Building Guru Raghavendra Mrithika Brindavanam: Experiences

Updates on the construction!!!

2012-04-24T23:25:00.001+05:30

Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha Para Brahmane Namaha!
Sri Hanumathe Namaha!
Sri Gurubyo Namaha!

Sincere apologies for the lack of progress updates for the last couple of months. It is not like Rayar has stopped his guidance but owing to a lot of factors beyond our control, have not been able to keep giving updates on the progress.

The construction of Rayar mrithika brindavan near to Kanchipuram has been progressing albeit slowly. Currently, purely by HIS grace, the roofing and construction of the gho-shala, office and store rooms and temple madapalli has been completed. The small video shoot available at the following URL gives us an idea of how these parts looks like currently:

http://tinyurl.com/85oowr2

The signs of the first planting of banana tree has started sprouting finally has started to happen and the following URL gives an idea of the same:

http://tinyurl.com/d5fppcr

The next plan is to start the construction of the main temple including the main sanctum sanctorum, artha mandapam and maha mandapam above the current foundation that has been laid out. We plan to start this after around 6-8 weeks by which time our father's abdik would be getting over as well as to get a sufficient corpus collected for this.

Eagerly looking forward to start the activity by Rayaru's grace at the earliest time that HE has himself chosen.

Please pass along the message to all people whom you think might be interested in participating towards the construction of main sanctum sanctorum.

There are land plots that are available in and around the site in which this brindavanam is coming up for Guru Raghavendrar. The promoter of this land has graciously accepted to donate a proceeds of the sale to the construction activity. This will be a double bonus to all devotees - to make an investment that has great appreciation potential as well as get a mental satisfaction of having contributed towards the construction of this temple for Rayar. Interested people can get in touch with vasan.vs at gmail dot come for further details.

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

Rayar needed some flowers from me!

2011-12-24T11:30:00.000+05:30

Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha Para Brahmane Namaha! Yesterday, there was a news article that appeared in the newspaper 'THE HINDU' about the construction of the new mrithika brindavana project for Sri Guru Raghavendra: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/article2739611.ece Incidentally, do not think that the material for this article was given anytime recently. It was given a few months back itself - and out of the blue, this was taken up suddenly by the paper and then published yesterday in the printed and online versions. Again, all this should be only Rayar Kripa! Since this has not been coming for some time, I also didn't follow up closely to keep continously checking to see if it has appeared or not in the daily papers. When I was going for the early morning dhanur masa visit of the Rayar mutt, I got a message from my sister stating just that the news item has come out very well - I didn't realize what news item she was talking about and when I called up, there is this news article that has come in the paper. I was very happy that this has come out through Rayar's grace and felt some how confident that the fund flows should start happening to this project enabling it to get completed. After I visited the temple and offered the flowers at the usual place to be made use of by them, I got the theertha and mantrakshathe prasadam from the assistant to the aachar in the mutt. This particular assistant always acknowledges my arrival in the mutt every time I visit by nodding his head at me when he sees me but never talks with me in all the time that I had visited the mutt. Suddenly, he comes behind me and whispers in my ear that since it is dhanur masa, the nirmaalya and alankara happens very early in the morning and said that I can give "4 mozhum" flowers tomorrow morning before around 5.30AM for it to be used in the alankara on the brindavana that day itself. Now since this came from someone who does not talk to me, I took it as a direct order from Guru Rayar itself - through this person. Immediately, I made sure that the flowers were ready for today early morning and went to the temple at around 5:45 AM early morning and gave the flowers - Co-incidentally, as if the assistants were waiting for this to come, at exactly the same time, I went inside the temple, they were taking all the flowers to inside the garbha graha for starting the alankara - For some reason, Rayar passed me a message that he needed some flowers to be given by me, and I was happy that again with HIS grace, I was able to meet the same. Sri Krishnarpanamastu Vasan

Progress in Gho-shala construction!

2011-11-25T12:03:00.001+05:30

Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha Para Brahmane Namaha!

Currently, the gho-shala, madapalli, office room portions of the project site is getting constructed. Some of the captured moments are highlighted in the below mentioned picassa web album. These photos also capture the growth of some of the plants on the different corners of the site - Rayaru has decided to make the place ready with the flowers and other items that he would be requiring once he comes and seats himself there! - These small things also give us a tremendous amount of joy!

https://picasaweb.google.com/108088776324596254157/GoshalaConstruction

Please spread the word around to like minded devotees who might be interested in participating in this project.

