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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00032 Nov 2003

 
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Dear bhagavathas,

pranamams.

Thanks for the private emails encouraging adiyen's ramblings on this 
topic.adiyen have two more postings on this topic. This trip is about 
kanchipuram

During all the earlier trips, adiyen's mother did not accompany us 
due to her health condition, but when we have started talking about 
our kanchipuram trip, she was keen to have darshan of Sri Varada. 
Since she was with us, we have decided to have a short trip covering 
only few temples and not to strain her.

You must be aware of Sri Satakopa thathachariar swami of Kanchipuram. 
He occasionaly writes in other e groups also seeking help for 
conducting nitya aradana at ThiruththaNka divya desasm. He has been 
inviting adiyen to come to kanchipuram and he was keen to be with us 
during our trip. He is currently working at Padhur (near Kaladi) in 
Kerala and visits Kanchi once in a while only. Sri Satakopan swami 
spoke to me once in I was in Chennai and adiyen could not make it on 
6th July, as our trip to Thirupathi-Thirumala was scheduled for 7th 
July. He then called around 20th and invited us to be there on 26th 
as he was coming to Navalpakkam for the
Thirunakshatram celebrations of two great acharyas ( Sri Annarya maha 
desikan Adi Mrugaseersham and Sri Devanatha thatha desikan (ayya) Adi 
Thiruvadhirai). adiyen has agreed to plan the trip accordingly. 

Only later adiyen has realised that 26th Satarday was dwadhasi and 
adiyen was keen to have sreepatha thirtham of Srimad Azhagiya singar 
who was staying at Selaiyur for chaturmasya vratam. Since adiyen has 
commited to Sri Satakopan swami, adiyen have to perform only paduka 
aradana at home and leave chennai early in the morning. 

adiyen and my parents first went to Kanchi Varadar temple. It was 
around 8 AM and kalasandhi was going on. Sri Satakopan swami has 
requested us to go to his house and take his sister's son Sri 
Ranganathan to the temples around and he promised to join around 11 
AM at Thuppul. We took Sri Ranga, who is doing Veda adhyayanam and he 
was very enthusiastic in explaining all the details about the temple. 
He was soft spoken and very knowledgable on sampradayic issues and we 
were very much pleased to spend our time with him. You might remember 
our earlier such personalities at Vaduvur Sriram and at Thirunangur 
Sri Veda rajan, Sri Ranga is third in that list. His grand father who 
is 93 years old is also a Vedic scholar and he is running a Vedic
school in kanchipuram. We were blessed to take his blessings.

You must be aware of the Kanchi varadar temple. It is huge and you 
have to climb (aththigiri) to have darshan of Sri Varada. amma found 
it tough but the thought that we are going to have seva of HIM must 
have given the energy to climb the steps. The seva kalam was just 
finished and we could get darshan from very close quarters. The scene 
is still fresh in adiyen's memory and last week when adiyen called my 
mother, she mentioned the same thing. She is still re living the 
darshan and it was a wonderful experience. 

Unlike Thirumala or Srirangam, we could spend good time with Sri 
Varada and no doubt the Moolavar is unbelievably beautiful. adiyen 
can't explain it further. adiyen read that if one has to describe the 
beauty of Lord, even if he uses the entire oceans as ink and wrote on 
the sky (paper) even then we will fail to describe the beauty.Such 
being the case, it will be foolish on
my part to try to describe in an alien language.

