Himalayan Odyssey

When things happen without much planning and when you get so much without asking, it is a miracle. Things just falling in place without much effort on our part was too good to ask for.

After attending the Inner Engineering program of the Isha Foundation, we were eligible for their advanced programs and more importantly, the Dhyanyatra which happens once in two years and for us it was just two months away. I somehow felt that we have to do it, though we had very minimum interaction with Isha till then. The fact that it will turn out to be an experience of lifetime was a very pleasant surprise. The beauty of the Himalayas and the overall experience provided by the Isha team, was much more than anyone could have asked for.

Our journey started from Delhi. We were hundred people in our batch, traveling in four buses. In the Uttaranchal, only small buses are allowed, 27 seater. Our first halt was at Haridwar. Though we started at 5.30 pm and the distance is only 200kms, we finally reached past 12 at Haridwar. Though it was that late, our cook team patiently served us the delicious food. We were to assemble in the morning for breakfast and then the meeting for the next part of the journey. The best part of this whole session was that we would not be told about the next days program till that day. So, though there was always the question as to where we are going, finally it disappeared and we were just like kids being taken wherever the parents decide to without knowing much as to what is there, how do we go etc. After breakfast we were told that we are going to go to Guptkashi. There is a Vishwanath temple at Guptakashi where Sadguru came with his disciples in his past life and did sadhana for the process of consecration of the Dhyan linga. This journey is of 233 kms. Though the distance is so less, it takes almost the whole day to reach the place. It is at a height of 6000 feet. We reached there at around 8 in the evening. We were to be here only for the night halt. After the tea and dinner, we assembled where a video of Sadguru was shown. Here, he talks about the significance of Kedarnath where we were to go next day. He told about the differences in the temples in south and north. Though the temples in north do not have big rituals etc, they are very powerful and lots of sages have done sadhana for years together in these places. He told that the Himalayas are not just the mountains, they are very powerful, because of so many sages having spent their years doing sadhana there. Kedarnath is in the Himalayas , around 3584 m above sea level.

For going to Kedarnath, we have to come to GauriKund which is the base till where there is road. From there, one has to trek 14kms to reach the temple. One can either walk but then there are horses, porters to help us. We were all determined to walk all the way. Our luggage was to be deposited to be taken by the horses. The beginning of walk on the gradient starts tiring you immediately. All the enthusiasm may start to die immediately, but the thing is one has to keep going taking rest in between, taking enough liquids etc. In our group, there were a mix of people. Some people were really fast, very athletic. Others like us were little slow but consistent and enthusiastic. There was a category which is out of this world. The Swamis. They were climbing as if they were walking in the garden. I envied them and I wished all the time when I will be in that state. They are capable of doing this trek four times in the time that I will be able to do once. I am sure I will be in that state sometime. The river Mandakini was giving us company all along flowing with full force. The river water at different places on the way was very refreshing. We walked for seven kms and it was 2.30 pm. We were given packed lunch with us. But somehow there was a feeling that the lunch would make it difficult to walk at the same speed as we were doing now. We had some lemon water at RaamWaada. The price of the cool drinks , water or anything for that matter increases in proportion to the height of the place. The maximum we paid for the Nimbu Paani (lemonade) was 9 Rs. and minimum was 3 Rs. Here we were at half the distance. We had covered 7 kms till now. The path is very well laid out. the pathway is wide enough. At this point we were told by the very caring swamis that if you walk at this speed, you will reach but it may not be good if the weather changes for the worse. It seems sometimes even at 3pm, it may become dark and then it will become suddenly very cold. It may even rain sometime. We had to make a hard decision. Though I was tired, I wanted to trek the whole way. But given this condition and the fact that horses may not be available easily after this point, we decided to take a horse. Normally, one person will be managing two horses. So, myself and Vinod were on these two horses manned by a boy hardly of 12 year. And this was no fun. Infact, horse ride is not at all a joy ride. I wanted to get down many a times and just walk in spite of the conditions but time was not on our side. We covered seven kms in 2 hours whereas we walked for 4 hours to cover it by walk. We could see the snow capped mountains from quite a distance. On reaching the place, seeing the same from a very close distance was breathtaking. It was around 5.30 in the evening and the temperature was quite low. From nothing, we had almost all the winter gear on ourselves. It was quite chill.

