Audio Release of Movie : Bhagavad Ramanujacharya

Audio Release of Movie : Bhagavad Ramanujacharya (Telugu) By HH Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swami.

Yesterday was just another day at work until the day seemed to end. Suddenly a friend called me and asked if I would be interested to join him at Shilpa Kala Vedika where HH Chinna Jeeyar Swami was to arrive for some program. And guess what? Free ENTRY!!
I did notice a model of 'ParthaSarathi' placed in front of the ShilpaKala Vedika hall just the other day and wondered what that was. Now I thought I knew what it was.
I guessed that it was some Gita Parayana or something but on reaching the place it was totally a different program. The chariot was no longer at the entrance and the program was something else.
As I entered the hall, the back center was occupied by a few Sanyasis of the SreeSampradaya surrounded by a few kids from their Gurukul at Shamshabad. One one side sat musicians ready with instruments and the otherside was occupied with VIPs. The Center of the stage was decorated with bharatanatyam dancers ready for the next program.

PhotoCredits: Internet

The seats in the audience seemed pretty full. Noticably many of them wore the tilak markings of the SreeSampradaya.
As I somehow settled down, I realized that it was the audio release of a telugu movie Bhagavad Ramanujacharya.
Soon after everyone completed the chanting of the 108 names of Sripad Ramanujacharya, HH ChinnaJeeyar swami arrived.

PhotoCredits: Internet

After all the Sanyasis spoke for sometime, finally he was asked to address the audience. He gave a very clear and practical message overall about society, peace, politics, life and the position of God.
One of the striking points he said really struck a chord!
Talking about the lords omnipotence and his deity form in the temple, he gave a very apt example.
He said, just like air is of two kinds, one is omnipotent and the other one is in your electric devices like fan, cooler, heater etc.
All pervading air is not in our reach but the devices we have, help us to vary the amount of air we need or its temperature.
Similarly the omnipotence of the lord might not be anything we can do much with, but for our sake, the Lord takes the deity form and reciprocates with our love and devotion. He eats if we offer, fasts if we dont. Sleeps when we let him, doesnt when we dont.
Although the lord cannot be compared with anything material, this was the closest example that can be given to a materialistic layman of this world.
It really gives a down to earth explanation about the lords form in the temple.
A 3min trial of the movie was played on the screen, which looked pretty impressive.
Im very much excited for the movie release!

PhotoCredits: Internet

HH Vishwesha Tirtha Swami

Great fortune is not always acquired, sometimes it is bestowed!
Otherwise how is it possible that a person like me got to touch the lotus feet of a great devotee last Sunday!

"Sri Vishwesha Teertha was born in 1931 at Ramakunja to a Shivalli Tulu Brahmin family and his pre-Sanyasa name was Venkataramana Bhat. He was ordained into Sanyasa at
the young age of 8 years in 1938. His vidya guru is Vidyamanya Teertha of Sri Bhandarkeri Math.
Sri Vishwesha Teertharu is the current Swamiji of the Pejavara Adokshaja matha, one of the ashta mathas belonging to the Dvaita school of philosophy, founded by Sri Madhvacharya. Sri Vishvesha Tirtha is the 32nd Pontiff in the lineage of the Pejavara matha, starting from Sri Adhokshaja Tirtha, who was one of the direct disciples of Sri Madhvacharya." ~Wiki

He was invited at the Bhagyanagar Sri Krishna Mutt at Kondapur for short "Pada Puja" and I was fortunate enough to somehow get there by the mercy of the lord.
The devotees who were allowed was a limited few so I didn't expect to get a chance to actually touch his feet.
On his arrival, he rushed into a small puja of the lord after which the devotees washed his feet and each family came to take his blessings.
Ramachandra prabhu kindly let me join his family while taking blessings.
I tried really hard not to believe that I actually saw him in person and even more, be let to touch his feet!
After he left, the towel that was used to dry his feet lay where it was used and I had to restrain myself from stealing that in broad daylight. :D

On his leaving for the next destination, my dream was suddenly broken by loud cries of :
Hari Sarvothama! Vayu Jeevothama!