We then went to Thayar sannidhi and here too we got good time for a 
peaceful darshan. Swami desikan's Sristuthi flashed thru my mind and 
she was wearing a warm smile. adiyen always spend an extra minute 
with thayar, as SHE is known for her vatsalyam. Since my childhood 
was spent at Thiruvahendrapuram, adiyen always compare the Hemabuja 
valli thayar with other thayar archas. To me the archa thirumeni of 
Sri Vanchulavalli thayar at Nachchiar koil, Sri
Bhumi devi at Oppiliappan koil, Sri Komala valli at Sarangapani 
temple at Kudanthai, Sri Amrutha valli at Sholingur, Sri Alarmel 
mangai at Thirchchanur and finally Sri Perundhevi thayar at Kanchi 
are most appealing. (The thayar at other temples may pardon adiyen)

We went to Sri Andal sannidhi and seva kalam was going on here and 
then we were given lots of prasadam by Sri Satakopa thathachaiar's 
father. We were very happy to see the sacred tank of this temple with 
lots of water. After worshipping Sri Sudarshana we came out. adiyen 
wanted to visit the Sri Nammazhvar sannidhi but could not do so as 
the sannidhi was not open. adiyen
wasn't aware of another Koil desikan sannidhi with in this temple and 
came to know about this later only and there was no time for second 
visit as we had a long list for that day.

Our next visit was to Yathokthakari temple. Here morning pooja was 
going on and we have to wait for more than half an hour. We were told 
that on Satardays there won't be electricity in the daytime and 
except the Varadar temple, no other temple have generator facility. 
The temple was pitch dark and we could not even have good darshan of 
Moolavar. We were very disappointed, as we could not have good 
darshan. Sri Desika has composed Sri Vegasethu stotram on this 
perumal.

Then we went to Sri Ashtabuja perumal temple. Here since renovation 
works are going on, we could not have darshan of Moolavar and the 
utsavar was shifted to a small room nearby. Here again, no 
electricity and hardly we could see the utsavar. Sri Desika has 
composed Sri Ashtabujashtakam on this perumal.

Our next stop was Thiruvelukkai. Thankfully there was a gas-fired 
lamp and the bhattar was kind enough to use the lamp for our darshan. 
The Narasimhar was so beautiful and Sri Desika has composed 
Kamasikashtakm on this perumal. We were happy to have good darshan as 
we were disappointed in the earlier two temples.

Then we went to Ulagalandha perumal koil. You must be aware that 
three more divya desams are there with in this temple only. The 
perumal was huge as his name suggests and we had good darshan here 
too.

Then we came to ThiruththaNka, which is also called as Thuppul. Sri 
Satakopa thathachariar swami was waiting for us here. Couple of words 
about him. His bhakthi towards swami desika is unbelievable. He signs 
off his mails with a note "na deivam desikath param". Since we were 
exchanging emails for quite some time, we were freely talking various 
issues and he was a very
knowledgable person indeed. His done poorna adhyayanam of Vedam and 
he has good command of both Sanskrit and Tamil. He could effortlessly 
quote from Bhagavad gita, Stotra padam of poorvacharyas and Divya 
prabandham. His personal advice to overcome any trouble is to recite 
gadhya trayam. He has told many instances when he recited the gadyam 
sitting at Desikan  sannidhi his prayes have been answered. You must 
see his conviction. Pray and cry to
HIM and he will respond to your request. This is his belief. 

He has been working hard to mobilise funds for nitya aradanam at 
Thuppul. He was mentioning about the kind support he received from 
Kuwait, Bahrain and other USA bhagavathas. Now the archakas are 
getting some compensation thru the Vilakkoliperumal trust. Sri 
Satakapon swami has given wondeful commentary of Villakoli perumal 
quoting from Saranagathy deepika of swami desika. It was very 
interesting to listen to his vivid explanation and new thoughts he
is deriving from the stotras. Deepaprakashar was older than Sri 
Varadar, and this may not be known to many, adiyen suppose. Sri 
Satakopan in short explained the Aththigiri mahatmiyam, which 
explains the story of Sri Varda.

