Tirupati | Csnarasimhan's Weblog

Where Logic Fails………Faith takes Over!

I had an interesting experience last week which was somewhat thought-provoking. It has to do with my trip to Tirupati. We (myself & my wife) reached Tiruchanoor, a small temple town near Tirupati on13th November. We rested overnight at my father-in-law’s place and decided to visit Tirumal on the following day which happened to be a Diwali Day. We left home by 6am sharp and reached Tirupati Town Bus stand in 15minutes to catch a bus to go uphills. As we got off the Autoriksha, my wife gave me a surprise. She said she decided to go uphills by walk. Since that was not our original plan, I protested. I said: ‘If you wish to spend your Diwali on the steps of Tirumala, so be it! I am going to take the bus, enjoy my special privilege as a senior citizen, have a quick darshan of Balaji and get back home well before lunch time’. She wasn’t quite pleased with my remark and nevertheless proceeded with her plan.

Now, guess who reached home first and at what time? Of course, myself, right? NO…. surprise of surprises, my wife reached home by 12.30pm while I reached as late as ….. 4pm!! I am not kidding. That is the fact. This is how it happened.

We parted our ways around 6.15am. I boarded a waiting bus while my wife started her walk. I reached Tirumal in 45 minutes around 7.30am. As soon as I reached, I heard an announcement over the speaker saying that the Darshan to the public on that day would begin only by 10am due to some other special pujas for the Lord on account of the festival. Nevertheless, I went to the Senior Citizen Q and decided to register my name and age proof documents. I had to stand for 2 long hours to get my turn for registration. After the long wait, they had one good look at my PAN card and pushed me out unceremoniously saying that I needed to wait for 4 more years to claim the privileges as a senior citizen. Little did I know that the Temple authorities have a different yard stick to qualify as a senior citizen. (They recognize senior citizenship only after completing 65 years of age) . Having wasted 2 hours in the wrong Q, I proceeded for 300Rs ticket around 11am and ended up standing for another 3 hours, almost till 2pm. After Darshan, I got back to Tiruchanoor around4pm for my lunch! In contrast, my wife reached uphills by 9am, finished darshan by 11am and got back by 12.30pm. My delayed return had them all worried at home.

All this is mere narration (not an explanation) of how the most illogical thing had happened! How does one react to this happening?

Here is what my rational Mind said: Oh, this is just one of those days when nothing fell in place. You had yourself to blame in standing in the wrong Q and wasting 2 hours. That was also a day on which 300Rs ticket Q (my Q) moved slower than the 50 Rs Q, which was my wife’s Q. How does one explain this? 50Rs tickets are sold for people who plan in advance and not many would plan a trip to Tirupati on a Diwali Day, after all. And Rs300 tickets are sold on the spot for the sake of people who go to the shrine without a prior plan. On that day, this crowd turned out to be much bigger, thwarting all my well-laid plans! (My wife could get into 50Rs Q as a privilege for walking uphills).

On the other hand my believing Mind said: Man proposes while God disposes saying, ‘You tried to reach me by a short-cut and even tried to influence my devotee against climbing the Hill by walk’.

The philosopher in me said: God, the almighty is perhaps sending a message: You can’t reach Me by logic nor by spending money. You can experience Me by emptying your Mind by pure devotion alone, reflecting the famous Upanishadic lines: YATO VAACHO NIVARTANTE APRAAPYA MANASA SAH……

Published in:

Personal Anecdotes

on November 25, 2012 at 12:46 pm Comments (1)
Tags: Faith, logic, rational, Tirumala, Tirupati

After the Ecstasy the Laundry!

I have borrowed the title for my post from the Book authored by Jack Kornfield (with the same title), who is a popular Budhist teacher in the US. This title best describes our recent week-long tour to Ahobilam and Tirupati/ Tiruchanoor and return to Mumbai.

We (myself & my wife) had an incredibly fantastic tour to the above places of worship. There are several commonalities between the two places AHOBILAM & TIRUPATI. Both are hill stations and therefore offer great opportunities for exploring & enjoying the beauty of nature. A major difference, though, is that one doesn’t see crowds in Ahobilam since it is not so well- known like Tirupati. So, expectedly, one doesn’t find well developed infrastructure like roads, electricity or even comfortable places to stay. On the positive side, less crowd implies cleaner environment ( no unsightly plastic bags or bottles!) and ‘no roads’ translates to wonderful trekking experience! Let me give a brief account of our experiences.