It was Aarti time and after tea, we spent time at the temple during the Aarti and then browsed through the market lane. Most of the shops have the small TVs showing the CD of the pilgrimage in the Himalayas. The shops were full of pooja material and other similar stuff. Some of the shops were also selling the woolen stuff mainly shawls.

This place opens during the summer and it remains open till october end or so. During the winter, it completely remains closed. Army people take turns to guard the temple premises. All the villagers go down to warmer villages and come back only when the temple reopens. There are only very few lodges here. Not very sophisticated, very basic places. The hot water can be requested which they provide in the buckets. It has to be used immediately or you are left with the cold water only. We were not planning to stay there for more than one night so we did not have to bother about these problems but ofcourse these should not be bigger problems as compared to the whole experience of the place.

Next day morning, we all went to the temple. Our group was allowed to do special puja at the temple. Before that, we all assembled in the temple premises and as the puja was going on inside the temple, we were told to chant a mantra. That was really powerful. We were spectators, for the first time, to some interesting things. The people who are with Isha for longer time were going in different states of trance. Inside the sanctum sanctorum, there is a piece of rock instead of the actual lingam shaped stone. We were infact allowed to touch it and offer our prayers individually. Lot of people could experience the power of the place first hand. We were just spectators of this event along with lot of local people who were equally mesmerised. We spent some time meditating in the campus premises. There is a legend that Adi Shankaracharya disappeared in the Himalayas here. There is structure showing his shaft and the stick signifying this. Around this place also, we sat chanting the shiva mantra and again it was very powerful for many people. Intoxicated with all these beautiful experiences, we came back to the hotel, had our breakfast and after a small meditation exercise near the river where Sadguru used to conduct satsangs whenever he used to come with the group, we left the place to go back to the base of the Kedarnath, Gaurikund. We were told that climbing down would be very difficult as the steep climb down will be very taxing for the knees. On top of it we had left our sticks when we took the horses while climbing up. We were very enthusiastic about the whole thing and wanted to climb down as there was no limitation of the time this time. We made it in six hours and had a sense of achievement. Taking even one step was difficult at this time. The hot lunch was waiting for us and we were really hungry and it was really needed that time. But the next two days we will be walking in this state was what I had not expected. It was really funny sight. But except for the swamis and few other people, everyone was in the same state, so there was no feeling of being out of place.

Next two days there was no trekking, that was announced to us and we were really relieved to hear that. From Gaurikund, we traveled back to Guptkashi, we reached there by evening, this time we checked into a different hotel. After hot tea and freshening up, we were to go to the temple at Guptkashi. This is the temple where Sadguru had performed sadhana in his previous life for the consecration of the Dhyanlinga. This is supposed to be a very powerful place. We all did meditation there for half an hour or so. Then we came back, had our dinner. Over dinner, we had discussion with our friend, over what exactly is this process all about which makes people go into such interesting states of experiences to which we have been mere spectators. This friend of ours also had been through many interesting experiences of this kind.

Next day Sadguru was to meet all of us for a satsang at Guptkashi temple. We went to the temple in the morning, to be told that we have to pack our things and travel that day to some place called Pipalkoti. For lunch we stopped at a place 30 kms before Pipalkoti, there we had a surprise. While we were waiting for lunch there, Sadguru came there in his car. He had lunch with us. Then we came to know that previous night he suffered because of food poisoning and so could not make it to Guptakashi in time. He had driven 1300 kms to meet all of us and was to go back next day after meeting the second batch at Badrinath. We had 5 hour satsang with Sadguru at Pipalkoti. We did not realize how five hours flew off. The session was so interesting. Sadguru’ answers would include many stories which are most of the time very esoteric. Things which we have never heard of, very convincing and logical answers and at the same time esoteric. While the satsang was going on, many people were experiencing that higher states of energy and we were again spectators to this event. His mere presence was putting people into a higher state of presence. Interestingly, though we did not ask any questions, many of our questions which we also discussed previous night, were answered by Sadguru during the Satsang.

