Dear members/friends of the Tiruvenkatam Group, In this post, it is my pleasure to give you an update of my visit to Sri Perumbudur to acquaint myself of the progress of the construction of the public-latrine facility there meant for general benefit of pilgrims. The funding of the project was made possible from contributions received from several members of the Tiruvenkatam and Oppiliappan Group lists. Regds, dAsan, Sudarshan *************** The day was 23rd July. Another humid morning in Chennai when Sri Manoram Chaitanya (MC) and Sri M.G.Vasudevan (MGV) picked me up and we set off in MGV's Maruti car at around 8 Am to Perumbudur. Sri MGV's chauffeur drove the Maruti to Perumbudur at terrific break-neck speed (100 kmph) on the newly laid out national highway -- a stretch of the "golden quadrilateral" that has of late become something of a mythic symbol for the "great strides in economic progress India takes in its march towards "super-power status" by the year 2025!". MGV's chauffeur handled the Maruti like a true "Le Mans" veteran, expertly weaving in and out of lanes, and tearing down the highway like Sri Michael Schumacher of worldwide Formula 1 fame. I held my heart in my mouth throughout the journey but MGV and MC themselves seemed quite unmindful and unruffled! Obviously, they had got used to the pace of India's "great march forward".... As a NRI, I suppose I was'nt, not yet, at least... One of the reasons why I felt rather mentally under-prepared to confront and accept the great new economic developments taking place in and around the city of Chennai (as all over India) was the sight of so many great big and beautiful trees, all along the highways, being felled down just to make way for roads, bridges, culverts, and other constructions like factories, deemed universities and sewage pipelines. On both sides of the highway, one saw brand new gleaming buildings of some of the top corporate names of the world --- Nokia, Hyundai, Delphi etc. All this at the cost of so many magnificent and age-old trees that had once stood lining the roadways and pathways across which generations of our forefather perhaps had once trodden? It made me wonder a bit about my real destination! In 25 years from now, (when India would hopefully take its pride of place in the world as a "super-power", a status that almost everyone today in the country is clamoring for!), in 25 years from now, would Sri Perumbudur be known more as the epicentre of Chennai's industrial empire than as a centre of pilgrimage? We reached Perumbudur (all in one piece) inside of an hour, thanks to the daring performance of MGV's little Maruti and the brave devilry of his dashing young chauffeur! **************** We headed straight for the site of the construction. The site is situated outside the temple's main frontage, a few hundred yards rightward from the principal portals and abutting the "mAda veedhi" where one can see, first and foremost, the "sannidhi" of Sri Manavalama-muni. Adjacent to this shrine of Sri ManavALa-mAmuni runs a narrow unpaved, un-topped alleyway that meanders into the distance of about a furlong farther inside the town-quarters of Sri Perumbudur. It is towards the rear end of this alley that we come across the construction site. ************** MC and MGV immediately take me on detailed tour of the construction site. The design of the facilities is quite simple but utilitarian: a section each of closed urinals and bathrooms (4+4) for women and men separated by a solid wall with full and functional sanitary fittings, tiling, wash-basins, tap and manual flushing toilet-seating --- all illumined by regulation, overhead electric-bulb lighting. Nothing fancy in the design but nothing really wanting either in a public-WC. Sri Thyagarajan is the mason (local artisan) whom MC introduces me to. He finishes fixing the borewell pump he is intently attending to and then gets up and greets MGV and me. It is good to note that there is plentiful water-supply from the borewell for construction purposes. ALso, the same source, I am told, would supply water for regular use in the toilets too after construction. "This is a 1HP motor and it will pump water up to that overhead Sintex tank, you will see there on the roof once it is completed in a few weeks time", says Thyagarajan to me, pointing skyward to the roof of the construction where about 3-4 masons, I see, are hard at work completing the roofing section of the building. ************** MGV then takes Thyagarajan aside and then the two confer at great lengths on some of the finer points of design and construction. Sri Thyagarajan squats on the ground, amid heaps of gravel, sand, bricks and mortar piled all around. He then uses his fingers to draw rough sketches on the ground of section-profiles in order to explain to MGV some intricate questions of masonry. MGV, being the civil-engineering expert at L&T that he is, nods his head, asks some pointed questions, listens carefully and then provides some quick suggestions and answers to Thyagarajan's posers. All this takes a good part of an half-hour. The mason then finally nods his head appreciatively! I can see that MGV, our expert, has just cleared away some intricate technical problem! "Piece of cake", MGV tells me under his breath, "This for me is a pretty simple construction". MC tells me then that if all goes well the construction should