India Series- Chennai

After almost 4.6 years we were finally leaving for India. Tickets were booked in the last minute. I could not believe my ears and literally pinched myself even as I packed our bags. A trip to India is always filled with excitement and also some trepidation. Excitement at being able to meet with family and visit holy places and trepidation because you are about to give your practical examination. All the Bhagavad Gita theory that you have painstakingly studied is about to be tested. Have you sharpened your weaponry? Is your armor ready to take the force of the enemies arrows? What follows in this series are some of my realizations at various locations during my travel, an attempt to share my experiences from my point of view. It is an attempt to understand the evolution of my own thinking over the years. I thank my spiritual mentors heartily for making this a wholesome learning experience for me.

Our first stop was Chennai. As soon as we landed we experienced a melange of colors, odors, sounds and sights. The streets of Chennai were busy even at 1 AM in the night. There was a festival of sorts happening on the streets at that odd hour in the night. Traveling by a taxi there is an experience in itself. You get the thrill of being in scary roller coaster ride and are forced to intensely chant the holy names taking shelter of Krishna even more. In the Mahabharat when the Yaksha asks Yudhisthira what the most amazing thing was, he must have thought about the future India and the people there. It is truly amazing! People start their day at the crack of dawn and work like ants till the end of night. When one steps out of the home there is no guarantee that they will make it back home. Yet they refuse to accept this dimension of life which stares them in the face. Spirituality is  a fad and having a guru is fashionable. The practice of spirituality is practically non-existent, only in theory does it exist. It begins and ends with shows on the television and no effort is made by the preachers or the practitioners to apply it in their daily lives. Note: for any spiritual opportunist there is a great potential for preaching, starting with shaking off the firm belief of the Sri Vaishnavas that Mukti is everything and that Mukti is guranteed by taking shelter of a Guru, surrendering unto him and going through the processes of Samasrayanam and Para Samarpanam in a ritualistic way. These processes that are akin to our own initiation have lost meaning over the years and have merely become rituals that are performed towards achieving Liberation. These experiences strengthened the meaning of my own initiation and the increased the urgency to aspire to become an instrument in Srila Prabhupada's movement.

In a  class HH Dhanurdhar Maharaja mentioned that a good way to beat gross lusty desires is to observe the by products that leave the body in our daily upkeep rituals and hence understand the make up of the body as being temporary and material in nature. In India and in Chennai, the open sewers and the garbage dumps are a stark reminder of the composition and temporary, decomposing nature of our material body, yet lust abounds. One can strongly feel the presence of Mayadevi and bow down to her supreme position in the overall plan of the Lord. As any seasoned Kshatriya would do, its is better to surrender to Mayadevi considering her as a superior agent,  as one who can assume the role of Yogamaya and take us to Krishna.  By becoming a surrendered servant rather than opposing her might we are extending a hand to make her an ally. I had renewed respect for those in the renounced order of life, simply because, inevitably your senses are subject to an invasion by the agents of Maya who abound everywhere.

Another amazing feature is the interplay that exists between nature and the humankind...Atleast on two occasions we spotted snakes that were hurrying some place. This scared my daughter who thought they were meant to be be in other habitats not really the city or its suburb in our case.

The good things that still haven't changed are the simplicity of life, the monotony of the daily activities which adds a feeling of orderliness and routine and eventually becomes a habit. Piety is a way of life and almost everyone is into some form of worship even though it is with the fruit in mind.

The highlight of the trip was our visit to the Singaperumal temple, a temple dedicated to Lord Narasimhadeva and Lakshmi devi. Built by the Pallava rulers, the temple sits atop a hillock and has a powerful deity of Lord Narasimhadev, self manifested from a single rock. Lord Narasimha here manifests a third eye. It is a very powerful place. Unfortunately,  i do not have pictures of the temple or the deity, but Google pulls up a few. 

Another wonderful part of the trip was the presence of Jagannath Baladev and Subhadra, all along with us during all our travels. We had no dearth for prasadam throughout, thanks to Them. Here are some pictures from Chennai.

Jagannath with a garland of Parijata flowers.