My second darshan of both Periyavas - 3/3/07
I left in the morning around 7AM with my f-i-l to Kanchipuram in a rental car – my first trip to Kanchi Mutt. I must say that the road from Madras to Kanchipuram is so far the best Indian road I’ve seen – actually this is the Madras-Bangalore highway. This is a 4 lane road with road divider all the way through – reduced risk of typical Indian head-on collisions on the road. However, the scene of people walking slowly on the center of the road pumps your adrenaline when your car approaches at 100 km/hour towards that object. The person who is walking doesn’t seem to be impacted with the traffic. Just on the outer of Madras, Nokia has setup a huge factory for handset manufacture – providing more job opportunities and sadly increasing the property value to craziest levels.
We reached Kanchi Mutt around 8.30 AM. Unlike I thought, the Mutt is so huge. There were only fewer people there. Both the Periyavaas were having their “Oppanai” – day when they shave their head, beard - happens on every Pournami as I was told. First came Shri Bala Periyavaa, who was shining with a thejas on His face and went straight to Maha Periyavaa’s Brindavan. We did our namaskarams to Him. Then He went back to his room. Then we waited for little more time for Shri Periyavaa to give His darshans. Due to His current health conditions, He couldn’t walk much. So the darshan happened right in the room. All devotees did their namaskarams. I introduced myself to Him. When I approached him, He just opened a box of padukas to give it to some other devotee. That was one of my primary things I was planning to request Him. I requested Him for a paduka set for my nithya puja. I was blessed with one of that. Then He was notified that Kamkshi Amman pallaku is approaching mutt. He walked outside to pray. We all walked with Him. He offered His prayers. I was standing very close to Him. I noticed that He is not able to walk without holding on to something. His face was in lots of pains. Having seen Him smiling all the time and so energetic, it was so sad to see Him going through lots of pains. We got back to the mutt along with Him. Then I told Him about a delay in the my travel, baggage arrival and other things that made me miss nithya pooja for 2 days or so and enquired on compensating them. He confirmed that there is no need to worry about missing a puja for a day or two. He insisted that I do it regularly on normal days without failing. He was curious to know if I got all my stones without losing them. There were other devotees waiting to get his Darshan and we gave the way for them and proceeded to Bala Periyavaa’s Chandramouleeswarar Puja.
Shri Bala Periyavaa was sitting up in the dias and there were 10-15 people sitting outside. After finishing “Gho” puja, the milk abishekam started. Shri Periyavaa chanted Rudram and I chanted as much as possible along with Him/others. Once the abishekam was over, then I decided to go to temples.
After finishing all the temples, I decided to go back to mutt to talk to Shri Periyavaa, if possible. In the evening, Shri Periavaa was lot more relaxed than the morning crowd. He was smiling and having conversations with lots of people. I once again approached Him and put across my next thought on my mind – my primary objective of the India trip – to search for a job and support my parents. He enquired if I am considering relocating completely. He asked one of the sevakas to contact Shri Ramesh, Oracle, Bangalore to help me. He promptly sent a SMS right then to Ramesh. I also mentioned about my Kasi trip plans and He asked me to talk to mutt manager for letter to Kasi Mutt. Finally I told him about a dream I got several years to him and he handed over a magazine to me pointing me a Shivalingam, which happened to Kasi Vishwanathar Lingam. After getting His blessings, we left the mutt.
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