Our Kasi Trip info

[Guest guest]

Dear Atma Bhanduvulara!

 

Tani –Sarvani Samyamya Yukta Aaseetha Matparaha

Vase Hi Yasyendriyaani Tasya Pragnaa Pratishtitaah - Bhagavadgeetha

 

It means if we control our senses and if we concentrate totally on

God, we can seek His blessings. In one word we should follow total

surrender to God. We tuned our minds that way and controlled our

senses and feelings. Amazing! We did feel god's presence through all

our five senses – we saw (Visualized) god, heard his voice, got

fragrance, touched God's feet (not of the image) and tasted the

Spiritual Bliss. Strange , but true, every word of it.

Let me detail upon our experiences at Kasi, Gaya and

Prayaga. Myself, Sri. Madduri Subbarao (my pina mamagaru) and my

sister Smt. Manchiraju Lalitha Devi went on this trip

 

Our Goal:

Our journey was not just a pilgrimage. We turned our minds to few

things even before we started!

 

- We planned to stay there for 9 nights since it is believed that such

a stay will yield Janma Rahityam

- We wanted to chant Om Namah Sivaya (Siva Panchakshari) for 5 lakh

times, which means all the wakeful hours we should

think of Siva nama

and nothing else!! Of course it included our regular

prayer, Kadga Mala

for sister and Sahasra Gyatri for myself and our visits

to holy temples

there .

 

Our Sojourn:

 

God's blessings started showering on us in leaps and bounds. Our very

stay at Theosophical Society was proof positive of it. We spent our

time amidst God's most beautiful creation – the peacocks and other

birds. The Ashram is spread to huge campus. So we were in the lap of

nature with trees, birds, mongoose, squirrels, and peacocks, Mr. M V

Subba Rao is the vice-president of theosophical society in

Machilpatnam. Through him we could get accommodation there at Kamaccha

Road, near Radha Yatra in Kasi. It is at a distance of 1 km from Lord

Viswanath Temple. It is in the lap of nature. It is the place where

Dr.Anne Besant resided and propagated theosophy in yester years. Most

of the buildings were built in those glorious days by the grace of

this divine lady. We were accommodated in Suryashram. The food served

there is satvik and the life followed there is self-help – in the

lines of truthful life.

 

 

 

Our Visits:

Daily we Visited Viswanathji and chanted Viswanatha Astakam or Siva

Panchakshari Stotram in the Viswanathji's temple and Annapoorna

Astakam in Annapoorna's Temple. We offered Sari's to Visalakshi

Ammavaru and Annpoorna Ammavaru and performed Sri Charka Pooja

separately at each place. My sister is well versed in Sankalpam,

Namakam, Chamakam Rudram and Rudra Gayatri etc.

 

Our Anubhutis :

We purchased a Small Siva Lingam and started performing pooja to that

Siva Lingam in our room with Bilva Patras , Pasupu and Kumkum. We

chanted Bilvastakam and other Astakams Namakam and Chamakam. One day

we were running short of Kumkum. We performed pooja with Bilva Patras

and Pasupu. Next day we saw Sai Baba in the place of Siva Lingam. The

Pasupu settled typically on Siva Lingam gave the exact shape of Shirdi

Baba. My God, we could not believe our own eyes' our sense of sight

was blessed with His miracle. Then and there we decided to gift Siva

Lingam to my brother's son Mr. Prasanna. Since he was a staunch

devotee of Sai Baba and turned towards Siva of late.

 

Our sense of smell was filled with the fragrance of various things

normally

offered to God. My sister was the first one to decipher it and our

notes tallied. It varied from Mogali Poolu to Vibhuti, from Agarbatti

to Sambrani . We offered none of these in our room but we experienced

these. I got the fragrance of Vibhuti once again on our return

journey. I will come back to it later. One night I woke up with a jolt

as if someone patted me on my shoulder!! Is it not sense of touch? I

inhale the fragrance of Smabrani. I wanted to share with the others

too but they were in deep sleep. I took it as God's voice to my sense

of hearing to resume my prayer. So at once, with no second thoughts I

started chanting " Om Nama Sivaya " .

 

In theosophical society, there is Lord Siva's Temple, established by

Annie Besant, but totally neglected in the present day. We took the

keys of the temple, dusted it and cleaned it and performed abhishekam

to Siva Lingam there in our humble way. We closed the temple gates and

were proceeding to our Suryashram. We discovered another small temple

of Lord Hanuman. My sister started chanting Hanuman Chalisa. I

observed some kind of magnetic force in the deity presiding there. The

force started gyrating me in all directions. I could not stand

properly; in this ecstasy, I started chanting Sri Rama Varnana from

Sundara Kanda " Rama Kamala Patraksha – Roopa Dakshinya Sampanna … "

Suddenly our uncle excitedly let out a cry " arey… arey… See… See… He

is rotating his eyeballs. " Yes it is very much true! It is not fancy.

All of us experienced it. He is looking at every one of us present

before him, to shower his blessings on us! We took it as a word of

praise from Rama Bhakta Hanuman for our humble service to Lord Siva.

 

As I have already mentioned, our wakeful moment was devoted to the

faith of God. I faced some physical ailments. Had such a splitting

and unbearable head ache one day. Another day I had such a bad throat,

I could not gulp any thing. Yet another day a rickshaw spike cut

though the skin of my elbow making a deep wound. It pained terribly,

in normal course of life I would have gulped a handful of Medicines

for each of these. But I wanted to live in God's presence and prayed

to God to give me enough stamina to bear these sufferings with a grin.

Mind you, I didn't have to bear them with a grin. They vanished in no

time.

 

These may look silly but I don't want to ignore these too. One day, I

had a running nose on my way to temple. My hands were soiled and I

wanted to clean my hands before entering the temple. We normally

bought milk from a particular man. He came with a bowl of water and

helped me to wash my hands. The next day I thought I would buy a

handkerchief, but before this thought could register in my mind; my

sister called me back and offered her kerchief to me! How nice of

Siva. The Omnipotent and Omniscient Siva was like my friend,

Philosopher and Guide.

One day, we went to Manikarnika Ghat and performed Pinda Pradanams.

When the Brahmin was chanting the Prayaschitta Mantra at the Ghat, I

felt that my body is getting cleansed. All the bad in me is flowing

out of me as grayish liquid. For a moment my body started glowing

luminously.

Another day we went to the Viswanath temple, around closing time at

night. They close the temple with pomp and show by playing Damarukam

and Jegantalu. The Sanctum sanctorum was fully occupied by pandas

chanting Mantras. Out side the sanctum sanctorum, Bhaktas were

thronging in large crowds to listen to mantras and melody of Damarukam

and Jegantas. The whole place was fully charged and kept every one in

ecstasy. I was standing at a remote corner to avoid stampede. As soon

as the Pooja was over, suddenly one panda came out like a bullet

towards me from Sanctum sanctorum. He garlanded me with a mala taken

from Viswanathji and applied Chandanam and asked me to take the

Harathi and later he offered the same to various people crowded there.

My joy knew know bounds.

We went to Gaya and offered Pinda Pradnams to all our elders who are

resting in heaven. At the time of offering of the pindams, in a flash

I could see huge throng of people, some our kith and kin and some were

strangers. They were all in Divya kayams (Shining and Lustrous) and

surprisingly, none of them look old. They were all in good mood and

cheerfully laughing and coming to that place in a big crowd as though

they were attending some wedding. Recent memories of my mother were

those of an old wrinkled face but she looked so young and glowing.

We repeated this ritual in Triveni Sangam in Prayaga. There my uncle

experienced a wonderful and joyous feeling. He felt he was dragged

into some huge cave and finally he saw Goddess Parvathi Devi and Lord

Visweswara. He recollected it umpteen number of times, being thrilled

at it.

Ganga Harathi is a feast to the eyes. One should not miss it. It is

performed in Dasaaswmedha Ghat. It takes place around seven during

sunset. About five pandas offer Harathi from different places

positioned at equal distances. They rhythmically turn their hands and

offer Harathis to Ganga. At the backdrop Bajans take place

melodiously. One top official was invited on that occasion he was

given a special seat. He was treated like a blue-eyed boy. All the

protocol was maintained for him. Suddenly it rained cats and dogs.

