9. An Experiment with Brahmacharya (Category:- Real Experiences)

It's a common misconception among us that Brahmacharya means Celibacy, but actually it's something very vast.
Brahmacharya = Brahman + Charya; which means 'Dwelling in the Supreme Being'. But for this 'Celibacy' is a mandatory Prerequisite. That's why people correlate Brahmacharya with Celibacy and it ends up in identifying both as one and the same. Here we would discuss Brahmacharya in terms of Celibacy.
Brahmacharya is a state which once achieved, makes a human insulated to all the kinds of Vikaras. Once this state is attained, we become free of all the attachments, and attractions. This state makes us more focused to realize the supreme being.

Glory of Brahmacharya:- Our saints and scriptures say that a person who could retain his vital fluids within himself without losing even a single drop of it for 12 years, he becomes an 'Akhand Brahmachari'. For such a being, nothing is impossible. he becomes godly in that very same life.
An Akhand Brahmachari can easily realize God within himself. For him Kundalini raises easily and he achieves vision of the supreme being in his Sahasrara Chakra (crown chakra in his head). Such people can also attain astha siddhis easily.

Examples of people who were Akhanda Brahmachari:-

• We have Bheeshma in Mahabharata who remained invincible and invulnerable to anything because of his Brahmacharya. In Virat war, Arjuna fires 'Sammohana Astra' and makes everyone senseless. But Bheeshma just enacts as if he was also victimized. Arjuna tells to Uttar not to touch Bheeshma and says that Sammohanastra can't caste any spell on Bheeshma
• Hanuman, the hero of Ramayana, was a man who faced no defeat in his life. Every work he undertook, success followed him. That's the power of Brahmacharya
• Lakshmana, another hero of Ramayana, practiced Brahmacharya for 14 years and became akhand brahmachari and that's why he could defeat the unbeatable-Meghnad/Indrajeet
• Even Adi Shankaracharya, and Swami Vivekananda kind of Saints practiced Brahmacharya and became victorious in their works. They have also sung the glories of celibacy and taught that Brahmacharya is the best gateway to Salvation

'Brahmacharya' does not only mean physical chastity, but it encompasses the following areas. failure in any one of the below items leads to total failure in Brahmacharya.

1. Brahmacharya in thought:- This is the toughest nut to crack. One can attain physical Brahmacharya by a little practice of Yoga, meditation and Prayers, but erasing the devil inside the mind is not so easy. It requires regular practice, focus, belief and god's blessings to achieve mental brahmacharya
2. Brahmacharya in word:- We can achieve this by not uttering any bad words or not using any filthy language. This is not very tough. This can be achieved easily if we remain in good company of friends
3. Brahmacharya in deed:- This is a super set of Physical Brahmacharya. A person who doesn't indulge in adultery and related practices achieves this more than 50%. But also there are some other acts where one has to maintain sanctity. e.g. if we are giving alms to a beggar, we should give it as if we are saying thanks to him/her for giving us an opportunity to help her fight her hunger. We should treat every such opportunity as a chance given by god. One who follows all such good things and makes them his deeds in his/her day to day life; he attains Brahmacharya in deed. It builds character. teaches morals and makes us strong in values

However, to achieve all round celibacy the first and foremost step is to achieve success in Physical Celibacy. But in today's world it's a herculean task to hold your vital fluids within yourself for long. Reason is the corruption of human mind, loss of moral values, and degradation of social and cultural ethics in our society.
Well, we have discussed enough of this theoretically, let me go to practical experiences now.

My Real Life Experience:-
Few months back when i read the glories of Brahmacharya, i became so motivated with it, that i started pushing myself towards the same. For me, by God's grace diversions in thoughts do not occur without my wish. As per the teachings on the same i wanted to attain Akhanda Brahmacharya which of course takes 12 years of hard work and if i marry i can't attain the same. But till that time if i can follow this path i would be the happiest person on the earth. For this, foremost thing is, not to allow the vital fluids to get wasted since this is the fluid which makes or mars one's spiritual life. This liquid when held within, shows you the path of salvation and on the other hand if released out, leads you to the doorstep of hell. So for me the first important thing was to close the tap completely. By god's grace i was successful for a week to 10 days. But again when the kundalini energy gets excessively accumulated in the Muladhara Chakra, and we do not know how to transmute it, metabolism of our body, in order to regulate and maintain itself, leaks it out without our permission in our deep sleep. So, to avoid such embarrassments i was searching for some techniques to transmute the excess energy which gets formed gradually in our body. I found the following tricks in Orkut forums (Thanks to Dr. Gandhi) which proved highly helpful for me to achieve my goal.

Sure Fire Techniques:-
Below are listed some sure fire techniques to achieve physical Brahmacharya.