Then we came to Sri Desikan sannidhi. adiyen is used to enjoy the 
archa thirumeni of Swami desika at Thiruvahendrapuram and this is 
only my second visit to Thuppul, the birth place of Swami desikan. 
Swami desikan is sitting in a simhasa with a lion on each side. Sri 
Satakopan put it as he is Kavi tharkika simham and in Sanskrit we can 
say as Kavi simham and Tarkika simham. He mentioned it the simhasanam 
was offered by Srimushnam Andavan swami. The Desika's archa is very 
big in size (at Thuppul), compared to the one at Thiruvehendrapuram. 
Although we were there for more than an hour here, we could not see 
any sevarthis in this temple and adiyen was curious and asked about 
this. Sri Satakopan has mentioned that it is a pity that
many devotees don't visit this temple and that is the reason the 
archakas have to run around to various temples to make a living. 
adiyen would request all the bhagavathas who are visiting Kanchi 
should take time to visit this wonderful temple and you will enjoy 
the peaceful surrounding and eye captivating archa thirumeni's of 
Deepa prakashar and Maragatha valli thayar 
and Swami desika. Sri Satakopan swami is having novel ideas to have 
some one at the temple to recite all the granthas of Swami desika on 
regular basis. He is planning to have nitya aradanam with a deposit 
of Rs 1600/ the interest will cover one day aradanam (around 75 
rupees). adiyen would appreciate your support.

Then we went to the newly constructed Mani mandapam at the avathara 
sthalam of Swami desika. This was done by another trust called 
Thuppul trust, which is also doing kaimkaryams at this temple. We 
felt very much blessed to visit the birth place of Swami desika.

At this juncture, Sri Ranga who was accompanying us for all the 
temples went back to his home and Sri Satakopan continued the journey 
with us. We then rushed to Sevilimedu Narasimhar temple.

Have you heard of this temple? It seems that Sri Varda was kept in 
this temple while the town was invaded by Muslim kings and to 
remember this instance Sri Varada comes to this temple once in a 
year. Also the famous well from where Sri Ramanuja took water and did 
thirtha kaimkaryam to Sri Varada is also near by. The deities here 
are very huge in size and they are
so beautiful. This temple main gopuram is totally broken and it is 
even not safe to enter the temple thru the main gopuram. The temple 
needs urgent help and one bhagavatha Sri Krishnan from Miami, USA 
wrote to adiyen sometime ago about this temple. adiyen's father met 
Sri Krishnan's father and we are doing nitya aradanam at this temple 
with the generous donation of our satsangh member Sri V Murali.

The bhattars who are serving the Vilakkoliperumal temple are doing 
kaimkaryam here. When we came to this temple we were exhausted but 
the darshan of Sri Lakshmi narasimha gave us back all the lost 
energy. They have patiently shown all the sannidhis and what to be 
done now. More than the finance, there are lots of encroachments by 
local public on both the sides of the main gopuram and if the 
renovation work starts it will distrub the unlawful tenents and they 
are objecting to the renovation it seems. Can u believe this? The 
archakas are afraid to antogonise the local people and they have 
petitioned to the district collector. They have shown a photo
album with lots of images taken during various times by a bhakha from 
chennai. The deities are so beautiful and right now we are performing 
nitya aradanam and monthly thirumanjanam. We would require your 
support for the renovation of the main gopuram. adiyen can furnish 
more details of the temple, if any one requires.

We had lunch at Sri Krishnan's house and their hospitality was too 
good and they have served a feast for us. Sri Satakopan swami did not 
eat as he has travelled by bus from Navalpakkam to Kanchi and he did 
not even drink a glass of water till late in the evening when we have 
reached Navalpakkam. adiyen was surprised at their strict anushtanams 
and we do still have such
bhagavathas who live to every letter of the sastra's requirement. 

amma wanted to have rest for a while and we spend the time discussing 
the modalities of running a trust with Sri Satakopan swami. He 
explained the difficulties he has faced and it was a fruitful meeting 
as we were new to the trust procedures. BTW, we have formed a trust 
titled divya desa
kainkarya trust and it has been registered. Kaimkaryams are being 
done in more than 10 temples at this time. 

adiyen will continue the trip experiences of Navalpakkam and 
Thennangur in the next concluding posting.

regards

dasan venkat




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