Next day morning we traveled to Badrinath. It was around 5-6 hours drive and we were there by lunch time. We checked into the hotel, had lunch and we had time till evening. Badrinath is situated at the banks of the Alakhnanda river. It is the abode of Lord Vishnu. For Badrinath, there is no trekking involved. Bus goes till very near the temple. That is not much fun, but in that condition of our legs, we could make use of the time by visiting places which did not involve use of legs. One very interesting aspect of the Badrinath temple is the Tapt kund, or the hot water springs there. At such height, having hot water pool is a godsend. One could take bath in this unlimited hot water and I enjoyed it very much. After that, we went to the temple premises, performed pooja. It was pretty cold by now, must be 5 degrees celsius or so. That night, everyone sang around the bonfire and it was a good change. Next day morning, we all were to go to the temple together. There is ample space around the temple, we all sat there and chanted the mantra told by the Swamis. This time, I felt something about the whole place. It felt very different and kind of a glimpse of something extraordinary. I wished to be in that state forever. Soon after we were to start back for Pipalkoti. Though it was not in the schedule, Sadguru wanted us to go to Auli which is on the way to Pipalkoti and enjoy the cable car ride. The cable car at Auli is the highest and longest one in Asia. We were all very excited about this possibility. The cable car ride was excellent. On the top, it was quite chill and we could see the Nandadevi peak, the second highest peak after mount everest. It was wonderful. The ride up was through deep forest and vegetation changed depending on the height. There were oak trees, Christmas trees, chestnut trees and some apple orchards at lower heights. There is a skiing resort at Auli. In the winters, there is 8-10 feet snow in this area at a good height and it is a major tourist attraction for skiing at this time. It was a day very well spent. We came back to Pipalkoti in the night.

