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Kasi Trip: A Spiritual Journey
By Raghav
(printed with permission)
Dear Atma Bhanduvulara!
Tani –Sarvani Samyamya Yukta Aaseetha Matparaha
Vase Hi Yasyendriyaani Tasya
Pragnaa Pratishtitaah
- Bhagavadgeetha
It means if we control our senses and if we concentrate totally on God, we
can seek His blessings. In one word we should follow total surrender to God.
We tuned our minds that way and controlled our
senses and feelings. Amazing! We did feel god's presence through all our five
senses – we saw (Visualized) god, heard his voice, got fragrance, touched
God's feet (not of the image) and tasted the
Spiritual Bliss. Strange , but true, every word of
it.
Let me detail upon our experiences at Kasi,
Gaya
and Prayaga. Myself, Sri. Madduri
Subbarao (my pina mamagaru) and my sister Smt. Manchiraju Lalitha Devi went on
this trip
Our Goal: Our journey was not just a pilgrimage. We turned our minds to few
things even before we started!
- We planned to stay there for 9
nights since it is believed that such
a stay will yield Janma Rahityam
- We wanted to chant Om Namah Sivaya
(Siva Panchakshari) for 5 lakh times,
which means all the wakeful hours we should think of Siva nama
and nothing else!! Of course it included our regular
prayer, Kadga Mala for
sister and Sahasra Gyatri
for myself and our visits to holy temples there .
Our Sojourn:
God's blessings started showering on us in leaps and bounds. Our very stay at
Theosophical Society was proof positive of it. We spent our time amidst God's
most beautiful creation – the peacocks and other birds. The Ashram is spread
to huge campus. So we were in the lap of nature with trees, birds, mongoose,
squirrels, and peacocks, Mr. M V Subba Rao is the
vice-president of theosophical society in Machilpatnam.
Through him we could get accommodation there at Kamaccha
Road, near Radha Yatra in Kasi. It is at a
distance of 1 km from Lord
Viswanath
Temple. It is in the
lap of nature. It is the place where Dr.Anne Besant resided and propagated theosophy in yester years.
Most of the buildings were built in those glorious days by the grace of this
divine lady. We were accommodated in Suryashram.
The food served there is satvik and the life
followed there is self-help – in the lines of truthful life.
Our Visits:
Daily we Visited Viswanathji and chanted Viswanatha Astakam or Siva Panchakshari Stotram in the Viswanathji's temple and Annapoorna
Astakam in Annapoorna's
Temple. We offered Sari's to Visalakshi Ammavaru and Annpoorna Ammavaru and performed Sri Charka Pooja separately at
each place. My sister is well versed in Sankalpam, Namakam, Chamakam Rudram and Rudra Gayatri etc.
Our Anubhutis :
We purchased a Small Siva Lingam and started performing pooja
to that Siva Lingam in our room with Bilva Patras , Pasupu and Kumkum. We chanted Bilvastakam
and other Astakams Namakam
and Chamakam. One day we were running short of Kumkum. We performed pooja with
Bilva Patras
and Pasupu. Next day we saw Sai Baba in the place
of Siva Lingam. The Pasupu settled typically on
Siva Lingam gave the exact shape of Shirdi Baba. My
God, we could not believe our own eyes' our sense of sight was blessed with
His miracle. Then and there we decided to gift Siva Lingam to my brother's
son Mr. Prasanna. Since he was a staunch devotee of Sai Baba and turned
towards Siva of late.
Our sense of smell was filled with the fragrance of various things normally offered
to God. My sister was the first one to decipher it and our notes tallied. It
varied from Mogali Poolu
to Vibhuti, from Agarbatti
to Sambrani . We offered none of these in our room but we experienced
these. I got the fragrance of Vibhuti once again on
our return journey. I will come back to it later. One night I woke up with a
jolt as if someone patted me on my shoulder!! Is it not sense of touch?
I inhale the fragrance of Smabrani.
I wanted to share with the others too but they were in deep sleep. I took it
as God's voice to my sense of hearing to resume my prayer. So at once, with
no second thoughts I
started chanting " Om
Nama Sivaya".
