My India Trip

[Guest guest]

Hello All,

I had a wonderful 3 weeks trip to India and would want to

share some things of common interest with this group.

 

I went for my sister's wedding (19 April). I reached there on

18th early morning ("responsible" brother! ) ) and went straight to

Triplicane to be on time for the thiruththEr(car festival) for my most

beloved perumAL Sri pArththasArathi! It was such an awesome experience

to be there among the gOshti (one of the best in the 108 dhivya dhEsams,

no doubt).

Just being there in front of Sri pArthasarathi on the

thiruththEr among the gOshti itself is something GGreat. As if that

is not enough, the gOshti started off with "vAdinEn vAdi" of periya

thirumozhi by my dearest AzhvAr Sri thirumaN^gai mannan. Wow! I

really can't explain how blessed I felt to recite the pAsuram along

with the great gOshti. One has to listen to this to appreicate it. No

words can explain it in its fullest splendour. The very very slow

pace with with they start "vAdinEn...", the inherent music, the

sonorous voices blended together like in an orchestra, the meaning of

Sri kaliyan's choicest words... what can I say? It attains a peak

when they end the first pAsuram in their highest pitch, "n^AdinEn

n^Adi n^An kaNdu koNdEn n^ArAyaNA ennum n^Amam". That was such a

moving experience.

 

After listening to the first pAsuram, Sri pArthasarathi

decides to move his thiruththEr. And I joined hands with hundreds of

bhakthas to pull the thEr. The sense of participation of the whole

town in this festival is simply amazing everytime I witness it. It is

like a wedding in their family. Everybody picks up some task or other

sincerely and they enjoy doing it. There was an old man by my side

singing the 10 pAsurams of kaliyan on the dhivya dhEsam very

musically (instead of just reciting it). He didn't even realize how

good he was singing, I guess. It was just his expression of bhakthi

to his dear Lord.

 

There was this little kid, not more than 6/7 years

old, alone in the crowd, couldn't get a good look at the perumAL, patted

me and asked a series of questions- "what koNdai is perumAL wearing?,

what vasthrams for the ubayanachimArs?, Do they have the pearl

necklace?..." I was so happy to note the little kids interest,

Knowledge of perumAL's thiruvAbaraNams (jewels), and his close knit

association with the day to day alankArams to the perumAL. I lifted

him on my arms to my heart's content and helped him have a good close

look of the perumAL with the ubayanAchimArs. Look at how the dhivya

dhEsa vAsam (living in the dhivya dhEsam)helps the upbringing of

the kids.

 

I also visited thirukkOshtiyUr, thirumAliruN^chOlai,

SrivillipuththUr, Srirangam, thirukkaNNamaN^gai, thirukkaNNapuram,

siRupuliyUr, aNNankOil, thiruvAli-thirunagari (and

thirumaNaN^kollai), thiru indhaLUr, sriperumbudhUr and kAN^chi. I

will write in detail about these later...

 

adiyEn

Viji

(Vijay Triplicane)

 

PS: Sri PB Anand, It is very kind of you to remember me while you

were in Triplicane. As mentioned above I reached Madras only on the

7'th thirun^AL. I feel bad that I couldn't meet you over there.

 

-Viji