We were again looking forward for some trekking as our legs were getting back into shape. We were no longer walking sideways. It was without any treatment, not even applying any ointment or something.
For going to Gangotri from Pipalkoti is very long journey. We were in the bus for the whole day, stopped for lunch and then back to bus. It was a very scenic journey though. And in the mountains, it never felt that long. In the night we reached Uttarkashi. Next day morning, we were to start at 5.30 in the morning to Gangotri. This region is more prone to landslides and also mountain cutting is going on. As a result, getting stuck is very much a possibility. This is what happened with us. Our cooking team which leaves around 2 hours earlier had to wait for a long time due to the landslide. As a result, by the time we reached this place, where we were supposed to take our breakfast, they had just started to make breakfast. By the time we reached Gangotri, it was noon. Our plan was not to stop at Gangotri. Our destination was Gomukh. For that, there is a 14 km trek to Bhojwas and then another 5 km trek to Gomukh. We were to halt at Bhojwas for two nights, that is at a height of 4000 ft, maximum height that we covered in this tour. This trek can be covered on horses, but to our surprise there were no horses available on that day as Hema Malini and her team had come and taken all the horses. So it was a major chaos. Many people were fully depending on horses. And it was an issue whether everyone who is interested in walking also can make it to the top in time as the weather may suddenly change for worse. Sometimes, it becomes dark even at 3 pm and then it is suddenly very cold which makes climbing very difficult. I knew I cannot make it in 4 hours or even 6 hours but if weather is on our side, I wanted to walk. I did not want to delay it till next day as I would miss going to Gomukh . Finally, we decided to go, I knew that we are not alone and we can make it. We were really lucky. Not only that the sun was there till 5.30 pm, it was a full moon night. I can’t imagine if I will get that chance again, but it was heavenly walking amidst the moon lit snow capped mountains. I made it at 7.20 pm, was amongst the last few to come. I was really happy to have made it. Many people got the horses in between and they reached quite early. The trek to Bhojwas was not as difficult as Kedarnath, the gradient was very less, only the distance was the main concern. But the path is not as well laid out as in Kedarnath, it is much narrow at many places and there is a risk of stones falling on the path from the top as the soil is very loose. In the last one kilometer stretch, there is no path, I was surprised to see that while coming back. While going, it was only moonlight and torch light, but only in the broad daylight, I realised I walked through it without thinking twice previous night. It was sure determination that made me go through it without much problem I guess. Going on such narrow road on horses is much more dangerous. It is very scary to go on horses when you cannot see that there is proper way. Another plus was we were to live in the tents. I love living in the tents, I would have loved the whole exercise of putting up tents etc, but it was all done for us. At Bhojwas, there are only two buildings as of now. And very few rooms. So, for a bigger group, tents are put. It was so chill in the night that I could not get sleep inspite of being in so many layers of winter clothing. Next day, we were to start for Gomukh at 7.30 in the morning. That was only 5 km trek. And not a very difficult one. Here too, there is no proper trek route laid out. It is more rubble like. The porters know it very well and the best thing is to hire one porter and follow them. We could get one Nepali porter from Gangotri itself who was with us for this trek also. Gomukh is the place where river Ganga originates. Earlier, it was the size of a cows mouth that is why the name but now it is almost 24 feet wide. It is a glacier actually, one can see big blocks of ice having fallen at multiple places there. We were very near to that place and it was wonderful. Water was ice cold and we saw many people taking bath there. I was wondering how! Seeing the Ganges in its purest form was an experience in itself. One could spend as much time there as one wanted. Though the sun was there, at that height, it was quite chill. Tapovan is a place some 5 kms further from there. The trek there is much more difficult, too many ups and down and no proper way. Only very few people from our batch who were really fit were allowed to go there. There is nothing there, but still few saints live there and do meditation. People have been coming here and doing sadhana since ages and that is why this place is considered as really powerful. Our group people who went there met one lady from West Bengal who has been staying there for few months. She said she lives on whatever people who come there provide. She told an incident wherein once she was not left with anything at all. She said she does not bother about these situations as she has completely surrendered. She said if you are in that state, nature takes care of the things. And it so happened that next day a big group of army people came there on there way to some other place. They used her place for cooking their stuff and things like that and when leaving, left lot of grains and other things for her. She said life is like that only.
We came back from Gomukh by afternoon. Many people who had stayed back at Gangotri came that day to Bhojvas. We were to stay at Bhojvas on that night also. We burnt the bonfire that night and sang some bhajans. Next morning, there was a very delicious heavy breakfast for us. We were to start from there at 7 in the morning to track back to Gangotri. This time again, going back, there was no worry of going fast and reaching at particular time so we went back enjoying the nature. Trees and mountains and the flowing river was really refreshing. We took six hours to reach the bottom. Many people went in only 4.5 hours or so.

After a quick lunch we started back. We had to hurry as night travel in the mountain region is not permitted. We had to stop as there was some mountain cutting going on. Almost for half an hour we had to wait there. We reached back at Uttarkashi in the night. Our yatra was coming to an end. Next morning we went to the Uttarkashi temple. This temple is the temple of Shiva. We meditated there for half an hour or so. I could feel the powerful vibrations of that temple and suddenly felt very light, almost like body not existing ! After the breakfast, we started for our final journey to Haridwar via Rishikesh. We reached Rishikesh by 3 in the afternoon. The river there was flowing with so much force, it was an experience to watch it. I wished I was carrying extra pair of clothes. Then I could have taken bath in the river. We also heard Sadguru’ satsang’ video in the hall there in which he tells the importance of Ganges. As always, he always gives so much of information which is not easy to come by otherwise. After that, some swamis at Rishikesh performed the puja of Ganges for the whole group. Then around 7 in the evening , we left the place for Haridwar. Now, we were at the same place from where we started our journey. Everyone was so contented and happy and it was time for celebration. We went to river in the night at Har Ki paudi. The place never closes. It was very active in the night at 11 also. I wished it was cleaner. After seeing Ganges in its purest form, coming here and seeing the same river in this state was not palatable. But it was so. We left soon as there was not much to do. Next day, we could spend the day as we wished. We went around Haridwar market, went to few temples there. We had to do some reservations and found a internet cafe where we could do all the reservations without any hassle. In the evening, we all gathered for Guru Pooja, the last activity with the group. The buses were to leave for Delhi early morning. We had to leave soon after Gurupuja as we had made our train booking for Kalka in the night train. We managed to reach station in time but had to wait there as the train came late by an hour or so. Train was getting more late on the way also, good for us as we could get good sleep in the night rather than reaching early and waiting at the station. There is no direct train to Kalka from Haridwar, one has to change at Ambala. We did not have to wait much at Ambala, got an express train to Kalka and we were in Kalka at 6 am.

