In Jan when I was here, I was at Sri Matam, watched the puja etc but did not get the darshan of HH Balaperiyava due to various logistic reasons. So, this time, I decided to go to the Matam on the very next day of my arrival.

Before leaving Chennai, met Sri Kumar of Vignesh studio in a hotel with his friend – unplanned one! I walked into the Matam and was greeted by Smt Lalitha Rajagopalan from Chicagoland, an active Tirupuggazh member and great devotee of Acharyas. Proceeded to adishtanam to do vandhanam to both the acharyas. I was waived at by someone, who introduced herself as Nithya Bharatwaj – none other than a key volunteer for Periyava Radio – pleasant surprise! Her contribution to the radio project was priceless despite her pregnancy days etc. She introduced me to her family – spent sometime talking to them.

I felt quite different to see Sri Pudhu Periyava’s room locked and the changed brindavanam. I still remember His darshan during my last trip.

After doing pradikshinam, went back to the puja – had a beautiful darshan of ambal and swami. After deeparathanai, went to Sri Periyava’s place and waited for darshan. A couple came confirmed if I am the same person running the blog. It was Sri Sriram of Mumbai – very nice gentleman, who came with his wife..We spent lot of time talking….He narrated two beautiful incidents related to Mahaperiyava, which I will make a separate posting.

Hoping to get darshan of Sri Periyava – there came a VVIP, which made our wait much longer. Finally at 5.30 PM or so, Sri Periyava gave us some time to talk. I updated Periyava about all our activities through KGF. I specifically updated aboutthe funds that we collected for Sri Chandramouleeswar puja mandapam. I requested Periyava on behalf of all readers in the blog to include that fund for any of Sri Chandramouleesarar puja project. He suggested that we use that funds for renovation of our famous Kumabakonam Sankara Matam. He was telling that we should do enough renovation like what was done at Tiruvanaikka Matam as both are very old matams. On behalf of all of us, I told Him that we would do our best to support. More to come on this topic.

I also talked about supporting temples where no puja are taking place. He was very happy to hear that and strongly encouraged us to do something. He also suggested a trust (forgot the name) that was formed by Sri Mahaperiyava when He was 93 exclusively to support sivacharyas, bhattars and odhuvars etc. Periyava suggested that we explore a way to do it via that trust too. While we explore that, I mentioned Periyava that we already have a list of 10 temples where support is needed. He blessed us to do that.

It was getting late for Periyava’s puja in the evening and for us also to get back home. Periyava blessed me with prasadam from Sri Akilandeswari temple – great baghyam!  Long, tiring (due to my jet lag  etc) but a beautiful day to meet Saha-devotees of our acharyas and get the darshan of all Periyavas. On a middle of a weekday, the Matam was packed with devotees! Although the school holidays is one major factor but it also indicates our increased devotion to Sri Acharyas and our Matam.

Strangely, I did not even take one single photo yesterday – first time in my life. If not a lot, I always took at least a couple…I guess I am getting old and lazy 🙂

Periyava Sharanam!

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