decision because I was finding that difficult because of my attached born out of ignorance....the ignorance of undermining the greatness of padapuja, the mistake of having the audacity to insist that Acharyal should have bhiksha only at our place while His very coming to our house was a life-time boon for us...the sin of putting conditions to Acharyal while he was showering His love and grace on me unconditionally. Little did I realize that had Acharyal imposed conditions for His visit, I would have harldy qualified to even come into His divine presence, why even think of having him visit our house.

I am sure, Acharyal heard my prayers and could see me inside-out. So He chased my ill-feelings and misgivings away, transformed me and drove into my heart a deep sense of gratitude...and also made me realize the greatness of doing padapuja.

Lakshmi was not near me when this conversation transpired. But she as quick to notice the visible change in me and I related the whole thing to her. She boosted my happiness further by telling that, we would work for Acharyal's coming home and help Sri KV mama and family to the best of our abilities. I suddenly found that Sri KV mama and co were a very friendly lot. I am sure they always were but I realized this only after my transformation that Acharyal brought inside myself.

When we reached home after lunch, we had jotted down the things to do that evening like meeting the peshkar to finalize the procurement of provisions for Acharyal's visit, collect the dhoties for back up on top of what Sri KV mama brought from Bangalore etc. On reaching Peshkar's office, we also realized that we had to get tickets for padapuja, vastra kanikai and bhika vandanam on the other bank in the PS office. So we (sri KV mama and myself) rushed to the narasimhavanam. En route, we also decided to have acharyal's darshan (that we initially decided to skip) as it was around 5:50pm.

On reaching gurunivas we prostrated and stood there in front of Acharyal. Krishnamurthy called me and said, "Both of you jointly invite Acharyal to your house tomorrow". This made me realize the following facts:

1. Acharyal was coming to our house for joint pada puja and bhiksha. This means that our two families would be involved in both. All along till Acharyal spoke to me in the morning, I was feeling that they were mutually exclusive or at least, I had nothing to do with Acharyal's bhiksha. But the fact was I really had equal part as sri KV mama to play there. Yet, We did not formally invite Acharyal for bhiksha and pada puja in the morning. This was a good opportunity to accomplish that. Sri KV mama and I did a quick rehersal as to what we would tell Acharyal. "swAgatam te jagadguro", we said in chorus. Then we in our own words individually invited Acharyal to our houses to accept the padapuja and bhiksha and bless us. Acharyal smiled and acknowledge the invitation. I also seized the moment to add that my parents were on the way to Sringeri as appa had to finish his dialysis routine and start that afternoon only and sought Acharyal's blessings for their safe journey. Acharyal raised his hands in benediction and said, "ashirvadam chestaanu".

In fact, amma-amma were accompanied by Subha, bava, Pranav and my periyappas. The interesting story of how Subha made it for the day and the subsequent blessings that she was showered with deserves a separate post.

On the way back both of us were wondering on the whole episode with gratitude. Particularly because we intended to skip evening darshan on account of household chores/arrangements to be made for Acharyal's impending visit the next day.

soundarya lahari postings: very useful

Over the last 4 days, I have been repeatedly drawn to the blog "http://egayathri.blogspot.com/2009/08/soundarya-lahari-slokasyantras-no8.html" in which Smt. E Gayathri (read Veena E Gayathri) has posted her understanding of Soundarya Lahari. No more credentials required for her mastery of the divine veena (I dont know if she would like me describing it this way...perhaps should I write her surrender to the divine instrument...). In the blog pages, she exudes her experience of the beauty divine mother and at the same time giving useful information regarding the yantra, archana kramas for getting material benefits out of the slokas. The language definitely inspires the wandering mind to turn inwards...to go to the source...for is She not described "antarmukha samaaraadhya"?

An obituary to Krishna Mama

I got to know that Krishna Mama (my mom's cousin brother) who is about four years elder to me passed away on 3 April 2010. May His soul attain Acharyan tiruvadi.

When I heard this first, it was cruelly shocking to say the least. Do we pity for him? What's the use? He knows nothing as to what we do. But his wife and children! I wish god gives them the strength to endure this pain.

I remember krishna mama as the one who used to give me a ride on his cycle, or someone who used to play cricket and even taught me how to spin the ball either way. I remember him to be a great fan of Ravi Sastri. He used to study well at school but incredibly crazy about cricket. Have not been in touch with him for a long time now. But somehow, he has left lasting impressions in my heart. I sincerely pray god for his family's well being.

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Tat twam asi

Acharyal has composed a hymn in praise of Lord Ayyappa in which he extols the lord to be the bestower of knowledge (jnana) and liberation (mukti) as he is harihara sutan. Is Ayyappa bhakti an eulogy? Is it a cult? Is it spirituality? Well, the answer depends on the individual.

In my humble opinion, you call it eulogy or cult or whatever name you want. They are part and parcel of the end that one seeks (though he already is there). This is the very essence of sanathana dharma and upheld devoid of any ambiguity by the philosophy of ayyappa worship. One beholds the sign board "Tat twam asi" starring boldly in the entrance of all shasta temples. A lose translation of that is "Thou are that".

This philosophy is stressed time and again in our day-to-day activities. While performing achamana, we propitiate the lord in various parts of our body precisely to remind us of this only fact. While doing puja, nyasas are performed in order to remind us of this fact again. While performing all activities, sanathana dharama time and agaiin stresses this fact, sometimes subtly or manytime rather explicitly. Why are we to remind ourselves of this fact when we actually are that? There are several reasons given in our sastras. One being, getting rid of superimposition of non-existent on the existent, like the image on the screen. The other being, removal of trichotomy namely, the sense of doership, the act of doing, the purpose of doing.

Once this trichotomy is gone, tat twam asi will be clear otherwise blurred and would appear tattwa masi (the reality smeared with charcoal therefore apprearing blurred).

All the efforts are not to establish the truth (tatva). Because it is already there. The efforts are only to cleanse tatva of the masi so that it becomes clearly tat twam asi.