"Never let go of Her hand"..

  Sometime back, i happened to correspond with Ms.Uma Kumar. I have even mentioned her in my previous post 'Miracles are my visiting cards'. She is one among the many ardent devotees of Sri Bala and she had narrated in her blog all amazing events Sri Bala had brought forth in her life.

  I had asked her some specific questions to which she kindly and elaborately responded. After reading it, i felt that i should share it. Those who are facing troubles one way or the other, those who are struggling to find a firm footing in life, those who feel that their attempts towards progression are challenged, those who harbour doubts and uncertainty, those who are faithful and not so faithful..
Everybody should read this, for it simply, is the truth. Read on..

• To a question on why do we get obsessed with our troubles and worry endlessly..

"Well, this is something all of us go through in life- the ups and downs ! Sometimes, it seems that the torrential downpour of worries will never cease; or even if it does let up for a bit, the small streaks of happiness and joy never seems to last long enough- the "cause" and "solution" to your problems lies solely "within" your own self, in your mind.

React less, speak less and avoid impulsive actions. All of us are facing situations where we have financial, emotional, mental worries. We can and must take practical steps to solve these issues, but beyond this, we must leave the ultimate result/scenario to the Lord/ Sri Bala."

• To a question on What should one do while going through a period of turbulence and agitation..

"You say you find peace while reciting HER Kavacham. Actually, this peace springs from the fact that at the time you're praying, you're not allowing other worries to cloud your mind.

 So, increase the time spent in prayers /meditation.

 I'm not saying forget your problems or don't take action. On the contrary, take all the action you need to, after careful deliberation ( not as spontaneous reactions to situations). This will definitely help.

 Then, sit back and pray for Sri Bala to influence the results of your actions.

 She does, will and certainly responds to sincere prayers.

Soon, you will "connect" with Her from your own heart.

 Sri Bala is within each and everyone of us- She is the kundalini Shakthi, the Cosmic Force/ Divine Force that exists within all.

 By continuous meditation on Her, you will come to a calm state that enables this Divine Connection to take place.

 This is the truth. You can experience this yourself and thereafter, your life will be transformed !"

• To a question on why we seem to think that we are not getting a response from Sri Bala on our prayers..

"You will get an answer from Her in a manner that is uniquely adapted to your nature. All of us make mistakes. Yet, She, in Her infinite compassion will guide us beautifully when we surrender to Her with full faith! "

• To a question on why we expect instant gratification for our problems..

" Most of us require instant gratification. We expect miracles to happen before we place complete faith in God.

 Well, newsflash for you- most of us, don't get our problems solved. Still, we must cling on to God, because HE/SHE ( our Ishta Deivam) gives us hope. We need to have hope/ positive attitude.

 Not even God can grant us all we crave for, because our Karmas might dictate otherwise."

• On Struggles, acceptance and harboring faith..

"Just BE--Go with every situation. Don't fight it- accept it. Try to work in the present, doing the best you can, at a practical level , to rectify your problems.

 If things improve, thank HER. If they don't also--- Thank Her- because your situation could have been far worse.

 We, in our ignorance, see only a small part of our lives being played out at present. She knows the WHOLE plan and will see to it that the little bits and pieces fit inside nicely, in the jig saw puzzle that is our LIFE-

 Don't worry, just keep talking to Sri Bala inside your heart.

 She'll hold your hand and walk beside you in both sorrow and joy. Never let go of Her hand :)"

Never let go of her hand..
Sri Bala Charanam.

"Miracles are my visiting cards"

One fine evening as he was returning home, thoughts flooded his mind..

It's true that Bala herself summons selected people to her abode at Nemili, why can't she summon everybody. He asked Sri Venkat Giridhar once whether he can share and spread the divine presence of Bala in Nemili with others. Not everybody knows about Bala peetam as they would know about other places of worship. So is it right propagate this to others? After all, Bala's intent was to rest in her Nemili abode and for the same reason she made it very clear that it may not be established like a temple.

"Sure you can"  Sri Venkat had said. "But if you tell this to hundred others, she will summon only about ten, maybe".

Somehow the perception that God summoning only a handful of the entire lot troubled him. Perhaps, he reasoned to himself, not all people will harbour faith. But he was not entirely convinced. Little did he expect that the answers will come calling right away.

He came home, recited the kavacham and sat in contemplation. He looked at the small photo of Swami Sathya Sai Baba on his table. His thoughts turned to his first visit to Puttaparthi. He had stayed for two days. He had dharshan of swami atleast thrice in two days. The travel and stay were not exactly comfortable. The bus journey of several hours, the very early morning wake ups, little sleep, and hours of waiting just to get a few minutes of glimpse of Swami - he felt exhausted after he returned home. But despite that he felt a serenity and calmness of mind like never before.

"Swami has that effect on you", his cousin had later corroborated, "i feel it every time after i return from Puttaparthi after Dharshan, unfortunately it lasts only for a few days, it recedes slowly as we begin our routine life".

No matter how much belief we have, doubts does arise at times.Is what we are experiencing true? What if it's not, if not and what not ? We apply our intellect to analyze God. We want to logically comprehend. We want to understand the rationale.

But God is above all that. That's why there is a need to put our utmost faiths in worship instead of looking for rational explanations. And God does, from time to time, does things that affirm our faith. We call them miracles.

The serenity of mind he had despite after all the exertion from travel and stay was definitely a miracle.He had never felt that state of mind before.  And he was personally convinced he had a career just because of Swami. When he was in his final year of college, job looked unlikely because of a big academic setback. But within a month after completing the final semester he got one, and till date he believed it was Swami's grace that helped him get started with a career.

He had heard and witnessed all those vibuthi and kumkum manifestations from Sai Baba pictures. Not only pictures, but from idols and pictures of other Gods in some of the devotees' houses. Several devotees had actually witnessed many variations of Swami's miracles and it is simply stupid to dismiss that they were all making it up.That transcends any logical explanation.

Now he started thinking again. When Swami had millions of followers, why did he choose only a few of the entire lot to make them witness his miracles. After all, aren't we all children of God? Shouldn't God shower his/her grace on everyone of us? Shouldn't the Almighty perform miracles that would make even the non-believers jump aboard the bandwagon of faith.

Wait, his inner-voice told him. Is your belief complete? Do you place your utmost faith in God?
I think yes (atleast from time to time, to be frank), he retorted to that voice. So are you saying that God will perform miracles only to those who place their utmost trust with Her/Him. And not the non-believers, those who are otherwise inherently good?

No it's not that way, his inner voice replied. God is merely using that select few as instrumental to make everybody witness Her/His acts.

There it was. The truth slapped to his face. The answers were flowing within him with so much clarity that he was now convinced it was Bala herself who was triggering these thought processes within him, as a response to the 'intellectual analysis' he was doing early that evening.

God is for all. God showers grace on everybody. Yes, even the non- believers. It's just that some are able to realize this truth and most aren't able to. Just because God performs miracles in somebody's life doesn't mean he/she is more special than the rest. God treats everybody the same.

If you experience miracles, you need to remember that God is merely making you instrumental to convince others in the path of faith. And when that happens you, God is making you responsible. You need to take it forward and spread the message of love and faith. God is within every one of us. When you dedicate your thoughts and actions to Her, they become pure. After all, isn't that what Lord Krishna said in Bhagvat Gita. Do your Karma without any expecting anything in return.

Now wait, isn't it humane to only expect something out of our actions? How can we not expect something when we do something. Afterall we do something expecting an outcome, so how is this possible?

It is very much possible, Bala seemed to be orchestrating this response in my thoughts. Doing your acts without expecting anything in return is very much possible when you surrender and dedicate your actions to God.That is what Karma is about. Do your duty out of compassion, do your duty because it is for the larger good, and most importantly do your duty by dedicating it to God.

And when God showers grace upon you, don't think it is because you are special. You are the chosen one among many. Give in to that divine experience, act on God's behalf . Spread the message, spread the love. Lead by example. Nothing convinces others than the way of leading by example. When you believe in me, when you give in to the divine experience and when you carry forward the message of faith, love and compassion, you influence others to embrace this philosophy of faith. And that will make their thoughts and actions pure.

He had read about the miracles Bala had brought upon Her devotees. He had read about it in the book he bought from the peetam "Annai Balavin Arputhangal (Mother Bala's miracles)".
And he had read about the wondrous experiences Bala had brought upon her devotee, Mrs.Uma Kumar (http://spiritualvisionwriting.blogspot.in/ , i really hope she and Bala doesn't mind me sharing this link here).

So that contemplative evening ended with the tagline 'spread the message, spread the love'.

Afterall didn't Swami Sathya Sai say "Miracles are my visiting cards".

They are a gateway to make a person embrace the path of faith and devotion. And with that Bala is sure to shower her graces upon them.

Sri Bala Charanam.

Balavinal maraiyum theedu...

"Kavacham Sollungo.." (Recite The Kavacham), Sri Venkat Giridhar told him gently as he was receiving the Prasadham set . He had finished the Dharshan of Bala and had duly prostrated. The Prasadham bag contained a Sri Chakram, a Bala dollar, Kumkumam packet and a booklet with  literature containing slokams and hymns about Bala for everyday recital.

"What is the Sthala varalaru?" he asked as he was receiving all these. Sri Venkat Giridhar proceeded to tell him about how Sri Bala appeared in the dream of Sri Subramanya Iyer, how she came floating in the river and how she came to the Peetam and made it her own home.
"A Siddhar had predicted all these about 600 years ago", he said "the 'olai chuvadi' he wrote even contained names of all those persons who will come visit Nemili worshipping Her.
Kanchi periava had apparently set out to Nemili when he had a mild obstruction en-route. He had that divine foresight to deduce She had not given her command yet to give him Her Dharshan, so he returned.(But then at a later point of time he had stayed in Bala Peetam for a few days offering prayers and poojas to Her).

As that divine eventful day came to an end, he was about to retire to bed when he remembered Sri Venkat's words. He took out the booklet from the prasadham bag, turned to the page containing the Kavacham and read it silently. Finished, he kept back the booklet in his near vicinity and reminded himself he would recite it everyday.

Some days later something eventful happened. What started as a normal day led to an incident. He got initially anxious, tried to contain the situation . It got worsened and led to a great mental turmoil.
He came home and sat dejected. He felt helpless, thought he could do nothing about it and was almost looking forward to a sleepless night. "Unless".... a thought flashed and he swung into action. How could he have not thought of it earlier. He took out the booklet, stood before the picture of Bala and recited the kavacham with total involvement. He stood still, and went to bed. He felt his state of agitation had vanished away like a fog absolving on daylight. He felt hopeful and contrary to what he had thought , he ended up sleeping well that night.
They planned to take some alternate action the next day, by now he was hopeful that the situation he was facing was not really troublesome at all.And not so surprisingly everything cleared up.

But the test was far from over. He had a wisdom tooth extraction that evening. Even though he felt calm, he was exhausted and the  travails of the day kept him at his nerve's ends. The dentist injected the local anesthesia and called him in after few minutes.He did a visual inspection and satisfied, started with the extraction.

The upper tooth came out easily, problem started when the extraction of the lower molar began. About half way through, he started bleeding profusely. The dentist placed a cotton plug deep inside the mouth and took it out after sometime. He focussed the light on the dark recesses of the inner mouth and started plying away the tooth again. He stopped and declared "you are bleeding too much. Relax , you will do good. With this bleeding, i am unable to locate the tooth clearly inside. Let's wait for sometime" and placed a fresh cotton block. He tried to distract himself with other thoughts, but inside his heart rate increased. . The dentist removed the cotton and started again. Plying away a portion of tooth he said again "look, you really need to relax. There is too much bleeding happening.
If you remain in tension, blood pressure will be high, pulse rate will be high. Bleeding won't stop unless you remain calm. Lets wait for a few minutes, i will leave you here ". Lying on the dentist's chair with mouth wide open, he tried to relax but in vain. He hoped the bleeding would stop this time, only to find the dentist coming back inspecting his mouth with a frown. "It's all drenched in blood" the dentist said, he asked him to rinse his mouth, kept another large piece of cotton on the exposed molar and said "this time if the bleeding doesn't stop, then we may have to inject you with something, it would take a really long time, i want to avoid it" and left.

By this time, his heart rate had doubled. He started thinking about Bala, she had helped him the previous day, why can't she now? Relaxation was impossible, but he kept chanting on with focus.
Bala,Bala,Bala,Bala,Bala,Bala,Bala..............
Couple of minutes would have elapsed. The dentist came back looking unsure. He removed the cotton and did a visual inspection. "Hmm, the bleeding has now stopped" he remarked.

All he could do was thank Bala. He kept on chanting Her name for the rest of the procedure and it soon got over without any further complications.

Bala yena chollu Bala yena chollu, Pava Vinai yaavum thallu
Bala yena kooru Bala yena kooru padaara vindame seru
Bala yena paadu Bala yena paadu Balavin karunaiyai thedu
Bala yendre odhu, Bala yendre odhu Balavinal maraiyum theedu..

No surprise when you chant Her hymns with surrender and utmost faith, She not only accompanies you through your travails, but She will guide you through it as well.

Sri Bala Charanam.

The Nemili Yatra

Sri Bala Charanam..

'Inga kumbha raasi kaara yaaravudu irukaala' (Is anybody from kumbha rasi here), asked the elderly priest. He raised his hand hesitantly.The priest gave a look and continued, 'time is not so good for people belonging to kumbha rasi now.You could possibly face shocking disappointments in things you attempt to do in your life now.There is however a parikaram(reprieve) you can do'.
He listened intently expecting what conventional parikarams he can probably do to this deity. But little did he expect what the elderly priest had to say next..

A Sunday.

As the SUV was speeding on the Chennai Bangalore highway, thoughts flooded his mind. The previous day results were not expected, not so encouraging and the next steps looked uncertain. A hundred 'what if' possibilities arose in his mind and yet none seemed convincing. In an attempt to divert himself he picked up his phone and turned on the GPS. They had started early in the morning with the plan of reaching Nemili in the forenoon to avoid arrival at an 'untime' .

   Here he was, travelling with his immediate family members. At least three of them had been to Nemili once,but not him. He was not in the country that time but listened with amusement when his wife narrated to him her first visit. His wife had arrived late to Nemili then and was hesitantly given permission for the Dharshan. "We would have to get utharavu (command)" they had said and got one too.

 The Deity in the Peetam was called Bala - Lord Bala Thirupura Sundari, daughter of Lord Lalithambikai. The Lord resides in this Peetam as a young child, and Her own direction was that she had come to rest and relax in this place and it should not be established as a temple. The Peetam in reality, is a house and the deity worshipped here is a bronze statue, just the size of a finger. The offerings to the Child Goddess are mainly chocolates and biscuits as She, in particular, is very fond of sweets.

  And now he was, enroute to Nemili, wondering how possibly this place could look like, where the deity had to grant permission for almost everybody who requests audience with Her, how the members in the Peetam receive her utharavu and how possibly this Goddess is offered chocolates and biscuits instead of coconuts, flowers and fruits that are a usual norm in all other places of worship. He felt a tinge of skepticism indeed too.. He turned his attention back to the GPS and saw that they had to take a detour at the Arakkonam railway crossing into the town of Nemili where it is a good 23kms away, and instructed the driver accordingly.

  Nemili looked like a typical south Indian town, with unruly traffic ruling its narrow bumpy roads and with shops and other establishments cluttering both sides of the road. Infact the street housing the Peetam was equally unimpressive, a narrow road down the street leading to the it and clearly no sufficient space around to park vehicles. What struck to him as most significant was how simple and subdued the entire place looked . As they got down out of the car,he saw that the only identification that marked the place was the ""Peetam" painted at its entrance. First look, nothing extraordinary about its appearance.

   A narrow alley led inside to a bigger hall where the Deity was housed. The other side of the hall looked spacious allowing worshipers to sit on floor. A 'Deeba arathanai' was already in progress with a devotional song of the Goddess playing in background. The deity could not be immediately located and his wife pointed it to him. Ofcourse, She was just the size of a finger, housed in centre of what looked like decorated wooden steps, just the kind that you see in Golu.

  As the first set of visitors left after deebam and prasadham, he and his family were summoned to sit in the front along with the rest of the visitors. The elderly gentleman , who performed the deeba arathanai  received us and started to give introduction about this Child goddess.

'Inga kumbha raasi kaara yaaravudu irukaala' (Is anybody from kumbha rasi here), asked the elderly priest. He raised his hand hesitantly.The priest gave a look and continued 'time is not so good for people belonging to kumbha rasi now.You could possibly face shocking disappointments in things you attempt to do in your life now.There is however a parikaram(reprieve) you can do' the priest said.He listened intently expecting what conventional parikarams he can probably do to this deity. But little did he expect what the elderly priest had to say next..

The priest continued "there is only one reprieve for you to avoid the negative effects of the planets in your life at this time. Just surrender to Her feet. That is the only parikaram required. Just surrender to her feet, pray to her , worship her. Put all your faith in her. All your troubles will vanish. She will always be with you. Place your complete trust and worship her. Peace of the mind will beckon."

He was taken aback. Somehow this looked like a big divine coincidence to him, especially after all the pessimism receiving the not so great results yesterday.

The priest continued looking at me, "even if the time is not so good, don't worry. Your raasi is significant. You are such a influence on people around you. It so seems that you always tug along people wherever you go or whatever your pursuits. That's why you have brought along six more people in your visit today ". By this time, his family members had been moved to tears.

The priest went on "you cannot come here without Bala's permission. Infact she is the one who summons you here to visit. Her darshan cannot be granted by a mere individual's decision.She would have to summon you. That's why we have a practice here of asking people to call first before a visit. Because sometimes we are also unavailable here. Even if you plan to visit without calling, some kind of barrier will befall your visit. You should really have a lot of guts to come here without prior permission .
  Bala doesn't want her devotees and worshippers to offer or contribute money.  She doesn't want people to contribute something to her as a 'venduthal' (wish) for attaining something and making it a business in the process. SHE is strongly against it. She fullfills your wishes unconditionally. All you need to do is place your complete faith and trust in her from now on and she will be with you always, guiding you. ".

The priest concluded his introduction and initiation and proceeded for the Arathi and prasadam distributions, which was, chocolate ofcourse!.

To him, it all seemed like a big divine coincidence. It is true, the Goddess infact had summoned him to come and receive Her grace .He had become an instant believer.

Bala doesn't expect grand offerings that require extraordinary efforts or resources. All She expects is a humble, pure and genuine heart that is ready to surrender to Her with complete faith. No wonder the Goddess had chosen this humble looking abode as her Peetam whose residents were ready to serve her at all times with humility and utmost devotion..

The theism vs atheism debate

Nemili Bala Thunai..

One of the most recurring debates i have come across all these days is why we should believe in God - a non existent entity. The arguments given for justification of Atheism range from 1) Why we are not able to see God, sense His or Her presence?  and most importantly 2) If God is there , why He/ She is silently witnessing all the miseries unfolding here/ why keeping mum at a time innocent souls and children are being massacred.

There are no direct answers to these questions. But with my very limited knowledge of having heard/read religious texts and interpretation of epics, i have realized/ have been made to realize some insights into this:

1) Where is God/ why are we not able to realise Her/His presence:

That humankind being at the top of the pyramid of 'evolution of intellect' is known. We have made mind boggling scientific advancements all along and have made preparations to establish epicurean comforts for ourselves. But does that make us the ultimately intelligent here? The answer is no.

What we are able to learn and understand, subsequently inquire, engineer and create are based only on what we are able to logically comprehend. We confirm our understanding of a substance only if we are able to discover its presence with our five senses. We subscribe to a philosophy, only if we are able to establish its validity based on the answers to how,what,why,when and where .

An excerpt from Quora:

When he turned 50, Einstein granted an interview in which he was asked
point-blank, do you believe in God?

“I am not an atheist,” he began.

“The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the
position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in
many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.
It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they
are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the
arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to
me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.
We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but
only dimly understand these laws.”

We think we have understood everything about us being at the top of the Intelligence ladder. Reality is our senses are constrained and capable of understanding and performing only things to guarantee the sustenance of our species.

The things that happened right after the big bang and creation of cosmos conforms to our scientific notions of how things are 'being'.But we take for granted  a vague theory of uncertainty principle that caused the Big Bang in the first place.

Being a atheist is far more convenient than being a theist. Mere logical comprehension is enough to justify atheism. Being a theist requires faith, sadhana and transcendence of our bodily senses to realise the Super-intelligence that pervades us.

It is because of this reason that some atheists debate God is merely a creation of man. They further justify this saying that this is merely done to justify the virtue of righteousness and civility among humans, but not being quite right.

2) Why God doesn't come down and save us from all the evils:

I happened to see a absurd post that quips the opposite of religion is atheism. People who accuse God of not saving those who undergo suffering from social ills or otherwise, let me ask a question. If you don't believe in the presence of God why don't you go, help and dedicate a life towards serving others? Let me dumb it down - how many of us (that includes me) have adopted a way of life that is aimed at serving others. I know we consider and do indeed  some kind of charity or a help a soul in need occasionally. But do we give a collective voice against societal ills, get into activism/ shout unitedly against disparity.We know that our personal/social life and self-needs need to be prioritized for the sake of our family , giving it a lion's share of our time but haven't we come across people who dedicate their entire lives to some kind of activism. And do they raise a anti-god debate? Except for a crop of people who fervently maim the faith of believers and harbour hate against them under the pretext of rationalism, the answer is no.

If we look into Bhagavad Gita (atleast for the sake of its literature and philosophical value) with a open mind, Krishna emphasizes the importance of Karma Yoga all along. Bhishma being one of the most virtuous parampurusha was criticised for being one of the reasons for not preventing the great war.Why? Had he not taken the oath of never ever taking up the throne of Hastinapura purely for his personal reasons (the reason being his commitment to the word he gave to Satyavati's father ), the great war would have never emerged. Dharma would have prevailed all along.

When Arjuna is perplexed and emotionally overwhelmed at the thought of killing his own kinship, Krishna preaches he should do so for the sake of establishing Dharma. Even when showing his Virata roopa to Arjuna at his request, Krishna sermonises He can and is capable of destroying Adharmis all at once by his own hands, but urges Arjuna to do so because it is his Karma. The whole philosophy of Karma yoga emphasizes the importance of man performing actions and good deeds by himself  for the benefit of everyone. If God himself can do everything why should there be a need for creation, and a cycle of birth and death.

Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna was brought up by Krishna. Krishna was particularly fond of Abhimanyu. Even though he knew Abhimanyu would be killed in a most cruel way he didn't prevent it from happening. He was at Arjuna's side riding his chariot. According to Krishna that was the way destiny was orchestrated to establish Dharma in the end.

Of course in any religion there is a risk of getting pit-falling into the traps set by some fake middle-men of God. What is needed is to tread carefully over this.

A power- much intelligent and much superior to us exists and pervades all around us. We just need to be open to the idea and existence of this divinity.

(I have been asked many times in time pass debates in the past with friends/colleagues why there is a need to believe in divinity which doesn't conform to the rationality of human senses, hence this post :))