Ashwini Mudra Method:-

1. Contract your anus and hold it as long as possible
2. While you are holding the anus contracted, make your sexual energy located at the lower Chakras to move up towards and into your head .this can be done by moving your attention along the spine upwards repeatedly and trying to feel for the energy moving up the spine.
3. If at first, even if you don't feel any thing; continue, gradually after some days you will really perceive the energy moving up your spine with this technique
4. Repeat this tracking the energy up the spine 30-60 times, while holding the anus contracted through out the whole procedure (for me doing 5-10 tracking(s) itself works fine. This may vary from one individual to another)
   
5. Do this daily to maintain Brahmacharya easily. By doing this technique daily i found that any unfavorable circumstance out side ,cannot disturb my Brahmacharya.
6. Some amount of energy in lower Chakras is required for daily work (yogis say that for every work, some amount of energy is drawn from the base of spine). Don't over do this transmutation because excess transmutation will cause weakness , 30-60 tracking(s) up is alright and doesn't cause weakness for some people. It may vary from person to person
7. Also doing this before sleeping will surely prevent wet dreams
8. This technique will keep the mind pure and you will notice a considerable decrease in lust
9. After doing this technique if you have time, try doing some sort of meditation at least for 10 minutes. 'Bhramari Mudra of Pranayama gives great peace to mind, I do this and find my mind totally settled and find great peace). Meditation is not compulsory, but it's nice to have thing. Doing meditation will remove any feeling of tiredness you may get if you do excess transmutation. And also meditation helps transmutation of sexual energy according to literature

Tibetan rite 6 Method (very spontaneous and results oriented):-

With this technique, even with out trying to move the sexual energy up, as with Ashvini Mudra technique , you could feel the energy moving up spontaneously after doing this rite 6.
The purpose of the Tibetan rite 6 exercise is to redirect the excess of sexual and reproductive energy, generated by the activity of the base Chakra (Muladhara) to all higher Chakras along the spine.
The technique is as follows:
Deep Breathing:

1. Stand comfortably and exhale as you bend from the waist, placing your hands on your knees
2. Expel the last bit of air from your lungs and without taking in new breath, return to an erect position
3. Place your hands on your hips, with fingers to the front and press as hard as you can while sucking in the abdomen
4. This will raise your shoulders and chest. While holding in the abdomen, also squeeze the pubococcygeal muscle* up to emphasize the upward thrust
5. Hold this position and bring your closed eyeballs to the point between the eyebrows so that all this lower Chakric energy will rise up to the highest centers
6. When you must take a breath, breathe in through your nose and then exhale through the mouth as you drop your arms down to your sides to relax
7. Take in several normal breaths through the nose and mouth before beginning again

Pubococcygeus* muscle is that muscle which helps in stopping the urination in between. Try to see the working of it while you urinate and trying to stop the stream in between.
According to Lamas this exercise should NOT be practiced excessively, otherwise this exercise does more harm than benefit, by draining the energy from the base Chakra. As per Dr. Gandhi's experience, if you do this exercise excessively you will experience weakness and a feeling of inability to express emotions. Doing this exercise once or twice a day doesn't cause any of these side effects. Before sleeping, I do this exercise 5 times and I feel comfortable with it. Try to find out by experimenting how frequently you can do this exercise with out these side effects

Final word:-

The above methods shield you when you are awake and also expected to shield when you are asleep also. But to be on safer side, i also pray to god before sleeping to protect me from all evil and keep monitoring me. Prayers to God have really helped me on top of those methods. I feel very much peaceful, focused, and happy to have no Vikaara. Brahmacharya gives a very good feeling. It makes us free from all diversions, our mind remains focused on our work, uplifts us spiritually to higher plains, and gives a divine level of peacefulness.

I'm thankful to god in helping me through out the way and still he is helping in all the ways. "Love you my Lord Shiva!! I'm always grateful to you for showing me this great path. Let me never aberrate from this path and let me finally reach you".

10. A Trip to Tirumala Tirupati (Category:- Real Experiences)

Last week we got a chance to visit Tirupati. We stayed there for 3 days (27th Feb-01st Mar'10).
27th morning we stepped down the Train and went straight to the back side of the Railway Station where Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) office was there. We had to stand in a queue for booking the Darshanam ticket.
It was early morning and the environment was very pleasant. It thrilled me to see a 'Veda PathaShala' in the same premises out of which many Veda-Vidhyarthi(s) were coming out. They were dressed in Indian traditional clothes (Dhoti), had the sacred thread visible, and nicely smeared Namam on their forehead. That scene reminded me of the movie on Sri 'Adi Shankaracharya' made in Sanskrit. I felt as if I had traversed back in time to 50-100 years back. That entire environment (leaving the people in queue aside) was so cool and pleasant that i wished i could also study Vedas in such a great school and dress myself so traditionally.

