11-Dec-2010:
Yesterday, Friday, the 10-Dec-2010 was an auspicious day - Shravana, panchami thithi, Thiruvonam Nakshatra, Sukhla Paksha - was the earmarked date by Sri Guru Rayar for doing an auspicious minimal pooja for Sthapathi to start his work on the site. A small puja was done on the site by Sthapathi himself before the Rahu Kalam started at 10:30AM. The initial work will start off on having the Moola sthanam done after which the artha mandapam will be constructed. Once these are completed, then finally the maha mandapam construction will be taken up. All the plans for each of these have already been posted in earlier blog posts. As mentioned before, this place will be one of the very few mrithika brindavanams for Sri Guru Rayar following the pancharatra agama sastra.
As a major support initiative towards the fund raising for the construction of this divine project, the famous Carnatic musicians - Bombay Sisters (Smt. Saroja and Smt. Lalitha) were very kind enough and spontaneously agreed to give a concert for this project in Narada Gana Sabha on Saturday 26-Feb-2011. The tickets for this event are going to be available starting from first week of January '2011. Please spread the message around and block your tickets also now by sending an email.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
http://gururayar.wordpress.com
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Foundation for the priest residential area completed!!!
@4-Dec-10
By the grace of Sri Hari, Vayu and Sri Guru Raghavendra, the foundation portion of the temple office, madapalli (kitchen), go shala and the residential places for priests and office bearers have been completed. A small video footage of the completed part taken on the project site is available at the following URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m97AxwBJCxU
NOTE ON THE VIDEO:
This footage starts off with the foundation part for the temple madapalli, office and the gho- shala and then moves towards the left a little where you see the foundation for the residential areas that is being constructed for the temple priests and office bearers. Taking into account the location of the place where this divine project is coming up, it would be not possible for archakas to come in from some place like Kanchipuram and then do the nithya kainkaryas. So, it has been decided that some basic accommodations are made available to the archakas which will emable them to stay there itself and take care of the daily kainkaryas to all the deities.
The video footage ends with a slightly distant shot of how these up coming structures look like from a distance.
END NOTE
When I visited the site today to check out the progress and capture this video, some how started feeling a little elated that a site that was a barren agriculture land till a few months back and only with a dream of seeing a divine temple there, is slowly getting built and is taking shape. A lot of people are contributing to make this happen - either monetarily or by providing physical help or by providing moral support or by simple plain encouragement. I am sure that all of these souls have been specially earmarked by Sri Guru Rayar before hand - just like HE has earmarked us with this great enormous task as the people with primary responsibility to make HIM seat there.... At the same time, it sounds a little ironical when people with tall claims and build up on email/phone, just refuse to carry forward their commitments that they had promised earlier and also with no follow ups given or return of calls. It is all the more surprising that these people were highly educated 'professionals' - but then this is possibly a lesson for us that has been given by HIM to show that materialistic growth has absolutely NO relation to spiritualistic growth - a fact that HE has been continuously highlighting with different incidents and telling his devotees personally when HE was going to different places before entering his brindavanam. All these incidents are available for mere mortal souls like us as part of 'Raghavendra Vijayam' book which was given the seal of approval by HIM personally as a complete authentic work detailing his life.
While this was an 'eye-opener' experience of one kind, I would like to sign off this blog post with a very touching incident of the other extreme that happened around a week or 10 days back... I was driving down to home after seeing a prospective customer and negotiating the Chennai city traffic during the peak hour. A lot of thoughts were going on in my mind in parallel - about the meeting with the prospect that I had just completed, as well as the developments on the project site and arranging for the finances... Just then, my mobile phone started ringing and I didn't want to take the call as I was driving the car and negotiating the traffic... I just ignored the call and left it. As soon as the first call was over, the mobile started ringing from the same number and again the third time... This time, with a little concern that someone seemed to be desperately needing to reach me, I just parked a car in the safe place and attended the call.... At the other end of the line, there was a very old man speaking... Going by the trembling in the voice, I would easily guess that he should be somewhere around 80+ years in age. He had heard about this project from an advertisement in the TV and wanted to contribute in his own way. These were the exact words that he spoke: "I am an old retired person who might not be able to contribute to what you would require for completing this big task that you have undertaken for Guru Rayar... But I am sure that if 10 such retired persons like me give you Rs.100 each, it will take some miniscule load from your end. Hope you will accept this without any rejection and give us some satisfaction at this stage of the life of having also participated in this kind of activity". After hearing his words, I just involuntarily closed my eyes and just thought that there are so many such folks still existing who wants to do their own bit - I was reminded about a small story of the squirrel in Ramayanam which helped Sri Rama's army to build the Sethu bridge by rolling on the mud and depositing the mud from its body in another place.... And very promptly, the very NEXT day, the money order of Rs.100 came from this old gentleman... I just prayed to Guru Rayar to increase our mental strength and resolve in this project to complete it - if not for anything at least to live up to expectations and belief of these kind of people...
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
By the grace of Sri Hari, Vayu and Sri Guru Raghavendra, the foundation portion of the temple office, madapalli (kitchen), go shala and the residential places for priests and office bearers have been completed. A small video footage of the completed part taken on the project site is available at the following URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m97AxwBJCxU
NOTE ON THE VIDEO:
This footage starts off with the foundation part for the temple madapalli, office and the gho- shala and then moves towards the left a little where you see the foundation for the residential areas that is being constructed for the temple priests and office bearers. Taking into account the location of the place where this divine project is coming up, it would be not possible for archakas to come in from some place like Kanchipuram and then do the nithya kainkaryas. So, it has been decided that some basic accommodations are made available to the archakas which will emable them to stay there itself and take care of the daily kainkaryas to all the deities.
The video footage ends with a slightly distant shot of how these up coming structures look like from a distance.
END NOTE
When I visited the site today to check out the progress and capture this video, some how started feeling a little elated that a site that was a barren agriculture land till a few months back and only with a dream of seeing a divine temple there, is slowly getting built and is taking shape. A lot of people are contributing to make this happen - either monetarily or by providing physical help or by providing moral support or by simple plain encouragement. I am sure that all of these souls have been specially earmarked by Sri Guru Rayar before hand - just like HE has earmarked us with this great enormous task as the people with primary responsibility to make HIM seat there.... At the same time, it sounds a little ironical when people with tall claims and build up on email/phone, just refuse to carry forward their commitments that they had promised earlier and also with no follow ups given or return of calls. It is all the more surprising that these people were highly educated 'professionals' - but then this is possibly a lesson for us that has been given by HIM to show that materialistic growth has absolutely NO relation to spiritualistic growth - a fact that HE has been continuously highlighting with different incidents and telling his devotees personally when HE was going to different places before entering his brindavanam. All these incidents are available for mere mortal souls like us as part of 'Raghavendra Vijayam' book which was given the seal of approval by HIM personally as a complete authentic work detailing his life.