That was the end of the most beautiful journey I have taken in life; to be cherished forever. Some pictures of the journey are kept Here

Visit to South India Part II

There is so much really to discover in India. It is big country, so much of variety of cultures, traditions, people that you are always learning something new.

After our pilgrimage(?) to temples in south India near Kumbakonam, we went to Pondicherry for a day. Pondicherry is some 30 kms from Cuddalore. We reached Cuddalore in the night and decided to stay there and go to Pondicherry next day. There are plenty of buses plying every 15 minutes or so between these two places. In Pondicherry, we went to Botanical garden first. It is a huge garden but on our own, we could not really figure out the variety of flora there. I also felt the garden could have been better maintained. We hired an auto till evening. We went to Auroville village which is on the outskirts of the city. It took almost half an hour from the city center to go there. Auroville is spread over a huge area. They run  electric vehicles from the entrance to the center. It is a very quiet place. Lot of people had come to visit the place. The most noticable thing about Auroville is its architecture. Everything, from main building, meditation hall, the gardens, the restrooms, everything speaks of simplicity and beauty. There are so few such examples of such marvellous architecture that I have come across. Especially, all the new buildings are glass houses and so similar to one another that it is quite boring to watch the cities growing like this.  All the construction was merging with the surroundings just perfectly. Simple and yet perfect. Everything had a very earthy touch. The boutique also had some of the finest design stuff. The meditation hall which is a little away is another masterpiece. At this time, it was under renovation. There is a huge banyan tree near the meditation hall. It reminded me of the banyan tree in the JK foundation in Chennai. Banyan tree in Indian Mythology has always been associated with spiritualism. Gautama Buddha had also attained moksha under a Banyan tree. It looks and it is so protective, it can take everyone under its shadow and birds prefer it most for making the nests. It pains when I remember how many banyan trees were sacrificed in Pune for the road widening projects. Walking is not that pleasant now on those roads !! Auroville is the place one should spend lot of time at. It is full of positive energy and one should take advantage of this aspect by spending sufficient time in its lap. The beach near the Auroville is not that clean but definitely welcome.

We left for Chennai at around 8 pm. We took the bus from Cuddalore as we had to vacate the hotel. One can also take from Pondicherry as it is on the route and there are plenty of options from Pondicherry as well. The bus goes on the ECR route. The road is superb. Two by two road, not much traffic and the ride was really smooth. Only negative point was that we reached pretty late in the night and it was a little inconvenient for our friends. We sat talking for quite some time into the night and did not realize that we will spending the whole of next day relaxing at home only. Our friends’ kid Madhu and her cousin were wondering why are we sleeping so much. They were so eager to meet us as they were sleeping when we came in and it was difficult for them to realize why we did not get up in time . Maybe we were the first guests they had come across sleeping shamelessly through the day.

We planned to go to Mahabalipuram and nearby places next day. June is not the right time to be in Madras. The heat makes you very uncomfortable. We left very early in the morning to avoid traveling in the heat. Got to see the first sun rise at the beach. Till now, we had witnessed only sunset at the beaches. Then we proceeded towards Mahabalipuram. It is some 50 kms only on the ECR route. By the time the sun was in its full glory. We visited the temple, the beach and had a hearty breakfast in the hotel there. Mahabalipuram is famous for its rock carvings. Huge monolithic stones are converted into beautiful carvings. The carvings show the stories from Indian mythology. Though some of them are damaged, most of them are intact and simply superb. A huge elephant in the center of the place carved out of stone gets one’ attention first. We had real good time with Madhu posing for some beautiful photographs and also sometimes refusing to let us photograph her.

