My recent pilgrimage to Tiruvannamalai etc.

Sai Ram. My friend Gopikrishna and myself returned from Hampi / Hospet (see the write up below this blog for an account of that) on the morning of 27th September, 2009 and left the same evening by Charminar Express to Chennai. Kotamraju Srivinvas, another good friend and Sai devotee also joined us for this pilgrimage. We were heading to Tiruvannamalai, made famous by the sojourn of Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi. We did some bhajans, Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Stotram and Sri Lalitha Sahasra Nama Stotram etc. My friends were singing aloud and I joined silently. We were joined by a lady sitting opposite (a fellow traveler), who seemed to know them by heart, probably since she is reciting them daily. I silently bowed to the Divine Mother in her.

We reached Chennai on the morning of 28th September. We were received at the train by the driver of Sri Satyanarayana, a childhood friend of Srinivas. We went to the house of Sri Satyanarayana in Tiruvanmiyur and were given a very warm reception by his family members. I knew Sri Satyanarayana's father and mother earlier in Hyderabad but did not meet him. I learnt that he was in Malaysia on his business work.

We freshened up, had a good breakfast so kindly prepared and served by the ladies and left for Pondicheri (Puducheri) via the East Coast Road, a beautiful highway. I traveled many times of course on that road when I was going on official work to Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, a few kilometers after Mahabalipuram. On the way, the driver showed us a nice Vishnu Temple, where we offered prayers. We reached Pondy as it is popularly called around 2 pm. We visited the Aurobindo Ashram where we paid our respects to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. I felt good vibrations when I visited the hall, that had the furniture used by them.

Gopikrishna had a friend in that city and he (Dr. R P Raya) and his wife came to meet us and requested us to pay a short visit to their house near by. We went there and were treated very kindly by the couple and their two sons. He is a Professor and Head of Department in Management Studies at the Pondicheri University. My best wishes to them.

We took leave of them and proceeded to Tiruvannamalai. On the way, we saw a beautiful mandir for Anjaneya Swamy (Hanuman). We reached Sri Ramana Ashram, Tiruvannamalai around 8 PM. We were given a good room in the Extension wing of the Ashram just across the road. We freshened up and had a light dinner with Shri Alan Jacob and Shri Ramesh Chivukula, our friends on Facebook, who were there at the Ashram.

On 29th September, we woke up early, had a bath and left for the Giri Valam (pradakshina, circumambulation around the Arunachala Hill) by about 4:45 AM. We chose to go bare-foot keeping the sanctity of the place and the tradition in view. By the grace of Sri Ramana and Sri Arunachala, we could complete the pradakshina, have darshan of Sri Arunachala and Sri Apeethakuchambika (Goddess Parvathi) in the Arunachala temple and returned to the Ashram. We had prasad (free lunch) served in the Ashram and meditated for some time and had satsang with our friends.

Next day (30th September), we had a simple breakfast in the Ashram and went, again barefoot to Skandashram and Virupaksha Cave about 1.5 km uphill. Sri Ramana did his tapas for many years there before settling at the present Ashram. We had very good mystical experiences on the way and at Skandasram. My restless mind found a new peace without any effort and I felt the grace.

In the afternoon, we visited Sri Seshadri Swami Ashram and the Ashram of Sri Yogi Ram Suratkumar near by. We found the vibrations very good in all these places. We left Tiruvannamalai at around 5 PM to Chennai in the same car, so kindly sent by Sri Satyanaryana, friend of Srinivas. On the way, Sri Karunakaran, the driver of the car showed us two beautiful temples, one of Adi Parashakti at Mel Maravathur and the temple of Sri Ram at Madhurantakam. We had a light dinner at a good wayside restaurant and reached the home of Sri Satyanarayana at around 10:30 PM. We had a good night's rest at their home.

On 1st October, we visited Nanganallur and had darshan of Sri Anjaneyaswamy (40 feet high idol) and then Srinivas and myself went to the temple of Shirdi Sai Baba at Mylapore. The temple was heavily crowded because it was a Thursday. However, we could sit in one corner comfortably (I got a chair by Sai's grace). Gopikrishna visited some other places and joined us there. We went back to the home of Sri Satyanarayana and took leave of his mother, his wife and his nephew etc. and left for Chennai Central Railway Station. We boarded Charminar Express and reached Secunderabad / Hyderabad.

