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An experience at Melkottai

From the Bhakti List Archives

jasn sn • June 18, 2002 


SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA

My heartful thanks to all those who wrote on
Melkottai.
Staying just 200 km from Melkottai (Hosur) I am
wondering now how I failed to make it to Melkottai all
these years. That too when I have every reason to be
proud about a persoanl connection I have with Chelva
Pillai. 
Yes. The first time I came to know about Melkottai was
when, about 17 years ago,  I spotted a post card size
photo of Vaira mudi Sevai inside an old book. Struck
by the beauty of the lord, I immediateley made a
painting of it in water colour. I was so infatuated by
the painting I made that I refused to part with it
even when my father and father-in-law wanted to keep
it with them. I knew very little of the lord then and
all that I wanted to do was to see the Vaira Mudi
Sevai (it is vaina mudi) and know whether the lord
resembles the one in the picture I made.

Then about 7 years ago I made a trip to Melkot to see
the vaira mudi sevai. It was so exquisite that it
looked  as though the lord just dances and jumps up
and down along with the devotees. I could not see the
lord from close quarters nor could I have the darshan
of Thiru narayana.
But after reading the mails from fellow devotees in
Bhakti list, on route to Melkottai, I decided to make
the trip at the earliest instance. And went there this
sunday.
What an experience it was!
I have visited most of the divya desams in Tamil nadu,
but nowhere have I found this kind of manda hasam in
perumal vadanam. If 'Ari thuyil' is characteristic of
Ranganatha, it is 'ari nagai' (the all knowing smile)-
'I know what is in your mind' - is what binds us at
his feet.  I understood why Ramanuja said that one
must live at least in a thatched hut in Melkottai.
But my real 'rendezvous' took place in Chelva pillai
sannidhi
oh, he is the one who is my lord, But is HE?
Does HE not look like my child? 
The face , the smile - it is not an ordinary smile.
It is like the smile you find on the face of a six
month old baby. 
Yes, I mean it and I have seen it. 
If you are closely watching a baby grow, you can
identify the different smiles of the baby at different
times. 
Suppose you are very close to the baby, say the mother
of the baby and the baby easily identifies you as it
has been regularly seeing you from close quarters.
 It is around the sixth month that it starts moving
away from you and spend some time playing away from
you. In the first few occasions, if the baby sees you
from a distance, you can see a slight knot in its brow
- just for a fraction of a second-
 and then recognising you, 
'is this not the one whom I am so dear to' 
-the baby is likely to drop the things it is palying
with and rush towards you with a gurgling laugh
-seeming to ask you 
'where did you go? where did you go?

This is what I found on chelva pillai's face.

-the padapadappu that I have missed you
-the paraparappu that I must reach you soon
-the kuduhalam that I have  spotted you
-the uthsaham that I am back in my right place

Is this  what chelva pillai expressed when he spotted
Ramanuja who came in search of him?
Was it really a re-union as cheva pillai rushed to
Ramanuja as how a baby would rush to the mother with
pangs of having missed her for some time.

Guru paramparai prabhavam describes the union like
this:-
"Etta chattaiyum,
kattina siru sadangaiyum,
muditta my vanna narunkunjiyum,
tan mugaththu chutti thoonga thioonga,
perujgy-yilum gudhithu,
thannialosai salan salan endrida...' 
The bhava, the looks, the smile on Chelva pillai
looked so real - so familiar to me that I have not yet
come out of the spell.
 Is this the lord whom Perialwar describes in his
pasurams? Like how periyaval try to find whom
Nammalwar meant in his 'vuyarwara'
songs.(Thirivaimozhi, mudal pathu))
 Did Perialwar in a state of trance envisioned chelva
pillai and sang the songs. 
Because after seeing Chelva pillai, I get reminded of
HIM only,in every pasuram of Perialwar Thirumozhi.
Or the lord has deliberately kept HIMSELF away from
the vision of Alwars so that HE can lend HIMSELF a
soulabhyan to us, the lesser mortals in this kaliyuga.
Any way the trip to MElkottai was a rewarding
experience for me.

Back home, I looked at the Chelva pillai I have with
me. The smile, the Bhava  and the resemblance are all
there. Even the mischivouss sparkle in the eyes is
thre. Only that HE looks more an adult in my picture
than what HE looks in person.
I look at my hands and tell myself 
'Dhanyan aanen'
The Taiittriya vachanam -'karmethi hasthayoho'--
some gratifying karma in my hands.
Has HE not blessed me??

jaysree sarnathan.

PS: I have not spoken about the experience in
Ramanuja's sannidhi. 
That will run into another story!
Let me for the time being restrict myself to some
information-
like
After an over-night stay at Mysore, one can proceed
towards Melkot via Sri ranga pattnam. But the road
condition leaves much to be desired. 
But if you proceed from Mandya, the road is pretty
good.
Or one can stay in Bangalore and start by 5 am to be
available for the thirumanjanam for Ramanuja at 7.30
am.( by personal trasportation)
On Ramanuja's thirunakshatram every month, one can get
to see his thiru meni during thirumanjanam.
The scars from the injury in his shoulders when he
came through the forests with Chleva pillai had been
meticulously carved in his thiru meni, as per his
instructions.
and he is marvelous - will speak to you-so says the
Bhattachar 
and I raelised it on that day - the narration of which
is beyond the scope of this list.

JS
  

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