PC: Internet

First darshan of HH Tridandi ChinnaJeeyar Swami

Yesterday was a pretty lucky evening! I was fortunate to have his darshan for the first time yesterday. He held the chanting of VishnuSahasranama at the Ramya grounds, which isnt even a kilometer from my room! Undoubtedly the ground was brimming full with a few thousand devotees. I got to know about this event from the billboards on the road only while returning home a bit early yesterday.

After the chanting of all the verses, in the small lecture he gave, he mainly spoke about Adhika Masa and how it got its name from Lord Purushottam or Lord Jagannath. He mentioned a few things about the Navakalevar activities that happen only once in a bunch of years.

He mentioned how devotees in north India utilise this extra month in doing more spiritual activities and how they also decided to recite the Sundara Kanda of Ramayana at their Ashram of Divya Saketha in Hyderabad. He urged everyone else to increase their spiritual activities in this forthcoming month and if possible, join them in the recitation.

HH Tridandi ChinnaJeeyar Swami is a prominent Guru of the SriVaishnava Sampradaya. He is pretty famous not only in Andhrapradesh but also has followers all over the world.

He has also taken up some restoration projects in Vrindavan like the Sankarshan Kund in the Govardhan area.

Photocredits: Internet

Appeal of a fallible one

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya

jñānāñjana-śalākayā

cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena

tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him. 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

śrī guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam

It is possible if we become obedient student of guru, then even though we may be dumb, deaf and dumb, still, we can become good lecturer. Mūkaṁ karoti vācālam, talk very much about Kṛṣṇa. This is Kṛṣṇa's grace, mūkaṁ karoti... Paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim, if one is lame man, he is made to cross over the hill, mountain. This is the mercy of guru.

My dear Gurudev,

Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet.
Kindly be merciful like a father and accept my offering which is sure to be filled with mistakes.

This ungrateful one definitely cannot thank you enough, for allowing him a shelter in your soothing shade in the midst of this blazing forest fire. There are thousands upon thousands of fortunate souls who have luckily obtained a corner of your lotus feet, but it is clearly evident to anyone that it is not my own fortune that you have accepted me as your disciple. There is not one act of mine or even millions put together that can give me the benediction of attaining your lotus feet. It is only your own magnanimity, your greatness, your mercy, your compassion that you have accepted a person as low as myself.
As the scriptures say that the debt of one’s parents can never be repaid in lives together, what more can be said about the debt I have fallen into by taking opportunity of the treasure trove of your kripa nidhi, by which one jumps across the vast unfathomable ocean of nescience just like crossing over the water contained in the hoof print of a calf.

Since I am now yours, what remains with me to offer you, that which is not yet yours. So it would only be my foolishness if I feel that I have offered you anything. Even my words belong to you.
In such a state, it would only be an attempt of worshiping Mother Ganges with her own water; where else would her worshiper find holier water to worship her?
Only after reading the translation of the Mukam karoti... sloka, has my fallen self even dared to tread on this impossible path of attempting to taste a drop of your unlimited glories.
But I just realized that I will utterly fail at even trying to understand you fully, what remains to be said about singing your glories. It will infact be more of an insult than a glorification.
So I end up again, only begging for your mercy. Neither the last nor the first time, but to continue in all times and lives to come.

O Gurudev, please be merciful and do not abandon this wretched one in this horrendous world. Kindly engage me in your mission.

"But when, O my master, will you mercifully give this servant of yours the qualification to fulfill your order? Then my mind will be peaceful, I will be able to endure all difficulties and serve Sri Hari with single-pointed focus."
--- Gurudev Boro Krpa Kori,Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

your aspiring servant
gurugovinda kripa das

Pregnant Yoga

India is a "Developing" country!

Progressively or should we use "in leaps and bounds", India is learning to manufacture newer and newer varieties of concocted psuedo Spiritual Products to Sell to the ever growing demand for cheap show bottle religious piety. SrimadBhagavatam, an ever existing source of knowledge but which was 'compiled' a few thousand years ago, prophesised boldly about such manmade religions in this age of Kali.
 There isnt one public media which doesnt prove this right. Turn on the television, surf the internet, wade through the pages of magazines or Newspapers, you will find so-called spiritualism pouring out!

Yoga, originally meaning 'connection'(with the lord), has taken so many forms and colors while having lost its Soul! Its sole purpose now has turned out to be Sense-gratification, pure and intact: No compromise.
Travelling home from office one evening, my eyes fell on a clinic with the board " _ _ _ Test tube Baby center". I wondered how many cases of success they have had. If it was so easy for scientists/doctors to produce 'Test Tube Babies', why do we have such big campaigns about endagered species? Just tilt your flask and stir the testtube in your labs and repopulate the decreasing species. Why all the propaganda to save them?
Further up the road, I noticed a big Ad. My jaws hit the floor and mind confused. Should I break into laughter or go into deep thoughts. A large white board had bold letters in navy blue written: Pregnant Yoga

That really confuses a beginner on a spiritual path, who just heard the words Karma yoga or Bhakti yoga.

I let it pass my mind just wondering what "Developed India" would look like if India was merely in its "Developing" stage now!!!

Seva Abhilash

Its the duty of a fallen person like me to go and serve great Vaishnavas. But how merciful is my Gurudev, who bears the burden of tireless travelling inspite of his uncooperating health, just to make sure that I dont sink deeper and rot longer in my selfbuilt suicidal cocoon! What more? Hes visiting on a weekend which gives more opportunity to grab a gram of of service! Theres a statement in Hindi how Gold is certainly very precious and attractive to all, then what can be said about it, if it starts producing sweet fragrance in addition to its glitter!?!

The lords return to Kaundanyapur

Dwarakadish again comes to Rukminis City after Kidnapping her, this time to kidnap the residents!
It was around 2:30PM! After having eaten nothing except a small pack of cookies and half a bottle of water since morning, the narrow serpentine roads from Dhamangaon to Kaundanyapur/Kaundinyapur seemed to never end! But slowly my love for nature lured me away from the thoughts of hurrying to reach the destination. I sat in the front seat of a ‘TATA Sumo’, with my eyes out the window trying to have a complete picture of rural Maharashtra. I had travelled to other regions of Maharashtra earlier like Pandharpur and Pune, but hadn’t gone into such rural areas before. This was really deep into the picturesque countryside with farms and orchards. The landscape looked more dry than wet and I was seeing such pitch black soil for the first time after only having read about it at school. We had learnt in our Geography classes how the Deccan Plateau of India is mostly black soil. And descriptions of the crops that I had read were also coming alive. Most of the landscape we passed by were dotted with cotton plants. Then I suddenly saw some trees in fenced areas with big round yellow-orange things hanging from them. The sight looked so beautiful and they seemed like fruits but I tried to make myself believe that they were just flowers because it was too good to be true! As it got closer I realized that they were really fruits, infact oranges! We passed by many such orchards on the way.

We frequently came across the typical Bullock-carts of Maharashtra fully made of Iron. It was also nice to spot bulls in distant fields tied to their ploughs while the farmers were having their afternoon meal. Oh meal! I mean prasadam, I needed some too!

I was waiting anxiously all week to jump into the ceremonies of the Inauguration of the Govardhan temple at Kaundinyapur in Maharashtra. It is around 40 kms from Amravati and 150 Kms from Nagpur.

Kaundinyapur, a hilly region on the banks of the river Wardha (Varada, giver of boons) was the birth place of Rukmini. So the lord had come here personally to kidnap her from the temple of Amba. The Temple of Amba still exists and is just beside our new temple. It is believed that Rukmini devi would take bath in river Wardha during the Kartik month. Even today thousands of devotees visit this place to take bath during the Kartik and a whole area becomes filled with shops(Mela) during the entire month. There is also an ancient temple of Vittal-Rukmini on the banks of this river,visited by many. I also found a very ancient temple of Dattatraya nearby.

Once on a visit to this holy place with many devotees, His Holiness Lokanath Swami found a big tree of Keli Kadamba and sat under it. Everyone was surprised to see this only Kadamba tree in that area. Maharaj explained how this is the tree from which the lord jumped into Yamuna to subdue Kaliya in Vrndavan. The only possible means of this tree coming up here could be that it fell from the crown of Lord Dwarakadish when he had come here to kidnap Rukmini. Otherwise there was no other way since this tree cannot be found anywhere else in the nearby areas.

So on the direction Lokanath Swami, devotees acquired that land and thus appeared this beautiful Govardhan Temple. The temple sits on a small mound. Just beside the mound is this Keli Kadamba tree which comes up from the ground in mainly 5 big branches. They also have a small goshala and the cows ofcourse looked so healthy and beautiful! And more lovely was the lotus and lily ponds! They had two huge tanks in the ground which supplied Lotus and Lily flowers of different colors for the Lord! It was captivating to see so many lilies blossom in different colors!

The ceremonies had already started when I had arrived but I was lucky to be there for the Welcoming/Placing of Govardhan Sila in the new temple. The yagyas were held in a pandal beside the temple where all the other ceremonies, cultural programs and Krishna Katha took place.

In the evening of 8th November, the Kalashas and Sudarshan was installed along with the Jaya Dhwaja and later we went on a Shobha Yatra with Rukmini Dwarakadish and Giriraj. After returning we had some wonderful Katha by HH Lokanath Swami, HH Rama Govinda Swami, HH Bhakti-Vijaya Narasimha Swami and HG Parameshwar prabhu from Chamorsi. The next day was reserved for the Grand Abishek of Sri Rukmini Dwarakadish and Giriraj! We also had wonderful kirtans and Katha and the pandal wasn’t actually sufficient that day to accommodate the entire crowd! HH Lokanath Maharaj was painting beautiful scenes of Krishna Kidnapping Rukmini by laying forward such detailed descriptions of how all the Kings were so enraptured by Her beauty and swanlike gait that they failed to notice the entrance of the Lord in the scene! All their weapons fell from their hands while several of them fell off their horses, elephants and chariots with their mouths wide open. All the devotees were similarly spell bound by the katha given by maharaj and were so engaged that none of them rushed for prasadam even though it was getting late!

One of the remarkable things about prasadam for me was the King size chapatis that the local Marathi Matajis made. It was almost 1sq ft in area! They were flipping it over with such ease using just sticks and normal ladles and were making fun of me for taking snaps of them! The chapatis were then cut into smaller pieces for distribution and surprisingly it was readily coming off as two wafers indicating how well cooked it was!

Kaundinyapur Album

The mela/market of the kartik month along the banks of the river was quite colorful! It had many things to offer starting from snacks and drinks to all household articles like tables and knives. There were also other piligrims attending our program and also visiting were the traditional Marathi devotees doing kirtan who walk to such holy places from their villages.

My stay ended with the late afternoon prasadam on the second day as I had to catch a train from Nagpur back to Hyderabad. I wished I had more time to spend there and prayed to come again .There is a window at the Amba temple worshipped for Krishna kidnapping Rukmini through it. How I wish Krishna Kidnaps me away from this world like he did with her!

The sun was setting in the distant fields and we were travelling in a local autorickshaw braving the bumpy roads getting blocked very often by all the cattle and Bullock-carts returning home. But no ‘go-dhuli’ was raised since it was Tar roads! What significantly struck me was the rarity of buffaloes. Most of the cattle were Cows, goats and sheep. Unlike many other regions of India, a buffalo was rare to spot. It was probably due to the lack of marshy sewage water swamps found in other places or probably just the love for Cows they had! I was also surprised to find busts of Sant Tukaram built in front of some houses with a quote from his Abhangs. Fortunately many Maharastrians still love Tukaram and his Abhangas/songs even to this day.

Bhaktivedanta EcoFarm updates

I was in for a pleasant surprise today morning chatting with Rupa Goswami prabhu who takes care of the Bhaktivedanta Eco Farm at Vrindavan Dham.
It lies between Radhakund and Vrindavan, where the Demon Aghasura was killed!

Eco Farm Album

Inspite of all the difficulties they have been facing in developing the project, He has brought it to such a stage that you will fall short of words praising his service.

It was so gladenning to hear from him that now the basic building structures have been completed, they have a pure source of drinking water, a 42000litre water tank and the best of the best news, they are now producing their own vegetables. The list he mentioned was Palak, Radish, Carrot, Beetroot, Oakra, Tomato, Flat Beans, Green Peas, Bitter Gourd, Pumpkin, Eggplant, Wheat, Corn and more to come!

Besides developing this into a very Productive self sustained Eco Farm, he also has many other plans. One of them is, increasing the green cover in and around to make todays desertifying Vrindavan into a real forest like in the past!

Previously the All India Padayatra, which travels on foot across India all around the year had seen great heights in his leadership for a decade. He now struggles in this remote farm, braving the scorching summers and freezing winters of Vrndavan, to develop this project into a beautiful example of Sustainable Organic Farming!

Any help or volunteering is always welcome.
Note: I am writing this post on my own accord, without his permission as a witness to his hardwork and dedication to Govinda/Gopal, who gives pleasure to the Cows and Earth.

A wonderful partner

Many Celebrated yesterdays Unique date 11/12/13 in different ways. Some started a new business while others signed a new agreement. Another lot got married when informed by some astrologers that it was auspicious! Hyderabad itself saw more than 1000 couples tie the knot yesterday noting the unique date.

At the other corner of the city, I met my wonderful partner after a long wait, for the

first time yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised when I actually saw her the first time.She is from the Seagate family, quite cute and small and not at all obese.

Her little mono eye blinks when she is properly connected. She is quite happy with the

power given to her and doesnt ask for additional. Nor does she make fuss about the old traditional slow USB 2.0 but humbly adapts herself inspite of her capacity for high speed connection. Officially she can take upto Thousand giga bites, but she cant actually handle that much in reality.

On the negative side, she is super fragile and seems that she might fall apart if dropped just once, so she requires a lot of care and protection.

As you know we really cant trust anyone these days no matter how good they might seem, so I made sure there was a kind of agreement with her Dad. If she misbehaves without any fault on my side, she will be sent back home to return better again. And if her behaviour is way too bad, he will replace her. And this agreement he said is for 3 years. So thats not really bad, is it?

And this is how thousands of roots of the Banyan tree keep on increasing day by day, until one day you will be forced to leave it all; Better be ready with the sword of Knowledge.

The Diwali Big Bang!

BooooooMMM!!!
I was watching some kids in the neighbourhood light fire crackers. Prem was running around lighting each cracker as his little sister kept throwing one by one, onto the
road, helping him. They were enjoying bursting crackers by trying it differently each time. Then from the next street came 2 little kids, who were hardly a bit more
than toddlers. They came runninng to watch the firecrackers while playing with some torn ribbons. But the moment Prem lit each cracker, they ran away from it, plugging
their ears with their index fingers.
They were only a bit more than toddlers, what did they understand?
well, they just used mere common sense to know that an explosion of even a tiny fire cracker, would cause DESTRUCTION.
So they clearly understand that EXPLOSION causes DESTRUCTION.
But Im not sure about how much common sense todays so called scientists use. After all their pages and books of calculations, for days and nights, months and years, they conclude that the biggest explosion possible, created this perfectly fuctioning Universe.

Patriotic Killing

It was 2130 hours, on Wednesday,  on the rough road, full of gravel and potholes,five of us were driving back after an ecstatic Rathyatra. We were trying to follow the GPS on a friends smartphone as none of us knew the exact way leading to the main road, but it ultimately seemed so confusing that we decided to just use common sense. The traffic was as usual, buzzing, honking, dusty and smoky!
A truck drove in, staying just a few feet ahead of our car, when we noticed that it was loaded with sacks, filled with something. But what caught our attention was that some liquid was dripping from the truck onto the road all the way, probably seeping through the bags. On a closer look, we were horrified to see that the liquid was red! It was BLOOD!! There were also small pieces of bones sticking out here and there!!! A truck full of murdered animals!!!
Bolo Bharat Mata Ki, jay! Bolo Gandhiji ki, Jai!

