Sri Rangam Trip - God Answers Our Prayers

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Sri Rangam Trip

God Answers Our Prayers

 

'Raju vedale ... chitrapu veedhilo' sang Annamayya. To have

such Lord's darsan to our hearts corleint, are we settled in

chitrapu veedhi said Mrs. Prema Nandakumar. The darsan of Lord

Ranganath and the acquaimtance of Mr. and Mrs. Nandakumar are

memorable events in our life.

 

Sri Rangam popularly known as Bhuloka Vaikuntam, has a

legend behind if Vibheeshna attend the pattabhishekam of Sri Rama

and on his way back, he expressed a desire to possess the deity of

Sri Ranganatha Swamy worshipped in Ayodhya. Rama sanctioned his

desire and on his way back to Srilanka. Vibheeshana landed his

pushpak viman in Sri Rangam to fulfil certain religious rites there

beside Cauvery river. There are different versions here. One

version says, stop the deity being taken away from Bharat, Vinayaka

was entrusted with the link of landing Sri Ranganatha there. When

Vibheeshana was angry, he had himselef on rock fort, a few miles

away. Another version says Vibheeshana wanted to perform

Brahmotsavam and then king offered to perform it with all the pomp

and show.

 

Whatever is the reason, it is a vast temple with seven

prakaras. we can see the padalu of the Lord and Vibheeshana was

there in the temple. The Lord is in a recleining pose over the

Adiseshu, with one hand near the head and the other hand stretched

over his body. We were told that since God is in recleining pose,

the usual noisy rituals abhishekam and sahasranamas are not

performed here, though it is 'nitya kalyanam pachcha toranam' for

the Utsav deity.

 

The 'viswa roopa darsan' as they call it in the morning is a

wonderful ritual, but it is limited to a few. We have to purchase

Rs.50 ticket for it. A brahmin carries a pot of water from Cauvery

river, a mile or two away from the temple. He is brought

cermoniously on a elephant to the drum beats followed by a brown cow

and a snow white horse. Till such time a musician sings devotional

songs to the accompaniment of Veena. I believe it is a special

preveledge to a particular family and come what may, they hasten

there to partake in the ritual, whenever the occassion demands. As

the special musical notes fill the air with devotion, as the

devotees wait eagerly to see what is going to happen, the elephant

wents down for the priest to stepdown and then elegently climbs

three steps to the mantap facing the main deity and stands before

Him. The cow stands facing the elephant. Then the priests raise

the curtain before God and so! The elephant raises its trunk and

blows its trumpet three times. All the time, the horse waits at the

steps. The devotees are not supposed to touch any of the three

animals. Then the elephant puts steps backward gracefully and goes

back to its place at the outermost part of the temple to bless the

pilgrims in return. Then the limited number of people go in a line

to have the darsan of God in the early hours of the day. One day

the elephant was a litte fussy and the mahant was caressing it like

anything, kissing it ones it trounk. It is a real thrilling

incident.

 

The belief generally is that if we spend nine nights in

Kasi, we will nor have rebirth. Our uncle, Sri M.V.Subba Rao,

floalid a theory that the same rule applies to Vishnu Temple and he

located Sri Rangam for consumption of his theory. So we stayed

there for a night, though he could't make it in the last miniute.

 

There are many Gods and Goddesses in the temple, Hanuma,

Chakravarti, Rama, Seetha and Lakshman, Andal, Tayaru, Laxmi

Narasimha few important deities. Tayaru temple is much behind the

main temple. So we see the 'padalu' of Tayaru, as we take a turn to

her temple. It was said that 'Tayaru' stood there to see eagerly if

her swami was coming to see her.

 

Then there were mirrors behind the deity of Sree Villi

puttur. I believe the mirrors were arranged im such a way that they

depict the goddess in different angles in course of one pradakshna.

 

The most amazing one is the Ramanuja Alwar temple. Years

before science came into existence, the physical body was embodied

and is preserved there as a statue. Unless we are told that, we

can't make it out. They show in the nails of hands and his feet

arranged in Padmasana.

 

As I have already mentioned there is some special seva or

the other for the utsav deity. To save God from the searching heat

of the sun,they deck palanquin with lots of garlands in the evening

offered by devotees,and lead him in a processioninthe outer

circle.At night,they bring him back for a sound sleep.at the steps

of the main temple they touch the palanquin as per the movements of

a snake chanting some mantras and offering harathi all the

while.Mind you,there is no mike for any of these rituals,probably

because they don't wamt to slartle god.

 

one day there was the festeval of Sri Rama Navami(not the

one we knowa) and one day Gajendra Moksha.The ustav deity is

taken on a procession to the cauveri river in the morning and in the

evening the Gajendra Moksha scene is enacted.

 

We had a bath in the cauveri river and had the darsan of

sringeri saradha,sambukeswara and Lakshminarasimha swami with in

srinagar.It seems the priest dresses himself as a woman and pray to

God at noon in Jamukeswar.There is the Gunaseelam temple, the temple

of lord venkateswara some 25 miles away.It is a very ancient tenple.

