The New Year episode!

An amazing event happened on New Year’s day in my T.Nagar (venkata Narayana rd) Hari’s temple.

Generally the queue is so lengthy on New Year’s Day. The queue starts 3 to 4 streets away from the temple. The darshan of the lord starts from 2.30 am and continues through-out the day except for neyvedhyam breaks (break-fast & lunch for the lord).

I had been so happy for the entire week as I was looking forward to meeting him early in the morning on New Year’s day. Meeting him wasn’t any secret that particular day..lol!

The prior day itself, I arranged for our regular auto guy to pick me up in the morning, I chose my outfit, my accessories, planned on doing a facial, etc.., Generally when I go & meet him, I wear salwars or jeans…but on New year’s day I wanted to wear a silk Saree and be dressed up very well to meet him… just wanted to be as beautiful as possible. Always meeting him is like going on a dateJ and I knew he was going to be totally decked-up too…..WAW I was so high thinking about all that the prior day. I kept jumping around at home. I had set my alarm at 4.45am but slept only at 3…or 3.15 am because of all kinds of haunting thoughts about the special moment of meeting him the next day.

But all my happiness was put to an END the moment I got-up and noticed that I had my chums…..I couldn’t just believe it……It was not even my cycle time! Till then I had thought even he would be eager to see me but all such sweet feelings and understanding about perumal’s love was shaken-up for a moment. You know, honestly I wasn’t mad at him neither did I weep….I was shocked totally! ..I just made up my mind to anyways go to T.Nagar as per the plan, and see him from the road itself. In that particular temple, you can see the lord even when you stand outside the temple. I thought I can just stand outside, see him (rather he can see me) and get back.(ofcourse he always sees me..thats different) but just wanted the union of T.nagar perumal…..I was so desperate! But I did not tell anyone about my chums as they wouldn’t allow me to go to temple during periods time. As per our family practices, we are even prohibited to utter his names for those 4 days….but I utter his name,  do all my prayers but I refrain from going to temples…I have been brought-up like that…

However, I reached the temple and was taken aback at the queue. I tried catching his glimpse standing outside the temple but no luck…I could only see N number of head counts who were rushing to see him. Only then I started crying….I was standing out and crying not knowing what to do…..No No I did not expect to go near him …..but just wanted to see him atleast from far away distance. Since even that was not possible, I made-up my mind to stand in Q, reach very close to the actual gate(entrance of the temple), look at him once and then return back straight away without entering inside the gate. So I stood in queue, kept singing one of the Hari Kirtans not with sooooooo much of love though…as I was displeased with my Hari…….hmmm even if you are mad at him where can you run away from him? Whether he makes you happy or sad or mad, you have none other than HARI…….anyway, I just reached the actual entrance, saw him for a second from outside, just came abruptly out of the Queue without entering the gate. After coming out of the queue, I kept looking at him from behind the locked gates of the prayer hall…..Couple of  volunteers were standing there…I just stood there for about few seconds, one of the volunteers literally yelled at me for standing there out-side the prayer hall. The prayer hall was locked for darshan that day! And it was not fair to stand behind the prayer hall gate and take his darshan so I immediately obeyed when the volunteers tried pushing me away from that place. My heart was so filled with displeasure on Hari that I couldn’t even utter a word nor shed a drop of tear that time.  I just came out thinking…”ok let me leave from this place!!!” I don’t know what happened….one of the volunteers there came to me and said, “You want to see the lord, right?”……..I showed him a “NO” facial expression as Only I know that am not allowed to go in. That volunteer just brushed away my “NO” facial expressions and straight away went ahead and unlocked the prayer hall gate and said, “Go…….Go Inside, there are two benches for the cops to stand & guide the q….you go and stand-up on one of those benches and have a complete darshan of the lord” I was startled…....No one was allowed there….only few cops were standing inside. ….I just couldn’t enter the gate even when the volunteer forced me to get in…I stood outside the gate of prayer hall like a stone….that volunteer kept forcing me…”Ponga ponga…..” (“Go Go”)……I just couldn’t step-in even then….in my heart I said to the lord, “ohhhhhhhhh…….How will I come now????”  guys you won’t believe what the volunteer said to me….he said with a stern tone looking at me, “AM telling you….. GO IN & HAVE HIS DARSHAN!!!!!!!!!” I just stepped-in and straight went inside, stood next to one of the cops on the bench & had his beautiful darshan……I cried & laughed simultaneously…it was such a beautiful moment!!!!!! ……and I was there standing & crying for his abundant mercy & love……He was draped in a golden color outfit…he was so beautiful and literally smiled at me so much! I don’t know what the cops would have thought…..no one was there in that hall except for those 2 cops & myself….. There was q separator in between & the queue was moving right in front of us…the cops were monitoring the Q.  I got his darshan for such a long time and returned back with so much of happiness.  Thank God I had my chums! It was such a special day! I couldn’t even utter a word to him out of joy…