A visit to Nanda Gokulam

VVVVVVVVVVVmmmmmmmmmmm.........it was a really low hum, i
looked all around the little hill, standing on the topmost crest.I stopped my hum of chanting and also tried stopping in my tracks to find out the source of the far-buzzing-low-hum.I just couldnt. I then tried concentrating more, with my ears up and eyes on the ground.
Theeeeeeere!!! The little sunken places on the rock seemed carpeted beautifully with little plants bearing flowers of different shades. And what else can you expect, the bees feasted on the nectar, collecting as much as they could, and so many bees all around all over the area was creating this low humming buzzz!
It was 6 'O' clock in the morning, with the sky scattered in bits n pieces of clouds. The soil and plants around were still wet from the rainy night.
The trees and hills in the distance seemed heavenly, with the misty look. And there was the reddish huuuggee SUN rising in the horizon, with parrots flying by in the sky, the bul-buls chatting, different birds chirping in the bushes and the calling of the peacocks in the distant trees.
I was strolling along the small rocky hill, moving each bead as i chanted on. It was a really pleasant experience at "Nanda Gokulam", a farm community around 65 Km from Hyderabad, India. This project, a brainchild of Madhav Gopinath prabhu, who is materially childless, is not just a farm community, but also a haven for a budding Gurukul with 12 kids now.
Like any village surrounded by forest n fields, even this place has wild flora and fauna, like Monitor lizards, snakes and scorpions, but the splendour of the place gave me a feel of vraja bhumi, Vrndavan, with peacocks calling every evening n morning. The kids were quite interested to learn Mrdanga, and i felt priviledged to teach a 4 year old kid also, Narayan;probably the youngest i have ever taught.LOL

An urban encounter?

It spread its hood, clearly displaying the beautiful serpentine marks of a Cobra as i tried to go nearer to it.
I could hardly believe what i saw in such a developed area, midst the concrete jungles of Hyderabad. As i looked forward towards the junction i was
heading, i saw a lady walking ahead, who kept turning around, staring at the side of the pavement. I wondered what made her turn like that so many times and gave a search-look to that place. There was a baby golden brownish snake slithering on the side of the pavement i walked on. I saw some unclear patches near its neck and felt pity thinking that it probably had gotten hurt by some passing vehicle. So i went nearer to watch it. I kept moving fine with no signs of pain or disability. I tried to go closer to have a better view of its neck. Sensing my presence getting nearer, it
unleashed its Cobra signs. There i saw a baby Cobra, with its hood spread. It wasn't longer than a foot and a half.
They aren't waterloving, i learnt, as i saw it trying to avoid the tiny pool of water on the roadside. This helped me get some respect for the forest like growth on the tiny hill near my room, the abode of Lord Venugopal. I remember how i went off the road a bit last week, to pluck some beautiful yellow flowers on my way back down the hill. I need to be a bit careful i guess next i do something like that over there.

Drunken Transgender?

"Hijras also Drink alcohol"!!! That was a really horrible discovery.
Yeah, that might not be a big deal, but since it was my first time to seeing that, i was really taken aback.
Four Drunken Hijras surrounded me yesterday night while returning home with groceries, demanding money. All of them kept showering me with their drunken blessings of watever they were blabbering, placing their palm on my head.
"Hindi? Telugu? English? Urdu?, whats your language" they asked. I said "BANGLA" calmly, trying to free my self from their tight grip. I finally gotaway, but as i walked away not wanting the blessings of the Drunken Hijras, it dawned upon me that even Hijras do drink!!!

The Transcendental fever

Sangeeth Theatre, Sec'bad.
11th June, Saturday 2012 5:00 Pm
She stood high up on a platform, not by her pride but where the masses put her, with her strong hearted frail body bent down, more due to humility than age.
It was a statue of Mother Teresa, well known for her service to humanity, at a triangular junction on the way to Sangeeth theatre, Secunderabad. I walked on watching her hands stretched forward to bless people, following the straight road from the Railway station to the ISKCON temple at Sec'bad.
I was wondering if the same security guard at the temple was still there, whom i had befriended, when i had been there 3-4 weeks ago for the first time ever. As i got nearer to the temple, halting at the traffic signals, i became friends with the traffic police this time. He was quite eager to know what ISKCON is all about and why some well educated and highly paid people he knew quit their jobs to 'join' Iskcon. As I excused myself to walk ahead to the temple, he promised to buy himself a copy of the Science of Self Realization, by Srila Prabhupad.
The temple here is really quite small and undisturbed by the buzzing world around. But as I took darshan of little Radha Gopinath, it really felt, that though this is a very small temple, Srila prabhupads centres are truly oases in a world like this.
However the curtains of Jagannath were down because he was enjoying his transcendental 'FEVER' behind the curtains, which he got due to being bathed too much by his devotees out of love. I spent my time chanting and looking around the temple as i saw the 3 men team of Saturday Nagarsankirtan go out and return. I stayed for the Gaura arati and returned home by nightfall.

