Sri:
Dear AasthikAs :
VenkadAdhri Samam sTAnam BrahmANDE naasthi kinchana
VenkatEsa SamO DevO na bhUthO na bhavishyathi
It is useful to recall how the second day's program got shaped .
When adiyEn left these shores , I had no plans to travel to Thirumala
this time . adiyEn's fear was that the programs were already were very tight
and that it would be very difficult to travel to Thirumala to have the
blessings of
Malayappa Swamy this time . adiyEn consoled myself by saying that adiyEn
is going to visit the elder brother of Saptha Gireesan , Sri Oppiliappan and
that
it was my prAptham this year .
On landing at Chennai , I learned from my sister that one of her dear
students had brought
the day before the laddu prasAdham from Thirumala and said that I can not
come to India
and return without visiting Thirumala . In Kali Yugam , the Lord speaks thru
His bhakthAs
and bhAgavathAs . Hence , I accepted this new situation as Bhagavath
niyamanam and
changed the original plans . The son of my sister's student is a dynamo and
is a whirl wind of
activity , who is at Thirumala at the drop of a coin . He knew all the VIPs
there and as a result
made all the arrangements for the trip from Chennai and went ahead to
Thirumala
to prepare the lodging and SevAs .
The first stop:
******************
Our first stop was at ThirucchAnUr to have the sevai of PadmAsani ThAyAr .
It was dolOthsavam season . We had a wonderful darsanam of Moolavar .
Uthsavar was missing . As we came out of the temple and turned right to reach
our car to begin the climb to Thirumala , another miracle happened . We heard
the sound of Naathaswaram and MeLam as for PuRappAdu . Lo and Behold !
Uthsavar PadmAsani left the DolOthsava Mantapam to return to AasthAnam
and we were fortunate to be blessed with Her adhbhutha sevai . Had we been
few minutes earlier or later , we would have missed Her anugraham .
It was all Bhagavath Sankalpam . Who are we to look into the sambhandham
between
Kaaryam and KaaraNam ? Swamy Desikan establishes however a tight realtionship
between
KaaraNam and Kaaryam in NyAya SiddhAnjanam . adiyEn said to myself that
the Supreme Master , Lord VenkatAchalapathy must have His own reason to
command me
to arrive at His divine presence . The KaaraNam/Niyamanam became clear at the
end of this trip .
Next , adiyEn also said to myself that He was giving the sankEtham that he
was pleased with
the recently completed Kaimkaryam of the commentary on Sri VenkatEsa
AshtOttharam ,
which is recited in Hs presence every day at Thirumala. The VarAha PurANam
version of
Sri VenkatEsa AshtOttharam and Sri VenkatEsa Sahasra Naamams are recited
every day :
http://www.sadagopan.org/snan/an7.htm
Above URL gives the text of AshtOtthara Naamams from VarAha PurANam.
This is what is recited inside the Sannidhi of the Lord every day . There is
another
version of Sri VenkatEsa AshtOtthara NaamAs from BrahmANDa PurANam, which
you can access at :
http://www.sadagopan.org/snan/an2.htm
Meanings for both AshtOttharams along with the text and Meanings for the Sri
VenkatEsa
SuprabhAtham , SthOthram , Prapatthi and Mangalam are available at :
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/oppiliappan/sva/bv.html
Clicking on the images will let you access the text and meanings of individual
Sri VenkatEsa AshtOttharams .
The night of Oct 18 , 2005
***********************************
We had arrived late in the evening of Oct 18, the second day of the visit at
ThirumAla
and had spacious lodgings at Sri Hathiram Babaji Matam . The rooms in this
Matam are
just in front of the Southern walls of Sri VenkatEswara Temple . From the
balcony of
the room , one can see the Anandha VimAnam of Lord VenkatEswara at a distance
of
200 feet . The entire Main entrance , Dhwaja Sthambham , the white gOpuram
and
the sacred Ananda VimAnam with VimAna VenkatEswarar are so close that one
wants
to stay at the balcony and have the uninterrupted Sevai of the VimAnam all
night
and day .