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

A new message from Rayar!!!

2011-11-10T10:13:00.000+05:30

Sri Lakshmi Nrsimha Para Brahmane Namaha! At the beginning of this week, I had been to Srirangam to do a gho-dhana since my father's 6 months masik was coming nearer at the end of this week. By HIS grace, the gho dhana went off successfully and the new cow and calf was named as vasuki and ranganayaki respectively in the gho-shala there. Since this was tula maasa and a dip in the cauvery river during this maasa is considered to be very special (more special even than a ganges river in this month), I also had the fortune for this in the early morning before performing the gho-dhana.

Prior to this in the last week, had been to Vijayawada Uttaradi Mutt to donate for a gho-rakshane there on the banks of Krishna river. It is very strongly believed that the gho dhana or gho rakshane on the banks of this river especially for pitrus is highly special. I had gone there to perform this on 03-Nov (Thurs). Coincidentally(!) I didn't know that it was the special gho-ashtami day - in which all the cows in gho-shalas all over are typically done special puja to please all the abhimani devatas inside the cow. It is also widely believed that Sri Krishna had started taking the cows out for the first time on this day. Whether this was a mere coincidence or a divine acceptance of this offering is left to our imaginations - our belief is on the latter option since this is another example that anything offered sincerely is always accepted in manifold times!

Today early morning - maybe around 3:30AM or 4AM - I had a dream. I along with a few others (some of them are relatives and some of them are unknown persons) are travelling a slightly long distance and reaching a place. This place is not something that I had seen earlier but it is of open land where there is a puja that is being done on the ground and also after the puja we are waiting for signing off some papers. After this incident is over, we start back but at that time, I clearly recall that the place is the site where we are currently constructing the rayar brindavanam and I mention to the person standing next to me stating that this place has got so much developed now with a lot of buildings. Right at the time, I see a huge temple with a huge gopuram at the entrance(I am not sure of whether this is because of looking at the huge gopurams of the Srirangam temple just a couple of days back!). After looking at this, we start back from the place - and suddenly I got up and looked at the watch - It was around 4:30AM in the morning and I got up.

I am not a person who gets dreams very often in sleep but when they happen by the grace of Sri Hari, they always are very significant ones. Today being Guruvaar and Pournima, I thought that there should be a deeper significance for this dream. When I had requested for the interpretation of this dream from a gynani and a realized soul, I was told that this was nothing but a message from Rayar that he is going to be more splendorously coming and seating himself on this project site as compared to what ever we are currently envisaging. It was also an indication that the vision of this project has to be more broad based now as far as this project is concerned.

After this sudden announcement and conveyal of the message to us, we are currently awaiting further directions from Rayar on how this vision had to become more broad based and then converted into concrete steps for implementation.

I wish and pray that till the last breath HE gives an opportunity to be ever at HIS service

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

Gho dhana in a Rayar mutt!!!

2011-08-21T16:46:00.000+05:30

Hare Srinivasa!!!

I Wanted to write this post for some time but could not get down to do it till now. We wanted to perform a Go-dhana in the name of our father before atleast 3 months passed after his demise! As some of the visitors to this blog would be aware, there is a very beautiful and serene Rayar mutt established and run in a place called Hanumantapuram (very close to Chidambaram in TN). There is a famous Sri Lakshmi Narayana temple which is supposed to be a very old temple visited by SriMadwacharya on his way back from Sri Mushnam. This is also the first swarna brindavanam for Rayar was installed and consecrated in the last week of December. You can visit http://hanumanthralaya.in/ for more details on this temple.

We set off on the afternoon at around 1PM on Jul 9th to this place from Chennai since we wanted to do the gho dana on Sunday Jul 10th. On the drive down from Chennai, one of the temple trustees who was accompanying us from Chennai, mentioned that Bhuvanagiri - the birth place of our dear RAYARU is on the way and whether we would like to visit the place as well? If someone gives us sweet to eat, will it be like a sour taste to our tongue? We immediately jumped to this idea and just took a small detour to that place since I had not visited the house that RAYARU was born to save us all in this Kali yuga! When I set foot on that place, there was just a thrilling experience within myself to be in the same place as in which RAYARU was born that it cannot be expressed in words but has to be only felt!!! When we had a good darshan of RAYARU, imagine our surprise when the aachar there mentioned that he has come only that morning from MANTRALAYA and offered us the mantrakshathe - It was like RAYARU blessing us on the event of the GO DHANA saying that HE is going to accept it even before we actually did that the next day. Is there anything greater than this that one can hope for in this world!!

Next day, July 10th, Sunday was the auspicious SWATHI nakshatre - the star in which Sri Lakshmi Narasimha took his avatar to protect his very favorite bhaktha Prahalad - What other day can be more favorable for the same Prahalad (as our GURU RAYARU) to accept the Gho dhana from us? When we planned the trip, we didn't realize that it was going to be SWATHI nakshathre but wanted to do that since it was a weekly holiday on SUNDAY but HE had arranged itself to happen on a very happy auspicious day. After the gho dhana was done, we were treated to a very blissful panchamrutha abhisheka and alankara of RAYAR brindavana there. After having theertha prasadha there, we started back from that place half-heartedly since the purity and serenity of that place had mesmerized us and reached back at around 6PM back in Chennai.

On the completion of the third masik ceremony of father, we are planning to slowly re-start the construction activities of the rayar mrithika brindavanam work near Kanchipuram. Our sincere prayers to HIM to guide us in the proper direction for this activity to get completed whenever HE wishes and then come and seat there permanently!!!

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

Our Guru Rayar's bhaktha vatsalyam!!!

2011-07-05T16:08:00.031+05:30

Thanks to all of the visitors who had sent emails asking for the lack of any new posts for the last few months in this blog... Happy to note that this blog detailing our mystical experiences with Rayar is being followed actively...

The main reason behind the inactivity of the last few months has been owing to the sad demise of our father, a man of 86 years old. He was suffering very much for his last few months with the advanced stage of Parkinson's disease in which slowly one by one his organs refused to continue working. While he was struggling in the last few months and with the slow degradation of his memory, one of the questions that he used to frequently ask was "What is the name of the place where Raghavendra is there", "What is the name of the railway station that we have to get down for going to see Raghavendra" etc. During the time when we were deeply saddened and worried what to do next at those excruciating days, suddenly out of blue, I receive a cover through normal post from Mantralaya primary aachar - Parimalaachar - stating that the cover contains mantrakshade with a small packet containing HIS mantrakshathe... By HIS grace, I have a pretty good memory power and nowhere I recall ever giving my address to Aachar for him to send this mantrakshate to us - What else can we call other than the fact that this was one way to tell us that HIS grace and benevolance is there on us!!! Our father had affinity to Kanchipuram Varadaraja swamy. Just a few days after receiving this mantrakshate and a day after we had the prasadam from Kanchipuram Varadaraja Swamy, he breathed his last on May 19th (Thursday) at 10:10AM in the morning. Here again, it is our strong belief that Rayar had shown us that our father's atma is going to be in safe place at Sri Hari's feet since he breathed his last on a guruvaar - Thursday. Again, it was Krishna Paksha and Dwithiya thithi on this day - the same paksha and thithi that Sri Guru Raghavendra chose to go into his Brindavanam. So can we call all this as a mere coincidence? Or as something else.... What else will a bhaktha vatsalya like our Guru Rayar will do when by HIS grace in his last few days, he was asking for the place in which he is present etc. that too in a situation his whole memory was slowly fading away!!!!

Owing to this sudden unfortunate development, there might be a slight lull in the activity of constructing the mrithika brindavanam for Rayar along with Sri Lakshmi Narasimhar and Anjaneyar. This should also be Sri Hari's sankalpa since who are we to fathom what HE has in store for all the activities that we do!!!

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

Fund raising concert went off very well by HIS grace!!!!

2011-03-03T07:38:00.000+05:30

@03-Mar-2011:

A lot of people has been sending communication either in person or on phone mentioning the reasons behind why the blog is not getting updated frequently now... It got to show how many people had been following this blog and are well wishers for this project. It is nothing but HIS grace...

The main reason behind not being able to update the blog has been simply because of the fact that we were all extremely busy to make the fund raising concert by Sangeetha Kalanidhis Smt Saroja and Smt Lalitha a success.... As every reader to this blog knows, this concert was planned to raise funds towards the construction activities of this temple. Smt. Saroja and Smt. Lalitha, veteran musicians not needing any specific introduction - No awards in this field has eluded them till date possibly. They are ardent devotees of Sri Guru Rayar and this devotion showed when they instantaneously volunteered to give this fund raising concert on a request by us. It was one of our other experiences of how HE has showered his grace on a lot of people which is primarily responsible for their ascent to the heights of their individual careers!!!

The event was scheduled on 26-Feb-2011 - Saturday - to facilitate as many people to attend this event as possible, being a weekend off day typically. Ticket sales were going on till that day and a small snippets on this programme was given out in the papers as well. Based on this, there were more calls enquiring about the tickets availability. Taking into account the large sized hall and the popularity of Bombay Sisters, we were all concerned and a little worried on how much of ticket sales that we are going to make to increase the amount of funds available through this event and more importantly of how much attendance on that event day is going to be there.

As usual readers to this blog would be aware, for the last 2 years, there has been no event in this project which Sri Guru Raghavendra would not take care of personally by HIMSELF. While we mere mortal souls think that we are the ones who are acting and doing the work, it becomes difficult for the feeling to sink in most of the times that we are mere tools in the grand scheme of things - So much of belief that WE are the doers has crept into our thoughts owing to past karmas in so much of previous births - like a very thick layer of dust over our atma - that this thought does not get removed very easily. So like a typical Guru, who does not stop till his disciple learns, digests and assimilates the concept into his subconscious level, our Guru Raghavendra also keeps giving lessons to us stating that nothing need to be worried on any facts of life and will be automatically taken care of at the right time - IF we have the 'unconditional' belief and trust on HIM and completely surrender to HIM.

As if to underline this fact, an unexpected event out of the blue - happened on the day of the event on 26-Feb-2011. While I had finished my scheduled work on Saturday in the forenoon session on that day and making the last minute touches for the speeches and other arrangements for the evening, I suddenly got an email into my account at just a few hours before the concert was about to begin. The email was from an hitherto unknown person to any of us involved in this activity with the subject line which read as "CONTRIBUTION FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAYAR MUTT". A little curious on getting an email with this subject and that too from an unknown person till now. I opened up the email to take a look at its contents - not withstanding the fact that I was getting late in the last minute preparations and could not afford any distractions at this time for fear of being delayed!!!!

The short and precise mail text had something to state something like this: "By the blessing of the Guru who has accepted a contribution from me and from the money earned through his kripu and blessing, I have electronically transferred Rs. 50,000/- to the trust under reference XYZ".

It took sometime for the message to sink in and after verifying it in the bank statement, was a little dumbfounded and still for some time. After the entire contents of this email sinked in and we realized that this is nothing but another act of grace from our Guru Rayar, we realized that it was HIS way to convey a message across that when the right time has to come, it will come and get done come what may... It was also a message from him stating that the event was going to be a success...

Just like the message that HE had conveyed to us, the event went off well and completed on a grand scale. Some of the pictures of this event is available at the following URL:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gururayar2009/FundRaisingConcert?authkey=Gv1sRgCProtNuO8JuD5AE#

We are submitting the success of this event to HIS lotus feet and await HIS next guidance to us on the further steps on this project... Please stay tuned for more details...

(PS: A related point to this note: The anonymous devotee has not answered back to our request for sending his/her contact details for us to get the receipt across. Multiple email requests from us to the same email address from which this email had come has gone unanswered till now - The devotee wants to possibly continue remaining to be anonymous devotee itself!!!)

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

Who are we in the grand scheme of things?

2011-01-17T09:20:00.002+05:30

@15-Jan-2011:

Hope the Sankaranthi (Pongal) festivities had gone off well for all the blog visitors!!!

I just wanted to narrate an incident that I came to know of today evening. One month back, when I was meditating in front of Rayar brindavanam, I got frantic calls on my cell from a landline number but didn't attend to the call since I was sitting in front of Rayar. After finishing the darshan and coming out of the temple, I had just wanted to check out who had called and returned the call. There was a lady who was on the other side who said that she is calling after seeing
the advertisement about the brindavanam construction in TV. She wanted to know if she can get the prasad and I told her that you can come and collect the prasad since I had recently returned back from Mantralayam. But after a couple of tries, she could not come and collect it.

Yesterday, suddenly, I felt that I should be giving them a call and ask them to collect the prasad since I just returned back from Mantralayam on last weekend. They said that they will phone and come up to collect it. They came in the evening and started narrating their woes - due to some family relatives problem, their property and wealth has been taken in by their relative and they are being shown a lot of disrespect and their daughter is also not being able to get married....

All these problems had escalated to such a level that yesterday just before my call to them, the family members were contemplating to commit suicide and they were more or less planning the modalities of how to go about this. After getting the call from me stating that they can come and collect the rayar prasad, that they felt that things are going to start turn around and started getting confidence. I just consoled them and mentioned to them to continue their faith on Rayar very strongly and at the opportune time he will take care to lift us up. They felt more confident on hearing this and left my house.

When they left the house in the evening, I just realized all the leelas of Rayar - right from the call that I got a month back when I was in front of the brindavanam correctly and again yesterday 'instructing' me at the right time to save this family from a catastrophy.

Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 33) states thus:

tasmat tvam uttistha yaso labhasva
jitva satrun bhunksva rajyam samrddham
mayaivaite nihatah purvam eva
nimitta-matram bhava savya-sacin

This is the one of the verses that Krishna uses to very strongly convey the message to Arjuna to stand up and fight the Kauravas... The rough meaning of this verse translates to : "O Partha! Stand up and fight. Conquer the kingdom by defeating the enemies and go and enjoy the fruits of victory. They (the enemies) have been already been put to death by my sankalpa and O Partha! You are only an instrument in the fight!"

I have heard and read a lot of philosophers of our Sanatana Dharma write/talk in great detail of this verse mentioning that we mere mortals are just 'tools' in the hands of HIM to get things done in this materialistic world. This is one of the major verses that gets attention of all phiolosophical discussions in Hinduism. As we all realize in our lives, starting to learn a bicycle in our young days, there is no better way to learn anything but to experience it ourselves. Similarly, I take that this specific incident that happened over the last 2 days, is a LESSON from Sri Guru Raghavendrar, to teach me the real meaning of this verse in Gita to me with my own personal experience. It was a great realization that through this incident that we are mere tools and 'smaller than even imaginable specks of dust' in HIS grand scheme of things.

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

Vasan

Latest site updates after start of stapathi work!!!!

2011-01-03T22:40:00.000+05:30

@01-Jan-2011:

By the grace of Sri Hari, Vayu and our Guru Rayar, the work of the stapathi has started. Here are the first set of videos on this. The following youtube video shows the side view of the level to which the temple is going to be raised from the current ground level - it is expected that the basement of the temple will be around 6.5 feet above the current ground level - to take into account the future raise of road levels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLaTy2eLnvI

The following youtube video shows the aerial view of the maha mandapam, followed by the artha mandapam and the main sannidanam (in which the mud has been kept inside for doing the leveling work). This then zooms in on the current development work of drainage sump that is currently in progress:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkOOZieuMn8

Devotees are requested to contribute their mite in what ever way they can towards this noble cause. Please spread the word around and have contributions in kind/cash sent to the following address:
Sri Lakshmi Nrsimhar Guru Raghavendra Trust
No.6, 1st Floor, 7th Cross Street,
Lake Area
Nungambakkam, Chennai 600 034

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

Start of sthapathi work!!!!

2010-12-11T19:02:00.000+05:30

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

Foundation for the priest residential area completed!!!

2010-12-06T18:52:00.000+05:30

@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

Pile foundation for the temple area completed!!!!

2010-11-22T09:05:00.013+05:30

@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

Mantralayam visit last weekend!!!

2010-11-11T19:47:00.000+05:30

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

Pile foundation for temple portion!!!

2010-11-04T22:41:00.000+05:30

@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

Foundation for temple area work started!!!!

2010-10-26T23:42:00.000+05:30

@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

Signs of first construction!!!

2010-09-21T22:54:00.000+05:30

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

Initial vastu / boomi puja done on the project site!!!

2010-09-06T17:03:00.000+05:30

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

Installation of electric motor with bore well!!!!

2010-07-19T17:35:00.000+05:30

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

Brindavanam site has been powered with electricity!!!

2010-07-05T17:40:00.000+05:30

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

Sanction for the construction plans received!!!!

2010-05-20T17:57:00.000+05:30

@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

Approval drawings submitted!!!

2010-05-04T06:17:00.000+05:30

@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

Birds Eye view of the whole layout of different sannidhi's!!!!

2010-03-15T20:19:00.000+05:30

@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

Steady progress during the last 10 days!!!

2010-03-11T17:13:00.000+05:30

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

Guru Rayar teaching the art of patience!!!!

2010-02-25T23:33:00.000+05:30

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....

Initial homa done on the temple site!!

2010-02-08T06:59:00.000+05:30

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