Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Look within- 4

I am sorry about the delay in posting this. I was on a vacation in India and like every vacation in India; it was fun filled and wonderful. Here is the final part of look within. Wait for interesting pictures from India!

So, after what seemed like forever trying to get a glimpse of the Lord, before you even get a chance to completely register Him, you get pushed out of the mandir. You really don’t have to do anything, just stand there and the crowd will take you out. But even a few split seconds of that darshan is enough to keep you going until see Him again. You get a different kind of satisfaction which you usually do not experience on a daily basis.
Perhaps this is why Lord Balaji has a special place in hearts of so many millions of people.
I used to feel exhilarated, I felt lightheaded too when I came out of the temple. And Lord Balaji became my favorite deity whom I religiously worship.

We were planning a trip to India in late November last year. Part of the trips plan was to spend a few days (3 days) in Tirupati with my husband and family. But unfortunately we realized that because of the tight schedule we will not be able to spend more than a day; which means that if we go to Tirupati, we will have time just for the darshan and nothing else. No train journey (we need to fly), no eating bread omelet and no walking up the hill.

I had a choice; either to visit the temple for a few hours or go to my parents place to spend the extra day. I chose to spend that extra day with my parents, COMPLETELY surprising myself. All these years I had believed that I loved Lord Balaji and loved going to Tirupati.
Now I realize my love for Balaji has got nothing to do with Tirupati. I loved Tirupati because of all the memories I held with it, like the train journey, standing in line for accommodation, Darshan tickets, standing in the queue for hours, the wish stone, Prashaad, Hundi and all the 9 yards which go hand in hand with Tirupati.

When this realization dawned on me, a blanket had been lifted off my eyes. All these years I felt that I am close to God when I am in a temple. But never did I know that it’s our immature minds which associate God with temples. Only and only when something profound happens we start experiencing the same serene feeling every walk of our lives! Perhaps this is what every Holy Scripture has been trying to tell us for generations now! Lucky am I that I had this first hand experience. Now every morning in my Pooja shelf I visit Tirupati 

4 comments:

  1. God is in within us. We just have to look around especially when expects nothing from us.

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  2. Hi Madhu, nice to see you back. Our parents hold a high place in our life. I have always believed we can be close to God anywhere and everywhere because God is present all around. So it need not be the temple to be close to God.

    A very nice closing sentence, quote,"Now every morning in my Pooja shelf I visit Tirupati".

    Enjoyed the read.

    Gouri

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  3. Yeah ... God is with us and with in us.. nice ending to the series...

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  4. True..god is in all the human beings and if we care of them, he is happy.

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