While this was an 'eye-opener' experience of one kind, I would like to sign off this blog post with a very touching incident of the other extreme that happened around a week or 10 days back... I was driving down to home after seeing a prospective customer and negotiating the Chennai city traffic during the peak hour. A lot of thoughts were going on in my mind in parallel - about the meeting with the prospect that I had just completed, as well as the developments on the project site and arranging for the finances... Just then, my mobile phone started ringing and I didn't want to take the call as I was driving the car and negotiating the traffic... I just ignored the call and left it. As soon as the first call was over, the mobile started ringing from the same number and again the third time... This time, with a little concern that someone seemed to be desperately needing to reach me, I just parked a car in the safe place and attended the call.... At the other end of the line, there was a very old man speaking... Going by the trembling in the voice, I would easily guess that he should be somewhere around 80+ years in age. He had heard about this project from an advertisement in the TV and wanted to contribute in his own way. These were the exact words that he spoke: "I am an old retired person who might not be able to contribute to what you would require for completing this big task that you have undertaken for Guru Rayar... But I am sure that if 10 such retired persons like me give you Rs.100 each, it will take some miniscule load from your end. Hope you will accept this without any rejection and give us some satisfaction at this stage of the life of having also participated in this kind of activity". After hearing his words, I just involuntarily closed my eyes and just thought that there are so many such folks still existing who wants to do their own bit - I was reminded about a small story of the squirrel in Ramayanam which helped Sri Rama's army to build the Sethu bridge by rolling on the mud and depositing the mud from its body in another place.... And very promptly, the very NEXT day, the money order of Rs.100 came from this old gentleman... I just prayed to Guru Rayar to increase our mental strength and resolve in this project to complete it - if not for anything at least to live up to expectations and belief of these kind of people...
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Monday, November 22, 2010
Pile foundation for the temple area completed!!!!
@21-Nov-2010
By the grace of Sri Hari, Vayu and our Guru Rayar, another small but very important milestone has been reached - the construction of the pile foundation for the temple sanctum sanctorum is complete and a small video footage is available at the below mentioned URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn80sMKzKso
NOTE ON THE VIDEO FOOTAGE:
This video footage starts with the pile foundation portion of the main sanctum sanctorum, then takes you towards the foundation portion for the artha mandapam and the maha mandapam - all as per the pancharatra agama sastra. After the side view of the foundation is presented, you see the current foundation structure being built (This is currently ongoing) for the residential area of the archakas and the office bearers at the rear side. After this portion, you see the front view in close quarters the pile foundation structure of the temple area (including the separate foundation structure for Garudar sannidhi in the front)
Braving the monsoon rains in this area now and with the divine grace, the workers battled it out and completed the activity for reaching this milestone...
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
By the grace of Sri Hari, Vayu and our Guru Rayar, another small but very important milestone has been reached - the construction of the pile foundation for the temple sanctum sanctorum is complete and a small video footage is available at the below mentioned URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn80sMKzKso
NOTE ON THE VIDEO FOOTAGE:
This video footage starts with the pile foundation portion of the main sanctum sanctorum, then takes you towards the foundation portion for the artha mandapam and the maha mandapam - all as per the pancharatra agama sastra. After the side view of the foundation is presented, you see the current foundation structure being built (This is currently ongoing) for the residential area of the archakas and the office bearers at the rear side. After this portion, you see the front view in close quarters the pile foundation structure of the temple area (including the separate foundation structure for Garudar sannidhi in the front)
Braving the monsoon rains in this area now and with the divine grace, the workers battled it out and completed the activity for reaching this milestone...
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Mantralayam visit last weekend!!!
We had reserved for leaving for Mantralayam on the night of Deepavali (Nov 05). The original thought was that it would not be too much crowded for darshan owing to Deepavali and hence we can have a good darshan the weekend. Unfortunately, all the tickets didnt get confirmed and since there was only one berth that got confirmed, I left alone for the trip.
This trip was a very memorable experience in the kind of darshan that I had in MALM since the grace was more to pin me very close to vayu putra sannidi. Events and a lot of people in the temple were giving me directions to be closer to Vayu putra sannidhi for a maximum amount of time during this trip.
On the Saturday afternoon had been to bichalaya. Since the roads were in a bad condition, we took a parisal to cross the Tungabadra river and then took an auto to visit the brindavanam there. Felt a little sad to see that Appanacharya's house was in a demolition mode currently. Because of the road conditions for the entire stretch, we reached late again while coming back to MALM on the banks of Tungabadra and it got dark. While some of the other visitors started getting fear on sitting in the parisal for crossing the Tungabadra river on account of the darkness, some how my mind continued to be in a relaxed manner just trying to sync in the feeling inside me that it was the same river and possibly the same spot from which Appanacharya crossed back to Mantralayam in year 1671 singing the famous Guru Rayar stotra - just for the benefit of all of us mere mortal souls....
Next day morning took Tungabadra river snana at around 4AM and did the daily anushtanas. I was also very happy since this time I got a chance to participate in doing the kainkarya of cutting the bananas for the panchamritha abisheka of Vayu putra, Guru Rayar and Vadeendrar brindavanams. HIS grace also made me participate in the honey abhisheka for Hanuman before the panchamrutha abhisheka. After the abhisheka was over, alankara was done followed by a chance for me to view the archana also. After the archana, I was overjoyed when a flower fell all the way from the top of the brindavanam when I was praying with open hands to HIM to shower HIS grace on us. I was thrilled and overjoyed with this sign of blessing from HIM and as per an earlier advice that I had learnt from a very learned person, gave some amount to the aachar near the brindavanam as well as put some amount in the hastodaka hundi kept there.
After having multiple darshans and pradakshina, I was also graced to see the maha mangalarthi and left mantralayam after having the theertha prasadam. Overall, owing to the extreme divine grace and blessings from Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar, Vayu putra hanuman and our Guru Rayar, I returned back to Chennai on 08-Nov morning with a lot of peace and satisfaction. It was a different matter that the return ticket was not confirmed and I had to come standing or seated on the edge of the seat except for the last 4 hours out of a total of 12 hours train journey... But the thrill and satisfaction of having been graced in this manner by HIM, far outweighed the physical pains of this return journey back to home!!!!
Sarvam Sri Krishnar panamastu
This trip was a very memorable experience in the kind of darshan that I had in MALM since the grace was more to pin me very close to vayu putra sannidi. Events and a lot of people in the temple were giving me directions to be closer to Vayu putra sannidhi for a maximum amount of time during this trip.