My happiness was not even subsided that another scene had taken my heart to the 9th cloud of elation. All of a sudden i heard a voice; a very familiar one, which i always loved to hear. Yes, that was the mooing of a cow. I turned my head towards my right and found that a herd of cows with their calves were standing there. 2 of them were pure white, one was striped in brown and white. Their calves resembled their mothers.
Within my heart i addressed them as 'Gow-Mata' and very happily started gazing at them. They were all Indian cows. Since my childhood i loved Cows a lot. I love only Indian cows and do not have much affinity towards foreign breeds like Jersey etc.
Indian cows have a heart of a mother. They remain innocent, meek, and love us like a real mother. On the contrary, foreign breeds usually remain short tempered. To milk a foreign breed cow usually i found people tying their hind legs and making them vulnerable and then milk. But my favorite Indian mother cows are largehearted, loving and giving mothers. They usually don't need any rope work. My philosophy is, what's the use of those foreign milk machines which produce tonnes of lifeless white liquid? I would always rather prefer to drink just an ounce of milk from the Indian gow mata which contains the sweetness of her motherly love making it equivalent to ambrosia.

Soon we purchased the Darshan tickets and our allotted timing was 10:00 PM on the same day. In the evening we traveled to Tirupati, which is on the 7th Hill. We stood in the Darshan queue and by God's grace there was not much crowd. I knew the norm of Darshan which states that one should first see 'Lord Varaha Swami' and then only one should see lord Venkateswara. But unfortunately i had a misconception that Varaha Swami is also situated in the same place around Venkateswara. All the time my eyes were eagerly searching and looking out for Varaha Swami, but all i could find was venkateswara everywhere. Finally i had to see Venkateswara only and then i enquired a guard and came to know about the actual place where Varaha Swami resides. Better luck next time!
After collecting the Laddu from the same place, same night we came back to Tirupati where we stayed in a TTD booked room.

In Tirupati we visited Mangapatnam where Goddess Alamelumanga (Wife of Venkateswara) resides. Also went to Srinivasamanga Patnam where Lord Venkateswara's elder brother GovindaRaju's temple is built. Both the places were very beautiful. My mother Alamelumanga gave us her Darshan with all her grace. Crowd was less and we had nice time sitting in that beautiful temple of the universal mother. In Govindaraju's temple i wished i could stay there for my whole life. I usually get attracted towads archaic form of buildings, traditions, culture etc. So the temples which had old Indian design patterns, had taken my heart and soul away with them.

During the whole 3 days Trip i was constantly chanting Lord Venkateswara's name and Mother Goddess' names. Another happy incident happened with me. For me it is not less than a miracle, hence i would call it a Miracle not an incident. I love 3 mother goddesses more than my life viz. Goddess Parvati, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. And often i pray them to make me their own son forever. I usually ask them to give me their names so that i can become Parvati-Putra, Lakshmi-Putra and Saraswati-Putra. These 3 days also i prayed the same to Goddess Alumelumanga (Lakshmi). While we were coming out from our rooms to catch our Train, we saw in the same TTD premises a tourist-Bus on which the name was written as 'SantoshLakshmi'. The very sight of that name made me overflow with happiness and tears rolled down the cheeks out of uncontrollable gladness. I thanked mother Lakshmi for having indirectly assured me of making me her son by showing me a name where she attached her name with that of mine.

Finally i was back to my city on 3rd Morning and Joined office chores as usual!

12. Real Guru..Real Shishya Mystification (Category:-Real Experiences)

Today (09th March 2010) i read a news topic in 'Yahoo India News' portal, titled "Swamis and Scandals". The list of recent scandals done made me feel little depressed today.

This is pathetic on the part of our nation to see such cases happening on the land which has been giving birth to Universal teachers (Jagad Gurus).

• Yoga, Meditation Discovered and Developed in India by Sage Patanjali. Now entire world follows this Indian Science and gets benefitted.
• Self realization techniques through Kundalini or Shat Chakra were also first experienced by many Sages of india and till date it's popular in india and abroad
• Vedas are the ancient scriptures known to mankind, a product of India
• Advaita Concept (Non Dualism) taught by Adi Shankaracharya of India which proved that there is only one God
• Sree Veera Brahmendra Swami authored kalagyana Grandha (Book of Future Predictions) which lists down all the calamities destined to happen in this age of Kali. Many have happened accurately as predicted, and many are yet to happen. He is the Nostradamus of India. Nostradamus' predictions failed many times, but kalagyana never failed. Such jagad Gurus were again from india

In a country where we have Gurus like them, we also have a list of perfect Desciples like,
Swami Vivekananda, Siddhaiyya, and many more historical charecters who later on became the successors of their Gurus and have registered their names under the category of great gurus.

But unfortunately in today's date India is in such a painful state where there is no knowledge; everywhere prevails one thing, "Confusion! "

Sree Veera Brahmendra Swami had already predicted in his kalagyana that in the age of kali, there would be dearth of real Gurus and Real Shishyas. He said, people would get confused to identify between real and fake godmen. Even a person capable of becoming a true Shishya would get confused whom to consider his/her spiritual master, and likewise a real guru would also be in the same dilemma whom to give proper knowledge!

His prediction has come really to be true today. Of course it's not a case which happened today, it's been experienced many times in past as well, in this Kali Age. How true were the words/predictions of Sree Brahmendra Swami!

