We know so many kinds of Periyava devotees. One category is something we always envy about – the ones who know what “surrender” means. They have surrendered to Paramathma. To them nothing else matters. They think about Periyava 24×7. They talk to Him, they cry to Him, they pray even for smallest thing to get done (including servant maid problems etc).  Recently, as part of Maharudram event in Chicago, a swamiji from Hawaii, who learnt vedanta under HH Dayanandha Saraswathi Swamigal, talked about Rudra, where He was telling that we should bring Iswara into our day to day life as much as possible – even for smallest things….That is the only way we can start not to just believe but to practice ego-less karmas. While I can quote so many people in that category, I want to call out Smt Vidhya Srinivasan, who lives here in Cupertino, CA. She lives and breathes Periyava – she knows nothing other than Periyava. Every time when I talk to her, I get reminded on how much I have to grow my bakthi!

Smt Vidya Srinivasan is the mother of Swetha who did a wonderful drawing of Mahaperiyava (here is the link). I got introduced to Smt Vidya through her daughter. While talking to her, I was amazed to know the life she leads. While being a mother of 2 kids, taking care of the family etc, she is also spending most of her time in reading/listening to idikasa, purana, vedanta contents only – in her own words “a hermit’s life”. Based on what I know, she even does cooking based on what Periyava “tells” her. The beauty is Periyava responds to each and every query – including lunch menu!!! Only those who surrenders completely can listen to those feedbacks…She narrated me several incidents where Periyava gave anugraham instantly. She was longing to see Periyava padhukas for a long time. She went and prayed one day to Periyava to bless them with an opportunity to have a darshan of Padhukas. On the same day, she got a call where they were invited to attend Padhuka Abishekam at someone’s place nearby! As a bonus, they got an opportunity to have an abishekam done at their house also eventually!

Her husband (Sri Srinivasan) is equally devoted and he is lot interested in vedas…He is active in Scribd, where he has shared lots of great articles – I follow him there! They both are a well-known couple in the periyava satsang world in the bay area. They conduct lots of events at their place. Few months back, she thought of bringing kids, adults together and give some lectures. Although I don’t remember exact sequences of incidents, finally it turned out to be stories from Baghavatham. I talked to her after she finished one or two sessions and I suggested her two things (1) record the audio and share it (2) do a live video streaming so that participants from other places can attend too. I know the first one has come true. I hope they will consider my request for the live streaming part. There has been very good participation for these sessions – not just kids but also adults….I listen to the lectures – simply amazing….You can tell that these are all impromptu ones – not scripted at all. Words are flowing like pravaham….In order to explain stories at a level she talks, one has to be extremely blessed. Clearly, she is blessed by Goddess Saraswathi and Mahaperiyava Himself. To me, she is like a Visaka Hari of US!! I thoroughly enjoy these lectures.

This family is a great devotee of Sri Kanchi Matam and HH Bala Periyava knows them well and blesses them. In fact He has been guiding them in taking up activities like this…

I am personally very happy to know this family. Although I dont talk to them often, whenever I talk, I thoroughly enjoy talking to them. Great family, extremely blessed, well-brought up children as Periyava had said.

Periyava’s articles about women came under a book called “Penmai”, which was posted here too..Click here to see them…Living by that is not easy. While there may be so many women who still follow those advices, I see Vidhya as one among them! Kudos to you!!! On behalf of the blog, we wish her all the bests in conducting such satsangs and educating people in our culture and bring more kids under our cultural wrap before they get out of our hands.

Hara Hara Sankara Jaya Jaya Sankara!

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Categories: Announcements, Devotee Experiences

Tags: Upanyasams