While handling such a huge crowd and especially when one is prohibited to go to the prayer hall and with all the cops standing there, why on earth would someone unlock the gate and force a girl to get-in and have his darshan?  Who on earth would someone compel a girl to have his darshan even when the dumb female refuses to do so…..?

What do I say about his mercy & love the world is lucky to have such a sweet lord…..

No one can love us as much as Hari loves us…..He is crazy to love us so much….what else can I say!!!! We are not crazy like him……we love the most precious one…we love the most adorable one…..we love the greatest of the great……look at him!!!! ….he loves the most unworthy one!!!!!!!! Of what benefit are we to him? We are not crazy like him…we love the best one!

Chanting Sri Hari's name saved us from danger!!!

Hai All,

Just returned yesterday from Badrinath trip. It was AWESOME! Had a miraculous experience on our way to badri and couldn't wait to share it with you guys. I would write an exclusive blog on Badri trip very shortly(perumal's grace) but before that I wanted to share the importance of his "Naama smaranam"-(chanting his wonderful names) & how much we are saved by him by just uttering his wonderful name. I do not have the capability to explain his love or his grace but I cannot stop myself from trying to explain his grace.....

After having visited Haridwar & Rishikesh , we were all set to head to Badrinath with so much of excitement. My heart was jumping out of joy to meet him. My Family members were listening to Vishnu sahasra naamam with immense devotion. I was constantly chanting his names while gazing at his beautiful mountains & picturing him in my mind throughout the trip. when all of a sudden we were shocked to notice rocks sliding down hitting our car left, right & center. I was on the right side were exactly the rocks rolled down & hit our car. When I saw a huge rock sliding down with so much of force I started shouting RAMAAAAAAAAAAA KRISHNAAAAAAAA and everybody in the car started shouting Rama!!!!! Krishna!!!!!....The huge rock hit our car leaving a very noticeable dent in the car. The glasses were broken to pieces including the headlights. The Tire was damaged severely & burning smell was coming out from the tires. So much happened to the car but not even a single small scratch happened to any of us in the car only because of his grace!!!! There was no way that our driver could stop the car or drive away from the landsliding area. If he had moved 3cms away towards his left our entire car would have fallen down from the mountain. The roads were so narrow and small in width.

That is the area where the landsliding took place. 

I was sitting by this window when this incident occurred & escaped without even a small scratch or a wound just because of his grace and Love.

I was seated on the right side as I told you and my MIL was seated just behind me. The huge rock hit exactly between me & my mom-in-law without causing us any pain or danger.

Cops & public gathered to offer us help and to check if we were wounded. Fortunately with his grace we were all safe & I started clicking pics to write a blog about his grace hehe....:-)) Perhaps he would have smiled tooo... "U & ur blog...........crazy girl" Yes I always want to be crazy about him. In my T.Nagar perumal koil, once one poojari asked me.., " why ma???? What is bothering you at this young age? Why do u cry so much whenever you come here????" I just smiled. Nothing hurts me and nothing troubles me.....its just the separation from him which brings ocean in my eyes and makes my heart as heavy as rocks.....and I don't see the rocks sliding down from my heart..... The only cure is to grab him & hug him.

His NAME, GRACE, LOVE always shields us from any sort of danger. 