Today when i switch over to any devotional TV channel, i find many people sitting and preaching something or the other. Just having a Grey colored beard, and wearing saffron doesn't make anybody a Saint. So called Saints who have won the hearts of many people through deception have been unmasked by the media recently. Everyone has their own life to live. But i condemn such acts which they did hiding behind the name of God. It reminds me of a saying in Hindi which goes, "Muh mein Ram, bagal me Choori". It means, "Name of Rama on the Lips and a Knife/dagger in the pocket".

These fake swamijis win the hearts of gullible people by their self proclaims and 'fake but highly decorated' preachings, and later on stoop down to cases like Abduction, Rape and Murder. They wouldn't get anything out of it but ultimately it adversely affects the image of our great nation.

Now tell me after reading the below list of cases, hereafter who would believe and follow a Guru for spiritual knowledge? Would you?

I would say, I don't need to look out for another Guru since i already have my standard list of Gurus listed below who are sinless and bestow the ultimate wisdom with little efforts from our side.
My Gurus are the trinity,
Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva ........1
My Gurus are the Lords,
DakshinaMurthy and Hayagriva ........2
My Gurus are Adi Shankaracharya
And Veera Brahmendra Swami ........3
My Guru matas are the great Goddesses,
Parvati, Saraswati and Lakshmi .......4

Even if i have to realize my own self, i would pray to them and practice on my own rather than approaching a fake godman.

I suggest my fellow humans/readers of this post not to fall prey blindly to the fake self proclaimed godmen. If you listen to their teeachings, listen; but make your own intuition as 'Meru mountain', churn their teachings with the Snake called as 'Logic' and then drink the selective outcome of this scrutiny as the divine milk of knowledge!!

We have numerous amount of scriptures in our Hindu Dharma like Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, Kavitvams done by great poets etc. I would say, those scriptures are enough to teach us divine wisdom and make us truthful. One simple thing i would like to mention is,

"Always Follow and Protect Dharma, Live for Dharma, Do Dharma in all your deeds". That's it!

That's the simplest path for Liberation in this fake world of trecheries and deceit!".
Remember friends, "Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah", means 'if you protect Dharma, Dharma will protect you'.

Just for information, here is a list of fake gurus and their scandals compiled by Yahoo news. let's have a glance on the same and understand the current pathetic situation of this great country.

1. Swami Paramhansa Nityanand: The founder of the Nityanand mission, which claims to have 1,000 branches across 33 countries, has been untraceable since certain Tamil TV channels recently aired a video which allegedly shows him in a compromising position with a Tamil actress. Nityanand, who has ashrams in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry, hails from Tamil Nadu and has a sprawling ashram in Bidadi, 30 km from Bangalore. He claims to lead a worldwide movement for meditation and peace. Lenin Karuppan, a former disciple, has said that he shot the video to expose the swami. Lenin has alleged that his life has been under threat from the swami, adding that he also suspected foul play behind the death of a woman inmate a year ago. In the complaint filed with Chennai City Police Commissioner T Rajendran, Lenin, who claimed to be an inmate of the ashram in Bangalore since 2006, said the swami used to lure young women devotees claiming that he was the reincarnation of Lord Krishna.
2. Anup Kumar Sahay: A self-proclaimed godman in Ghaziabad, he was booked on Sunday for abducting his cousin. According to a complaint filed by Subha Srivastava, mother of the victim, the accused along with his brother Ashok Kumar Sahay abducted her daughter Priyanka Srivastava on February 15. The self-proclaimed godman has been booked under sections 363, 313 and 366 of the IPC which pertain to kidnapping and forcing a woman to undergo abortion without her will.
3. Kripaluji Maharaj: Ram Kripal Tripathi aka Kripaluji Maharaj, at whose ashram near Pratapgarh in UP 63 people died in a stampede last week, was charged with kidnapping and rape in two cases in Nagpur in 1991. He was acquitted after the witnesses turned hostile. He was arrested in 2007 after a Guyanese woman in South Trinidad filed a rape case against him.
4. Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale: Shiv Murti Dwivedi alias Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale (39), a self-styled godman, was arrested by the Delhi Police last month on charges of operating a high-profile sex racket involving former airhostesses and students.
5. Asaram Bapu: Two minor boys of the Asaram Ashram-run gurukul in Ahmedabad were found dead in the Sabarmati riverbed two days after they mysteriously went missing from the gurukul in February 2008. The police booked Asaram Bapu in a criminal case pertaining to attempt to murder last year in December on the basis of a complaint filed by Raju Chandak, a former disciple of Asaram. Chandak was shot at by two persons on December 5 and he sustained injuries on his chest and shoulders. Chandak alleged that he was targeted at the behest of Asaram, as he had testified before the D K Trivedi Commission probing into the death of the two boys.
6. Jayendra Saraswati: The influential Kanchi math Shankaracharya was arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police in Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh in November 2004 in connection with the murder of a former accountant of the math.
7. Santosh Madhavan: The temple priest-turned-astrologer wanted by the Interpol - was arrested in Alappuzha in May 2008. Apart from a Rs 50 lakh fraud case that has a Dubai-based businesswoman as the complainant, Madhavan, who had turned himself into Swami Amritachaitanya presiding over a posh ashram and flaunting high connections in the state's political circle and the bureaucracy, was also charged with raping a 15-year-old girl repeatedly.
8. Premananda: Also known as Trichy Sai Baba, he was awarded life imprisonment in 1994 for two terms on the charges of multiple criminal offenses including rape and murder. Premananda, who reportedly had powerful supporters in the AIADMK, had not only raped many of the inmates of his ashram at Trichy but also carried out crude medical terminations of some of the consequent pregnancies with the help of a couple of associates. He was also charged with the murder of an engineer who had opposed the nefarious activities at the ashram.

As i already mentioned earlier that, everyone has his own life, whatever way they enjoy/spoil, doesn't matter.
But no one has the rights to spoil the faith of others thereby indirectly ruining their lives.

There are two categories of Spirituality Seekers, viz.

1. One who are gifted and know how to reach god. They are go getter, they would read standard scriptures, develop devotion and reach the supreme on their own
2. People who are interested to reach the divine, but do not know the means, or can't understand the scriptures
   

For the first category of people, there is no need for any spiritual guidance. They would never fall prey to fake god-men, since they understand scriptures, they have their own logic built by them, and traverse their spiritual path holding the finger of the God directly.

The latter class is highly sensitive. They would have a strong desire to reach the divine. But they need someone to carry them to the supreme. They tend to search for God-men/Spiritual masters for learning. They can't apply their logic and usually end up believing blindly what the masters say. This is the class of people who are vulnerable and stand as the objects of deception.

Now let's come to the Spiritual masters' side and discuss their responsibilities.

A spiritual master is not alone. he can't decide his lifestyle on his own. He has many gullible souls who invest their faith in him thinking he would be their savior. Hence he can not think he is free/alone. He has to think 101 times before making any attempt to fulfill his personal desires (carnal/Monetary/corruption/Political/whatever..).
He should think of the repercussions of his actions on his followers' lives since faith once broken, it gives irreversible loss. people who invest their faith, should be handled very delicately and one should be very responsible .

My intuition concludes, one who is alone, has no burden, but when one is being followed by a mass, he has the basic responsibility to carry their faith and burden to lead them to their destiny! In such a case one can't decide his life on his own. So he should be extra careful about all his actions and repurcussions.

Now, it's high time. We need to realize the basic difference between real & fake, and we should try to protect the fabric of our Indian Heritage from getting damaged due to such Godmen!!

16. Lord Narayana's Love for his Son (Category:-Real Experiences)

Written on 1st Oct 2010

Around 2 months back; I, along with my Mother, Sister and a neighborhood Aunty happened to visit "Sri Puri Jagannatha Temple" which is built in Hyderabad, Banjara Hills Road-#12. The presiding deity of this temple is "Lord Sri Jagannath, Sri Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra" who are Lord Sri Krishna, Sri Balarama and Devi Subhadra respectively.

This "Jagannath Puri" temple actually exists in Puri (a place in Orissa near Bhubaneshwar). However, that temple has been replicated in Hyderabad by the devotees of Lord Sri Jagannath. Hyderabad temple looks exactly like that of Puri temple and is built with the same wood, same carvings and sculpture done on the temple "Gopuram". Here are two pictures of that temple, depicting the beauty in daylight and under the halogen floodlights at night.





The beauty of this Hyderabad temple is made manifold by the beautiful wall sculpture around the temple premises inner and outer sides of the boundary wall. These sculptures are painted with beautiful and attractive colors which takes one's mind to the historical age of Treta and Dwapara when those events actually happened. All the stories of Hinduism are part of these beautiful artwork. The below list is just few examples only,

• Birth of Lord Ganesha, his fight with his father and finally how he became elephant headed
• How Ganesha won the competition over his brother Skanda and how Skanda left mount Kailasha and settled in South India
• Churning of the Milky Ocean
  
• Important episodes/scenes of Ramayana, right from Dasharatha killing Sravan Kumar, Breaking of Shiva's bow, Bharat taking Rama's paduka, Absolving Ahalya from curse, Sita Haran by Ravana, Sabari's story, Sundarakanda, Hanuman carrying Mountain of Sanjeevani, Ravana killing, to Sri Sita rama's Pattabhishekam
  
• Lord Vishnu's Dasavataras and their pastimes
  
• Lord Vishnu's stories like Protection of Elephant from crocodile's jaws
• Durga killing Mahishasura demon and Kali stepping over Lord Shiva
  
• Lord Sri Krishna's life history right from childhood pastimes (Vasudeva carrying baby Krishna over his head to Gokul, Killing of Putana, Kaliya Mardana, Butter Stealing, Kamsa killing, Lifting of Govardhana Hill etc.) to his image as Jagadgudu who preached the wonderful Bhagwad Gita to the mankind.

Apart from these the main temple has beautiful stone statues of celestial damsels carved around it. On one side of the main temple, there is a huge stone carving of "Krishna-Arjuna's chariot' from Mahabharata war; and on the other side is a huge and beautiful stone carving on the wall where Lord Vishnu is shown seated on the Serpent king (Shesha) with Goddess Lakshmi.
This picture of Vaikuntha is what i am going to discuss in detail here.

One may think what is so special about this Vaikuntha sculpture that i had to write a blog for this? Yes! It's something special in my life. It has shown the love of Lord Narayana on me.

Just to give a background of my spiritual love life let me divert the current discussion slightly away from the topic. For the past one year, i have left the idea of being a devotee. I have adopted a "Bhavam" of being a son of the Trinity couple viz. Parvati-Shiva, Lakshmi-Narayana, and Saraswati-Brahma. I have been receiving their parental affection continuously throughout my life, but it's my bad luck that i never realized their maternal and paternal love for me and all the time just used to consider them as Gods/Goddesses and myself their devotee. Only in June 2009, by the grace of Sri Adi Shankaracharya, who opened the doors of my heart and made the sonly love flow for the Trinity and Trimata. I consider Sri Adi Shankara and Tiru Gyana Sambandar as my elder brothers for a reason (Of course I'm not claiming myself as any incarnation or any saint or a poet equal to their levels, but there is an emotional bond/connect between them, me and Shiva-Parvati as the reason which connects them with me as my elder brothers. That discussion is out of scope of the current blog though).

For the past one year i have experienced the divine parental love from the Trinity and Trimata continuously in many ways. One of them i would discuss here. Now coming back to the temple premises where from we time traveled a year back to know my feelings for the Trinity couple and related details as discussed.

The day when we visited that temple of lord Jagannath it was the evening time. We moved around the place and visited all the temples situated there and meanwhile we also took some photographs of ours standing or sitting near the beautiful wall carvings, on the stair case etc.

The entire temple was brilliantly shining with a Golden hue due to the sodium hyper lights and halogen lights. If you are still there with me you would remember that i discussed the "Lakshmi Narayana" wall sculpture of Vaikuntha and the Krishna-Arjuna chariot carving on the other side of the wall.

Due to the everlasting "Mahabharata effect", whenever i happen to see a bow, it steals my heart. When i saw krishna-Arjuna chariot where Arjuna's left hand held the bow firmly and the right hand held an arrow; i immediately got attracted to that picture and wanted to take a photograph of mine at that place. I immediately handed my camera to my sister and ran towards that wall and held that divine mighty bow "Gandiva" in my hand and stood beside that Arjuna and had a shot taken (A feeling of myself being the Grandsire (Son of Ganga), the mighty bowman gushed through my body which made me very happy.)

Then we went to Vaikuntha (the other side of the temple wall where my divine parents "Lakshmi Narayana's abode was there). That was the first time we happened to see that wall carving. It was so realiztic that i felt as if the great Lord Narayana and the ever compassionate mother Lakshmi were seated in real. All my sonly love gushed out like a jet and I could not control myself and wanted to have a feel of sitting in Vaikuntha. Hence again i handed my digital camera (Sony Cybershot DSC TX7-Blue) to my sister and asked her to take my snap with my mother Lakshmi and father Narayana who always reside in my heart.

I ran towards them like their infant and sat on the ground right in between my mother Lakshmi and my father Narayana with my body turned slightly towards my father. I placed my hand on on the hand of my father who is the father of the universes and felt as if i was really taking a snap in Vaikuntha. It was an awesome experience which i cannot express in words. Those moments were so blissful that i could have without any hesitation given up my life had the God of death "Yama" appeared and asked my opinion for leaving this mortal body.

That picture of mine which was taken in the evening time (around 7:15 PM) is as shown below.


The same picture taken with flash is as shown below.



I stay in a duplex house where the below house belongs to another family who are very pious and often visits sacred places of pilgrimage. They have perhaps covered most of the South Indian pilgrimage spots perhaps. That aunty came to our home next day and asked my mother where were we the previous evening. My mother told her that we went to Puri Jagannath temple. They didn't discuss much on this topic in finer details. Why i stressed on this point is, i know that my mother didn't narrate all sequences and my photo shoot in Vaikuntha. That aunty said they would also visit that temple next weekend.

Next weekend they went (She, her husband, and their relatives). Coincidentally that uncle also happened to take photographs there and especially in Vaikuntha. After 2 days they showed us the photographs they had taken (They went in day time though) and they gave us those photographs in a pen drive. The Vaikuntha picture which he took in daylight is shown below (mine was in evening time under halogen lights).



When my sister showed me those photographs i was thrilled to see that uncle's photograph with my divine parents almost in the same way the way i had taken. But still i missed one miraculous thing in that photo. I was in a hurry for the office and thought of seeing all the pictures later.

That night i switched on my PC and then started browsing through the folder where their photographs were loaded by my sister and especially with a desire to look closely at the vaikuntha one. I usually have a habit of looking very keenly at any picture which interests me and looked at the Vaikuntha picture of that uncle very keenly and was thinking/imagining about his feelings for that divine protector of the worlds and that mother who sustains and nourishes the worlds.

