Have you seen your Acharyas lately? - part I

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagawatas,

 

It was a pleasure reading the recent emails and the summary of events that

took place in Buffalo NY- Srivaishnava Meet. While you were all enjoying

yourselves, I had the best time of my life in India. I met a few Acharyas

and had a long talk regarding a number of issues. In the next few postings

I will summarize their message to all of us. If you are planning to go to

India, reserve a few full days to see your acharyas. I cannot put it in

words how they can influence our lives in just a short meeting of few

minutes or hours. It is said, that one should go to "teertha stalas" ie.

sacred places several times to get some punya; but just the sight of sadhus

(sages/acharyas) is enough to burn all of our sins. (darshanaat eva

sadhavaha).

 

It was just a few weeks back, Vijay Srinivasan & Anbil Ramaswamy called me

to show up at Buffalo. I would have definitely made it to Buffalo, if I was

not planning a trip to India. The reason was that I wanted to see my aging

grandfather who really meant a lot to me. In addition, I spent about 3 days

in Nanganallur with 45th Jeer of Ahobila Muth, a few visits to Andavan

Swamy Ashramam in Mylapore, and a visit to Sri Rangapriya Swamy in

Bangalore. I could not make it to (previously planned places such

as)Srirangam, Parakalamutt and Melkote this time, since I got sick.

 

I feel that keeping in touch with our acharyas is so important that it

cannot be stressed enough. I think if any one of us meets our acharyas we

should share our experiences and teachings given to us. In the next few

postings I will share my experiences and thoughts.

 

A day in the life of an Acharya :

 

It was about 5AM in Nanganallur on 26th of Dec 1996. I took an auto early

and was ready to see the aradhanam at Ahobilamuth from the beginning. The

aradhanam had already begun and well underway. I was told that our jeer gets

up at 3AM everyday (absolutely no exceptions). HH. Jeer is 65+ years and I

cannot imagine his tenacity and regularity in doing kainkaryam to Lord

Malola Narasimha. So many paricharakas help him but he is the one who can

really do the kainkaryam. I have taken pictures of this puja. I really wish

I could put them on the AhobilaMuth Web page. If someone can help, I really

appreciate that. I will have to somehow do it anyway, since Acharya

specifically asked me to do so.

 

It was about 8AM when the puja was coming to an end. During the puja, I was

transformed by the devotion and steadfastness by which the puja is done. The

vigrahas are gorgeous. I have taken a picture of all the archa murthy's and

Saligramas. Since I also perform "Aradhana" most of the days, I can

understand the thrill one can get by doing such puja. I have not even been

given proper upadesham of "bhuta suddhi kramas" - special processes in Puja,

but still manage to do a puja (reduced version) and get a rich and rewarding

experience for just that. How will it feel for an acharya - who has written

a big book on "Ahnika Grantha", to perform a puja, knowing and feeling every

word of the puja process!. There is no comparison regarding experience. The

important point is the mental training, shastraic backround and pure life,

acharyas have lead in their purva ashramas, which give them the divine

experience while they do puja to the one and only Malola Narasimha. Just the

sight of the vishwaroopa puja was enough for a poor soul like me!

 

About a good 1000 to 2000 people show up at Ahobila muth many days of the

week. I hardly can imagine how so many turn up on weekdays. Every one gets

shatari and akshata from Acharya, in addition to a sumptious meal

(prasadam). I just dont know how they manage all that. Feeding so many

bhagawathas itself should be pretty expensive undertaking.

 

I had a good talk with Azhagiasingar, Andavan Swamy and Rangapriya Swamy. In

the next few mails I will try to summarize the messages of these acharyas.

 

Krishna Kalale

619-658-5612 (phone)

619-658-2115 (fax)