The supreme power house

'OH Goddd, there was a powercut for 3 1/2 hours at night today, i just couldn't sleep. I was soaking wet in this summer.'
Iv been hearing that quite many times these days from colleagues at office.

But I'm really lucky, because that isn't the case with my nights. And how is that? I don't depend on the local power supplies to sleep at night. I get supplies of cool breezes all night, from HIM, who is the ultimate source of all power houses. He never runs out of supply.

The roof of my room is extended towards the staircase, creating a little open shed.
When i go home every night, i sprinkle enough water on that area and by the time i finish cooking and having dinner, it is ready for the night.
 I prepare my bed, put up the mosquito net and happily go to sleep with cool breezes flowing all night; no power cuts and no disturbances.

Even waking up is easy with the birds chirping, the sky growing brighter, sounds of the milk men and sounds of the construction workers.
 The day starts with Darshan of Tulasi devi, whos just beside the bed, at my head. Its been more than a month and a half like this.

Gurudev kripa bindu diya

I took one glance at Lord Nrsimhadevs smiling pic, bedecked in the window frame visible from the doorway, for his protection before turning the key to lock the door. While i walked away i started praying to him to keep me safe n alive till i return back. "NO, NO, not necessary" i thought. So I restructured the prayer and said "my lord, keep me safe and alive till i see my Guru Maharaj today". Little did i know then what amount of treasure lay ahead for me. I would be celebrating my Gurumaharaj's Vyasapuja on the day of Ram Navami. Did i dream of this day? I wondered many times before if i would ever be able to get close to serving him like i did a few years ago, all alone with him, no one else around to serve him? He is always with lots of assistants around guarding and caring for him, Would i ever be able to get back that lucky day? But he showered more mercy than i even could imagine, he let me do more service than ever before. ~
"Dont go anywhere, stay with him!" said one of Guru maharaj's assistant referring to the other assistant with Gurudev, who was preparing Gurudev for his bath.
Took off the black rubber band and untied the long golden flowy shikha, let it down to flow while bathing him.
The same lotus feet for which thousands throng to have a glance and touch,Washed those lotus feet with my hands, soaped&scrubbed n washed&dried.
Touched n bathed the same body which travels around the world tirelessly preaching and liberating thousands, overloading the boat of Srila Prabhupad with
more n more souls from this horrible world.
I consider myself more lucky than those devotees of lord Shiva who follow different rituals and vows waiting for the day to bathe lord Shiva, pouring holy
waters of Ganges on his head, because i got a greater opportunity;he represents God himself!!! And it is the same head that touched and bowed down to the lotus
feet of Srila Prabhupad.
"WHAT IS YOUR NAME?...WHAT DO YOU DO?...WHAT LANGUAGE?... DO YOU KNOW JAVA?...ONE DEVOTEE WAS PREPARING A JAVA APPLICATION FOR PREACHING ON FACEBOOK, IT IS HALF DONE, BUT HE NEEDS A PROFESSIONAL TO COMPLETE IT..."
WHAT DO YOU SPEAK, BENGALI? ENGLISH?...JOL DAO, JOL, WATER"
When i came to Hitech City railway station, could lord Bramha tell me that this awaited me?
Boarded the train, people looked at me strangely at the railway station and the train too beholding the Indian attire of dhoti n kurta. The trio sitting on the train beside n in front of me gave me the same weird looks but started speaking up. The ice hardened instead of breaking unlike my expectation, bcos they assumed i was a priest whom they could hire for the inauguration rituals on Ram Navami. But my one worded-back-turning answers disappointed them and silenced them bcos every priest they tried for the next day was already on some appointment.
They fell back to conversing to themselves and i relaxed and murmured a few more mahamantras on my counter.
Walk left or walk right? I was at Nampally station, had to reach the temple on "nampally station road"! Was walking towards the right, as directed by a truck
driver. "How do i go to Pulla reddy sweets?" i asked. "Keep walking this way and you will find it right in front of the Hare Krishna temple" he said. Should i start laughing or just look like a fool to myself because i had asked him that question to find the hare Krishna temple itself! So i just kept walking towards my destination smiling to myself.