hari sarvothama mettilotsava 2014 vayu · pdf filehari sarvothama mettilotsava 2014 vayu...
TRANSCRIPT
Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama
Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 1
“Ganapathy bappa moriya agle baras tu
jaldi aa” is the chant that would have rung
if I had been in Bombay. Those were the
late eighties, sweet memories of Bombay!
I chuckled, thinking of Sri Bannanje. In one
pravachana, he comments amongst other
things, how we bring Ganesha to our home
quietly with no fanfare but after visarjana,
when we take him to the pond to immerse
him, it’s with great sambrama. “ Enu mela,
enu thaalaa, jangatte baarisi, kushiyo kushi!
Ninna kaata next year thanaka illantha”
What do we do this time? OMG! It is our
sampradhaya that we keep Ganesha for 3
days! Do we miss mettilotsava this year
also? What can we do! Finally, checking
back home with the learned, we decided to
do visarjana the same day evening so that
with Ganesha’s antharyami Vishwambhara
murthy’s blessings we could head to
Pittsburgh the next day. Problem solved!
We left on Saturday & reached around 6
pm, I think. There were still lots of
sunshine, especially while snaking our way
to our campground. We missed it last year
so got excited just on spotting the sign
“ Donegal”. All I knew was, we would reach
the camp in less than half hr. “We have
never seen this much daylight in the
previous years! Did we come early? To
which my hubby quipped “we usually get
here Friday night around 9 pm” in his
solemn voice, which in turn made me look
silly for want of better word . Well!
I sighed & looked out of the window to
admire the greenery. Soon campsite was
spotted & the first person we met was Sri JK
avaru. And with him was Srikanth from
Toronto. Srikanth & Satya are becoming
regulars for Mettilotsava. Nice going!
“Humans are social animals” so our face
brightened on seeing familiar faces! A quick
look around, there he was, Jaya Acharya at
a distance with his customary smiling
cheerful face with a big namasthey!
For a Saturday evening, definitely there
were less cars parked than what we usually
encounter, less noise and less people too!!
Anyway, we quickly went on to inspect our
“house”. Our usual one was taken by early
birds & so went hunting for another one
slightly downhill & transferred our stuff
from the car. We arrived, with His grace, at
the right time. Sri SatyaNarayana puje was
about to begin.
Sri Harish Achar from Washington DC was
the official priest for the function. It was
our first time meeting him. Ram had
Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama
Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 2
spoken to him a number of times before,
but we have not met him in person.
Before venturing into details, special
mention has to be made for the amount of
preparations that went into making this
Puje function, a memorable one. If not,
justice would not have been served. There
were around 20-25 couples. In front of
each family, a tray consisting of kumkuma,
arishina, gandha, handful of nuts for
neivedya & flowers were ready. A kalasha
with coconut on it & a blouse was also kept.
Foam cups were filled with water.
Puje began with aachamana, sankalpa etc.
Sri Harish avaru made sure it was not a
mundane puja. He made it very interesting
by adapting to interactive format. All of us
would answer the questions he asked & he
would build on that. He said all of us knew
the stories but thathva behind it was not
conveyed properly. In a nutshell, five things
were answered in the kathaa. First one
indicates why we should perform puje &
the stories that follow pertain to brahmana,
kshatriya, vaishya & shudra dharma ie. who
can do it, 2nd & 3rd one, what happens if one
breaks the promise made & the last one
about how ego should eegale go!
In the midst, Sri Galagali avaru walked in &
Sri Harish Achar’s face immediately lit up &
the spring in his voice was evident. He
made Galagali sit next to him. Both were
childhood buddies in vidyapeeta when both
were under the tutelage of Sri Pejawara
swamigalu. From the compliments they
were paying to each other, it was bit tough
to know who is senior to whom. Ram could
not resist the temptation and asked Sri
Galagali during dinner as to what was going
on with seniority! Sri Galagali with his
typical shy smiley face said he is senior and
finally the puzzle got solved!
Do your respective duty with devotion to
god like our aacharya said “kuru bhunkshva
cha karma nijam niyatham” was the take
home message from the puje. Do your
duty, with no expectations, with no ego & in
Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama
Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 3
humility. We need His grace for everything.
After mangalahaarathi, both gave prasada
(sapaatha paksha) & phala mantrakshatha.
Sri Krishnaraj did an excellent edabala seve
and had everything in place for smooth
sailing.
Team @ work
Team @ work too!!