All of a sudden i found a strange change in his picture which conflicted with my memory where i had stored my picture safely captured. Immediately i opened my picture folder and looked at my Vaikuntha picture. I did a quick comparison between the two pictures and then i remained speechless, shocked, astonished for few seconds and then an infinite gush of euphoria ran through my entire body and my face bloomed with extreme happiness. I shouted and called my sister to come, and also called my mother next. When they came, i showed them a miracle and shared my happiness with them. It wasn't important for me whether the other person felt the same or not, but my treasure was my personal happiness on observing that miracle, and they too enjoyed my state of bliss.

Now let me tell us the reason behind my extreme happiness and state of transcendental bliss. If you enlarge both the photos and observe them carefully you would notice what miracle my loving father had shown me. Note the following setup first:-

• My photo was taken in night time under Sodium hyper lights / halogen light (without flash and with flash), whereas his snap was taken in daylight
  
• I sat in between Lakshmi-Narayana slightly towards the mother and turned towards Narayana. Whereas he sat approximately at the center point between Lakshmi-Narayana. However there is no much difference in positioning between us. This is slight difference and one may ignore this as insignificant
• In both of our snaps Lord Brahma (Navel born Son of Vishnu) appears more or less at the same place
• In both the pictures lord Hanuman also appears at the rightmost side with his body only partially captured in the snaps.
• There is definitely a slight difference in the angle where from the photographs were taken in both the cases, but to me that angle doesn't look like having major difference in both the cases
• You can observe that in both the pictures there is not major difference in the positioning of mother Lakshmi. Surely slight difference exists due to the angle from where the snaps were shot. However for Lakshmi's statue there is no much difference
  

Now with the above preset details for your ease, if you happen to look at both the images, you would clearly understand the reason behind my happiness. When I observed that Lord Narayana in "his" (neighbor's) picture; it looks completely facing straight. Observe the face of Narayana, it is looking straight. Secondly, observe the hand of Narayana which is in a blessing posture (Abhaya hasta Mudra). It is fully visible and is pointed straight towards the camera.

Now go to my photograph and zoom it and observe that Lord Narayana's face is turned away from the camera and is facing towards me. He looks as if he is looking directly at me. Now compare the smiles of my pictures (with flash and without flash) with the smile of Narayana in his picture. Don't you feel some difference? Now look at the raised hand of Vishnu which is in blessing posture. Observe that it is tilted and is not completely straight towards the camera. It is pointing towards me and if you draw an imaginary line from the center of his palm as though some power is emanating, it would directly come and touch my face. Isn't it looking true, to you?

Is it not the infinite love of that Narayana which he poured on me? Is it not the compassion of a father for his son (me) by seeing me feeling thrilled and desirous of taking a snap with the divine parents of Vaikuntha? Is it not true that he reciprocated to my childly love for that couple with a fatherly compassion and assured me with his hand as though saying, "You are always my little infant, don't worry my Kid"?

Even if we consider the angle of the camera behind this so called miracle, then also, how can the camera make such a tremendous difference in the positioning of Narayana's face and hand when Lakshmi, Brahma, Hanuman, are at almost same place facing almost in same angle. I am not denying the existence of angular differences in views. But to my eye the turning of Narayana's face and his Palm seems to happen in a huge angle. When other parameters didn't change much how can Narayana's face and palm twist in such a huge marginal difference?

I don't know if i am under stupor or my childlike love for the trinity made me blindfolded from seeing the photographs in scientific/practical way. But whatever i narrated is not the only incident which made me to think that as a miracle. Let me show one more thing which usually doesn't happen with anyone (unless the Narayana himself wishes that to happen). The below incident really can't happen without the grace of the lord. Read and judge that using your own mind.

Few months ago, In June (before this Jagannath temple visit), we happened to go to another area in Hyderabad which has beautiful temples of various Gods. That place is known as "Dharma Puri". There we visited many Temples of deities, Durga, Maheshwara, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Venkateswara, Shiridi Sai Baba, Ananta Padmanabha Swami etc. I'm going to narrate an incident which took place in the "Ananta Padmanabha Swami" temple. Ananta Padmanabha Swami is none other than the Lord Sriman Narayana himself who remains sleeping on the bed of AdiSesha and his consorts Sridevi (lakshmi) and Bhudevi (Mother Earth) remain seated near his feet.

After visiting other temples, we all moved towards that temple and i was with extreme madness as usual to see my divine parents. When i stepped up the stairs of this temple, i found that the temple grills were again closed (i used the word-"again" here, note it carefully; you'll know the reason later), and for a short while i felt sad that i wouldn't be able to see them from close distance. Meanwhile a person (don't know who he was, may be a guard / temple gardener / care taker) arrived there and told me, "Sir! The grills are not locked, open them, Sir!". I was surprised to see that the grills were really not locked again (note the repeat incident in-"Again"). I opened the grills and with hesitation i took two steps inside and stood there with folded hands praying the Lord. When i heard his voice from back, "You may go inside, Sir!". And then he went away. I was surprised! (Why?-Will be revealed shortly)

On seeing the lord, for the second time (why i said second time, will be revealed soon) all of a sudden a gush of extreme happiness and child like love ran like a current through me and without thinking of any consequences, i ran and first touched the feet of the lord, and then ran and hugged the Lord Narayana as like as a child meeting with his parents after a long time. My sister captured that moment in the camera which is shown below. But now, one thing i should reveal here is; this was a repeat incident and was the second time this happened.