In theosophical society, there is Lord Siva's Temple, established by Annie Besant, but totally neglected in the present day. We took
the keys of the temple, dusted it and cleaned it and performed abhishekam to Siva Lingam there in our humble way. We
closed the temple gates and
were proceeding to our Suryashram. We discovered
another small temple
of Lord Hanuman. My
sister started chanting Hanuman Chalisa. I observed
some kind of magnetic force in the deity presiding there. The force started gyrating me in all directions. I could not stand properly;
in this ecstasy, I started chanting Sri Rama Varnana
from Sundara Kanda " Rama Kamala Patraksha – Roopa Dakshinya Sampanna …"
Suddenly our uncle excitedly let out a cry
"arey… arey…
See… See… Heis rotating his eyeballs." Yes it
is very much true! It is not fancy. All of us experienced it. He is looking
at every one of us present before him, to shower his blessings on us! We took
it as a word of praise from Rama Bhakta Hanuman for
our humble service to Lord Siva.
As I have already mentioned, our wakeful moment was devoted to the faith of
God. I faced some physical ailments. Had such a splitting and
unbearable head ache one day. Another day I had such a bad throat, I could
not gulp any thing. Yet another day a rickshaw spike cut though the skin of
my elbow making a deep wound. It pained terribly, in normal course of life I
would have gulped a handful of Medicines for each of these. But I wanted to
live in God's presence and prayed to God to give me enough stamina to bear
these sufferings with a grin. Mind you, I didn't have to bear them with a
grin. They vanished in no time.
These may look silly but I don't want to ignore these too. One day, I had a
running nose on my way to temple. My hands were soiled and I wanted to clean
my hands before entering the temple. We normally bought milk from a
particular man. He came with a bowl of water and helped me to wash my hands.
The next day I thought I would buy a handkerchief, but before this thought
could register in my mind; my sister called me back and offered her kerchief
to me! How nice of Siva. The Omnipotent and Omniscient Siva was like my
friend, Philosopher and Guide.
One day, we went to Manikarnika Ghat and performed Pinda Pradanams. When the Brahmin was chanting the Prayaschitta Mantra at the Ghat,
I felt that my body is getting cleansed. All the bad in me is flowing out of
me as grayish liquid. For a moment my body started glowing
luminously.
Another day we went to the Viswanath temple, around
closing time at night. They close the temple with pomp and show by playing Damarukam and Jegantalu. The
Sanctum sanctorum was fully occupied by pandas chanting Mantras. Out
side the sanctum sanctorum, Bhaktas
were
thronging in large crowds to listen to mantras and melody of Damarukam and Jegantas. The
whole place was fully charged and kept every one in ecstasy. I was standing
at a remote corner to avoid stampede. As soon as the Pooja was over, suddenly
one panda came out like a bullet towards me from Sanctum sanctorum. He
garlanded me with a mala taken from Viswanathji and applied Chandanam
and asked me to take the Harathi and later he
offered the same to various people crowded there. My joy knew know bounds.
We went to Gaya and offered Pinda Pradnams to all our
elders who are resting in heaven. At the time of offering of the pindams, in a flash I could see huge throng of people,
some our kith and kin and some were strangers. They were all in Divya kayams (Shining and
Lustrous) and
surprisingly, none of them look old. They were all in good mood and cheerfully
laughing and coming to that place in a big crowd as though they were
attending some wedding. Recent memories of my mother were those of an old
wrinkled face but she looked so young and glowing.
We repeated this ritual in Triveni Sangam in Prayaga. There my
uncle experienced a wonderful and joyous feeling. He felt he was dragged into
some huge cave and finally he saw Goddess Parvathi Devi and Lord Visweswara. He recollected it umpteen
number of times, being thrilled
at it. Ganga Harathi is a
feast to the eyes. One should not miss it. It is performed in Dasaaswmedha Ghat. It takes
place around seven during sunset. About five pandas offer Harathi
from different places
positioned at equal distances. They rhythmically turn their hands and offer Harathis to Ganga.