go full steam ahead in the next few weeks. Although, there were local elements in and outside the temple who initially seemed to resent and resist the "kainkaryam", eventually, general public opinion had turned positive towards the idea. Everyone knew, that during festive days at Sri Perumbudur, the general public and assembly of pilgrims had simply nowhere to go to relieve or wash themselves. Invariably, they used the street-sides itself as latrines making the stench and filth so revolting as to make the whole street virtually out of bounds for civic society. So, realizing the importance of the project now under progress everyone at the temple were cooperative and helful. So, no problem is expected in completing the project in time. Thanks to the funds made available by contributions from the T'venkatam and Oppiliappan lists, no financial crunch too would be faced. Everyone is happy. I am very pleased to hear the good news too. ***************** While we are all huddled together, in walks another person whom MC immediately introduces to me as Sri TirthAnkar Das Prabhu! "He is the man who is our site manager, who oversees the work here on a day-to-day basis", says MC. Sri Tirthankar is a short man dressed in traditional dhothi and vest with a frayed cloth-bag slung on his shoulder and walking barefeet. He wears a "shika" and carries the traditional "chandan" mark on his forehead typical of all ISKON devotees. He is dark and heavily sunburnt --- sure tell-tale signs, I can tell, of a man who spends probably most of the day out under the cruel summer sun of Sri Perumbudur, overseeing the construction from morn till evening. But Sri TirthANkar, I notice, has a ready and cheerful smile. I find it strangely radiant! Sri TirthANkar tells us that he expects the whole construction to be completed by the next "tiruvAthirai" (asterism) next month and all should be well by then, by the Grace of God. He then politely takes leave and vanishes from sight. I do not meet TirthAnkar Das again and it leaves me with a vague, inexplicable sense of loss. *************** Later, on our return to Chennai, I query MC about Sri TirthANkar and his background. What I hear from MC simply amazes me. Sri TirthAnkar is a native of deep interior southern India hailing from a humble Naadaar family. He joined the ISKON many years ago and has spent all his life like a wandering mendicant, going from one place to another all across Tamil Nadu wherever ISKON-centres needed volunteers to carry out any sort of "kainkarya" in their particular part of the state. Tirthankar has no family attachments except an old mother who lives in Chennai. He has no belongings except the cloth-bag in which he stores the sum of all his wordly properties -- a few change of clothes and a few spartan items of personal toiletry. He has no steady source of income. He lives entirely on the daily alms of kindly souls of the particular ISKON group he happens to be serving at any point of time. He has no personal address, no roof over his head. He lives wherever he can find a place to lie down and go to sleep at night --- e.g. a temple "mantapam", an "ashram" quarters, a "choultry" or some such public place he happens to find in the area he is operating in. Sri Tirthankar also has a few good friends like MC himself who give him some money now and then with which Tirthankar sometimes buys food or eats out at local roadside restaurants. "TirthAnkar Das Prabhu has always lived like this", MC explained to me, "and he will continue to live like this. Once this project in Sri Perumbudur is completed, he will move on to some other ISKON project elsewhere in Tamilnadu where his services could be used. When TirthAnkar has nothing much to do, he goes to Chennai to be with his mother or to come to our ISKON-local centre there where he participates in "bhajans". He is a good singer of bhajans. Right now in Perumbudur he is doing a good job for me. He is honest, hardworking and completely reliable. I have great trust in him." What MC told me about Sri TirthAnkar, he related in stark, flat and matter-of-fact words without a trace of any sort of emotion! I was simply stupefied by what I heard! Here was MC describing to me a man whose life seemed to almost perfectly fit the description of a true "karma-yOgi", a true Vedantin, a true "vairaagi" --- and MC was talking to me about him so casually ... as casually as Thyagarajan, the mason, had explained to MGV about the 1HP motor-pump back at the construction site! I could not help slightly chiding MC, "MC what have you done! Why did you not tell me all this about TirthANkar before? What you tell me about him makes me desperately want to meet him once more and prostrate before him! In this age of "kali" and in this world where we are all interested only in our own selfish needs and concerns, you are telling me that there actually lives a person like TirthAnkar in flesh and blood! By God, he is a true 'yOgi', someone who is living by the highest of Vedantic ideals --- by "Unchavrti", by "nishkaama karma"! I would have loved to spend more time talking to him, MC! You have robbed me of an opportunity to get to know a soul who must be a hundred times more noble than anyone I have known in my life!". Having let the opportunity slip by, I made MC promise me however that on my next trip to India, he would arrange to bring Sri TirthAnkar Das to