On the Saturday afternoon had been to bichalaya. Since the roads were in a bad condition, we took a parisal to cross the Tungabadra river and then took an auto to visit the brindavanam there. Felt a little sad to see that Appanacharya's house was in a demolition mode currently. Because of the road conditions for the entire stretch, we reached late again while coming back to MALM on the banks of Tungabadra and it got dark. While some of the other visitors started getting fear on sitting in the parisal for crossing the Tungabadra river on account of the darkness, some how my mind continued to be in a relaxed manner just trying to sync in the feeling inside me that it was the same river and possibly the same spot from which Appanacharya crossed back to Mantralayam in year 1671 singing the famous Guru Rayar stotra - just for the benefit of all of us mere mortal souls....
Next day morning took Tungabadra river snana at around 4AM and did the daily anushtanas. I was also very happy since this time I got a chance to participate in doing the kainkarya of cutting the bananas for the panchamritha abisheka of Vayu putra, Guru Rayar and Vadeendrar brindavanams. HIS grace also made me participate in the honey abhisheka for Hanuman before the panchamrutha abhisheka. After the abhisheka was over, alankara was done followed by a chance for me to view the archana also. After the archana, I was overjoyed when a flower fell all the way from the top of the brindavanam when I was praying with open hands to HIM to shower HIS grace on us. I was thrilled and overjoyed with this sign of blessing from HIM and as per an earlier advice that I had learnt from a very learned person, gave some amount to the aachar near the brindavanam as well as put some amount in the hastodaka hundi kept there.
After having multiple darshans and pradakshina, I was also graced to see the maha mangalarthi and left mantralayam after having the theertha prasadam. Overall, owing to the extreme divine grace and blessings from Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar, Vayu putra hanuman and our Guru Rayar, I returned back to Chennai on 08-Nov morning with a lot of peace and satisfaction. It was a different matter that the return ticket was not confirmed and I had to come standing or seated on the edge of the seat except for the last 4 hours out of a total of 12 hours train journey... But the thrill and satisfaction of having been graced in this manner by HIM, far outweighed the physical pains of this return journey back to home!!!!
Sarvam Sri Krishnar panamastu
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Pile foundation for temple portion!!!
@3-Nov-10:
Happy Deepavali wishes to all visitors to this blog! Let Sri Guru Raghavendra antargata Mukya Prana antargata Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar bless us and lead us the right path in the coming days ahead!
During the last week, in spite of the monsoon rains picking up momentum in Tamil Nadu, major amount of work in laying the pile foundation for the temple sanctum sanctorum and the mandapam were constructed. The remaining small portion of this foundation work is expected to get completed in the early part of the coming week. Also parallely, the column laying work of the priest residences have been completed in the past week.
The following small video footage captures the view of the project site as it is existing currently. This amateurish footage starts with the recording of the column work done for the priests residence portion, moves over to the right and shows the column work done for the temple office, madapalli and go shala(which was already shown in the last video update in this blog) and then you can view the current pile foundation done for the temple work at the last part of this shoot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzYeUa9ad9o
During the course of last week, some corporates were also approached in the real estate business - more specifically cement and steel companies. Till date, by the grace of Sri Guru Raghavendra, the cement company Madras Cements have kindly agreed to provide the cement requirement at a subsidised rate for this project. We hope that by HIS grace, other corporates also follow suit to participate in this project and seek the blessings of Sri Guru Raghavendra, Mukya prana Hanuman and Sarvottam Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Happy Deepavali wishes to all visitors to this blog! Let Sri Guru Raghavendra antargata Mukya Prana antargata Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar bless us and lead us the right path in the coming days ahead!
During the last week, in spite of the monsoon rains picking up momentum in Tamil Nadu, major amount of work in laying the pile foundation for the temple sanctum sanctorum and the mandapam were constructed. The remaining small portion of this foundation work is expected to get completed in the early part of the coming week. Also parallely, the column laying work of the priest residences have been completed in the past week.
The following small video footage captures the view of the project site as it is existing currently. This amateurish footage starts with the recording of the column work done for the priests residence portion, moves over to the right and shows the column work done for the temple office, madapalli and go shala(which was already shown in the last video update in this blog) and then you can view the current pile foundation done for the temple work at the last part of this shoot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzYeUa9ad9o
During the course of last week, some corporates were also approached in the real estate business - more specifically cement and steel companies. Till date, by the grace of Sri Guru Raghavendra, the cement company Madras Cements have kindly agreed to provide the cement requirement at a subsidised rate for this project. We hope that by HIS grace, other corporates also follow suit to participate in this project and seek the blessings of Sri Guru Raghavendra, Mukya prana Hanuman and Sarvottam Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Foundation for temple area work started!!!!
@20-Oct-2010:
The last few weeks progress has been a little slow owing to the frequent rains that we were experiencing as well as owing to the Ayudha Pooja holidays that was there. The issue that we were facing earlier about the trucks carrying the materials getting stuck in the slushy roads seems to have been resolved now by having around 15 loads of a specific type of mud (with stones) laid on the mud road. This has helped us to mitigate the problem of materials not being able to reach the site. This is another of the issues that rose its head which got solved by the grace of Sri Guru Raghavendrar. This became a very critical roadblock - the materials were not able to be delivered in the site which led to more delays in the work to get completed in phases.... At the same time that this was happening on the site, a lot of personal hardships came in one after the other only to for each of them to get resolved automatically in a few days.... We took all these events as a test of our resolve which was given to us for seeing how resolute we are in our intention to continue on this activity. Again as always, after giving us the 'test', HE also did the 'invigilation duty' to guide us and ensured that we 'passed the test' at a minimum even if not with 'flying colors'!!!!
The marking for the foundation for the temple has been laid down with the foundation work currently going on. A small video of the markings that has been made for the foundation of the main temple is available at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ErAg9W8-X8
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
The last few weeks progress has been a little slow owing to the frequent rains that we were experiencing as well as owing to the Ayudha Pooja holidays that was there. The issue that we were facing earlier about the trucks carrying the materials getting stuck in the slushy roads seems to have been resolved now by having around 15 loads of a specific type of mud (with stones) laid on the mud road. This has helped us to mitigate the problem of materials not being able to reach the site. This is another of the issues that rose its head which got solved by the grace of Sri Guru Raghavendrar. This became a very critical roadblock - the materials were not able to be delivered in the site which led to more delays in the work to get completed in phases.... At the same time that this was happening on the site, a lot of personal hardships came in one after the other only to for each of them to get resolved automatically in a few days.... We took all these events as a test of our resolve which was given to us for seeing how resolute we are in our intention to continue on this activity. Again as always, after giving us the 'test', HE also did the 'invigilation duty' to guide us and ensured that we 'passed the test' at a minimum even if not with 'flying colors'!!!!
The marking for the foundation for the temple has been laid down with the foundation work currently going on. A small video of the markings that has been made for the foundation of the main temple is available at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ErAg9W8-X8
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Signs of first construction!!!