On a lighter vein, take a look at my very personal idol of him which I keep it in my bedroom next to me. I am not allowed to touch or hug any vigrahams(idols) or photos in our pooja room. We are only supposed to do pooja and apply kumkum to the photos in pooja room. That was not sufficient for me....I wanted to express my love by hugging and kissing my lord always hence I kept this sweet perumal in my bedroom but my in-laws said, "no no you shouldn't have a single Krishna.... its incomplete you should always have Radhe krishna" I thought am perumal's radhe & we are always complete together. So now I have him next to me. I hug him, kiss him, place him on my lap, on my chest, sing for him, carry him & dance with him. My family members keep telling me, "U R inside the room locked most of the time" hahahahaha Only He knows why..........:-)))))

Namo Narayanaya namah!!!!!!!

Love U Govindha!!!!!!

Yeah...forgot to mention! After the accident, we took another car and drove the very next day to Badri & had his wonderful darshan.....Everything is due to his grace!

Hari bol......Lets chant his wonderful names always.

Madhuram madhuram HARI naamam inba theninum madhuram HARI naamam.....

OUR Sri Hari's names are sweeter than honey.....:-)))))

True Story - Lord Nrishinga's Mercy

Taken from: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=801.

Narrated by HG Pankajanghri Prabhu

Lord Nrsimhadev shows His mercy even to a non devotee.



Yasoda Mata’s 85-year-old foster father passed away two months ago. During his stay in the hospital, Yasoda Mata prepared a tape recorder and played the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra all day long in his ward.

Her foster father was actually in semi-coma, but miraculously when he heard the Maha mantra, gradually he awoke and with closed eyes he appeared to enjoying the music and the sound vibration. He started to follow the tempo by tapping his hand on the edge of his bed. His finger ring made the sound like “don, don don” “don, don don …….. ”

He looked like he was totally meditating on the Maha mantra. Suddenly he spoke, “Look! There is a huge 5 clawed man, and his head looks just like a lion’s, he is coming into my ward. Don’t you see him? He is coming ….” The foster father still with eyes closed said “Oh, yes, I forgot you all cannot see him, but he is really here. I do not know who He is?”

At that moment Yasoda Mata and her daughters looked at each other in great surprise and answered. “Father, He is Lord Nrsimhadev”. “What dev ??? I don’t know Him. But He is nodding His head to tell me that He is.” Yashoda mata felt great ecstasy in hearing this for in her house she keeps a model of the Nrsimha Deity from Mayapur and had been offering heart felt prayers to Him so that her father could leave the body without any attachment and that his soul can become Krishna’s devotee in his next birth.

Continuously her father said, “Look, He is smiling to me and starting to speak again .… Oh, He is telling me that I have to learn to chant what you are chanting now…. what exactly are you chanting ?” He said. “It is a mantra to call the holy name of Lord” Yasoda Mata replied. ” I don’t know what mantra, but please teach Me.” he said. “All right father, please repeat after me and listen carefully — Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna………” Yasoda Mata taught her foster father word by word patiently. Without taking a long time, he learned and tried to chant…. and chanted so nicely.

The next day he passed away with tranquility. During that weekend, we devotees here congregated together to do the kirtan for Yasoda Mata’s father at the memorial service. Yasoda Mata prepared the prasadam garland, Ganga water, tulasi, and put tilak on her father, which have all been done nicely and properly according to her guru maharaj H.H. Giridhari Swami’s telephone instruction. Her foster father’s face looked so peaceful, his cheeks were a little pink, and his body was soft. After some customary ceremonies the body was sent to the incinerator.

A Few hours later the people who work in the memorial service came to us and exclaimed in amazement - “We have never seen anyone’s ashes look so white and beautiful like jade as your father’s! What happened to him? What were you chanting for him?” “Could you write it down for us? We want to learn and we think we can also chant while doing our service here.”

Why the Lord Himself personally appeared before someone who we consider is not a devotee proves the sastric statement - that if one is always engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, their family members will be benefited as well.

From Lin Tulip Taiwan, 20th March 2006

Sweet Ladoos from my Govindhan!

