Guest guest Posted April 28, 2007 Report Share Posted April 28, 2007 ----- Forwarded Message ----manoram chaitanyadas <manoramjpsjbharadwaj; kannanmds; chandraparthasarathy; r_sv; evnarasimhan; anushyamSent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 2:00:41 AMSriperumbuttur festival report Dear Bhagavathas, Dandavats Pranams!Srimathe Ramanujaya Namah!This year adiyen was fortunate to participate in theSriperumbuttur Festival, the Thirunaksatiramcelebrations of Sri Ramanujar. The festival began on13th of April. Devotees from various parts of SouthIndia slowly poured in to take part in the grandcelebrations. As we got closer to the day ofThirunakshatram Celebrations thousands of PILIGRIMSthronged Sriperumbudur. On the 21st of April, thousands of devotees pulled thegiant temple cart that was adorned with the deity -Sri Bhasyakarar.The Srivaishnavas present on occasion hailed fromdifferent parts of South India. Several knowledgeableand erudite scholars and committed devoteesparticipated in the Thirunakshatram celebrations. Itwas unfortunate that I did not have my digital cameraat that moment to take pictures. If one were to familiarize oneself with the ecstaticrapport between a devotee and the acharyan, one couldsee it directly at Sriperumbudur and not just imagineas to how it would exactly be.As I took a look at the devotees present there, Iunderstood that most of them hailed from smallvillages of South India. I am at loss of words when Ifeel the need to describe their to devotion. I wasawestruck with their devotion to the Lord and theAcharyan. A walk around the temple praakaaram and nearby areas,one could see groups of devotees sitting and singingthe naamasankirthanam, talking about the Acharyan,discussing and speaking about glorious pastimes of SriRamanujar. Tears swelled into the eyes that saw theirsimple devotion. It is not realized, nor can onereally understand the concept of Bhagavatha SatSangam, but here in this place at the celebrations,one could literally see the unembellished BhagavataSat Sangam. There are very few dharmashalas in Sriperumbudur,which could accommodate probably only 1000 devotees. But there were thousands of devotees and they allslept outside the temple under the open skies. Though the water at the temple tank was dirty due tolack of maintenance, people still took bath in thewaters of the temple tank and evolved beyond theconcept of worldly body needs and requirements. Theywere content with the prasaadam served from theVaishnava dharmashaalas (Bhagavatha Thadiyaaraathanai)and used the toilet facilities (constructed by us) toattend nature’s call. Apparently, we set up thesetoilet facilities last year. Their(Vaishnavas) sole purpose of being atSriperumbuttur was to celebrate the great day and theinconveniences and worldly needs mattered very little.Attending the Thirunakshatram festival and taking theblessings of the Lord and Acharyan was utmost. Several Vaishnava groups served prasadam to thebhagavathaas attending the celebrations. Adiyen toowas fortunate and had the bhagayam of distributingprasaadam to various Vaishnava groups. This pariculargroup that I joined comes from Aarani – Dharmavaramand is team comprising of 30 elderly bhaagavathaas. They have been conducting the BhagavathaThadiyaaraathanai since the past 15 years, in whichthe team personally collects money from friends andrelatives, personally cook the prasaadam anddistribute it to Bhagavathaas present there. Whiletalking to the team leader, he mentioned to me thatthe bhagavataha thadiyarathanaia is the most pleasingservice to Sri Ramanujar. I could not even see anykind of discrimination at the prasadam distributionservice. Every devotee was fed to his heart’scontent. The toilet Project: Hundreds of devotees constantly used the toilet facilities constructed by all of us. We had extra cleaners for the festival to ensureproper cleanliness of toilets and facilities. We alsotook necessary care to open and close the toilets toavoid misuse of any facility. We had to close thetoilets sometimes as we had encountered power cut andwater shortage. Sometimes the cleaners were alsoexhausted. Despite many internal challenges anddiscrepancies, we took it upon us to deliver the bestof our services to the Bhaagavathaas. Most devotees, who used the toilet facilities,appreciated the kainkaryam and expressed theirfeelings before using the premises. Many VaishnavaS did mention that this facility was muchmore of a priority than the distribution of prasadam. One could resist hunger but how could one ever controlthe call of nature. They were extremely happy to usethe facilities and adiyen had the opportunity to speakto many of them regarding the maintenance and upkeepof the facility. Many has their suggestions aboutkeeping it open for 24 rs during the festival whenseveral devotees would grace the festival. Some vaishnavas did mention that this service, whichwe had, all jointly perfomed for the pilgrims wouldbring great joy and happiness to Bhagavath SriRamanuja as he sees his devotees being provided withproper facility and comfort. Vaishnava Seva is itself the Narayana Seva and is moreimportant than the Narayana seva itself.Vaishnava dasanu dasan,Manoram. Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check out new cars at Autos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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