Parama Bhaktha Sri Hathiram Babaji was a Manahthu from North and was a devout
devtee of Sri Balaji . The Lord was so fond of His BhakthA that he came to
the aasramam
of Babaaji and amused Himself by playing dice with him . Over that sacred
site , a Matam
has risen with spacious accomodations . Even today , akanda Raama Naama
sankeerthanam
takes place in front of the shrine of BaabAji , where the dice cloth used by
BhagavAn and BaabAji
is preserved .
After settling down in the room under the shadow of Ananda VimAnam , there
was a rumor
that tickets were available for EkAntha SevA at 1.30 AM . We stood in line
for the tickets
with the hope that we would be one of the fortunate 200 ticket holders
allowed entry
for the unique ( last ) sevai for the day .
During the EkAntha SevA is SayanOthsavam . The Silver archA of Bhoga
SrinivAsan
is placed in a cradle bed at Ardha Mandapam and a descendant of Saint
Annamayya
lulls the Lord to sleep with few songs comp[osed by his illustrious
predecessor .
Prior to that milk and cashew nuts are presented to the Lord . Two balls of
Sandal paste
mixed with saffron in the form of an orange are placed at the feet of
Moolavar .
Big vessel contianing water is placed inside the garbha gruham for use by
Brahma
DevA for His aarAdhanam in the night . The Lord does not have much rest . Soon
they will have SuprabhAtham and Viswaroopam followed by ArchanAs to prepare
the Lord for another gruelling day of audience to devotees .
Although we stood in the Queue on that calm and cool night to get EkAntha
Seva
Tickets , we were 10 persons away from the 200th person and hence could not
get the sevA tickets . We tried ! The Lord wanted us to come next day for
ArchAnanathara and Peddha Jeeyar SaaRRumurai Sevai . During the time
adiyEn spent waiting in the queue , thoughts about the bhakthAs that have
assembled
at the Seven hills to have the darsanam of the Lord kept cropping up . The
state of
mind of Saint ThyagarAja and his humble prayer housed in his Gowlipanthu
krithi
( teratheeyaga raadhA ) went round and round in the head :
http://www.malolan.org/trk21.htm
After we learnt that we could not be blessed with the tickets for EkAntha
Sevai ,
we returned to the Matam for the night . Meanwhile a gentle fog has provided
a cover for the Ananda VimAnam . It was almost 2 A.M . We fell asleep in
anticipation
of the soubhAgyams to follow next day and were up at 4 A.M to be prepared in
case
our friend could manage last minute seva tickets for SuprabhAtha Sevai . We
got
tickets for ArchanAnthara Sevai alone . We heard the SuprabhAtham , Sthothram
,
Prapatthi and MangaLam from our balcony and enjoyed the divine sight of
Ananada VimAnam embraced by the morning dew .
After ArchanAnthara sevai , adiyEn was toild to stay inside the Mantapam of
AchArya RaamAnuja Sannidhi to wait for the SaaRRumuRai SEvai . adiyEn
spent 45 minutes there and reflected upon the slOkams of DayA Sathakam and
AzhwAr AruLiccheyalkaL on ThiruvEnkadamudayAn . adiyEn will describe
them and the SaaRRumuRai SEvai in the next posting .
NaarAyaNa , NaarAyaNa , NaarAyaNa ,
Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil V.Sadagopan
P.S : May I request the abhimAnis and SishyAs of Ahobila Matam to contact
me with respect to their particpation in the forthcoming 79th Thirunakshathram
of Srimath Azhagiya Singar ? Your participation in the form of Paadha
KaaNikkai
on this auspicious occasion permits our AchAryan to undertake the many
Kaimkaryams in a tieless manner .
Thank You .
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Click here to rescue a little child from a life of poverty.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/rAWabB/gYnLAA/i1hLAA/VkWolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriRangaSri/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
SriRangaSri-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
srirangasri-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |