hari sarvothama mettilotsava 2014 vayu · pdf filehari sarvothama mettilotsava 2014 vayu...

Hari Sarvothama Mettilotsava 2014 Vayu Jeevothama

Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01

“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



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



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!



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



“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.



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,



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



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

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