One day we hired a taxi and visited a few,because there are

many,important temples in kumbhakona and Tanjore.Those temples are

Uppaliappan, Tirunagender, Malayappa,Kodanda Rama,Chakrapani,Saranga

Pani,Bruhadiswaralayam. Uppaliappan temple is jof Lord

venkateswara,popularly known as Southern Tirumala and the brother

Lord Venkateswara.This temple is more than 1000 years old.They

prepare saltless prasadams here.The story goes Bhudevi was offered

to the Lord but he was told that she does not know how much salt to

add to the food.God generously answered,'no problem ,I will eat salt

less food.' It was also said,the god was called second to none.There

is only one Lakshmi in his vakshastala and on his hand is

written'mamekam saranam vraja.'

 

Sarangapani temple is almost a replica of sri Rangam.Only

differenced is, you can see God at close quarlirs in a brader

light. Sridevi and Bhoodevi are on their knees praying to god

here. In Kodandapani temple , it is pattabhishekam scene of

Srirama. So we see Bharata on one side and Sathrugna on other side,

holding a fan (Vinjamara) and the other holding an umbrella, while

Hanuma is reciting Ramayana.

 

Brudeeswaralayam, true to its name is spread to a vast area,

with a huge Sivalinga. The Prakaram was a feast to the eyer. It

looks as if it is made out of sand paper.

 

I would be doing injustice if i dont and my experience with

a sweat couple Mr. Nanda kumar and Mrs. Prema Nanda kumar well

known for their philanthropic life. Mr. Nanda kumar is an

administrator of seven schools while Mrs. Nanda kumar a doctorate in

English, is a prolific writer and a great speaker, she is honoured

for her services by the town and by the temple authorities. A

randam top with her is highly informative , entertaining and

writly. Most of the information I have penned down till now was

gathered from her our trip to Kumbhakonam was planned and arranged

by Mr. Prem Kumar so meticulously that we had an easy darshan

everywhere with not a single minute being wasted. For that matter

they helped us in many more ways. (They arranged our stay there,

helped us have a special darshan, took us to his relatives house for

special darshan utsav deity etc.)

 

We wanted to drop our telugu bhakti pages CD in the Hundi

but later changed our mind. We wanted it to be blessed in the lord

and to be handedover in the office through main priest. But they

did only the first half and returned it. We didn't know what to do

to take it back home or to drop in the hundi again. Even as we were

to ying with the idea the main priest approached us and asked for it

to be handed in the office. Our joy knew no bounds. We became known

to them well ever since then.

 

The last day we dropped an acknowledgement letter to God.

I read somewhere that people send only their requirements to Heaven

but never acknowledgements. Being impressed by it, we dropped such

a letter and we were blessed by God thrice that day twice through

Mr. Nandakumar. He gave us sandal wood impression of the lord's

fingers. He made us have a spsecial darsan of the main deity. we

went in a short cut and our daughter was asked to pray for her

education and a job subsequently, and took us to his cousin's house

where the utsav deity in the course of procession halted for

sometime. The men folk were honoured and my husband was one of them

used to read `Venkateswara Vratakalpam' everyday in the temple. For

that matter my husband KVR Rao, was given some special treatment by

the guards or volunteers always. Only on the last day, it struck me

that I should perform the vratam there in the regular way. So I

went in the evening with flowers, sweets, camlor, a small image of

God and so on and performed the pooja near the dwaja stamba where

everybody was lighting lamps. As I came to the fourth story, a

lady asked me if she could offer her home made prasadams there. I

was thrilled. I made her offer to the deities I have carried with

me. As I finished the last stage, somebody asked. `What are you

doing here ?' I turned back to answer and guess what ? He is none

other than the main priest at the feet of the Lord. In fact, I was

about to call him to accept my prasad, when I went in for darsan an

hour ago, but I controlled my self since it may not be proper on my

part. You should see joy writ all over my face then. I offered him

one `kova' and he asked one more for his colleague. I can ask for

nothing else. I gave away the whole packet to him expressing my

pleasure. He said `God only sent me thus to please you.' Isn't it

proof positive that God answered my prayers ?

 

From there we went to Tirupati and guess whom I saw there

first ? Sri Ranganath again ! In my acknowledgement letter I added

as post script `Oh God, see you in Tirupati with the intention that

both are one and the same God. I saw Sri Ranganath laying down in

the mighty presence of Lord Venkateswara in Srinivasa Mangapuram.

God in two forms blessed me in multifolds. `I longed to see

Abhishekham and Archana in Srinivas Mangapuram in my previous trip

to Tirupati. God blessed me with these two in the very next trip.

 

The most surprising of all was being blessed with Archana

tickets in Tirumala too! Some six months ago I happened to know

that my students father has some influence in Tirumala. I asked him

to get us Archana tickets for any date in May, but unexpectedly our

Sri Rangam trip cropped up in between. In fact our Sri Rangam trip

itself is a boon when I was attending Tiruppavai in Dhanurmasam

(January) somebody presented us an idol of Sri Rangananath and

within a few months we could make it to Sri Rangam. From Sri Rangam

we have to come to Madras or Tirupati to reach Hyderabad. We opted

Tirupati so that we need not postpone our trip there. In fact I

felt it as an invitation from God for Archana in May. Our students

father tried his level best but we couldn't meet the person he asked

us to meet. I asked him to forget the matter, but he said, `No

madam, I know how keen you are! I will somehow see it that you get

it.! I took it as God's voice and was sure of attending Archana. We

stood in the Queue in Vijaya Bank. Everything seemed to be in our

favous but the normal doubting tendency tried to have an upper hand

as we were moving forward in the queue, but God's grace never fails

us !