All in all, it was a wonderul pilgrimage and my wish of visiting Tiruvannamalai pending for the last decade or so was fulfilled. I hope to visit again, Guru permitting.

Photos of this pilgrimage can be seen by clicking (or copy and paste in the bowser) the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=117104&id=673629269&l=472246a6ab

I will share details of our pilgrimage to Shegaon etc. in another blog.

My recent pilgrimage to Hampi

Sai Ram. I am sharing with all of you, my online friends, details of my recent pilgrimages to some holy places in Hampi (near Hospet), Pondicheri, Tiruvannamalai, Shegaon, Karanja and Nagpur etc. I am starting with my pilgrimage to Hampi. I will share with you the travelogues to Tiruvannamalai and Shegaon etc. later. I will also share the photo links, so that you too can enjoy the visual pleasure of seeing these places.

My friend Shri P. Gopi Krishna came on vacation from Delhi and we took that opportunity to visit a few holy places. We left Kacheguda Station (Hyderabad) by Kacheguda - Yeshwantpur Express with slip coaches to Vasco (via Hospet, Hubli etc.) on 23rd September, 2009 at 21:15 hours. We reached Hospet Railway station on 24th early morning and took an auto-rickshaw to Hampi and reached Sri Hampi Virupaksha Vidyaranya Matham, behind the Virupaksha temple, Hampi by about 8 AM. We bowed to Swamiji and went to the nearby Tungabhadra (Pampa) river for taking bath. We returned to the Matham, dressed and went out to the main temple street, where we could get some good idlis. I took the idlis with sugar as my stomach is intolerant to chillies. I also had tea. We bought some bananas for offering to the Gods in Matham and we also fed bananas to two young calves near the temple. In the process of eating the bananas, they licked my shirt, leaving some stains, which could not be washed away but the calves were so cute that I did not feel any anger towards them and in fact felt love to them!

We went back to the Matham and Sri Swamiji was busy with Puja. We waited for Him to finish Puja and in between, I showed my friend the Samadhis of earlier Swamijis and the place where Sri Paramacharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham did Tapas for nearly six months and where He was visited by Smt. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India.

At lunch time, we were served simple but good food by the priests and archakas attached to the Matham. Swamiji took care of my food restrictions by instructing them to serve bland and sweet items only.

We took some rest after lunch and then left for seeing nearby places after taking permission from Swamiji. My friend was impressed so much by the natural beauty and silence of the place that he was repeatedly mentioning that he would like to visit that place and stay for at least a week! I told them that he is most welcome any time.

We went first to Sri Kodanda Rama Swamy's temple at Chakra Teertha. We asked for directions to Sri Sugreeva Guha and went further. On the way, we saw some old temples and the whole place was so beautiful and so serene. We saw the Guha (cave) and saw the marks on the stones left by the golden ornaments wrapped in a saree that Sri Sita dropped when She was being abducted by Ravana, and which were discovered by the monkeys of Kishkindha. As the monkeys could not lift the ornaments, they dragged the bundle into the cave and that left permanent marks on the stones.

We were exploring that area when we came across a sign board and we took the path pointed by that sign board and came to a wonderful spot that was new to me too (I visited Hampi several times in the last decade but did not notice that board, may be because I did not visit that area often and because some renovation works are going on in recent times). The Brindvanam (Samadhi) of Sri Raghunandana Teertha was located near the bank of the river and the place was so quiet and peaceful that both of us spent a few blissful minutes there.

We returned to the Kodanda Rama temple and saw Sri Suryanarayana Swamy temple behind, the Yantroddharaka Anjaneya Swamy temple on a small hillock and Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in a small cave a little higher. We came back to Sri Kodanda Rama temple and got the Archana performed in our names. We returned to the Math and had darshan of Lord Virupaksha, Goddess Pampa Devi, and Goddess Bhuvaneshwari. We returned to the Math and had a light dinner.

We took bath in the matham itself next day morning (25th September) and went to the river to explore the possibility of crossing it but found the motor boat moored on the other side. We waited for a few minutes and had idlis for breakfast in a different place but found that the quality was so so. We found the motor boat still on the other side and people were mentioning that it may not ply because of the heavy flow in the river. We then hired an autorickshaw for sightseeing around the ancient monuments and palaces of the Vijayanagar Empire. We returned for lunch to the matham.