Yesterday, had been on a visit to the site since the construction was started around a week back with the initial steps getting done for laying the foundations of the rear portion of the temple area - temple goshala, office, store room, madapalli etc. as well as the workers sheds...
Last week was a little ominous one with too much of negative signs - since the fields were agricultural fields, one of the workers when cleaning was bitten by a scorpion and had to be rushed to the hospital for immediate first aid treatment, another worker had to kill a snake since it came dangerously close to him and he then cremated the killed snake, the engineer who was kind enough to volunteer his services on a honarary basis fell down from a bus unfortunately with bruises on his leg and was advised rest by doctors .... and it went on and on .... Added to all this, the continous unseasonal rains which Tamil Nadu was subjected throughout last week introduced its own problems where rework had to be done for some of the activities and the vehicles that was used for transferring the raw materials were getting stuck and going under in the slushy areas.
But, for someone who has been a regular reader of this blog would know, that Sri Guru Rayar had been showing his invisible hand in resolving much more bigger and complex issues on this project site, he obviously didn't fail in doing the same this time too. Things started to get changed this week with the rains also getting stopped things are slowly seeming to fall in place now. Most of the raw materials have landed on the site with the initial work starting on the rear end of the temple area. The current plan is to start the construction of the goshala, temple office, store room, madapalli portion along with the foundation of the main sannidanam (sanctum sanctorum) starting from next month. The workers shed has been laid and is currently getting ready for occupation by the workers working in the project.
But the most important issue that has got resolved is to set right the electric motor which just konked off last week and the water to start flowing with the maximum possible force. Water is an essential raw material ingredient for the construction and this problem was lingering in our minds for a long time and it was successfully resolved by HIS grace and guidance.
Please take a look at some of the small video images that was captured for different purposes (IMP NOTE: Please note that these were taken by a very amateurish video recorder from a mobile phone and might not look very professional. These are stored only for posterity reasons to look back after 10 or 20 years for the mental satisfaction of playing a role of a small player to see this growing from barren land to a monumental structure as an institution promoting the principles of Sri Guru Raghavendrar!)
a) Construction progress as of 20-Sep-10:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_BsAf4N3DY
b) The first flowers that has started booming on the site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0onPk9IOqs
c) The water flow increases from the newly erected electric motor on this site that would hopefully solve the water requirements of the construction purposes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZbj3jquUWs
Praying to Sri Hari, Vayu and Guru Rayar to continue their blessings on this project,
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Last week was a little ominous one with too much of negative signs - since the fields were agricultural fields, one of the workers when cleaning was bitten by a scorpion and had to be rushed to the hospital for immediate first aid treatment, another worker had to kill a snake since it came dangerously close to him and he then cremated the killed snake, the engineer who was kind enough to volunteer his services on a honarary basis fell down from a bus unfortunately with bruises on his leg and was advised rest by doctors .... and it went on and on .... Added to all this, the continous unseasonal rains which Tamil Nadu was subjected throughout last week introduced its own problems where rework had to be done for some of the activities and the vehicles that was used for transferring the raw materials were getting stuck and going under in the slushy areas.
But, for someone who has been a regular reader of this blog would know, that Sri Guru Rayar had been showing his invisible hand in resolving much more bigger and complex issues on this project site, he obviously didn't fail in doing the same this time too. Things started to get changed this week with the rains also getting stopped things are slowly seeming to fall in place now. Most of the raw materials have landed on the site with the initial work starting on the rear end of the temple area. The current plan is to start the construction of the goshala, temple office, store room, madapalli portion along with the foundation of the main sannidanam (sanctum sanctorum) starting from next month. The workers shed has been laid and is currently getting ready for occupation by the workers working in the project.
But the most important issue that has got resolved is to set right the electric motor which just konked off last week and the water to start flowing with the maximum possible force. Water is an essential raw material ingredient for the construction and this problem was lingering in our minds for a long time and it was successfully resolved by HIS grace and guidance.
Please take a look at some of the small video images that was captured for different purposes (IMP NOTE: Please note that these were taken by a very amateurish video recorder from a mobile phone and might not look very professional. These are stored only for posterity reasons to look back after 10 or 20 years for the mental satisfaction of playing a role of a small player to see this growing from barren land to a monumental structure as an institution promoting the principles of Sri Guru Raghavendrar!)
a) Construction progress as of 20-Sep-10:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_BsAf4N3DY
b) The first flowers that has started booming on the site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0onPk9IOqs
c) The water flow increases from the newly erected electric motor on this site that would hopefully solve the water requirements of the construction purposes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZbj3jquUWs
Praying to Sri Hari, Vayu and Guru Rayar to continue their blessings on this project,
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Monday, September 6, 2010
Initial vastu / boomi puja done on the project site!!!
It was Aug 22 2010 (Sunday). Heavy rains were forecasted in the entire state of Tamil Nadu during that day as well as the next 2 days owing to a formation of a low pressure area in Bay of Bengal. True to the forecast, it was raining very heavily on that day since morning without any stops.
Aug 22 was also a very auspicious day. It was the first muhurat day in the Tamil month of Avani after one full dry month of Aadi that is considered as inauspicious. It was also a 'vastu day' - a day in which it is very strongly believed that vastu wakes up by opening his eyes and Vastu is strongly associated with that of any land property. Taking into account all these, it was decided that the initial bhoomi puja for this auspicious project also should be done on that day.
Owing to the heavy rains, the start from Chennai that was scheduled for around 12:00PM got delayed by more than an hour. Also the travel time increased and the convoy of vehicles reached the site only at around 3:30PM. We quickly assembled and started the pooja since the auspicious time was only till around 4:30PM that day.
Some of the photos that were taken during the time have been captured here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gururayar2009/Raghavendra_Bhoomipooja_22Aug#
The whole event took less than an hour and it was continuously raining till the end of the event as well as when we started back from that place. We took this sign as a positive sign where the heavens have opened up completely to offer their blessings on this auspicious project.
A small aside: We might be knowing that a famous Raghavendra mrithika brindavanam in a small village called Iraya mangalam (near to Thiruvallur in Tamil Nadu). During the initial bhoomi puja for that site that was done by the previous HH of the Mantralayam Mutt, people had to experience a very strong cyclonic wind that even brought down completely the shamiana arrangements that were made in the site. HH announced that this is an approval and indication from Vayu itself that HE is blessing this project.
Similarly, one strong Rayar devotee, remarked in this site that the complete downpour of rains is symbolic of a similar such blessings for this project. While it was heavily windy in Iraya mangalam at the start of the project there, it was completely raining in Namandi village (the site of this project)
Now with HIS blessings and grace, the construction work should start off in right earnest. We request all devotees to contribute their might in kind or money to make this project a complete reality.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Aug 22 was also a very auspicious day. It was the first muhurat day in the Tamil month of Avani after one full dry month of Aadi that is considered as inauspicious. It was also a 'vastu day' - a day in which it is very strongly believed that vastu wakes up by opening his eyes and Vastu is strongly associated with that of any land property. Taking into account all these, it was decided that the initial bhoomi puja for this auspicious project also should be done on that day.
