RajaGopal Swamy temple - Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu

December 2008 saw us making a trip to India. After two weeks of relaxation at parents place in Pune, we had decided to embark on an epic visit to temples in Tamil Nadu. Amma and myself started off first from Pune to Bangalore. After spending two days in Bangalore, catching up with friends we decided to head to Chennai and received Gopi and appa. From there begins the journey, starting with Chennai music festival followed by our epic journey. we visited many places but I would like to start with Mannargudi. Our driver for the trip's name was Rajani (it seems his father was a fan of Rajnikanth- filmstar and thats where he got his name). He comes from this town named Mannargudi.

Mannargudi was not in our itinerary of visit. We went to a couple of piligrim centres and Rajani was our guide for the trip. We had given him the entire responsibility of deciding the places. We used to halt the night at the last place of worship. But this time Rajani decided to change this trend. He decided to halt the night at Mannargudi. At first I thought Rajani stole the oppurtunity to visit Mannaargudi, his native place this way, since he had his sister living there. But I dint realise then what was in store for us the next day...The next day saw us getting ready to start for an other epic tour and Rajani said lets start with Rajagopal swamy temple Mannargudi. We reached there and appa had terrible knee ache, so it was only Gopi, myself and amma who made our way inside the temple.

The moment we entered the venue all three of us were struck with awe. The serenity of the place was the first thing that captured us, the gopuram is huge and the pillars are magnificent.The place was empty but there was this in-depth silence and the place was dark with sunlight trickling in from different places. Gopi, our photographer of the trip was busy capturing shots when the manager of the temple came and asked us to leave the camera in the temple office and collect it after the darshan. But then seeing the size of the camera (digital SLR, we fondly call it the mainframe) he decided to let it be with us but with the assurance that we dont take any more pics. We complied to his requests and proceeded further on. The temple seemed totally empty in that magnitude of space and then we come across this one priest and he does a small archana for us at a pillar and gives us kumkum and then we get to know that he is deaf and dumb. It really captivated us. We gave some dakshina and we moved on...Then we go to the main sanctum of Perumal, which was really beautiful and how I wished we were allowed to take pictures so that I can always cherish the sight. The priest performed an archana for the previous set of devotees and then it was our turn. He was one of the most humble and happy priest I saw. He had this beautiful serene smile on his face and he performed the archana for us. He then asked me if I would like to carry Santana Gopal in my hand and rock Him. It seems if you rock Santana Gopal and make a prayer, your wishes will be fulfilled and I happily obliged. The priest got a cradle out from inside the sanctum with baby Krsna lying in the cradle and gave the cradle to me. Gopi and amma joined in too and the priest rocked it for us with the three of us holding the cradle whilst chanting some mantras and we make our silent prayers. It was so captivating a moment. He asked us where are you from and amma replied to him that Gopi and I have come from Melbourne, Australia. He was happily listening to us while walking to and fro to the sanctum and also replying from in there. It felt so homely and he said that his brother has just finished training and is now a priest in the Venkateswara temple in Sydney. I just thought what a small world and how globalisation has taken its form. From there we made our way to Thayar's sanctum and there was a beautiful site awaiting us there too... Thayar in her beautiful pattu sari and graciously adorning the jewellery is such a beautiful sight, my imagination fails to perceive the magnanimity of Her beauty in Vaikuntha... From there we made our way to Lord Hanuman's sanctum, it was a quiet dark sanctum and again we came across a deaf and dumb priest. This time I was dumb struck, to see two people with the same disability at the same place seemed like too much of a deja-vu. Maybe my scope of vision is too primitive to realise that there could be many out there in that small town who cant hear and speak but at that particular instant I was just taken by surprise. After performing the archana for us, he took a paper and scooped out some prasadam for us in that. When I think back about that moment I feel like reaching out to them and wanting to do something for those priests. (I would maybe discuss this in my forth coming blogs). We take the prasadam and finish our darshan and start to head out of the temple. Thinking we just had a heavy breakfast before setting out to the temple, we decide to give the prasadam to someone in the temple. We saw a lady cleaning the temple premise and amma thought we can hand it over to her. The first unspoken priest we came across was watching us. The moment he saw us handing the prasadam to the sweeper lady, he expressed a silent disgust. I did feel embarassed at that moment and expressed it to amma. We came out quickly to join appa and Rajani who were waiting for us in the car. We were constantly praising the ambience of the place and the aura it held. There is a beautiful kolam outside the temple. All in all I enjoyed Mannargudi to the most.

All this time I was under the impression that RajaGopala swamy temple was less noticed and tucked in a small town until last week when I googled the place and came across some very interesting links. The temple is indeed very well known and has got a remarkable history behind it. Please read the following blog to get more information about the temple.

http://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2007/05/mannargudi-rajagopalaswamy-temple.html

An Ode to Motherhood..

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." ~Rajneesh

The scriptures state that there are many forms of love in this world, love between siblings, love between two lovers, love between friends but it is stated that the love between the mother and child is the most purest form of love in this material world. Amma, Maa, Mummy, we use different ways to call out to our mothers but it all signifies the same relationship the same bonding which a mother shares which her child. The day she gives birth to her bundle of joy bearing all the pressures and the pain, she herself takes a new birth from a woman to a mother. I would like to dedicate my first blog to this unique relation and to my dearest mother.