Swamiji gave some good time to my friend Gopi Krishna. We went to the temple again and had darshan of the God and Goddesses. We returned to the Matham for dinner. My friend was engrossed in some discussions with Swamiji and I retired to bed.

At our request Swamiji arranged for an autorickshaw to pick us up from the Matham, take us to the Malyavantha Raghunatha Temple, show us the Museum, take us to the Sai Baba temple on the way to Hospet, take us to the Tungabhadra Dam and finally drop us at the Hospet Railway Station.

We found Akhanda Parayan of Sri Tulsidas ji's Ramacharitha Manas going on at Sri Malyavantha Raghunatha temple. We also visited Goddess Lakshmi's temple a little behind the main temple and Lord Hanuman's mandir outside the gate. We found the atmosphere there very serene and divine. The vibrations at the Akhanda Parayan were very strong.

We found the Sai Baba mandir (Stupam) a little off the road on the way to Hospet very enchanting. The construction work is still going on but whatever has been built already is very beautiful. The pujari there is a telugu speaking person and he told us that we are welcome to visit and stay there if so desired. We thanked him and left for the TB Dam as it is popularly called.

We found the Tungabhadra river in good flow and about 12 gates of the dam were open. Thanks to a phone call from Swamiji, we were taken good care by Sri Vijaykumar, Security officer of the TB Dam. Our thanks to him and to Swamiji.

We had lunch at Shanbag Fast foods, a popular place in Hospet and reached Railway Station, Hospet, in good time. The train (Amaravati Express) came in time and we got in. We spent good time in satsang through the 5 hours of waiting and linking to Yaswantpur - Kacheguda train at Guntakal Railway Station. We reached Kacheguda at about 5:30 AM on 27th September.

We left Hyderabad the same evening to Chennai by Charminar Express and were joined by another friend Srinivasa Rao Kotamraju (Srinivas). More about that in a separate blog.

Photos of Hampi and near by temples can be found at the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/svswamy

My pilgrimage to Ganagapur and Akkalkot

Sai Ram. On the morning of 29th January, my friend Arjun phoned me and started discussing the presence of our Guru, Sankaracharya of Hampi Virupaksha Vidyaranya Peetham in Ganagapur on the next day and whether we could go to Ganagapur and see Him. Since a few days earlier, we were discussing the possibility of making a pilgrimage to Ganagapur and Akkalkot, I agreed. So, in the matter of a few hours, he arranged to get two tickets reserved in a bus leaving in the night for Gulbarga and from there Ganagapur is just 40 kms.

We left Hyderabad at 0:30 hours of 30th January and reached Gulbarga by 05:30 hours. We transfered to another bus going to Afzalpur etc. and got down at Chowdapur X roads, from where Ganagapur is about 7 km. We normally don't get a bus there and we normally go by an autorickshaw (a three wheeler) which carries about 8 people, in rather cramped conditions. The driver of the auto was waiting for other passengers since we were the only two. The first of several nice mystical experiences started then, apart from the sudden fixing of the program. A bus came but I missed reading the board and later was regretting that it was going to Ganagapur. Within a few minutes another bus came and the auto driver himself volunteered the information that the bus would go Ganagapur and asked us to take it! Thus we reached Ganagapur earlier than expected and in relative comfort.

We went to the usual lodge where we stay and were warmly greeted by the caretaker and were given a good room. We established contact with our Guruji Hampi Swamiji and He asked us to come to a house near the temple, where He was camping. So, we hurried up and took bath in the room itself instead of going to the river as is our usual practice. We reached the place where Swamiji was staying and were asked by Him to go to the temple and finish our puja (worship) and return by about 11 AM (it was just 08:30 AM then). We went to the temple and had one of the best darshans and could get the Paduka Puja in a nice, leisurely manner. We then went to the river and just washed our hands and feet and sprinkled the river water on our head as a mark of respect to the river Goddess. The river was flowing at a higher level than usual and the water was not clear. Thus we were much better off by taking the bath in our room and that was another instance of Guru's grace.