Owing to the heavy rains, the start from Chennai that was scheduled for around 12:00PM got delayed by more than an hour. Also the travel time increased and the convoy of vehicles reached the site only at around 3:30PM. We quickly assembled and started the pooja since the auspicious time was only till around 4:30PM that day.
Some of the photos that were taken during the time have been captured here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gururayar2009/Raghavendra_Bhoomipooja_22Aug#
The whole event took less than an hour and it was continuously raining till the end of the event as well as when we started back from that place. We took this sign as a positive sign where the heavens have opened up completely to offer their blessings on this auspicious project.
A small aside: We might be knowing that a famous Raghavendra mrithika brindavanam in a small village called Iraya mangalam (near to Thiruvallur in Tamil Nadu). During the initial bhoomi puja for that site that was done by the previous HH of the Mantralayam Mutt, people had to experience a very strong cyclonic wind that even brought down completely the shamiana arrangements that were made in the site. HH announced that this is an approval and indication from Vayu itself that HE is blessing this project.
Similarly, one strong Rayar devotee, remarked in this site that the complete downpour of rains is symbolic of a similar such blessings for this project. While it was heavily windy in Iraya mangalam at the start of the project there, it was completely raining in Namandi village (the site of this project)
Now with HIS blessings and grace, the construction work should start off in right earnest. We request all devotees to contribute their might in kind or money to make this project a complete reality.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Monday, July 19, 2010
Installation of electric motor with bore well!!!!
18-Jul-2010:
As mentioned previously, the problem of the existing borewell not working with the electric motor installed for drawing the water was taking too much time to be solved. We were always thinking that the reasons for such a long delay in getting this resolved will be known only best to HIM.
Today, HE possibly wanted to highlight those reasons to us!!!
Firstly, the initial bore well that was dug out in the site last year around Sep time frame was for around 250ft. on the fear that even though water was available at around 30-35 ft. what will happen if the water table receeded much below? However, after doing this digging to around 250 feet and laying the pipe, we just thought that the filter for the bore can be just dropped to just 50 feet and not to be dropped for the entire 250 ft. This proved to be the problem(?) now since the loose mud which was prevailing in that area had gone under to a height of 250 ft from around 50 ft. below the ground level. This made the pipes laid down till 250ft not removable inspite of best efforts with different types of complex machines. We realised that all these were deliberate happenings which were created by HIM for some specific reasons....
Thinking back, the reasons were very logical... The water that was getting drawn out from 250ft was a little sour and had a little salt content - just as it was expected to be from that level. However, HE seemed to be disliking that and wanted better quality water available much closer to the ground level both for the temple construction as well as to be used subsequently within temple. And lo and behold! The water quality that was coming up at this level was much superior and sweeter to taste.... And HE made sure that the 250ft. bore well that was dug out got reduced effectively to 50ft. alone to meet this objective.
Who can understand all the plays that are produced and directed by HIM in which we are all small time actors playing our individual roles!!!!
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
As mentioned previously, the problem of the existing borewell not working with the electric motor installed for drawing the water was taking too much time to be solved. We were always thinking that the reasons for such a long delay in getting this resolved will be known only best to HIM.
Today, HE possibly wanted to highlight those reasons to us!!!
Firstly, the initial bore well that was dug out in the site last year around Sep time frame was for around 250ft. on the fear that even though water was available at around 30-35 ft. what will happen if the water table receeded much below? However, after doing this digging to around 250 feet and laying the pipe, we just thought that the filter for the bore can be just dropped to just 50 feet and not to be dropped for the entire 250 ft. This proved to be the problem(?) now since the loose mud which was prevailing in that area had gone under to a height of 250 ft from around 50 ft. below the ground level. This made the pipes laid down till 250ft not removable inspite of best efforts with different types of complex machines. We realised that all these were deliberate happenings which were created by HIM for some specific reasons....
Thinking back, the reasons were very logical... The water that was getting drawn out from 250ft was a little sour and had a little salt content - just as it was expected to be from that level. However, HE seemed to be disliking that and wanted better quality water available much closer to the ground level both for the temple construction as well as to be used subsequently within temple. And lo and behold! The water quality that was coming up at this level was much superior and sweeter to taste.... And HE made sure that the 250ft. bore well that was dug out got reduced effectively to 50ft. alone to meet this objective.
Who can understand all the plays that are produced and directed by HIM in which we are all small time actors playing our individual roles!!!!
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Monday, July 5, 2010
Brindavanam site has been powered with electricity!!!
Finally, after a long wait, by HIS grace, the site of the project has been electrified with supply coming into the site today. This has been a long drawn process but would NOT be without any reason. It was a good sight to watch the electric bulb glow in the site after dark.
It was also a gratifying site to see that the plants planted a few months back have started showing signs of slowly growing up with some of them also starting to yield the flowers. while this might be a very small step in the final completion of the project, it was very satisfying to see that by HIS grace, this place is showing signs of the fertility that is required for this to complete successfully.
Some of the pictures of these has been captured below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vasan.vs/SiteUpdate01Jul10#
As one milestone gets completed, it is the start of the next challenge that has to be overcome by HIS grace. The bore well pump that was installed and getting used ran into problems when it was needed to be changed for installing the electric motor to flush the fields with water. This has gone to such an extent that the existing bore well cannot be used for this purpose but we should be digging a new one only. We are currently in the process of identifying a vendor who can do this for us before proceeding further. We cannot fathom the reasons behind this as always but maybe it is to ensure that we have a hand pump bore well still left to be used whenever there is a local electrical failure because of which electric motor cannot be used!!! We will continue to pray to HIM to guide us as always to get this problem resolved and move on to the next stage....
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
It was also a gratifying site to see that the plants planted a few months back have started showing signs of slowly growing up with some of them also starting to yield the flowers. while this might be a very small step in the final completion of the project, it was very satisfying to see that by HIS grace, this place is showing signs of the fertility that is required for this to complete successfully.
Some of the pictures of these has been captured below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vasan.vs/SiteUpdate01Jul10#
As one milestone gets completed, it is the start of the next challenge that has to be overcome by HIS grace. The bore well pump that was installed and getting used ran into problems when it was needed to be changed for installing the electric motor to flush the fields with water. This has gone to such an extent that the existing bore well cannot be used for this purpose but we should be digging a new one only. We are currently in the process of identifying a vendor who can do this for us before proceeding further. We cannot fathom the reasons behind this as always but maybe it is to ensure that we have a hand pump bore well still left to be used whenever there is a local electrical failure because of which electric motor cannot be used!!! We will continue to pray to HIM to guide us as always to get this problem resolved and move on to the next stage....