Sit down dinner was 9 yards starting from
kosambari, of course uppu first. Chiroti by
Sudhindras wife Deepa was one of the
highlights. Sudhindra, Shridar acharya were
the main cooks & they churned out items
that were devoured greedily. After that
came paan, with gulkand! I mean,
everything was so meticulously planned &
executed. Kudos to the DC/NJ teams!!
Campfire was built & all the kids raced to
have fun. Shashi Deshpande, Krishnaraj
Ram and I settled down comfortably with
Sri JK Avaru to do brief charche on thathva
vichara. The discussions started with
looking for the next logical step one has to
take to lead us further into our sadhane
than the routine ritualistic activities that we
all follow on a daily basis with utmost
regularity. The discussions went on till 1:30
AM and many thanks to JK for his patience
and time! He was driving back to his hotel
after that!! Talk of commitment!!!
Pleasantly, there was no maddening rush
the next day morning to leave the premises
by 6:30 AM or so! So relieved!! Still
remember Sri Bindu Madhavan’s shrill voice
requesting everyone to leave the premises
ASAP so that we can all assemble at the
foot hills! Andanaal gnyabagam nenjile
vandade!! Trip down memory lane.
Awakened by chirping birds & sound of light
drizzle, we got ready for morning puje by
GalagaLi avaru. Some of us were in the
kitchen helping with veggies etc & few in
prayer hall with flowers etc. I was hoping
he will start with “yam brahma
varunendra” & that’s exactly what he did!
Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama
Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 4
Yes!! We knew then he is in his usual
routine and this is going to be a great one!!
As he normally does, he had the group join
him during the puje at various stages so
that everyone was more intensely involved
and this was a bit of a change. Constant
request for devara nAma at various stages
got the generally quietly chatting ladies also
to swing in to action during Puje with
Anjana (Mrs Galagali) leading the singing.
After puje, his pravachana started. This
time he said he was going to make us aware
of all our brahmaanda brahma rishis. This is
based on recent reprint of his dad Sri Sri
Pandarinath Galagali’s prior work on
Brahmanda Brahmarishis! He said during
this recent Upaakarma wherein rishis were
invoked/doing rishi tharpana etc made him
decide to do this series on the greatness
and the background on various rishis.
When we tell our gotra, we do so
mechanically. But after hearing what Sri
Galagali narrated during his pravachana, it
would not be so mechanical after all!
One thing Sri Galagali pointed out was that
when we say Devatha/Rishi/Chandas before
suktha recital, usually it is assumed that the
rishis name is due to the fact that the
particular rishi is the one who revealed this
particular suktha etc. He said Acharya
Madhwa differed on that. Number of
times, it is the Rishi who popularized the
suktha and Sri Galagali gave a number of
examples for this. Good to know, fact!
Each rishi has a story depicting the
greatness of a rishis stature. I remember,
back in Detroit a decade ago, Sri Galagali
gave Baghavatha pravachana. And it
coincided with aaradhanas (7 of them
spread throughout the year). In a similar
pattern he said he will start off with couple
of rishis & would give pravachanas in future
Mettilotsava also. Next time when we say
Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama
Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 5
“Vashishta gotra/ Viswamitra/Kashyappa
etc ” we would also do smarane on the
greatness and qualities of the rishi.
One new item this year during Puje was Sri
JK introduced melodious way of singing
dwadasha stotra 11th adhdhyaaya
‘udhirnam ajaram divyam”. Aanandhasya
padam vande brahmendraadabhi
vandhitam” with emphasis on
“brahmendriyaadhabhi.” This is still ringing
not only in my ears but am positive in those
that were present too! You simply had to be
there to listen to his absolutely fantastic
rendering. Bhakthi was oozing all over and
it was a treat for us. JK promised to do a
professional recording and email it to us.
Hello JK avare! Are you listening!! Please do
so ASAP!!!
I am not sure if I noticed it prior years, this
year Sashi Despande ensured we did
Vaishvadeva Homa before the start of
sumptuous bhojane, which is great!
Authentic way to serve food to the
Brahmins!
There was music concert by Mrs Radha
Desai from Dharward, India. Along with
food for shravana, taste buds sharpened for
lunch. The concert was awesome,
unfortunately we could not continue for a
longer time due to time constraints.
This time lunch sweet was Mysorepak by
Rama Srinivas.
Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama
Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 6
Now is the time for Mettilotsava, the
eagerly awaited event. We rushed to
change sarees & were off to the foothills.
JAYA Acharya, Sudhindra and Bellary were
equally successful like Bindu in rushing
everyone to the Pittsburgh devasthana so
that we can start our Mettilotsava on time.