This is my first post here in this group blog. Am glad I was invited to it. Thanks to all:-)
Am here very far away from my very favorite T -Nagar perumal koil & of course Tirupati. I miss my Govindha too much here....Its miserable that I don't get to see him in his full alankaram(lovely decorations) nevertheless everyday so many times I think about one special moment which happened in Tirupati 1 & half years ago when I got married. Well, there were several wonderful moments in my life with my Govindhan...oh lovely perumal...What to say about his love & grace??
I would like to share about that special day....

In my In-laws' custom, whenever somebody gets newly married, they book Kalyana Urchavam for perumal in Tirupati. I was so excited & thrilled about going to Tirupati to see my athma purushan. We were supposed to be there by 10.30 or 11 am I guess..but unfortunately our train got delayed for about an hour so we couldn't make it to the Urchavam bcoz the kalyana urchavam had already commenced by then and the security couldn't allow us. Well..., it was jam-packed. Hence we were directed to the general darshan after having to skip the urchavam. Honestly speaking I didn't feel bad because I was all thrilled about getting to see him(ya the darshan) I never took that incident to be a bad sign or nothing of that sort because I always knew that HE LOVES me(only with his grace) but while we were in our queue, one of my relatives looked at me and told me..."Perhaps U do not have the luck to see Perumal!". I Just smiled and never replied back neither did I feel bad. Yes again I knew that can't be it.....as several times I have experienced his lovely expression of love which has always been my life no matter what happens in my wordily life.
                                            I completely forgot about all such happenings & conversations and We were blessed with his lovely darshan. Now, it was time for us to buy the ladoos. We had our urchava tickets with us plus we had our darshan tickets yet not even a single counter offered us ladoo.....ya believe me....we asked each & every counter there and the answer was, "sorry no ladoos!" can anybody believe this?? We were the only ones who were deprived of having ladoos in the ladoo counter and rest of the folks got it...what was shocking was that we never got any reasons for not getting ladoos from the counter. just "sorry no ladoos!" Nobody would believe this that easily...we tried hard, stood in queue but just our family alone never got the ladoos......Everybody started panicking ....I was a new DIL & everybody looked at me sooooo differently and they started whispering to each other..."We have been to Tirupati and never such incidents had taken place to us"......I was still glad and calm because I can NEVER ever think about perumal in such a note....u know like, maybe he is punishing or nothing of that sort. Ya I can never be pessimistic about his love & grace (with his kind mercy) I don't care what others say to me.....Perumal loves me(like he does everybody) and I know that. Even if we were to be thrown out of Tirupati I wouldn't & cannot suspect his love and grace. However I was amazed at such strange happenings. Then finally we got to another ladoo counter wherein the gentleman incharge redirected us to the main entrance of the temple. He requested us to get ladoos from the security counter there in the main entrance of the temple. Can anybody believe this??? The ladoo counter was offering ladoos to everybody but to us alone he had us redirected to the security.... We were bewildered & we started discussing saying, "WHAT? How come??? In ladoo counter they denied to offer ladoos and how come in the security counter are they going to offer ladoos?" alright anyway as directed we (just the 4 of us ) went to the security counter and hesitantly requested for ladoos. The security immediately called a young boy and requested him to bring us ladoos. The boy ran to fetch ladoos...we waited ..waited and waited...the boy never returned....and LO!!!!!!!!!!! The Urchava moorthy (my sweeeeeet perumal) with his ever beautiful thaayar came there right in front of us with all mangala vadhyam(divine instruments). We got to see him soooooooooo close.....It wasn't crowded AT ALL there except for the people who brought the Urchava morthy & thaayar there. It was kind of an exclusive darshan. I just forgot everything and ran along with the Urchava moorthy till how much ever I could...crying in love .....calling out "Govindha...Govindha...Govindha...." Wow!!!! That moment was soooooooo special not because he proved my relatives to be wrong about me not being lucky to see perumal.....I don't care about all that(yet perumal cared for everything) That moment was so special because I could see and feel his love again (as ever)...Imagine if we had got our ladoos in the ladoo counter itself we wouldn't have seen perumal because that lies in a different corner all together. It was ALL his play.... his wonderful and lovely game. After having a wonderful darshan of Urchava moorthy that young boy came running with covers of huge and delicious ladoos
I Love my Govindha ......

