AdiyEn's KshEthrAdanam : Part III/Trip to ThirucchAnUr & Thirumala

[Guest guest]

Sri:

 

Dear AasthikAs :

 

VenkadAdhri Samam sTAnam BrahmANDE naasthi kinchana

VenkatEsa SamO DevO na bhUthO na bhavishyathi

 

It is useful to recall how the second day's program got shaped .

When adiyEn left these shores , I had no plans to travel to Thirumala

this time . adiyEn's fear was that the programs were already were very tight

and that it would be very difficult to travel to Thirumala to have the

blessings of

Malayappa Swamy this time . adiyEn consoled myself by saying that adiyEn

is going to visit the elder brother of Saptha Gireesan , Sri Oppiliappan and

that

it was my prAptham this year .

 

On landing at Chennai , I learned from my sister that one of her dear students

had brought

the day before the laddu prasAdham from Thirumala and said that I can not come

to India

and return without visiting Thirumala . In Kali Yugam , the Lord speaks thru

His bhakthAs

and bhAgavathAs . Hence , I accepted this new situation as Bhagavath niyamanam

and

changed the original plans . The son of my sister's student is a dynamo and is

a whirl wind of

activity , who is at Thirumala at the drop of a coin . He knew all the VIPs

there and as a result

made all the arrangements for the trip from Chennai and went ahead to

Thirumala

to prepare the lodging and SevAs .

 

The first stop:

******************

Our first stop was at ThirucchAnUr to have the sevai of PadmAsani ThAyAr .

It was dolOthsavam season . We had a wonderful darsanam of Moolavar .

Uthsavar was missing . As we came out of the temple and turned right to reach

our car to begin the climb to Thirumala , another miracle happened . We heard

the sound of Naathaswaram and MeLam as for PuRappAdu . Lo and Behold !

Uthsavar PadmAsani left the DolOthsava Mantapam to return to AasthAnam

and we were fortunate to be blessed with Her adhbhutha sevai . Had we been

few minutes earlier or later , we would have missed Her anugraham .

 

It was all Bhagavath Sankalpam . Who are we to look into the sambhandham

between

Kaaryam and KaaraNam ? Swamy Desikan establishes however a tight realtionship

between

KaaraNam and Kaaryam in NyAya SiddhAnjanam . adiyEn said to myself that

the Supreme Master , Lord VenkatAchalapathy must have His own reason to

command me

to arrive at His divine presence . The KaaraNam/Niyamanam became clear at the

end of this trip .

Next , adiyEn also said to myself that He was giving the sankEtham that he was

pleased with

the recently completed Kaimkaryam of the commentary on Sri VenkatEsa

AshtOttharam ,

which is recited in Hs presence every day at Thirumala. The VarAha PurANam

version of

Sri VenkatEsa AshtOttharam and Sri VenkatEsa Sahasra Naamams are recited every

day :

 

http://www.sadagopan.org/snan/an7.htm

 

Above URL gives the text of AshtOtthara Naamams from VarAha PurANam.

This is what is recited inside the Sannidhi of the Lord every day . There is

another

version of Sri VenkatEsa AshtOtthara NaamAs from BrahmANDa PurANam, which

you can access at :

 

http://www.sadagopan.org/snan/an2.htm

 

Meanings for both AshtOttharams along with the text and Meanings for the Sri

VenkatEsa

SuprabhAtham , SthOthram , Prapatthi and Mangalam are available at :

 

http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/oppiliappan/sva/bv.html

 

Clicking on the images will let you access the text and meanings of individual

Sri VenkatEsa AshtOttharams .

 

The night of Oct 18 , 2005

***********************************

We had arrived late in the evening of Oct 18, the second day of the visit at

ThirumAla

and had spacious lodgings at Sri Hathiram Babaji Matam . The rooms in this

Matam are

just in front of the Southern walls of Sri VenkatEswara Temple . From the

balcony of

the room , one can see the Anandha VimAnam of Lord VenkatEswara at a distance

of

200 feet . The entire Main entrance , Dhwaja Sthambham , the white gOpuram and

the sacred Ananda VimAnam with VimAna VenkatEswarar are so close that one

wants

to stay at the balcony and have the uninterrupted Sevai of the VimAnam all

night

and day .

 

Parama Bhaktha Sri Hathiram Babaji was a Manahthu from North and was a devout

devtee of Sri Balaji . The Lord was so fond of His BhakthA that he came to the

aasramam

of Babaaji and amused Himself by playing dice with him . Over that sacred site

, a Matam

has risen with spacious accomodations . Even today , akanda Raama Naama

sankeerthanam

takes place in front of the shrine of BaabAji , where the dice cloth used by

BhagavAn and BaabAji

is preserved .

 

After settling down in the room under the shadow of Ananda VimAnam , there was

a rumor

that tickets were available for EkAntha SevA at 1.30 AM . We stood in line for

the tickets

with the hope that we would be one of the fortunate 200 ticket holders allowed

entry

for the unique ( last ) sevai for the day .

 

During the EkAntha SevA is SayanOthsavam . The Silver archA of Bhoga

SrinivAsan

is placed in a cradle bed at Ardha Mandapam and a descendant of Saint

Annamayya

lulls the Lord to sleep with few songs comp[osed by his illustrious

predecessor .

Prior to that milk and cashew nuts are presented to the Lord . Two balls of

Sandal paste

mixed with saffron in the form of an orange are placed at the feet of Moolavar

..

Big vessel contianing water is placed inside the garbha gruham for use by

Brahma

DevA for His aarAdhanam in the night . The Lord does not have much rest . Soon

they will have SuprabhAtham and Viswaroopam followed by ArchanAs to prepare

the Lord for another gruelling day of audience to devotees .

 

Although we stood in the Queue on that calm and cool night to get EkAntha Seva

Tickets , we were 10 persons away from the 200th person and hence could not

get the sevA tickets . We tried ! The Lord wanted us to come next day for

ArchAnanathara and Peddha Jeeyar SaaRRumurai Sevai . During the time

adiyEn spent waiting in the queue , thoughts about the bhakthAs that have

assembled

at the Seven hills to have the darsanam of the Lord kept cropping up . The

state of

mind of Saint ThyagarAja and his humble prayer housed in his Gowlipanthu

krithi

( teratheeyaga raadhA ) went round and round in the head :

 

http://www.malolan.org/trk21.htm

 

After we learnt that we could not be blessed with the tickets for EkAntha

Sevai ,

we returned to the Matam for the night . Meanwhile a gentle fog has provided

a cover for the Ananda VimAnam . It was almost 2 A.M . We fell asleep in

anticipation

of the soubhAgyams to follow next day and were up at 4 A.M to be prepared in

case

our friend could manage last minute seva tickets for SuprabhAtha Sevai . We

got

tickets for ArchanAnthara Sevai alone . We heard the SuprabhAtham , Sthothram

,

Prapatthi and MangaLam from our balcony and enjoyed the divine sight of

Ananada VimAnam embraced by the morning dew .

 

After ArchanAnthara sevai , adiyEn was toild to stay inside the Mantapam of

AchArya RaamAnuja Sannidhi to wait for the SaaRRumuRai SEvai . adiyEn

spent 45 minutes there and reflected upon the slOkams of DayA Sathakam and

AzhwAr AruLiccheyalkaL on ThiruvEnkadamudayAn . adiyEn will describe

them and the SaaRRumuRai SEvai in the next posting .

 

NaarAyaNa , NaarAyaNa , NaarAyaNa ,

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil V.Sadagopan

 

P.S : May I request the abhimAnis and SishyAs of Ahobila Matam to contact

me with respect to their particpation in the forthcoming 79th Thirunakshathram

of Srimath Azhagiya Singar ? Your participation in the form of Paadha

KaaNikkai

on this auspicious occasion permits our AchAryan to undertake the many

Kaimkaryams in a tieless manner .

Thank You .

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Sadagopan swamin,

 

Your graphic description of the view of Ananda vimanam

and the dwajasthambam literally takes one to the

temple. I had the good fortune of working as Temple

Inspector at Tirumala during 1954, and while going

though your message I felt as if I was in the temple

precincts of Lord Venkateswara.We are blessed to see

the Lord through you.

Pray Lord Malayappan showers His blessings on our

members and their families.

--- sgopan <sgopan wrote:

 

> Sri:

>

> Dear AasthikAs :

>

> VenkadAdhri Samam sTAnam BrahmANDE naasthi kinchana

> VenkatEsa SamO DevO na bhUthO na bhavishyathi

>