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...
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