Even now after singing my routine bhajans, I was looking at his images in my PC, my husband was commenting very kindly though "can U not think about anything else other than HIM?" what to say??? I just smiled:-)) But ya I cannot and would not want to think, dream, aspire, crave, laugh, cry..for anything else other than HIS love.

Love U Narayana! EVER...

The Story of Meera

There were two kinds of women in Vrindavan: those who were born there and those who came there in marriage.
While Radha was a Vrajavasi, there was a girl was from Mathura.
She came to Vrindavan as a new bride.
Her friends had already been teasing her that she would lose herself to the famous blue-complexioned boy, but she had laughed it off.

She had come to Vrindavan to make it her home.
But, she saw no homes there.
When she went, she saw not the splendor of Vraj, but utter disaster.
It was raining incessantly. There were dilapidated ruins of houses all around her. Trees were falling.
And, there were none around her.
Such appalling sights for a new bride!
And then she saw!
A mountain hanging in mid-air!
Amazed, she went to see what it was/
And there she saw, a blue-complexioned boy, with peacock feathers in His hair, wearing a yellow garment, His hands bearing the large mountain almost lazily by the pinky.
She saw the whole village crowded around His feet, staring at Him with happiness.

Then she realized-there were no houses in Vraj, but they had found the truest shelter.
And, she lost herself to Him that very minute.
And, as she stood dumbstruck, He invited her with His eyes, smiling.
But, just then, a stroke of lightning struck her.
She died instantly, the thoughts of Giridhari in her head, and her eyes, and her heart.
i have read that it was this girl who was born as Meera.
She always sang about Giridhari, in all her songs.
This is why.
Coz the reason of her birth was her intense longing for Giridhari. :)

True Story - "A New Life"

Taken from: http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/profiles/blogs/a-new-life-true-story?xg_source=facebook

*****

In the San Diego ISKCON temple in USA, there was a gentleman called *Mr. Prakash*. He was a reserved type of person who would come regularly to the temple feasts but never really showed a lot of enthusiasm.

One day he had a severe heart attack and was rushed to hospital. During the surgery he almost passed away on four occasions. It was touch and go and he slipped into a coma. He remained that way for several weeks after.

Badrinaryana Prabhu is a senior ISKCON devotee and was hence requested by Mr Prakash's wife to please visit her husband even though he was in a coma and pray for him.

Badri prabhu dutifully obliged and several times went to his bedside and read from shastra and chanted to the unconscious Mr. Prakash.

One day Badri got a call from Mrs. Prakash saying “Please come quickly to the hospital. My husband has come out of the coma but he only wants to speak to you.”

Badri went there to find some relatives and hospital staff gathered around his bedside. When he saw Badri he began to speak. “Badri, four times they came, four times they came!”

The relatives present thought he was talking about them. “Yes, we came several times but you were in a coma!”

Mr. Prakash shook his head to indicate that was not what he was talking about. “No. Badri, four times they came!”

So then the hospital staff said, “Yes, we almost lost you four times! You were in a coma but somehow we saved you.”

Again he shook his head. “No. Badri, four times they came!”

Badri started to realize what he was referring to. “Who came prabhu? *The Visnudutas?*“

“No, it was the bad people *[Yamadutas]*! They came the first time to take me away. But I told them ‘I am simply dependent on Lord Krsna.’ So they went away.”

“Then they came a second time. Again I told them, ‘Do whatever you must, but I am simply depending on Lord Krsna.’ Again they went away.”

“Then they came the third time, and told me they would take me away. I told them again, ‘You do whatever you must do, but I am dependent on Lord Krsna.’ Again they left.”

“Then they came a fourth time. But this time some of the good people came (Visnudutas). When the bad people saw them they said ‘OK, we have no jurisdiction here’ and they left. Then I came out of my coma.”

He called Badri close and told him, *“Badri, before I was not serious. But now, 100%!”*

Mr. Prakash recovered and became one of the most enthusiastic and humble servants at the temple.

From this you can understand that what is happening during coma is completely different for a devotee than a *karmi*. Mr. Prakash was not initiated but he had some sense of dependence on Lord Krsna, so Krsna gave him the chance to increase his attachment.