orirukkai and kanchi temples

Last week we had been in chennai .on 29th april morning decided to go to sriperumpudur and kanchipuram.was in chennai for 15 years but never visited ramanuja's birthplace. The temple of Adi kesava perumal isso big that i never have imagined. And the sculptures are breathtakingly magnificent.above all the 108 divya desams their presiding deities,their location,and tha alwars who have sung on these kshetrams are all done as tanjore paintings.From there to varadarajaperumal temple aheritage temple. awe stricken by its beauty

Sankarankovil -gomathi amman

Kannammma wanted us to see the sankarankovil temple.Itis her native place.I also had apersonal desire to see the temple. My mother has told me thar only after her prayers to swami sakaranarayanan and gomathi amman she was blessed with a male child (only one among seven sisters).Thedrive from karungulam to sankarankovil was very pleasant even though it was mid april the summer showers were highly helpful to us.
The temple is a vey big one .Its architectural magnificence and grandeur mingles with its sanctity and divinity.After having the darsanam of sankaralingam and sankara narayanar we proceeded for the darsan of Gomathi Amman.Again it was a day rich divine benevolence. The sannidhanam was not crowded and we had the darshan to our hearts content.we sang abhirami padhigam and meanwhile kannamma arranged for the THANGA PAVADAI darisanm. In our minds we were worried about our asiriyar Sri Nagesh because of a legproblem.The amman was decorated with the golden pavadai she looked on us and we felt she was telling us I AM HERE ONLY TO TAKE CARE OF YOU DO NOT WORRY. .WEfelt a surge of emotions and after pradakshinam came out of the temple.
Visiting temples and praying to god is normally we do. but there are moments in which we could feel the divinity only nothing else is there in our mind Pesaa anubhavam Adhai solla iyaladhu "Ulludoru m kaliyagi" endru arunagirinathar solgirare that is what we felt during this trip.

karungulam visit.-aanadham paramanandam

Sharada mami wanted us to enjoy the srinivasa perumal utsavam at their native place karungulam.
karungulam is a beutiful scenic village on the banks of thambrabarani river .the festival is of lord venkatesa who is the presiding deity in the small temple on the hillock of vagulagiri.On chitra pournami the god comes down from the hill to the village and plays in the night in the river thambrabarani and returns tothe hillock back the nextday.This the festival
The entire village and its people {they live far away from karungulam say us,canada,delhi ,bombay,sydney}assemble for the festival.The function is run almost entirely by smarthas andafew vaishnavites.The brahmins in the age group of 25 to sixty carry the lord in pallakku on their shouldersspanning the mountain steps around 200 a fairly rough terrain.It is night 11 oclock when he reaches the base and proceeds from there to the river bank.whole night the the god plays MEEN vilayattu and got the colour of green from water. morning he is fully decorated with thulasi ,davanam and comes on veedhi ula.From each house the god is offered prasadam can you imagine what ?huge bunches of diffferent varieties of plantains.baskets and baskets of dry fruits buckets of panakam ,neermor(butermilk)and the beauty is everything is ditributed then and there.to all those assembled.
now the god is ready to climb the steps.All the villagers are waiting for this momentand you wont beleive the god and his pallakku glides on the hundreds of heads in a matter of 5minutes.and reaches the temple.All the women assembled cry in joy as if their child has come back safely after a trialsome trip.I saw what is BHASHPAVARI PARIPURNA LOCHANAMand the moments you see god climbing the steps the feeling with which one is engulfed is beyond description.Those are moments when the hearts of the entire assemblage is filled with aanandham and aamodham of the lord venkateswaras dharshanam
Ifelt very indebted to sharada mami and knk mama for opening up the gates of divinity to us

We visited Thirunallur near thirukkarugavur The deity is pancha varneswarar.We went to the temple around 10 am.The Lingam was fully "swarnamayam' like the kailash mountain at dhirapuk.We performed sankalpam and did archanai Around 11.45 the Lingam started changing its colour to emerald green.we were awestricken.The priest in the temple was telling us the Sthala puranam. The lingam has small holes just enough for the bee to enter. The saptharishis are in the form of bees and they are collecting the paramanu{minutest atom part} from each species of the living things and preserving them.When kaliyug ends with pralaya thenext manvantara will have the life started from these.
Then it occured to me that changing of the colour of the linga may be associated to the preservation of the cells that are collected.
Our rich culture and knowledge about life and its different aspects universe and its manifestations are fathomless

last week i visited thirukkarugavur .Iwas enjoying the golden days of my childhood there in my grandparents home.50 years back.thirukkarugavoor was a rich village nearly sixty houses in agraharam. vadakku veedhi and therku theru. we all girls and boys in the age group of 7to 10 had endless fun and freedom during our summer vacation. get up at 6.30 in the morning all cousins assemble inone patti's home have pazhaidu and vadu manga as breakfast.Start playing pandi,hide and seek and pallanguzhi around 10am have bath in vettar river great lunch in another peria patti,s home.Without fan and ac enjoy the heat in the afternoon and one more round of playing now it is indoors acting ,oonjal rail etc,.evening again goto river collect maghizhampoo.springwater from river on way visit garbarakshai amman and mullaivananathar
and ganesha. what a childhood with somany elders and youngsters around. no worry abourt exam ,summercamp

Yesterday ie on 14th aug i attended a concert by Ranjani and gayatri for rang de. What a concert. All mainly devotional pieces and a ashort jugalbandhi of carnatic and hindustani music.pantuvarali was superb.

Our tour in malaysia was mainly for bhajan in patthamalai -batucaves Lord muruga was all in grandeur and magnificent.Climbing the steps of the cave was not all that dificult and the cave was a natural abode of muruga. All the members in our group could climb and we had a short bhajan there at the top.Nagesh was in his great self when the singing was divine experience .the bhajan continued in ihe perumal temple and the song list was mostly changed incorporating thiruppugazh songs in praise of vishnu.the temple gurukkal provided the prasadam.