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Sanction for the construction plans received!!!!
@20-May-10
Last Thursday (13-May-10) was the amavasya day and the start of the new month - end of adhi masa as per the kannadiga calendar and start of the vaikasi masa. It was also an auspicious day being the Thursday. We were told that the construction plans that were submitted to the local panchayat body a few days back were approved and can be collected! Since was a major milestone, we were thrilled with reaching this critical phase of this project.
Also, the start of the construction activity required soil testing to be done on the site to determine what kind of foundation has to be laid. Coincidentally, after multiple weeks of follow up for that activity, it looked like it was destined to happen on the same day. By late evening on that date, the soil testing was also completed and the test reports are awaited by the end of the week. Since this was an activity being undertaken for a social cause, the owner of the firm that did the soil testing - a good samaritan - offered to do this activity free of cost except for transportation cost of the equipment to the site. Another help that was received to reduce the expenses on this project by divine grace!!!
Incidentally, we had gone to visit the Moola Brindavanam at Mantralayam at the beginning of this month on 5th and 6th and HE ensured that we were all in vantage positions for the different darshans. A case of HIS benevolence in giving us darshan can be seen in this episode: While we were seeing the morning abhisheka of the brindavanam, suddenly one of the security guards came in from the back and asked if we had seen the moola rama pooja and being told that we are not, immediately he offered to lead us by taking the permission and made us sit in the second row to have an excellent darshan of the entire Moola Rama pooja for close to 2 hours. Such was the divine grace that we were subjected to in this trip!!! The main intention of this trip to Mantralayam was to keep the property documents and the drawings as well in the moola brindavanam for taking his blessings and come back and by HIS grace, we were able to do that and complete this wish as well.
One of the small videos that we took when the mangalarthi was being performed at the moola brindavanam can be seen at the following location:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svZXSPksc-o
The next stage is to receive the working drawings from the architect and proceed with the structural drawings and then finally for the actual construction to start!!!
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Last Thursday (13-May-10) was the amavasya day and the start of the new month - end of adhi masa as per the kannadiga calendar and start of the vaikasi masa. It was also an auspicious day being the Thursday. We were told that the construction plans that were submitted to the local panchayat body a few days back were approved and can be collected! Since was a major milestone, we were thrilled with reaching this critical phase of this project.
Also, the start of the construction activity required soil testing to be done on the site to determine what kind of foundation has to be laid. Coincidentally, after multiple weeks of follow up for that activity, it looked like it was destined to happen on the same day. By late evening on that date, the soil testing was also completed and the test reports are awaited by the end of the week. Since this was an activity being undertaken for a social cause, the owner of the firm that did the soil testing - a good samaritan - offered to do this activity free of cost except for transportation cost of the equipment to the site. Another help that was received to reduce the expenses on this project by divine grace!!!
Incidentally, we had gone to visit the Moola Brindavanam at Mantralayam at the beginning of this month on 5th and 6th and HE ensured that we were all in vantage positions for the different darshans. A case of HIS benevolence in giving us darshan can be seen in this episode: While we were seeing the morning abhisheka of the brindavanam, suddenly one of the security guards came in from the back and asked if we had seen the moola rama pooja and being told that we are not, immediately he offered to lead us by taking the permission and made us sit in the second row to have an excellent darshan of the entire Moola Rama pooja for close to 2 hours. Such was the divine grace that we were subjected to in this trip!!! The main intention of this trip to Mantralayam was to keep the property documents and the drawings as well in the moola brindavanam for taking his blessings and come back and by HIS grace, we were able to do that and complete this wish as well.
One of the small videos that we took when the mangalarthi was being performed at the moola brindavanam can be seen at the following location:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svZXSPksc-o
The next stage is to receive the working drawings from the architect and proceed with the structural drawings and then finally for the actual construction to start!!!
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Approval drawings submitted!!!
@03-May-2010
Over the last 5-6 weeks, there has been multiple versions of the master plan for the site that was prepared and modified on a continuous basis. It had taken a lot of versions from where it all started to the current version.
The drawing layout of the main temple including the gho-shala is available at the following location:
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/temple-and-goshala.jpg
The drawing layout of the central hall (to be used for meditation/annadana hall/discourses etc.) and accommodation for the archakas is available at the following location:
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/central-hall-and-accomodation.jpg
The drawing layout of the accommodation for the yatrikas/seva devotees is as seen in the following location:
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/yatris-accomodation.jpg
Any comments or thoughts from the visitors to this blog site on these proposed layouts are more than welcome to add value as we all realize that this has to be a whole collective effort to build this monument....
It was originally thought that the plan can be submitted for approval on Sunday 02-May to the concerned local authorities. But it looks like our Guru Rayar had other plans and postponed it by a day which made this submission possible only on Monday 03-May (owing to the non-availability of the concerned official to receive the docs on that day). It was only after this that I was told by one well-wisher that 03-May was an excellent muhurtam day whereas 02-May was not that auspicious. It was one of those possibly infinite times that he has done things behind me in this project and guided me to the right places at the right times!!!
By the grace of Sri Hari, Vayu and Guru Rayar, the approval is expected to come in within a week's time. Also, on 04-May, planning to leave for Mantralayam with family to have all the site documents and approval drawings at HIS feet in the MOOLA BRINDAVANAM and take the blessings. By HIS grace, the trip should be an uneventful one with a lot of satisfaction of having experienced HIM at his main residence!! We will be back on 07-May to Chennai and will document the experiences of the trip then.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Over the last 5-6 weeks, there has been multiple versions of the master plan for the site that was prepared and modified on a continuous basis. It had taken a lot of versions from where it all started to the current version.
The drawing layout of the main temple including the gho-shala is available at the following location:
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/temple-and-goshala.jpg
The drawing layout of the central hall (to be used for meditation/annadana hall/discourses etc.) and accommodation for the archakas is available at the following location:
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/central-hall-and-accomodation.jpg
The drawing layout of the accommodation for the yatrikas/seva devotees is as seen in the following location:
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/yatris-accomodation.jpg
Any comments or thoughts from the visitors to this blog site on these proposed layouts are more than welcome to add value as we all realize that this has to be a whole collective effort to build this monument....
It was originally thought that the plan can be submitted for approval on Sunday 02-May to the concerned local authorities. But it looks like our Guru Rayar had other plans and postponed it by a day which made this submission possible only on Monday 03-May (owing to the non-availability of the concerned official to receive the docs on that day). It was only after this that I was told by one well-wisher that 03-May was an excellent muhurtam day whereas 02-May was not that auspicious. It was one of those possibly infinite times that he has done things behind me in this project and guided me to the right places at the right times!!!