Day1: Left Mumbai by Chennai Super fast express

Day2 Afternoon: Reached Kadapa – a district notorious for Maoist Naxalites hideouts. The place is also well-known for beautiful Kadapa Stones used as kitchen platforms. Drove to Ahobilam which is about 2 hours away. This is the foot of the Hill that we were to climb the following day. Reached by 5 pm and relaxed after visiting a local temple. Stayed in the Mutt Guest House, which had all the basic amenities.

Day3: This was the best part of our experience. We had a sumptuous breakfast provided at the Guest House(Pongal – Gotsu) and left for trekking. Trekking was a great experience. Most of the path was rocky. It was not too steep but steep enough to present a pleasant challenge for inexperienced climbers like us. In many places, we had to wade through cool & pleasant waters flowing down our path from several natural falls and streams. The climate was just right as it rained heavily only a few days before our visit, thanks to the cyclone NILAM. We were just plain lucky to have chosen such a time for our tour. The best part of our trekking was just before we reached the Jwaala Narasimhar temple, which is situated on a cliff. The approach to the temple was through a narrow path with a natural overhead fine shower spread over 2 metre’s length(see the picture below). Since the path was narrow, there was no way anyone could escape getting wet. In any case we were told it is mandatory to walk right under the holy shower. It’s holiness arises from the fact that it originates straight from the holy UGRA STHAMBHAM , a pillar at a higher altitude above us. According to our mythology, that was the pillar from which Lord Narasimha made His appearance (AVATAR) to kill the Demon Hiranyakasipu.

After we had the Darshan of Jwala Narasimha, we were treated with a deliciously refreshing cool drink prepared using the naturally pure mineral water mixed with jaggery and spiced with lemon and Ginger( This drink is known as PANAGAM in Tamil). That was exactly what we needed at that time to continue with our trekking. Then we started our climb down to visit the other 8 temples of Narasimha. Except the temple of MALOLAN, all other temples were easy to reach. Two temples of Narasimha are located deep inside the forest (one is about 25km & the other is 3 km inside) with virtually no approach road. We took a jeep to travel the distance. The journey was very scary as our jeep tilted almost 60 to 70 degrees at some points and yet defied gravity! We were simply lucky that it didn’t end as a misadventure! That was the only part of the journey which I didn’t enjoy at all. In fact it was too scary to enjoy!

Ahobilam trip (barring the Jeep drive into the forest) is a perfect example of mixing pleasure with pilgrimage.

Day 4 & 5: We drove back to Kadapa and took a bus to Tirupati. We stayed at Tiruchanoor to witness Goddess Padmavathi ‘utsavam'(PANCHAMI TEERTHAM). This is an annual event very well organized by TTD. Everything about the festival is grand and royal. The high point of these utsavams are the daily processions of the deity around the temple-town in the mornings as well as the evenings. The deity is dressed and decorated beautifully with rich jewelry and specially chosen dresses. The procession is led by a well decorated temple elephant (this year the elephant was spared of this duty thanks to Diwali crackers), several group dancers, bhajan singers, highly rhythmic & loud kerala drums, a team playing classical music on saxaphone, ‘Goshtis’ chanting Tamil ‘Prabandham’, Nadaswaram ‘vidwaans’ playing enchanting tunes of carnatic music etc. When one crosses all this paraphernalia, one will finally have a glimpse of the Goddess Padmavathi sitting royally on a pedestal( traditionally called a ‘vahanam’) blessing devotees. It’s a grand spectacle to watch as religion, music, dance and several other aspects of our culture are on display in one place. The procession befittingly ends with vedic scholars chanting vedas beautifully as if to emphasize that we are after all part of the great, ancient vedic culture.

It’s a great experience to be part of this entire celebration. Being a keen follower of carnatic music, I kept company with the Nadaswaram vidwans throughout the procession. The ‘vidwans’ are none other than the grandsons of the well-known maestro Sheikh Chinna Maulna Saheb. They are not merely the chip of the old block – but the old block itself! I had the privillege of asking them to play a few songs of my choice and they obliged happily.

Day 6 &7: We left Tirupati by train and got back to Mumbai. Entire Tour lasting for a week was like an ecstatic dream. From that ecstasy, we are now back in Mumbai, slowly getting back to our daily grind and attending to mundane jobs like cleaning up the house, cooking, shopping and most importantly the laundry!

Here are a few pictures of Ahobilam trekking: