Hmmm it is quite some time since I wrote (spelt as s-c-r-i-b-b-l-e-d) something. In a way to end the year 2008 in a very pleasing way, I went to two religious places with family. Yeah… I know its not like me to go out with family… but I did. Wanted to pen a few things about the trips… a long one.. beware :)
Trip 1: An “on an impulse” visit to Puttaparthi with mom.
It was around 8am on 20th Dec… a sunny Saturday and I had all the possible excuses and reasons to stay home and laze around. But mom had this feeling of visiting Puttaparthi after watching the Sathya Narayana Pooja telecast from Prashanthi Nilaya. And as a good daughter (that I am not), I decided to take her to Puttaparthi for the evening darshan of Sathya Sai. I told her clearly… we are to return back the same day since we did not know anyone there nor did we know the place. But as always, I was the first person to pack an overnight kit minus the essentials (soap, tooth brush & paste). I enquired around and made sure that Sai was in Puttaparthi and started our trip. Reached Majestic Bus Terminal at around 12:30pm which meant we won’t be able to return the same night. Again, we were enlightened with the information that the 1pm bus was not available that day and had to take the 3pm bus.
I really want to share a small episode that happened in the bus station. The bus to Parthi came at around 2.30pm. After boarding the bus, I asked mom to stay put and went to rest room. Just as I came out, I noticed a young girl (Rathna) crying a lot. The keepers of the rest room were talking to her. Being a person who does not trust anyone, I assumed they were abusing her and spoke to her. She told me shes from another town which was 3hrs away from Blore and she had ran away from home since her parents scolded her often and that she didn’t know what to do next. She was crying so much that a small crowd encircled us to watch the drama but not many to help. A guy in the crowd was a little too generous. After much coaxing and advising, Rathna agreed to go back home and got her relative’s phone number. The generous guy waited until I spoke to the relative in my broken Kannada and Ratha finished her story to the relative. Finally the relative assured to come and take the girl back home. In fact the guy (in the crowd) took out 200-300rs and asked her to go back. May be his intentions were good… but the way he kept touching the gal’s hand to offer money didn’t look very appeasing. Finally, I had to leave the girl with the care takers there and had to go on the way to Puttaparthi.
While all this was happening, another thing happened in the bus in which mom was waiting. A very humble looking lady seems to have spoken to mom in Tamil about the seats. They picked a conversation and both looked pleased when I came to the bus. It seems that aunty (Lakshmi) is a resident of Puttaparthi and is a staff at Prashanthi Nilaya. She offered to take us to her home to refresh and on reaching there, she also arranged for our stay there with her a boarding house just next to hers. Since it was very cold, she even woke up early to get us hot water for our baths the next day. Though she did not come along, she helped us with all the needed details to have a very pleasant and memorable 2 days visit to Puttaparthi. In fact, we were even happier since our trip was complete after the morning darshan of Sai.
These two incidents made me realize “What goes around, comes around”. I felt the need to help the girl Rathna and it came back to us in the form of Lakshmi aunty. Don’t you all think so?
Trip 2: A not-so-well planned visit to Manthralayam with relatives.
(I started writing this blog during the first week of Jan 2009 and am trying to finish it today. Many thoughts, memories and opinions that were flooding my mind then have trickled down a lot. I still continue to write about this trip to remind myself details about it.)
Dec 28th, 2008 – The last trip for the year - to Manthralayam with 11 relatives, inclusive of my parents. My uncle (dad’s cousin) told me that we will reach Manthralayam the same night at 11pm. That’s 13hrs from Coimbatore, my home town. If I had travelled that long in a flight, I might as well have reached US of A, taking the shortest route. But I was all ready to visit Ragavendra Swami in his abode. Yes… visit him, because as history & news quotes, he is still alive in his Jeeva Samadhi. (Samadhi means higher levels of concentrated meditation…. And not death). I just found the exact meaning. I assumed Samadhi meant “dead”. How ignorant!!
We had the usual family train travelling experience, with food packed from different families, shared, complimenting – sharing recipes if it tastes good, giving hints for better tastes, gossiping about relatives, about movies, etc. We crossed Puttaparthi en route to Manthralayam and it actually felt good to revisit the rail station.
