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Sravan's trip to Srirangam temple

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • September 22, 2001 


Dear BhakthAs:

Sriman Sampath rengarajan is well known to 
the e-mail list groups through his many outstanding
postings about Tamil Sri Sookthis of AzhwArs and his 
leadership in organizing the Adhyayana Sevai at 
Sri RanganAthA temple , Pomona , NY. His devotion to 
Lord RanganAthan , Lord Aaravamudhan of Thirukkudanathia and 
Lord Oppiliappan is well known.

It is my pleasure to forward you a posting by his
9 year old son, Chi.Sravan RengarAjan on his visit
to the numerous sannidhis of Srirangam temple complex.
I am sure that many of us have not visited all 
the 88 plus sannidhis at this ancient temple complex.

Chi.Sravan's writing has a sparkle and spontaneity.
I think children like Sravan exposed to our ancient
darsanam at the very early age offer great promise
to the practise and growth of Sri VaishNavam.

V.Sadagopan 


>My trip to srirangam temple
>
>I am the son of Sampath Rengarajan and Vasanthi Rengarajan
>and  I am 9 years old. I live in Ann Arbor Michigan, USA. I
>went to Thiruchi and Kumbakonam for my vacation.  I always
>wanted to go to  all  the  sannithis  in srirangam temple.
>Each time  I  go  to srirangam  temple with my Ammamma, we
>were straight taken to the  perumal  sannithi  without any
>waiting  in  the queue and brought back to thayar sannithi
>and back to home at Thiruchy.  Sometime  I  had  gone   to
>Danvanthri sannithi. One day my dad and I planned and took
>an auto to go to Srirangam.  When we crossed the Kaveri  we
>both worshiped the huge gopuram. it was majestic and  very
>tall. Then  we  went  to a street full of garlands (my dad
>tells me the name of the street is some sattar street). We
>bought 2  huge  garlands  and  went  straight  to  acharya
>sannithi  in  dasavatharam   sannithi.  We  garlanded  the
>acharya 44th.  We  worshipped dasavatharam perumals. I had
>a closer look at Nrusimha, Balarama, Krishna and Kalki. My
>dad told me that all the 10 moolavar perumals were created
>by  Ranga   when  Thirumangai  prayed  to  Him.  We   also
>worshipped Thirumangai.  Then we walked to thayar sannithi
>from there. It was very hot and sunny.
>
>We  entered  the temple through the north gate near thayar
>sannithi and started going through each ciruit. I  took  a
>note  book  with  me  that  my  grandpa  gave me. I made a
>diagram of circuits. I started giving numbers and  marking
>them in the circuit in the clockwise direction. In another
>page  we  wrote  down  the  names of  the perumals in each
>sannithi and lots of  other details.  We  worshipped  each
>perumal in each sannithi. We covered the circuit and  then
>went to the inner circuit through a place. We  had  to put
>our 5 fingers and look at 3 entrances. My dad showed me  a
>place where a lone panai maram knew more 4000 than  anyone
>else.  Then  my dad showed me the place where viraja river
>flows under. I  asked  him  why  is it called sorgam vasal
>when inside is vaikundam and  not  sorgam.  My dad told me
>that people those days knows  sorgam  as a common word and
>in vaikundam one is so happy like  sorgam  and  so everyone
>called it sorgam vasal. I have entered through this  vasal
>during vaikunda ekathasi.
>
>Then  we  had  to  run  from one madapam to another as the
>floor was so hot and we were walking bare footted. We went
>to  all  the  sannithis and my dad explained about each of
>them. then We went to acharya Ramanuja  sannithi  and  the
>ommAcchi thAthA there explained about ramanuja and showed
>us his nails and eyes. My dad wanted to write  about  some
>108 songs on ramanuja in lots of  detail  and the ommAcchi
>thatha blessed.  We  went  to  chakram azwar sannithi (not
>thirumazhisai) and also saw all the azwars around. We went
>to andal , nammazawar, thirumangai and kulasekara and thirup
>-pan  sannithis also.  Then  we  saw 2 of the 8 thayars of
>ranga. Then we were shown the huge chappals  (my  dad said
>paduga) and we kept it on our head and  my  dad  told some
>secret code when we kept it on our head for some  minutes.
>Then  we went around and saw the first 3 azhwars and thiru
>mazhisai and garland azhwar.
>
>Then  we  went  inside through to the next circuit. We saw
>the two people  who  wanted  to  lie  down in the stone and
>wanted  ranga's  servants  to  stamp on them all the time.
>Then we saw the flag post. Then we crossed  the steps that
>are covered with golden like plates.  My  dad told me that
>sankara crawled over these steps  as  some  holy  ommacchi
>thaththas are staying in it and no one should step  on it.
>Then  we  went  around  and  saw  the king  and his family
>waiting  for  one  year in one place to see Ranga. Then we
>went around and saw viswaksena  and  went  into the temple
>through the special entrance.
>
>One  of  the ommacchi thathaa came and took us straight to
>Ranga  without  waiting.  We did archana. We were asked to
>stay in the sannithi for 25 minutes watching Ranga's feet.
>Lot of other people came and went and we stood there for a
>long time. I have seen Ranga with rathnangi and  mutthangi
>and he used to be very beautiful but then we see him  only
>for a little time. now when i see him for such a long time,
>he looked more beautiful and my dad never wanted  to  come
>from there. We both were chanting secret codes as we stood
>there for such a long time and saw his feet.  My  dad told
>me about the butter smell that  keep  coming always inside
>the Ranga sannithi. (Ranga as Krishna keeps eating  butter
>all  the time and even now it seems).
>
>Then  we  came out walking backwards from the sannithi. My
>dad showed me two pillars inside covered with golden plate
>and told me those pillars are in vaikundam also.  Then  my
>dad showed me 24 pillars and told about gayathri. Then  we
>had theerttham , sadari  and  came out. We did sevikkarathu
>near dwarabalakas. Then we saw the sandals of Ranga again.
>Then  we saw Ranga's dad in golden gopuram above the Ranga
>sannithi. Then we came out. I have  all the names of those
>88  sannithis  in  the  temple and the diagrams with their
>location. My  dad  told me there  are 20 more sannithis in
>and around. The temple also had a similar diagram that had
>only 65 sannithis in it. My dad told me that nobody in our
>family  could  have  gone  to  all  the  sannithis  so far
>including him. I was happy we did it.  I  want  to  gather
>more and all the informatoins about srirangam  temple  and
>store it in some place. I also read in the guinnes book of
>world records for year 2001 about srirangm. The book wrote
>"The srirangam  temple complex in  Tiruchirappalli,  Tamil
>Nadu, India  is  the  largest  Hindu  temple in the world.
>It covers an area of 156 acres with a perimeter  of  693.5
>miles". My dad told me that the entire french army  stayed
>inside the temple compound a long time ago when they  were
>fighting. It is indeed very very big temple and I want  to
>go there again and spend a lot  of  time and stay and live
>there.
>
>Sriranganathaya namaha
>Sravan Rengarajan
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
>
>
>


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