At the backdrop Bajans take place melodiously.
One top official was invited on that occasion he was
given a special seat. He was treated like a blue-eyed boy. All the protocol
was maintained for him. Suddenly it rained cats and dogs. Being fully
drenched, he had to leave the place. Suddenly one lean
octogenarian (80 year old person) Bhakta occupied
the same place otherwise meant for the top brass and started dancing
emotionally. Tears started rolling from my eyes after seeing this. See! God
wanted to honor this old man instead of a top official.
Three of us experienced spiritual Bliss in different ways. In Ganga Harathi I detailed upon a
minute ago, my sister had a flabbergasting experience. As she was engrossed
in the ritual at the Ganga,
she felt some smooth touch on her feet. When she looked down a snake was passing
by, causing no harm to anybody. The snake in the lord Siva's neck has come
down to bless her! What else can she ask for in life?
Regarding our uncle, I have already explained one. The second was while he
was chanting the slokas, He first visualized a glow before him. Then he
visualized Rama Pattabhishekam scene. Then Lord
Siva and Parvathi. When it comes to me. I felt the
presence of Lord Vishnu once, Siva and
Sai Baba on my return. In Gaya, I was washing the feet of
a panda. As I was about to complete it my uncle asked me to wash up to his
ankle. As I was repeating the performance with extra care with Shradha and Bhakti, I felt for
a moment they are the feet of Lord Vishnu. I did not leave them for quiet
some time and prostrated before them. Then the panda slowly lifted me up and
brought me back to this world. Soon I was told that place is known for Vishnu
Padam.
I knew some of you might wonder why I am pouring forth all these experiences
to you. In fact we are not supposed to declare or expose our spiritual bliss
as we do not dare to expose our financial details. But still I am doing so in
the best interest of our Telugu Bhakti Pages Team.
It was felt in the past that Kasi yatra was the terminal pilgrimage in ones life. A trip to
Kasi is blissful these days which one must make it
at least once in one's life time. We
are narrating this to you not to boast about our selves and it is not an
attempt to declare that we are great people. We do not possess
any Shaktis, special qualities or powers. We are
just ordinary people. What we sincerely feel is - this is a result of a
spiritual experiment. It happens, just as water boils at hundred degrees
centigrade. If we do not get proper results, let us not blame the experiment
itself. All we have to do – do the experiment religiously - a religious
result definitely follows.
Uncle Subba Rao narrated his own
experience! He wanted to test the nectar of Rama Nama
and chanted the sacred Mantra - Sri Rama Rama Ramethi Rame Raame Manorame Sahasra Nama Tattulyam Rama Nama Varanane (utterance of this stotram
once equals utterance of Raamanaama
thousand times) Hence he chanted Rama Stotram 10
thousand times which equaled one crore. So he
completed chanting this stotram one crore times. Being Diabetic, he cannot eat sweets. He
enjoyed sweetish feeling for some time as though he was eating the best sweet
in the world.
And finally I gifted my first consciously earned spiritual
salary (Panchakashari Akshara
Laksha Tapah Phalam) to my beloved wife who is readily helping me,
serving me and always leading me to good.
I am giving some references for use of our Telugu people. These are the
people who can arrange for performing rituals and in arranging Telugu
Brahmins.
Kasi – Ramkumarji sons
Ram Bhaavan
Visalakshi Ghat (Meer Ghat)
Dasashwamedh Road
Varanasi 221001 Phone 0542 - 2401411
Prayaga – Gangaram Prabhu Lalji Sons
R P Pandey
32 Daraganj, Phulwaria Road
Allahabad 211006
Offi 0532 – 2500163 Mob 9415214790
Resi 0532 -2506181
Gaya – Pt. Narayan Lal Baddiha Katariyar & Sons
Pindi Benchi Street, Chandchaura, Gaya 823001
(Near Vishupad
Temple)
0631 –423682
We prayed for the welfare and good of all Telugu Bhakti
Pages members. May Lord Viswanath and Goddess Anna Poorna bless you and your family members!
Raghav
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