By the grace of Sri Hari, Vayu and Guru Rayar, the approval is expected to come in within a week's time. Also, on 04-May, planning to leave for Mantralayam with family to have all the site documents and approval drawings at HIS feet in the MOOLA BRINDAVANAM and take the blessings. By HIS grace, the trip should be an uneventful one with a lot of satisfaction of having experienced HIM at his main residence!! We will be back on 07-May to Chennai and will document the experiences of the trip then.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Monday, March 15, 2010
Birds Eye view of the whole layout of different sannidhi's!!!!
@15-Mar-10
The following scanned picture gives a bird’s eye view of the complete plan – Not to scale as far as the plot layout is concerned.
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/myscan.jpg
The center portion is going to be the main sannidanam with Lakshi Nrsimhar, Hanuman and Sri Raghavendra Brindavanam followed by the ardha mandapam and maha mandapam. On your left hand side where you see the two small portions at the top and bottom portion is where the different sannidhis for Pandurangar and Rukmini for one location and Sri Ramar, Lakshmanar and Sita for the second location is being planned.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
The following scanned picture gives a bird’s eye view of the complete plan – Not to scale as far as the plot layout is concerned.
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/myscan.jpg
The center portion is going to be the main sannidanam with Lakshi Nrsimhar, Hanuman and Sri Raghavendra Brindavanam followed by the ardha mandapam and maha mandapam. On your left hand side where you see the two small portions at the top and bottom portion is where the different sannidhis for Pandurangar and Rukmini for one location and Sri Ramar, Lakshmanar and Sita for the second location is being planned.
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Steady progress during the last 10 days!!!
After the last post that I had made a couple of weeks back, things have been proceeding steadily without getting struck. Maybe it was Guru Rayar's thought that the lessons on patience has been taught enough to me for the time being!!!
After one of the architects and another engineer who was instrumental in shaping another of the mrithika brindavanams for Rayar in Chennai had given their acceptance to carry out the works, it was the turn of the sthapathi to come out with the initial sketches on the vimana, artha mandapa and maha mandapam. For this purpose, I had requested the sthapathi to come down to Sri rangam with all these details on the last Monday March 11,2010. After discussion with the acharyar and taking into account the various agama sastra rules, it was decided that it would not be appropriate to have a single sanctum sanctorum having all the deities of Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar, Anjaneya, Rayar brindavanam, Pandurangar and Ramar all in a single enclosure. So it was decided that we will split this up in to separate sanctum sanctorums. After this discussion, I had requested Sthapathi to come up with the birds eye view of the temple complex for the architect to come up with the elevation view as well as the revised estimate. After this fruitful discussion lasting for more than an hour, my host in Srirangam took me to the Ranganathar temple as well as the Sri Raghavendra mutt there. Surprisingly, there was no crowd at all in the temple and we walked straight quickly to the main sanctum to have an excellent darshan!!! I took it as one of the positive indications coming in from HIM on the changes to the structure that was discussed a couple of hours back before our visit to the temple!!!
The initial sketches to the design are provided below:
The ‘maha mandapam’ enclosure with a flight of steps on the three sides leading to the artha mandapam and sanctum sanctorum will look as in the following URL:
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/mahamandapamfront.jpg
The artha mandapam and the main vimanam would like as in the following URL. The left hand side part of this scanned picture gives a side view of the sanctum sanctorum and the ‘artha mandapam’. The right hand side of the scanned picture shows the front view of the gaja prashta vimanam that is the planned vimanam for the main sannidhi.
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sideandfrontviewofsanctum.jpg
After one of the architects and another engineer who was instrumental in shaping another of the mrithika brindavanams for Rayar in Chennai had given their acceptance to carry out the works, it was the turn of the sthapathi to come out with the initial sketches on the vimana, artha mandapa and maha mandapam. For this purpose, I had requested the sthapathi to come down to Sri rangam with all these details on the last Monday March 11,2010. After discussion with the acharyar and taking into account the various agama sastra rules, it was decided that it would not be appropriate to have a single sanctum sanctorum having all the deities of Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar, Anjaneya, Rayar brindavanam, Pandurangar and Ramar all in a single enclosure. So it was decided that we will split this up in to separate sanctum sanctorums. After this discussion, I had requested Sthapathi to come up with the birds eye view of the temple complex for the architect to come up with the elevation view as well as the revised estimate. After this fruitful discussion lasting for more than an hour, my host in Srirangam took me to the Ranganathar temple as well as the Sri Raghavendra mutt there. Surprisingly, there was no crowd at all in the temple and we walked straight quickly to the main sanctum to have an excellent darshan!!! I took it as one of the positive indications coming in from HIM on the changes to the structure that was discussed a couple of hours back before our visit to the temple!!!
The initial sketches to the design are provided below:
The ‘maha mandapam’ enclosure with a flight of steps on the three sides leading to the artha mandapam and sanctum sanctorum will look as in the following URL:
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/mahamandapamfront.jpg
The artha mandapam and the main vimanam would like as in the following URL. The left hand side part of this scanned picture gives a side view of the sanctum sanctorum and the ‘artha mandapam’. The right hand side of the scanned picture shows the front view of the gaja prashta vimanam that is the planned vimanam for the main sannidhi.
http://gururayar.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sideandfrontviewofsanctum.jpg
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Guru Rayar teaching the art of patience!!!!
Sincere pranaams to all!
Over the last few weeks, as part of the various activities in this gigantic project, I have been observing that even small activities have been getting pushed and pulled along for no reason without getting completed till very late.
Some of the examples that has continously happened over the last few weeks that has been made to write this blog item are:
a) Even a small erection of a shamiana and pandal just on the eve of the performance of initial suddhi homa on the project site could not get completed till around 11:00PM the previous night when the proposed start of the homas was around 6:00AM the next morning - This got delayed to such an extent that we had to switch on the head-lights of the car to have some light for the erection of the pandal since it was totally pitch dark otherwise in that area at that time of the night. At least, HE had given me the wisdom on that evening to decide to visit the site the previous evening without which this would not have got done for the start of the homa to happen the next day!!
b) The engineers who were initially handed over the task of coming out with a site and layout planning had to be changed at least a couple of times since they either themselves backed out or had to be changed because of their lack of response or inability. This has actually led to the gap of around 2 months of progress in this activity....
c) The meeting that was supposed to happen between the aachar and sthapathi yesterday got postponed to today - Thursday 25 Feb. When the initial postponment happened, my immediate thought was that this was going to happen on a guruvar day - today being Thursday. Again the meeting didn't happen today for various reasons and it now has got postponed to Sunday, 28Feb.
d) Parallely, the architect was supposed to come out with a proposed site plan from an external view point by last Sunday 21Feb. I was happy that this initial version was going to be coming out on Guru Rayar's nakshatra date in this year which fell on 21Feb. But this in turn was postponed to today on Sunday. Again today, this has been the second disappointment and at the end of day now, I dont have a clue on when I am going to get this initial version.....