We finished the circumambulation to the Cluster Fig Tree (Audumbar tree) located at the river bank (that tree has a sacred history in Sri Guru Charitra) and also paid our respects to Lord Dattatreya at the Sangam. We also visited the Siva temple there and went back to our Guru's place. He went to another house for a few minutes (calling Guru to the house and worshipping His feet is a practice in many Hindu houses). Then He was going to the temple and called us to accompany Him for another darshan. We went inside and could see Him enter the innermost room where the Nirguna Padukas of Sri Nrisimha Saraswati Swami are kept.

Nrisimha Saraswati Swami is the second incarnation of Lord Dattatreya and made Ganagapur, a very holy place by staying there for nearly 30 years. When leaving that place, He left His Padukas (Sandals) for worship. No other visitor is allowed to enter that innermost room and touch the padukas (holy sandals) except the temple priests. But Hampi Sankaracharya is given this honor because Sri Nrisimha Saraswati Swami took sanyas from Sri Krishna Saraswati, a disciple of Sri Vidyaranya Bharati Swami, the founder of Vijayanagar Empire, who was also the head of Sringeri Sarada Peetham. The present Swamiji is the 46th in that lineage.

We returned along with the Swamiji after He finished His worship and we had lunch in a Priest's house where Swamiji took His Bhiksha. A Sanyasi is not allowed to cook food for Himself and has to depend on alms and unlike many other societies where begging is looked down upon, Hinduism accepts begging for alms from monks and sanyasis and they are treated with great honor.

When we left for Ganagapur, my friend was not sure of accompanying me to Akkalkot since he was informed by Swamiji that He was alone and was looking forward to the company of my friend, from Ganagapur to Hyderabad. Though I wanted his company, I was mentally prepared to go alone to Akkalkot from Ganagapur. Thus I packed a bigger bag with more clothes. When we met our Guruji, He asked my friend to accompany me to Akkalkot since another couple, both disciples of Swamiji were going with Him to Hyderabad. Thus, I was not required to go alone and I was very happy. Since my friend did not pack enough clothes we decided to go to Akkalkot, have darshan of Swami Samartha and return to Gulbarga by bus or train and then try to catch another bus to Hyderabad.

We left Ganagapur at 4 PM and reached Akkalkot by 7 PM. We went to the Vatavriksha mandir of Swami Samartha, an incarnation of Lord Dattatreya. We washed our hands and feet and had a nice darshan of the Swami's idol there. We came out and reached the Akkalkot Bus Station by about 8 PM. We were rather surprised to know that no bus is available for Ganagapur and some one suggested that we take a train. They told that the train is at 10 PM and the railway station is 12 km away. Fortunately an autorickshaw driver was willing to take us there. Since there was enough time, we thought we will have a light dinner and went to a nearby restaurant. I have many restrictions about what I can eat but by the grace of Guru, I got good items in the restaurant.

When we went back to the autorickshaw, we saw that we were the only two passengers and again we were wondering whether he will go or not. But the autodriver assured us that he stays near the station and thus he waited for a few minutes and then left. The road was desolate and hardly any traffic was seen. When we reached the Akkalkot Road Railway Station, the whole area was in darkness because of a power cut. Only a few emergency lights and the signals were on by means of a generator. The auto driver was asking us to pay only twenty rupees, what we would have paid if we were two of the ten passengers! We were struck by his honesty and felt that again it is Guru who was arranging all these things. We paid him a bonus of another ten rupees. We had to wait for about an hour and then the train came. We got seats (rather hard wooden benches) and could manage to sit for the 2 hours it took to cover the distance of 78 km. We could get nice hot tea at a station in between. We reached Gulbarga by 0:30 hrs of 31st January.

We took an autorichshaw and reached the Bus Station a few minutes later. Again, we got a shock when we were told that there is no bus starting from Gulbarga and one bus will come from Bijapur and if we are lucky we will get seats (the Gulbarga station has no control and no quota). We were praying to Guru to continue to take care of us. When the bus came, we were glad that seats were there and we could settle in. We left Gulbarga by 01:30 hrs and reached Hyderabad by about 6 AM.

We thus had a very satisfying pilgrimage and felt the grace of Guru all through. Sai Ram.