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My India Trip

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vijay Triplicane • May 18, 1998 


Hello All,
	I had a wonderful 3 weeks trip to India and would want to
share some things of common interest with this group. 

	I went for my sister's wedding (19 April). I reached there on
18th early morning ("responsible" brother! :)) ) and went straight to
Triplicane to be on time for the thiruththEr(car festival) for my most 
beloved perumAL Sri pArththasArathi! It was such an awesome experience 
to be there among the gOshti (one of the best in the 108 dhivya dhEsams, 
no doubt). 
	Just being there in front of Sri pArthasarathi on the
thiruththEr among the gOshti itself is something GGreat. As if that
is not enough, the gOshti started off with "vAdinEn vAdi" of periya
thirumozhi by my dearest AzhvAr Sri thirumaN^gai mannan. Wow! I
really can't explain how blessed I felt to recite the pAsuram along
with the great gOshti. One has to listen to this to appreicate it. No
words can explain it in its fullest splendour. The very very slow
pace with with they start "vAdinEn...", the inherent music, the
sonorous voices blended together like in an orchestra, the meaning of
Sri kaliyan's choicest words... what can I say? It attains a peak
when they end the first pAsuram in their highest pitch, "n^AdinEn
n^Adi n^An kaNdu koNdEn n^ArAyaNA ennum n^Amam". That was such a
moving experience.

	After listening to the first pAsuram, Sri pArthasarathi
decides to move his thiruththEr. And I joined hands with hundreds of
bhakthas to pull the thEr. The sense of participation of the whole
town in this festival is simply amazing everytime I witness it. It is
like a wedding in their family. Everybody picks up some task or other
sincerely and they enjoy doing it. There was an old man by my side
singing the 10 pAsurams of kaliyan on the dhivya dhEsam very
musically (instead of just reciting it). He didn't even realize how
good he was singing, I guess. It was just his expression of bhakthi
to his dear Lord. 

	There was this little kid, not more than 6/7 years
old, alone in the crowd, couldn't get a good look at the perumAL, patted
me and asked a series of questions- "what koNdai is perumAL wearing?,
what vasthrams for the ubayanachimArs?, Do they have the pearl
necklace?..." I was so happy to note the little kids interest,
Knowledge of perumAL's thiruvAbaraNams (jewels), and his close knit
association with the day to day alankArams to the perumAL. I lifted
him on my arms to my heart's content and helped him have a good close
look of the perumAL with the ubayanAchimArs. Look at how the dhivya
dhEsa vAsam (living in the dhivya dhEsam)helps the upbringing of
the kids. 

	I also visited thirukkOshtiyUr, thirumAliruN^chOlai,
SrivillipuththUr, Srirangam, thirukkaNNamaN^gai, thirukkaNNapuram,
siRupuliyUr, aNNankOil, thiruvAli-thirunagari (and
thirumaNaN^kollai), thiru indhaLUr, sriperumbudhUr and kAN^chi. I
will write in detail about these later...

adiyEn
Viji 
(Vijay Triplicane)

PS: Sri PB Anand, It is very kind of you to remember me while you
were in Triplicane. As mentioned above I reached Madras only on the
7'th thirun^AL. I feel bad that I couldn't meet you over there. 

-Viji