All these events that has been happening over the last 1 month, has made me thinking to whatever little capacity of my thought process on what the reasons could be!!! While on some times, as we are all normal mortal beings, frustration is at the peak on even these small things get delayed. While at some other times, mind becomes mature that these are tests that are coming our way from HIM to see if these tests pass our resoluteness in doing our part to see this through!! As the elders and learned acharyas say, when things are bound to happen in a certain way at some point in time, it WILL happen in that way come what may!!
At other times, I have also realized that these are possible events introduced by our Rayar on this project that helps me to build up my patience limit continuously - to ensure that these patience limits goes into my sub-conscious level for the rest of my remaining life in my other personal / official activities. I have always been an person with an expectation to get things done quickly and I sometimes feel that this is Guru Rayar's own way of teaching me to be patient and making it as one of my habits for the rest of my life!!! This would add one up to the already countless such instances that HE has guided me in an invisible manner for the past more than 20 years....
I continue to pray to HIM on a daily basis to give me the resoluteness that HE is testing me for so that I will pass HIS test!! As continued well wishers, I request you all to include this request in your prayers to HIM for removing the obstacles coming in the way of taking further steps in this project....
Sarvam Sri Krishnar panamastu....
Over the last few weeks, as part of the various activities in this gigantic project, I have been observing that even small activities have been getting pushed and pulled along for no reason without getting completed till very late.
Some of the examples that has continously happened over the last few weeks that has been made to write this blog item are:
a) Even a small erection of a shamiana and pandal just on the eve of the performance of initial suddhi homa on the project site could not get completed till around 11:00PM the previous night when the proposed start of the homas was around 6:00AM the next morning - This got delayed to such an extent that we had to switch on the head-lights of the car to have some light for the erection of the pandal since it was totally pitch dark otherwise in that area at that time of the night. At least, HE had given me the wisdom on that evening to decide to visit the site the previous evening without which this would not have got done for the start of the homa to happen the next day!!
b) The engineers who were initially handed over the task of coming out with a site and layout planning had to be changed at least a couple of times since they either themselves backed out or had to be changed because of their lack of response or inability. This has actually led to the gap of around 2 months of progress in this activity....
c) The meeting that was supposed to happen between the aachar and sthapathi yesterday got postponed to today - Thursday 25 Feb. When the initial postponment happened, my immediate thought was that this was going to happen on a guruvar day - today being Thursday. Again the meeting didn't happen today for various reasons and it now has got postponed to Sunday, 28Feb.
d) Parallely, the architect was supposed to come out with a proposed site plan from an external view point by last Sunday 21Feb. I was happy that this initial version was going to be coming out on Guru Rayar's nakshatra date in this year which fell on 21Feb. But this in turn was postponed to today on Sunday. Again today, this has been the second disappointment and at the end of day now, I dont have a clue on when I am going to get this initial version.....
All these events that has been happening over the last 1 month, has made me thinking to whatever little capacity of my thought process on what the reasons could be!!! While on some times, as we are all normal mortal beings, frustration is at the peak on even these small things get delayed. While at some other times, mind becomes mature that these are tests that are coming our way from HIM to see if these tests pass our resoluteness in doing our part to see this through!! As the elders and learned acharyas say, when things are bound to happen in a certain way at some point in time, it WILL happen in that way come what may!!
At other times, I have also realized that these are possible events introduced by our Rayar on this project that helps me to build up my patience limit continuously - to ensure that these patience limits goes into my sub-conscious level for the rest of my remaining life in my other personal / official activities. I have always been an person with an expectation to get things done quickly and I sometimes feel that this is Guru Rayar's own way of teaching me to be patient and making it as one of my habits for the rest of my life!!! This would add one up to the already countless such instances that HE has guided me in an invisible manner for the past more than 20 years....
I continue to pray to HIM on a daily basis to give me the resoluteness that HE is testing me for so that I will pass HIS test!! As continued well wishers, I request you all to include this request in your prayers to HIM for removing the obstacles coming in the way of taking further steps in this project....
Sarvam Sri Krishnar panamastu....
Monday, February 8, 2010
Initial homa done on the temple site!!
Friday, Feb 05, 2010 was an important date and a critical milestone on the development of this project. Achar had suggested that some initial homas and poojas are better to be done on this site to suddhify ('purify') the place before the actual construction begins. In this regard, it was suggested that we do the ganapathi homa, sudarshan homa, srisuktham and purusha suktham homa, manyu suktha homa along with hari vayu stuthi punascharana.
The main significance of manyu suktha homa is to purify the place with the offerings to Lord Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha. It is said that Bheema (who was a Vayu avatar) in Mahabharat war after killing Dushasana, took his blood in his both hands, and offered to Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha by reciting this 'Manyu Sukhtha Homa' - which helped to purify the complete place.
Hari vayu sthuthi is the rendering of a great pandit and one of the favorite sishyas of Madhavacharyar called Trivikrama panditar - after he had a divine vision of Sri Madhvacharyar and his previous avatars of Hanuman and Bheema. Trivikrama saw all the three avatars of Madhvacharyar together - each of them offering puja to their deities - Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and as Madhvacharya offering puja to 'Sri Veda Vyasar'
We started very early in the morning from Chennai at around 3:30AM and after reaching the place, the events went on till around 10:00AM in the morning for all these to be completed...
Some of the excerpts of the program can be found in the following youtube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoCLjELnZ6s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxXV14ETNis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hZUH8fPRNA
It was a great and a satisfying experience at the end of the day to have these initial homas completed in the site successfully which would have been possibly only by HIS grace.
We are anxiously looking forward to what HE has decided as the next important activity that he is going to guide us to in this herculean task!!
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
The main significance of manyu suktha homa is to purify the place with the offerings to Lord Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha. It is said that Bheema (who was a Vayu avatar) in Mahabharat war after killing Dushasana, took his blood in his both hands, and offered to Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha by reciting this 'Manyu Sukhtha Homa' - which helped to purify the complete place.
Hari vayu sthuthi is the rendering of a great pandit and one of the favorite sishyas of Madhavacharyar called Trivikrama panditar - after he had a divine vision of Sri Madhvacharyar and his previous avatars of Hanuman and Bheema. Trivikrama saw all the three avatars of Madhvacharyar together - each of them offering puja to their deities - Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and as Madhvacharya offering puja to 'Sri Veda Vyasar'
We started very early in the morning from Chennai at around 3:30AM and after reaching the place, the events went on till around 10:00AM in the morning for all these to be completed...
Some of the excerpts of the program can be found in the following youtube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoCLjELnZ6s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxXV14ETNis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hZUH8fPRNA
It was a great and a satisfying experience at the end of the day to have these initial homas completed in the site successfully which would have been possibly only by HIS grace.
We are anxiously looking forward to what HE has decided as the next important activity that he is going to guide us to in this herculean task!!
Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu
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