I can date back to the time when I have vivid recollection of my existence. As I travel down memory lane, I see myself. a little girl in two tight long pig tails being taken to school by my dear mother. She drops me in kindergarden to be received by the smiling face of the teacher who is a known acquaintance and also the kinder teacher of my older brother. They exchange some pleasantaries and I am left under the protection of the teacher. I enter the classroom with a big smile and my mother returns back home maybe with mixed feelings, pondering on whats running in her little daughter's mind. Whilst she is pondering, her little baby is crying in class due to unknown reasons. The teacher is trying hard to pacify me but all I want at that time is my mother,I cry and cry and simply fall asleep only to be woken up by the welcoming smile of my mother. I felt so secured when she was around me that time and hopped and skipped back home with her. My face used to break into million grins and not a single day went by when my dear mother never got me blanched almonds which I used to munch and jump along.The phase of childhood when your mother is an inseparable entity, your only friend.

Not long after I enter primary school, a surge of intelligence sets in, I made many friends became more confident of the surroundings and enjoyed going to school. My dear mother still dropped me to school, being the protective self when all my friends walked alone to school or went by matadors. I often wondered and thought I can go alone to school, I know the way so well, my little but self claimed intelligent mind was talking me into going to school alone. I spoke to amma so many times but she just turnd it down. We still returned back from school together every afternoon with me hopping around and entered the local bakala (grocery store in the gulf) where she brought me a prince polo chocolate everyday. I had a 50 fils treat everyday and an occasional prince polo plus funny faces(a chips having different funny faces) treat. Come school picnic amma always gave me an assortment of options to choose in the bakala, from an array of soft drinks to pick, a prince polo bar without fail some few packs of chips of which I never missed picking up a pack of funny faces. She also sent along her own hand made sandwiches which I relished to the core. My independent self still made its appearance many a times and one afternoon while returning from school I insisted to amma that I wanted to play downstairs and inspite of repeated protests from amma I still stood firm by my decision. She took my bag and went upstairs while I waited for my friend, after a few moments of wait I decided I must return home. while climbing up the stairs I was joined by an Arab who appeared very friendly and asked me which floor a flat number existed. As I happily guided him and accompanied him till I reached my floor, he started getting too friendly which got me scared and I ran up the stairs uttering the only one word which gave me security - Amma. I was 8 years old then but was always very close to Appa and always overlooked amma while she worked away in a sublime manner in the background, looking after my every needs. I always felt amma liked my brother more than me only failing to understand how she subtly monitored me and took care of me at every step. I was growing into a tomboy and she always aspired to see me in pattu pavade and frocks while I strutted around in shorts and t-shirts. She kept designing all these beautiful outfits for me while I refused to wear them but that never deterred her from making more and also getting matching hair clips and matching bindis. Her only chance to dress me that way was every friday when I went to Bal Vihar class in Chinmaya mission where she adorned me ethnic clothes and kohl filled eyes. How I wish I could get back those days amma and be how you wanted me to be and sit by your side.

Years flew by and I entered adolescence, amma saw me growing from her small girl to a young lady. She still packed my favorite lunch to school and watched me going to high school. Often she would go and wait down at my bus stop while I got ready so that she could ask my school bus conductor to hold on for a few seconds while her daughter ever running late in time comes running down. The early onset of adolescence again saw me becoming inseparable with amma. We used to go to the nearby temple every evening for the 730 arati and sometimes saw ourselves running to be there on time. We had our evening walks together and our joint sessions at buying wada pavs from the latest wada pav joint which served delicious wada pavs. Amma saw me going through a face where I was so conscious about myself and my appearance. She talked me out of my negative thoughts about my figure by pointing out the right curves I carried. She imbibed in me positive thoughts about my appearance. As I was progressing to the higher grades in school, amma saw me elected as the asst social service prefect and she was so filled with pride seeing her daughter adorning the badge that she went and thanked my teacher for nominating me. At that moment it felt that there was no need to thank the teacher because I deserved to be there least realising amma's humble disposal and the joy she felt for me.

Years passed as I kept growing progressing from class to class and then entered college. I had a beautiful junior college life, enjoying with friends but still so close to amma. We still went for our walks and exchanged all the latest gossips about the town. As the 12th board exams approached, I worked very hard but never gave much importance for my botany subject. On the day of the exam I was too nervous and felt I would fail the exam, seeing my nervousness amma decided to accompany me to college and she sat the whole day in college till I finished attempting two subjects and she was my silent source of support.

Graduation saw me overtly independent. I had formed a great group of friends and we used to hang around together before and after college. I was going through this phase where I felt I could take good care of myself and my boldness saw no limits. I used to come considerably late from college after hanging around with my friends(late as per Indian standards). My route home saw me crossing the Khadki railway station which was considerably dark and lonely, but when I get down from the bus or the train I see amma there waiting for me in the station so that I dont need to tread home alone. So much was the subtle communication between the two of us, there was no mobile phones then and she dint know when I was to return but she used to come and wait for me at the station. I was greeted by a big warm smile and we used to walk home together.

Before long, I see I have finished my studies and I am moving to Bangalore to join Infosys and I am married. I have finished 26 years of my life with amma and now I am moving to another household. Such is the life of a girl where you have to leave your dear mother and go to another house. Amma cried a lot when she boarded the train from Bangalore to Pune after leaving me there with my husband.