We left Mahabalipuram towards Chennai. On the way we planned to go to Croc park and Dakshin Yatra, a beautiful place for getting an indepth idea of culture of southern India. Croc park is place for crocodiles. Croc park is one of its kind in India and is spread over a large area. Got to see a large variety of crocodiles in the park. There was also a huge aquarium, which had some different types of tortoises.

When we reached Dakshin Yatra, it was late in the afternoon. There is a facility for lunch inside, it was buffet lunch. There was so much variety of food, we all ate a hearty meal. The place is set in a very big area. India’ southern states Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh are depicted in a very great detail. The cultures of these places, the traditional houses, granaries, the art, the food and many other details. It was first time we got to see these details. Every state in turn has lot of cultures specific to places there like Chettinad in TamilNadu. All these were very beautifully depicted at this place. This activity takes one full day, we did not do full justice by spending only few hours. One can take part in sessions organised throughout the day at specific timings. We got to see only the puppet show.

Chennai has lot to offer for the tourists. Next day we went to Mylapore temple which is a very ancient temple. Our friend insisted that we see this place. This temple reminded us of Kumbakonam as there was a huge water tank near the temple. The tank had lot of fishes and fishing was not allowed here. People would feed the fishes and it was a beautiful sight of a huge group of fishes coming together to get the share of the feed. Mylapore has its own charm. We went to a book shop specializing in Indology, and we found a great wealth of books there. It was a one stop shop for books on philosophy, religion and similar stuff. In the afternoon, after a hearty meal at home, we left back for Pune. Chennai was a good break, with a lot still to discover in the city. Here are some pictures of the visit to Pondicherry and Madras.

Temples of South India

Only religious people visit temples. But that is religiously. But who do not go religiously may not be religious. I am not temple person. I love the atmosphere of the temples, but I would not go there on special days or for giving a request to fulfill my wishes. But it did come as a surprise to me when destiny decided for me to visit the ancient temples of south India.

There is a science of astrology called Nadi Astrology. The complete present and future of each person destined to visit the Nadi readers is written on palm leaves and not in recent times but some 2000 years ago by different Rishis(saints) of India. We came across this some three years back. It is not publicised. And we were surprised that we got the appointment only one month later. Inspite of living in places where this is happening for years together, we came to know about it only now and I do not know how it is possible. This unfolding of reality at a time when it is most appropriate or when you are ready for it, basically there is some purpose in it. Anyway.

The process of finding your record/leaf is very interesting. They only take your thumb impression. And based on the pattern on the impression, they identify the bundles of palm leaves. Then starting with one bundle, they start to verify the information on each leaf. One has to respond in either “yes”, “no” or “I don’t know”. You do not give any information about yourself. The questions are like “your father’s name starts with so and so ” or “you have these many brothers and sisters” etc. It is more related to these personal details. What is written in the leaf is about a person’ complete family profile. Name, father’ name, sisters, brothers, education, marriage etc. If the information does not match for any question, the reader goes to the next leaf and the process continues till your leaf is found. It seems like a miracle when you see everything about you written on that leaf, size of 2 inch by 12 inch. The information like the names of your parents, the name of your spouse is also there. When we experienced for the first time, it was quite unbelievable. After these basic facts which identify it is indeed you, gist of your future is given. At different stages of life, what significant things will happen in your life; like shifting to a new place, disease, accidents, education of kids, health of parents etc.

Besides the basic record(kandam), there are records which tell about specific things like marriage, home, job, diseases. They are in much more detail about that specific subject. There is a specific record which tell you what you should do to take care of the mistakes done in the previous lifetime. I know it all sounds very absurd, but sometimes things come to you in such a fashion, that it baffles you to no end. We do hear about this concept and have never believed it, and this record is telling you your name and place of birth and what you were in your previous life. And it all sounds like a story but one also wonders why someone had to write all these things about all beings.

We were checking Vinod’ record and in his record of the remedial actions to be taken for the wrongs done in the previous life, we had to visit some temples in the south India. Initially, there was lot of hesitation but then I thought this is the opportunity to visit south India and discover a new terrain. There were some five temples to be visited. And it had to be done in the order in which it was mentioned. The first was Tirupati. It is most famous temple of India. Every Indian wishes to go to the temple. It is also one of the richest temples. We made the base as Bangalore. Tirupati is 240kms from there. Good volvo buses for Tirupati are there from Bangalore. They take about 6 hours to reach. The temple is on a hilltop which is another 20kms from Tirupati town. There are regular buses and taxis to go to the hilltop. If you are looking for a proper hotel, then private hotels should be taken at Tirupati only. There are many good private hotels in Tirupati. Once you go to Tirumala, you can get basic accomodation but prior booking may be required as there is a hige rush of the devotees throughout the year.

The route to Tirumala is very picturesque. It goes through the forest area and starts becoming cooler gradually. On the top, everything is very well organized. The waiting halls are huge, having the basic facilities. The lockers are provided in plenty. One can take their own lock. This saves the time and also the administration overhead. One can borrow the mats to sit/lie down. Though there are such a huge number of devotees coming and leaving the place, everyone looks very joyful and content to have made to this place. People have lot of faith in this place and believe that anything asked for gets fulfilled.

There are different types of Pujas and Abhisheks that are performed here. One has to take the token in advance to be able to perform them. Sometimes, people have to wait for 3-4 days also. There are certain pujas which do not require any advanced booking. The puja that we had to perform did not require any previous booking. One has to collect the token in the evening for the early morning puja. This is the first puja of the day in the temple premises. The waiting period in the queue is more than an hour. This puja is called Angpradakshina. And one hardly gets the glimpse of the deity in the temple as the queue is made to move at a very brisk pace. Otherwise, they just cannot manage the number of people. When we came out, the daylight was breaking. It was very pleasant to see all the devotees very happy though nobody would have slept the whole night. We came down to Tirupati, took some rest in the hotel and took the afternoon bus back to Bangalore.

Our next destination was Kumbakonam. There is a direct train from Bangalore to this place. Later we came to know that there is a AC volvo bus also run by KSRTC between Bangalore and Kumbakonam. Kumbakonam is a small town in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. Every 12 years, a famous festival call Mahamaham festival is organized here. It has a huge and beautiful Mahamaham tank in the center of the city. These tanks are build in a beautiful manner. All the four sides of the tanks have a temple structures normally white in color and it looks awesome.

The temples that we were to visit were around Kumbakonam. Middle of June and it was really hot there. The train reaches early in the morning. After checking into the hotel and finishing our breakfast, we booked an ambassador with a tamil driver. The possibility of getting a person who can speak hindi/english is very grim. The temple we had to visit was some 40km away from Kumbakonam. The place is called Suryanarkoil. We got an ambassador taxi, it was quite comfortable. This time, my mother was also with us. It happened by chance and I was happy she will get to see these places which is otherwise a very remote possibility. This temple we reached around noon. We met the pujari and told about the puja that is to be performed there. He made the arrangement and did it for us. The temple was not crowded. It is a very old temple and all the rituals are performed daily. There was one very old pujari also in the temple. After the puja we were to feed meals to 10 poor people. Someone in the premises agreed to get the meals packed and we could finish this very fast. Temples close in the afternoon and they reopen only in the evening. So we had to plan something else. In the map we found that Pondicherry was only 100 kms away from the place we were in. So without proper planning, we headed for Pondicherry. The roads were good so we reached there very fast. We had our lunch there in a hotel facing the sea. Sat watching the sea for sometime and then after moving around a little, started back.
The architecture of the buildings, churches etc is really interesting. There is a french touch to many buildings and hotels. Would love to come and spend some time leisurely at this place.

