Destination India
Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal during his visit to Malaysia beginning 15 June 2016, had indicated to us that his Kallar Ashram was nearing completion and that he would most probably hold the inauguration or kudamuzhakku (kumbhabhisegam) vizha in September the same year. Towards his departure to India, he decided otherwise to hold the opening ceremony of his Ashram to coincide with the annual Guru Puja towards the end of the year. Eventually he informed us that the celebrations will be held over four days beginning 15 December 2016 till 18 December 2016. Taking into consideration the costs involved in travelling twice to India (September and then again in December), he merged both the celebrations over a four day event to enable us to attend and participate.
Bala Chandran Gunasekaran was the very first person to book his flight ticket and informed us. I too booked my ticket online the following day. Initially I had thought about bringing my family of five along, but as it was peak season and holiday season, the tickets were rather costly. I decided to follow the boys at AVM. We were leaving on 11 December 2016 and returning on 19 December 2016. Initially Bala, Dyalan, Sugu, Shanga and I were to go together. The girls had planned something with Malarvathy’s family. Bala and I started to plan our trip which included several Siddha samadhis and temples. Along the way the girls opted to join us as Malar’s family had postponed their plan to visit India till later. We then had to reschedule our plans to accommodate visits to numerous temples by some of the girls to perform their atonements or parikaram. Our itinerary was now fully packed and we began to wonder if we could go to all those places as planned. But we decided that the priority would be the places where the girls had to carry out their parikaram. In event we had time and the other temples were on the way or within the vicinity, only then shall we stop over.
It was during this period of time that we were faced with four critical issues: the sudden demonetization of the Indian rupee note in denominations of Rs500 and Rs1000; the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu's sudden demise; the sudden fatal cyclone Vardah that was to hit the shores of Tamilnadu; and a sudden sabotage of the Guru Puja celebrations at Kallar Ashram by certain quarters.
It was during this period of time that we were faced with four critical issues: the sudden demonetization of the Indian rupee note in denominations of Rs500 and Rs1000; the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu's sudden demise; the sudden fatal cyclone Vardah that was to hit the shores of Tamilnadu; and a sudden sabotage of the Guru Puja celebrations at Kallar Ashram by certain quarters.
Prior to leaving for India, these children began to drop in at AVM to pray to AVM Agathiyar for a safe journey and receive his blessings. They also asked for blessings from "Ayya" who came through a trance through one of Bala’s relatives at his (relative's) home. Ayya had detailed out what to expect on the pilgrimage and blessed all. Agathiyar in a surprise move, granted us a Nadi reading on 27 November 2016, just days before our departure and assured us that all shall be fine.
On 11 December 2016 all nine of us (Bala, Dyalen, Sugu, Shanga, Tamil, Saha, Malar, Uva and me) met at KLIA 2 to board the Airasia flight for Trichy. Surendaran Selvaratnam, Sri Balachander Aiya, Srimathy Vinthamaray and her family would join us at Kallar Ashram later.
On touching down at Trichy, Shanga’s business partner’s were on hand to receive us. Shanga had engaged Sanker of Sankar Travels, based in Trichy to drive us around during the nine day duration of our visit in India.
Bala and I had laid out in detail the itinerary but understood pretty well that, that was only our plan and that Agathiyar had had his own plan for us. We were ready to accommodate and accept any changes in the schedule that Agathiyar deemed fit.
Destination 1 – Sri Rangam
True to this we began our tour by visiting Sri Rangam instead of Utchipillaiyar. Sankar suggested that we visit Utchipillaiyar later in the evening when the sun had gone down. We listened to him and opted to visit Sri Rangam instead. Inside the temple complex we found ourselves queuing up for the special ticket to have the Darshan of the Lord Sri Ranganatha Swamy. It was a long queue and it was not moving. What seemed worst was that there was no one attending to the sales of ticket at the counter where we stood waiting in line. A temple priests explained to us that they were allowing and alternating a certain number of devotees beginning with those that pay Rs250, followed by those who paid Rs50, and finally allowing those who stood waiting in line for free darshan. We were waiting in the Rs250 line. It was almost 12.30pm and the time of closure of the temple was nearing. We began to consider if we should skip darshan of the Lord here.
Bala and I left the queue to enquire about the location of Sri Ramanujar’s samadhi (Udayavar - Ramanujar Sannathi) thinking that we could visit him meantime. We happened to stumble upon an elderly gentleman sitting near the entrance to the temple. He directed us to the samadhi and advised us to have the darshan of Lord Sri Ranganatha Swamy first, reminding us that the temple will be closed in a few moments and what would remain of the crowd would be the devotees already lined up and queuing. The queue would progress fast he assured us. He was also waiting to do so too, he told us. We realized then that as Sri Ramanujar's samadhi was outside the temple walls, we would be refused entry to re enter the temple once its doors were closed for the afternoon. The chat with the gentleman turned to small talk and we discovered that he too had returned recently from Malaysia after visiting his son who was working there. True to his words, soon no fresh devotees were seen queuing up within the temple complex. The line in which we stood began to move at a fast pace now and we finally found ourselves right in front of the Lord. It was a wonderful darshan.
Asking our way around and after stopping at several sannadhis, looking to see if it was that of Sri Ramanujar's, we finally found our way to Sri Ramanujar’s samadhi temple. Unfortunately the temples doors we closed as we arrived there. Almost immediately to our surprise the doors opened on its own! There stood a couple of priests who made their way out of the sanctum, closing the door behind them, giving us sufficient time to peek into the Sannadhi. That was enough we thought and moved on.
Asking our way around and after stopping at several sannadhis, looking to see if it was that of Sri Ramanujar's, we finally found our way to Sri Ramanujar’s samadhi temple. Unfortunately the temples doors we closed as we arrived there. Almost immediately to our surprise the doors opened on its own! There stood a couple of priests who made their way out of the sanctum, closing the door behind them, giving us sufficient time to peek into the Sannadhi. That was enough we thought and moved on.
As Ayya had requested that we feed "Bhairavar" at the first stop (temple) we did the same and continued this throughout our journey. Both Saha and Malar were advised too to 'beg" (madi pitchai) at all the temples, they fulfilled this too, placing the collections in the Undil or donation box of the respective temples.