The procedure had changed since last year.
Earlier years it was in the morning but now
it was to be in the afternoon. Due to
special event of “Sahasra Kalasha
Abhisheka’ during this long weekend,
parking was at an off-site location near the
narrow bridge and devotees had to be
‘bused’ to the foothills. Though there was
brief sharp rain at the beginning, it was
clear during the entire procession period.
Sri Yogeendra, chief priest at NJ mata joined
us & with Rama Srinivas leading the
bhajane, we trekked along the usual path
towards the mettilu.
Another change in the format for this year
is, the devaranAma session in the prakAra
hall was preceded by 2 bonus pravachanas,
Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama
Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 7
one by Sri Sri Yogeendra & second one by
Sri Galagali.
Sri Yogeendra touched on the fact that
saadhane was individualistic but satsangha
is also very important in aiding the process.
He went on to explain that satsanga in a
way helps us to enhance our commitment
and focus towards our own individual
sadhana. Sri Galagali avaru spoke on
whether Srinivasa was an avatara! Rama
avathara was bala kaarya &
Kapila/Vedavyasa avataras were gynana
kaarya & Krishna avathara was both. But
Srinivasa had none of those & it also
happened in kali yuga! Srinivasa came to
earth so as to grant all wishes of his
devotees & get rid of our troubles.
“Kalyaanaadbhutha gaatraaya
kaamithartha pradaayine. Srimad Venkata
naathaaya Srinivaasaaya they namaha”.
We then sang bhajans lead by Rama &
Srinivas & later had darshan, to our hearts
content, of Sri Thimmappa. Sahasra kalasha
abhisheka for the lord of 7 hills was
performed by the temple during the 3 day
weekend & VMS families were given one
kalasha with coconut each. Sweet! A
testimony to the meticulous planning by
Jaya Acharya/ Sudhindra and Srinivas
Bellary!! We were whispering to Jaya
Acharya that we need to give individual
dhakshine since we are all getting free
Khalasha and pat came the answer from
Jaya Acharya that this was taken care too!
Talk of attention to details and meticulous
planning!! Awesome! Be it early morning or
late night, he still presents a very smiley
cheerful face and he is always there, where
it is most required! A huge asset to VMS
group!
Dinner was arranged in the temple canteen
for our VMS group. We decided we would
drive back the same night & suffice to say
Sri Thimmappa was there till we reached
home. It really took a bit of careful driving
to get back home! PHEW! Reached at 1.30
am!
For a brief time photos were clicked by
Janardan’s daughter & I thought he is
passing the baton to her. Wrong! Only for a
short time since He & Vidya were in the
puje! No wonder!
Lots of new families were present which
was encouraging. As per estimate max
strength was 80+. Hopefully, next years
would be huge. Chandrika & her hubby
Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama
Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 8
Ganesh along with their 3 month old
daughter! attended the function but that
did not deter the couple from tirelessly
washing all the dishes, both days. What a
couple! Saati yunte ee dampathiya
shraddhege?
Though this year’s Mettilotsava turnout was
less compared to previous years, as Sri
Janardan said, “thanks to GaNeshana
habba” (people were in two minds as to
whether visarjana can be done the same
day or not) there was still no dearth of fun
& enjoyment of course! at the campsite.
Sri Sudhindra pointed out that only 30 had
registered but 80+ showed up. I cringed on
hearing that. We were one among late
registrants! We had registered only 2 days
before the event!. This gives lot of
headache to the organizers. Still it’s like as
if they knew our habits & planned for
around that much anyway. Hats off to Jaya
Acharya, Sudhindra, Bellary, Janardhan,
Sashi Deshphande and the teams from DC/
NJ. They once again deserve special
mention for shouldering the entire burden.
Also, special heartfelt thanks to all the
volunteers. Lots of selfless hard work, but
the result showed. Super fun & worth it!
So let’s all take a pledge that we will
register well ahead of time to make
this event a grand success. This is our
function & together we should strive to be
courteous to our organizers.
We particularly missed Sri Keshav Rao and
Smt. Meera. Their absence was very much
felt.
Lastly, somehow Sridhar Padaki was eerily
quiet which was abnormal. No antics!
Nothing from him! Zero! Zilch! Idhu eno
aaschariya Sridhara raaya!
But seeing the pictures from Monday
morning (remember we left Sunday
evening!) looks like he bloomed late but
with full force!
Bharathiramana Mukhyapraananthargatha
Sri Krishnaarpanamasthu.
Chitra & Ram