Thursday, November 11, 2010

Mantralayam visit last weekend!!!

We had reserved for leaving for Mantralayam on the night of Deepavali (Nov 05). The original thought was that it would not be too much crowded for darshan owing to Deepavali and hence we can have a good darshan the weekend. Unfortunately, all the tickets didnt get confirmed and since there was only one berth that got confirmed, I left alone for the trip.

This trip was a very memorable experience in the kind of darshan that I had in MALM since the grace was more to pin me very close to vayu putra sannidi. Events and a lot of people in the temple were giving me directions to be closer to Vayu putra sannidhi for a maximum amount of time during this trip.

On the Saturday afternoon had been to bichalaya. Since the roads were in a bad condition, we took a parisal to cross the Tungabadra river and then took an auto to visit the brindavanam there. Felt a little sad to see that Appanacharya's house was in a demolition mode currently. Because of the road conditions for the entire stretch, we reached late again while coming back to MALM on the banks of Tungabadra and it got dark. While some of the other visitors started getting fear on sitting in the parisal for crossing the Tungabadra river on account of the darkness, some how my mind continued to be in a relaxed manner just trying to sync in the feeling inside me that it was the same river and possibly the same spot from which Appanacharya crossed back to Mantralayam in year 1671 singing the famous Guru Rayar stotra - just for the benefit of all of us mere mortal souls....

Next day morning took Tungabadra river snana at around 4AM and did the daily anushtanas. I was also very happy since this time I got a chance to participate in doing the kainkarya of cutting the bananas for the panchamritha abisheka of Vayu putra, Guru Rayar and Vadeendrar brindavanams. HIS grace also made me participate in the honey abhisheka for Hanuman before the panchamrutha abhisheka. After the abhisheka was over, alankara was done followed by a chance for me to view the archana also. After the archana, I was overjoyed when a flower fell all the way from the top of the brindavanam when I was praying with open hands to HIM to shower HIS grace on us. I was thrilled and overjoyed with this sign of blessing from HIM and as per an earlier advice that I had learnt from a very learned person, gave some amount to the aachar near the brindavanam as well as put some amount in the hastodaka hundi kept there.

After having multiple darshans and pradakshina, I was also graced to see the maha mangalarthi and left mantralayam after having the theertha prasadam. Overall, owing to the extreme divine grace and blessings from Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar, Vayu putra hanuman and our Guru Rayar, I returned back to Chennai on 08-Nov morning with a lot of peace and satisfaction. It was a different matter that the return ticket was not confirmed and I had to come standing or seated on the edge of the seat except for the last 4 hours out of a total of 12 hours train journey... But the thrill and satisfaction of having been graced in this manner by HIM, far outweighed the physical pains of this return journey back to home!!!!

Sarvam Sri Krishnar panamastu