Rama Navami

It was raining quite heavily. The roads were still crowded with a host of vendors.Cows stood staidly swishing their tails and accepting the soft mushy bananas from the banana vendor. Her cart and the cows together blocked the corner of the road. We carefully darted through the crowds and walked almost two blocks before turning right onto a street which would lead us to the Ramaswamy temple. The stench of the side road a mixture of human waste putrefying vegetable peels etc, made the road seem longer. At last we caught sight of the temple wall and rushed forward like a swarm of bees rushing for the nectar in a flower. Once in the temple we heaved a sigh of relief and caught our breath before we could move to the sanctum. We decided to go around the temple and circumambulate it, because the altar doors were still closed. After going around the temple and marveling at the wall paintings that depicted Lord Rama's pastimes we headed back to the altar. The altar doors opened and the pujari looking at our Tilaks called out in Tamil " Hare Krishna, come forward,"  I could not suppress a smile as I thought Param Vijayate Sri Krishna Sankirtanam. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's words and Srila Prabhupada's mission have made these words come true "Prithivite ache yata nagaradi gram. Sarvatra pracar haibe more nama".The pastime of Lord Caitanya travelling through South India, making the local brahmanas who were  devout Rama Bhaktas become attracted towards Sri Krishna also came into my mind. Thoughts of the Caitanya Mahaprabhu, described as the golden Volcano visiting these very places suddenly overwhelmed me with a sense of great good fortune of being part of this wonderful movement, furthered by our Acharyas and Srila Prabhupada. Thinking this way, I absently stretched my hand out for the camphor scented Caranamrita. The deities Themselves are amazing. I tried getting pictures of the deities on the web, but cannot find any. Lord Rama and his Parivar are said to be unique because they are in a coronation pose. Hanuman is situated as always at the Lotus feet of Lord Rama with a veena in one hand and a scripture in the other. You can read more about it at http://archives.chennaionline.com/HotelsandTours/Placesofworship/June08/06temple231.aspx

In one sense this recognition is a tall order, because  the world is looking at us, looking to us in some cases, we have to become conscious of this fact and become more accountable so that we wear our philosophy and walk our talk.

Some pictures from Rama Navami at home