First time was in the month of April when my mother's uncle (my Grandfather in relation), visited our home. He is a very religious person, and an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He comes rarely since he usually likes to spend his time in visiting temples or sitting alone somewhere peacefully. But whenever he comes we ask him his life stories and also we discuss about God and i learn lot many things from him. On that day when he came to our home, as usual he was telling lot many stories on Gods and then he told us how he spends his evenings and evening walk everyday. He told us that near his home there is a place "Dharma Puri" where he goes every evening for evening walk. Also narrated the beauty of the temples and the presiding deities. He himself asked me, "You are also a devotee! You are showing so much of interest in listening to the stories, if you are free today come with me I'll take you there". Actually that day my feet got swollen due to some reason and wanted to go to see a doctor that evening so that i can be fit and fine the next day for office. But somehow he persuaded me to come there. He also asked my mother and sister to come. My mother also being a spiritually inclined person accepted to come. We all went there and he, like a 'Guide' was narrating everything about each temple, and the related stories from scriptures etc. When we neared the "Ananta Padmanabha Temple" he said, "Oh! the grills are closed. You can look through the iron bars". I was actually looking through the grills and in my heart was repeatedly telling the divine parents the following verse from Agasti Lakshmi Stotram (Written by Sage Agastya), "Twameva mama Janani Lakshmi Mama Pita Lakshmi Twameva Cha". which means "O Lakshmi! You are my mother who gave me birth and you are my father too". I was little sad since the temple was closed and there was not much lighting inside which was not allowing me to see the Statues clearly. But all of a sudden Grand father said, "Hey! the grills are not locked, open them". It erased all my sadness and his words sounded in my ears as though the Lord himself has understood my inner sadness of not being able to watch him closely and asked me to come inside his abode. With immense happiness i opened the grills and that time i had no control over myself. My mother was surprised to see that uncommon act of mine to go inside and fall on his feet and the very next second hugging the Lord and sleeping on the Lord's chest. My mother was calling me back saying we shouldn't touch the God but Grand father who was happily laughing said, "No! Let him be there. Don't stop him!". That's the first time when i experienced the divine love of that Narayana who is of the size of this vast universe due to which he is called as Vishnu (means one who pervades the entire universe). That lord Vishnu whose form is so huge that we can't see him completely. He who measured the three worlds with his 3 steps as Vamana. That lord Narayana allowed me to hug him? After sometime i got up and hugged my divine mothers (Lakshmi and Bhudevi) also. That day i had two feelings within me, one was the extreme feeling of happiness and the other was a question - "How compassionate that Lord is on my kind of sinner?". On the way back home, my mother said, "Son! All credits for your happiness goes to your grandfather who has come like Lord Shiva himself and guided you all the way" (As already i mentioned above, that he is a great devotee of lord Shiva but equally likes all forms of the almighty, so my mother compared him as Lord Shiva himself in disguise, which kept me in stupor for sometime and made me think-"May be this was a divine decision of the God to show me God's compassion")

This time we didn't have our camera with us since May end i purchased that camera, hence we could carry it during the subsequent visits thereafter. Now coming back to the second visit to the same temple. Here an unknown person guided me to get inside the temple and he went away leaving me there. And everything happened exactly same, only difference was in dates, and perhaps my dress, and the people who accompanied me. But it was good that my sister captured that moment in the camera which i would cherish throughout my lifetime.


Points which surprise me and keeps me thinking are:-

• Both the times Priest was not around in that temple
  
• Both the times Grills were seemingly closed but without any lock
• Both the times someone told me that the grills were not locked and asked me to open
• Both the times i was asked to enter inside
• Both the times a sudden gush of immense child like love entered inside me on seeing the divine parents
• Both the times i got the divine grace of the lord by letting me hug him
• Both the times incidents repeated alike
  

Today also it's a question in my mind, whether the second time it was a normal man or some divine messenger? In the latter case, it keeps me puzzled to find out whether he could be, Narada / Garuda / Sesha or who?

Well, i understand that i would be stared/taken as if i am a mad man. I understand that for practical and realistic people these all incidents could be just a matter of chance, that stranger could be just a common man, the repeat and sequencing of incidents may be just a matter of coincidence. But for me, it would always be a divine incident where for sometime i could visit the Vaikuntha and encompass that unmeasurable lord within the limited length of my hands...!!

"मम माता च लक्ष्मी देवी मम पिता देवो नारायणः"
"श्वेतंबरधरे देवी नानालङ्कार भूषिते मम ह्रुदयस्थिते मम माता महालक्ष्मि नमोस्तुते"
"हे माता लक्ष्मी! कृपय सदा तव शिशुवत मम पालयमाम्. मम जननि, मम धात्री, मम माता महालक्ष्मि नमोस्तुते"