my house where he would sing a few bhajans and deign to dine with me and my family members. ***************** Having completed our tour of the construction site, MGV and MC took me around the town to take a quick survery of the temple "teppakkoLam" -- the temple pond. I was aghast to see the dire condition of the sacred pond. It was good to see it full of water but it was pathetic to see how abused and utterly neglected it was. It is a fairly large "kkoLam" and seems to have been well maintained in the recent past for I saw neatly constructed stone steps all around the banks. But obviously, in the several years of drought the tank had probably seen in the past, it had been left bone-dry and since then had never been dredged or de-silted. As a result, now it was a quagmire of slush, weed, dead-fish, muck, pilgrim/tourist litter, household waste (local residents I saw were washing their clothes and utensils on the steps of the pond) and stray animal excreta.... It was a terribly sad sight indeed! MGV could not help silently lamenting why the SriVaishnava community, both in India and abroad, could not come forward to do something about the pond at Sri perumbudur. We passed on in silent, helpless mourning. **************** Next, we visited the Sri Vedanta Desika 'sannidhi' situated on the eastern side of the 'kkoLam' overlooking it. This is a beautiful, not-too-large a shrine to our AchArya, and also housing additional shrines to "perumAl" and "thAyyAr". It is neat and clean and extremely well maintained. I was really happy to visit this 'sannidhi' at Perumbudur. **************** Next MGV and MC led the way to the main temple of Sri Adi Kesava Perumal and Sri Ramanujacharya. The day happened, by a happy and auspicious coincidence, to fall in the asterism of "tiruvAthirai" --- the 'tiru-nakshatram' of the AchArya himself! It also happened to be a Sunday and the weekend crowds of worshippers milled and swelled all around us across the temple 'prAkAras'. MC explained to me that of late it had become a common folk belief that anyone who was suffering (astrologically) from "sarpa dOsham" (ill-effects of a serpentine configuration in one's astral horoscope) could seek relief by worshipping the 'sannidhi' of Sri RamanujachArya (since he is known to be a "amsha-avAtara" of the primordial Serpent-servant, "Sri AnanthaAzhwAn Adi Seshan", who ever resides in divine service to and with the Supreme Lord Almighty, Srimann Narayanan). No wonder the crowds kept milling around this temple which otherwise is known to be scarsely visited by pilgrims! We purchased ourselves a "special darshan" ticket of Rs. 25/each and after what seemed like an interminable wait of about an hour, we entered the 'sannidhi' of both "perumAl" and "uDayavar" and had a glorious "darshan" --- the first time ever for me in my life! Although I had been a native of Chennai for well over 3 decades somehow, by a strage quirk or accident of circumstances, I had not had the good fortune to worship at this shrine of our venerable AchArya! The grievous lapse on my part had at last been made good! My spirit felt at rest and deeply comforted..... **************** Outside the temple gates once again. The sun burned down on us mercilessly. The crowds around us were milling all over, shouting and jostling amidst the noise of tourist-bus engines gunning, exhaust smoke belching and sound-horns blaring everywhere. In the midst of all this, I began to feel hungry but was rather shy to admit it to MGV or MC. Magically, MC seemed to instantly sense my need and immediately rushed back into the temple, only to re-emerge a few minutes later with loads of "donnai" (cups made of plaintain-leaves) in his hands. I was served hot spicy "kovil naivEdya prasAdam" straight from the kitchen fires of the "madapalli"! MGV and I sat down right there on the large doorsteps of the Adi Kesava perumAl temple and happily feasted upon holy "bhagavadh-prasAdam" right under the nose, as it were, of Srimadh Bhagavadh RamanujAcharya! It was delicious! It was sumptuous! As I tucked one mouthful after another of the tasty "daddhi-annam" into my belly, I heard it burp and belch happily.... A profound sense of gratitude began to envelop my mind in that moment. I thought to myself, "How grateful I should be for my AhcAryA's kind hospitality! As a native of this province here for 30 years, I had not cared to visit him and offer worship him to at his very birthplace ('avatAra-sthala')! And yet, now that I've made amends for the lapse on my part, how He hastens to show me such courtesy and compassion through this thoughtful "prasAdam" delivered to me through the hands of a good "bhAgavatha" like Sri Manoram das and in the company of yet another devout SriVaishnava like Sri MGV!" How fortunate indeed I am! How blessed! ******************* Thus ended my wonderful trip to Sri Perumbudur! A memorable one indeed in many, many ways! In the next posting, I will try and cover the event of the "sathAbhishEkam" of my father. Thanks and regards, dAsan, Sudarshan Sudarshan Madabushi Chief Financial Officer & Vice-President KGL Ports International Plot A-21, Kuwait Free Trade Zone. PO BOx 24565, Safat 13106, Kuwait. Ph: (965)- 4827804/5 Ext 212 Fax: 4827806 mob: 7063337 email: mksudarshan2002@xxxxxxxxxxx __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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