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My India Trip

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vijay Triplicane • January 8, 1996 


Hello,
	I made a short but sweet and memorable trip to India. Some of the
	stuff that i did out there might be of interest to this group and
	hence this posting.

	i toured around a lil bit and visited the following 15 temples of
	interest ( how many count as dhivya dhesams??)This is a list of
	their common names..

	1. SriraNGgam
	2. guNaseelam
	3. uththamarkOil
	4. thiruveLLaRai
	5. uRaiyoor
	6. vaduvoor
	7. oppiliyappaNnkOil
	8. maNnNnaargudi
	9. sEraNGguLam
	10. nNaachiyaarkOil (thirunNaRaiyoor)
	11. thiruchchERai
	12. saarNGgapaaNi
	13. raamaswaami
	14. chakrapaaNi
	15. thiruvallikkENi.

	I had to complete this in 3 days. had a very good dharsanam in all
	the kOvils. 
	Mr. SadagOpan, we stayed in Mr. uppili's house just opposite the
	uppiliappan temple and had food at his place. He conveyed his
	enquiries to u. He took us around the temple and was kind enough to
	give a detailed explanation about the sthala puraaNam and other
	interesting things. 

	Took photographs of some of the gOpurams. will send them to Mr.
	P. Dileepan. Got the collection from my uncle containing lotso
	details, pphotographs , paasurams, etc about the 108 dhivya dhesams.
	will go thro it once and pass it on to Dileepan. Its quite
	interesting. 

	collected some information about the needy temples in and around
	Madras. Thirukkadalmallai ( mahaabalipuram )is in a sorry state , i
	was told. It is an aazhwaar avathaara sthalam and it needs
	baalaalayam to be completed. Thiruneermalai also needs some
	renovation work to be completed but is taken care i was told.
	regarding these information , i got an
	interesting contact. 

	There is a group of people under the name of "dhivya dhEsa
	samrakshaNa sabhaa" They take care of such needy temples by
	arranging funds for nithya kainkaryam, vasthram, thaLigai, the
	temple infrastructure...They seem to be doing a wonderful job. They
	have taken up 45 temples presently and are doing these kainkaryams.
	what they are doing is exactly what we have in mind i think. The
	important thing is that they are 1. an established organization, 2.
	based in Madras, 3. they have a panel of learned scholars as well as
	legal people. we(the prapatti group)  discussed a lot about how to direct our funds, how
	to find the really needy temples, how to manage the funds, the legal
	implications of doing so, our doubts of whether it reaches the right
	hands... etc. I heard about Mrs. Y g Parthasarathy, Principal, Padma
	Seshadri Bala bhavan engaged in such temple renovation activities
	and called her and left a message. She called me the day i was
	leaving and talked for abt 20 mins. I just explained about our
	thoughts/plans regarding this. I got to know from her that the
	Kanchi sankarachaarya ( pudhu periyavar) heard about this while
	they were starting and donated Rs. 10,000 as a first donation and
	showered his aaseervaathams. vElukkudi varadhaachaariyaar swamy's
	son Krishnan who is also doing a lot of upanyaasams these days ( i
	attended 2 of them, very good, typical of his father) is one of the
	member. TT Vasu ( Music Academy ) is the president. Suresh Krishna(
	TVS) is the vice president. Sri Krishna premi swami is also in the
	committee. Mr. N.C. ragavachari (MGR's advocate) is also in the
	panel. They have taken up the temples of navathiruppathi, temples
	around seergaazhi, some temples (thirukkadalmallai) around madras.
	They had some tax problems initially it seems. but they have found
	some legal ways of doing it to cut down taxes (they term the
	"thaLigai kainkaryam" as poor feeding and similar such legal, tax
	evasive terms for the intended kainkaryams. I myself have seen the
	renovation work going on in one of the temples of navathiruppathi
	when i visited during July 1993. I asked Mrs. YGP to send us the
	detailed brochure, what they have accomplished, what are their
	plans, who comprises the committee and other related details about
	their organization. I have given my address / fax. I will send the
	details once i get it to those who are interested. I sincerely feel
	that we can pursue this and contribute something towards this noble
	cause which we had been talking for a long time. I feel more
	commitment on our part because comparatively most of us are well to
	do than those in India who are interested in such things, our
	contribution has more "value"(Rupee Vs Dollar), we are far away from
	all the dhivya dhesams and lack any opportunity for some kainkaryam
	or other. Lets take active participation in this. Mr. Dileepan, Mr.
	Sadagopan, Mr. Sampath, Mr. Mani , Mr. sreekrishna and others should
	take this up and add strength to this feeble cry. 

	I wish to make this clear: I am not in any way realted / connected
	to any of the people i have mentioned above. It is just that i heard
	about them, i enquired the details, i felt there need not be any
	duplication of efforts for the same cause,and i am passing on the info
	to everybody in this group.
	
	Hope everything works out fine. 

	rukmaNi samEdha sri paarthasaarathi swami thiruvadigaLE charaNam
	Vijay Triplicane
	(viji - too many vijay's!)

	vijayt@acuson.com
	(408)738-0364 (Home)