Being fully drenched, he had to leave the place. Suddenly one lean

octogenarian (80 year old person) Bhakta occupied the same place

otherwise meant for the top brass and started dancing emotionally.

Tears started rolling from my eyes after seeing this. See! God wanted

to honor this old man instead of a top official.

 

Three of us experienced spiritual Bliss in different ways. In Ganga

Harathi

I detailed upon a minute ago, my sister had a flabbergasting

experience. As she was engrossed in the ritual at the Ganga, she felt

some smooth touch on her feet. When she looked down a snake was

passing by, causing no harm to anybody. The snake in the lord Siva's

neck has come down to bless her! What else can she ask for in life?

 

Regarding our uncle, I have already explained one. The second was

while he was chanting the slokas, He first visualized a glow before

him. Then he visualized Rama Pattabhishekam scene. Then Lord Siva and

Parvathi.

When it comes to me. I felt the presence of Lord Vishnu once, Siva and

Sai Baba on my return. In Gaya, I was washing the feet of a panda. As

I was about to complete it my uncle asked me to wash up to his ankle.

As I was repeating the performance with extra care with Shradha and

Bhakti, I felt for a moment they are the feet of Lord Vishnu. I did

not leave them for quiet some time and prostrated before them. Then

the panda slowly lifted me up and brought me back to this world. Soon

I was told that place is known for Vishnu Padam.

 

I knew some of you might wonder why I am pouring forth all these

experiences to you. In fact we are not supposed to declare or expose

our spiritual bliss as we do not dare to expose our financial details.

But still I am doing so in the best interest of our Telugu Bhakti

Pages Team. It was felt in the past that Kasi yatra was the terminal

pilgrimage in ones life. A trip to Kasi is blissful these days which

one must make it at least once in one's life time.

We are narrating this to you not to boast about our selves and it is

not an attempt to declare that we are great people. We do not possess

any Shaktis, special qualities or powers. We are just ordinary people.

What we sincerely feel is - this is a result of a spiritual

experiment. It happens, just as water boils at hundred degrees

centigrade. If we do not get proper results, let us not blame the

experiment itself. All we have to do – do the experiment religiously -

a religious result definitely follows.

Uncle Subba Rao narrated his own experience! He wanted to test the

nectar of Rama Nama and chanted the sacred Mantra - Sri Rama Rama

Ramethi Rame Raame Manorame Sahasra Nama Tattulyam Rama Nama Varanane.

(utterance of this stotram once equals utterance of Raamanaama

thousand times) Hence he chanted Rama Stotram 10 thousand times which

equaled one crore. So he completed chanting this stotram one crore

times. Being Diabetic, he cannot eat sweets. He enjoyed sweetish

feeling for some time as though he was eating the best sweet in the

world.

And finally I gifted my first consciously earned spiritual salary

(Panchakashari Akshara Laksha Tapah Phalam) to my beloved wife who is

readily helping me, serving me and always leading me to good.

I am giving some references for use of our Telugu people. These are

the people who can arrange for performing rituals and in arranging

Telugu Brahmins.

Kasi – Ramkumarji sons

Ram Bhaavan

Visalakshi Ghat (Meer Ghat)

Dasashwamedh Road

Varanasi 221001 Phone 0542 - 2401411

Prayaga – Gangaram Prabhu Lalji Sons

R P Pandey

32 Daraganj, Phulwaria Road

Allahabad 211006

Offi 0532 – 2500163 Mob 9415214790

Resi 0532 -2506181

Gaya – Pt. Narayan Lal Baddiha Katariyar & Sons

Pindi Benchi Street, Chandchaura, Gaya 823001

(Near Vishupad Temple)

0631 –423682

We prayed for the welfare and good of all Telugu Bhakti Pages members.

May Lord Viswanath and Goddess Anna Poorna bless you and your family

members!

Raghav

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