On the way back we went to Chidambaram temple. It was around 6.30 pm in the evening. It was Aarti time. The temple was full of people. And it was a very beautiful sight. This temple is very famous for its architecture also. Temple has four towering gopurams on four entrances. These gopurams depict the different 108 poses of BharatNatyam. These Gopurams themselves are very tall, some 265 feet in height. And besides the dance poses, they depict many mythological stories. There is a belief that all the saints come to rest in the temple premises in the night and leave as the dawn approaches. So it must be a very powerful place. It is believed that the entire pantheon of divine figures in the Hindu system of beliefs is present during some of the worships that are carried out in the temple premises.

After browsing through the shops for sometime and having hot cup of tea there, we left this place. We were to go back to Kumbakonam directly. It was very eventful day of some planned and rest unplanned activities. That happens usually with us. On the way to Kumbakonam, some 22 kms from Chidambaram is a town by name of Vaitheeswaran Koil. We werenot aware that we will be passing through the town which is the place where the Nadi reading is the main profession. This is the place where most of the people have been in this profession traditionally for many generations.Every shop is for that only. It was really interesting to have come to this town while doing something related to your own Nadi reading.

My mother was interested in reading her Nadi and though it was 9 pm in the night, our taxi driver said it is possible as he knows some people. We went inside this place and after he took the thumb impression and got the first set of leaves, he got the record very fast. He was in real hurry and I do not know if he had some other powers also to guess the details, he conducted the whole session in a not very nice manner. Anyway, maybe that had to happen for being able to question Nadi Shastra itself. My mother was not very happy either, she does not know her date of birth and according to the records it was in monsoon time though her mother has told her it was in summer. But one good thing it told about her is that this is going to be her last birth. I am sure this made my mother very happy. We had some snacks for dinner on the way and finally arrived in Kumbakonam after such an eventful day.

Next day we had to cover rest of the three temples. Had to plan properly for that. We did start early but had one task to finish before we could proceed to temples which were again some 30kms away. My mother’ ticket had to be booked by the evening train. She had to go to Bangalore back. We had to go to Chennai but we did not know how and I did not want my mother to travel in the state transport buses. Luckily, we found that the ticket till Mysore was available, though the Bangalore quota was full. Now we could go with peaceful mind. The temple was at place called Alangudi, it is famous for the Guru temple.  The temples for all the different planets are in the same premises and one has to perform the puja in all of these and in the end, take pradakshina of the temple nine times. This temple is also a very ancient temple and there was lot of rush in the morning. After the puja, we had to feed poor people. This time, our taxi driver did that job of packing the meals while we were inside the temple, thus saving us some time. Then we went to the Thirukavukavoor temple. Here there is temple around a big banyan tree and it was mentioned in the nadi chapter that we have to go to this temple and do the particular puja there. Later we came to know that this puja is done by the people who want to have children but have some problems. Though this was not our desire, destiny wanted us to come here and I do not understand why. Anyway, we left that place after the puja. We had to wait till 4 before going to the next temple as it was afternoon. Though we could not really communicate with our taxi driver because he only spoke Tamil which we could not even understand, his knowledge about the place in general helped us to do useful stuff. He informed us that you can go to the Thanjavur palace which also housed a very ancient library called Saraswathi Mahal library. And it was really good place to spend some time in. The palace has quite a few art galleries showcasing  bronze artifacts, stone artifacts and very good paintings on the wall. They were still so vibrant. The library is one of its kind having very old manuscripts written on the palm leaves also being part of it. Many people are doing research in those manuscripts and lot of translation work is going on. They publish lot of papers and books. Anyone interested in the ancient india and indological studies, this is a authentic place to get the material. In the evening, we made it in time at the Shiva-Parvati temple where we had to perform puja at both these temples. We kind of did it in hurry as we had to reach railway station in time. Luckily, we were carrying our luggage with us, that saved us some time.

Looking back, it still feels like a story that we visited Kumbakonam only to visit some temples. No, not me ! Though it was all so beautiful, I guess I am not evolved as much to really experience the power of the temples. I would love to be in that state and then enjoy the ecstasy of the devotion if at all such a thing exists.