We reached Manthralayam by 11pm, lodged at APTD guest house. The next morning, we went for the 8am Dharshan. Since it was a Monday, there didn’t seem to be much crowd. As usual, I became very pious when in the temple and could feel the vibration of… don’t know what that is.. but I get a feeling of presence of something… someone…who you can trust. I feel this more when I talk to Lord Krishna.
After that we hired a cab and left to a place called Nava Brindhavan, which is in the banks of the Thungabadra River in the state of Karnataka. We had to cross the then slow flowing river in a small motor boat to reach the temple. This place is revered for the Samadhi of 8 saints. The place was quite but for few tourists/ devotees like us. I wanted to take a dip in the cool river, but time set a constraint on my small wish :)
From there, we travelled another 15km to reach Hampi. Here again we had to cross the river to reach the Virupaksha temple, which is said to be the oldest temple in that region. Monuments and architecture never seize to astonish me. The temple was just so AWESOME. The sculptures, the layout was all so beautiful… and so was the mood of the people there, most being tourists. The enthusiasm there was so infectious that it seems to catch the entire crowd there. Unlike Bellur/ Halebid, was able to find a lot of westerners here. I heard from localities there that these people stayed there for quite some time to study about Hampi and its rich culture. I indeed felt proud to be an Indian and part of the heritage.
The best thing I liked in this age old temple is the the image of the main Gopuram that passes through a small vent in the wall and its reversed reflection is seen in a small room well inside the temple. The scientific knowledge of our ancestors does not fail to keep our modern thoughts humble. Again, cause of time constraint, we had to return without feasting our eyes on the other monuments in Hampi. We returned back to Manthralayam.
The third day of our trip, we had time until 12.30pm, the time we would board our return train. So it was decided that we will take our bath in the supposed-to-be holy Thungabadra river and all of us headed to the bank at 6.30am. To my dismay, a small dirty pool of water was all that said a river actually flowed there during the monsoons. Though my relatives did take a bath there, I though against it and came back to the lodge and had a decent bath. Now I sincerely prayed that the source of the tap water wasn’t the ‘river’ or at least it was processed well. High hopes… ha!
Once again we went for Dharshan and had a good one too. 
We were told that there is Anna Dhanam (food distribution) in the temple and it’s would be a blessing to have food there. I even got coupons for the meal. But now is the saddening part. I saw a placard directing us to a dining hall inside the temple campus itself. On enquiry, they told me that the food will be served at 10am. I took my parents and relatives to the place only to be humiliated. They said this place is ONLY for Brahmins and that food will be served in another hall outside the temple campus, for non-brahmins. Not just the Brahmins working in the temple… just any tourist who claims to be from a Brahmin family. In fact, the guy there did not even give us the holy water (theertham) and shooed us off. All of us were really upset. We were grumbling among ourselves about this untouchability that is followed here, a temple which was built on the land donated by a Muslim. Another tourist, should be a Brahmin by birth, said that’s because they will have to tell their pious Gothra and some sloga there. What the heck. Does that mean all non-Brahmins come from bad Gothra’s and are not children of God. He also suggested that we can just tell our gothra and have food from the Brahmin dining hall. But we didn’t want to do that.
Later I asked a friend (of Brahmin birth) about this and in fact, he had reasons to justify it. I too agree that if the dining hall is exclusively for the Brahmins who work in the temple, then all is fine. Every place… be it a temple or a corporate office, it had its own dining area for the employees. But how can any sundry tourist with the sacred thread on this chest and a different slang be allowed this honor. I wish someone would remind the temple management the principles of the great saint Ragavendra Swami.
With a little bitter feelings and lot of cherished experience we returned from Manthralayam. I do not know if I would go back to Manthralayam again (unless I get a divine instruction to come there), I would most definitely go back to Hampi someday, stay there for 2-3 days, at the least, and explore more about the place or just to sit in the high rocks to watch the sun rise and set. I forgot to mention the most important thing that kept me surprised. The whole area, be it Manthralayam or Nava Brindhavan or Hampi… all had huge rocky hills on either side of the road and the banks of the river. Each mould made me wonder how nature holds these rocks together. Hail Nature!
When two people decide to part ways, it isn’t a sign that they “don’t understand” one another, but a sign that they have, at last, begun to --- HELEN ROWLAND
