Musings about an air crash

Yesterday, on 22 May 2010, an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Mangalore crashed on landing at the Bajpe Airport in Mangalore. A tragic incident which led to news channels hovering over like vultures at the site and "creating" news alongside reporting it. While this circus goes on in news channels, the relatives of the departed ones find it difficult to mourn the departure of their loved ones in peace. Thanks to information revolution.....

The flight had 166 travellers including passengers and crew. The captain had supposedly flown more than 10,000 hours and the co-pilot 3650 hours. By no means were they lacking in experience. Moreover, the same pilot had landed in this runway many many times - safely. One mistake was all it took.

Reports say that 159 perished, most bodies charred beyond recognition, forcing authorities to conduct DNA tests to identify people.

7 people escaped - miraculously. They live to tell the story ! All of them - say the same thing - Thanks to God !!!

Which brings me to the sobering thought:

'rakhe krishna maare ki
maare krishna rakhe ki'

If the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna wants to protect someone, nobody can kill him and if Krishna wants someone to perish, no one can protect him.

Some simple truths are easier to understand in the face of tragedies like yesterday's air crash.

Coimbatore Rathayatra

The 17th ratha yatra of Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadramayi was on 11th and 12th of January 2009. I had reached Guruvayur the previous day and was joining a group of 50 devotees to travel together to Coimbatore. It was indeed a blissful trip. Kirtan resounded throughout the trip and when we got tired of singing (it took a great shouting effort to sing above the sound of a roaring bus speeding through the highway !)we listened to the blissful singing of HH Lokanatha Maharaja. We finally reached Coimbatore at around 12.30 noon time. We first went to unload our luggages at a kalyana mandapam which was booked for our night stay. Then we proceeded to the ratha yatra location. After some wonderful and heavy prasadam, we went to the Venugopala Perumal temple where the deities where residing before being taken to the chariot. When we reached there we were welcomed by the melodious singing of none other than HG Vayasaki Prabhu, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada and one of the leading kirtaniyas of ISKCON ! Hearing him sing made me realize what a poor singer I really am !!! The ratha yatra was inagurated by the Mayor and was attended by HH Jayadvaita Maharaja and HH Bhanu Maharaja ! The deities were carried on palanquins to the ratha which was parked some distance away. On the way, I had some time to take precious association of HH Jayadvaita Maharaja - he was his usual self, only travelling a little more than before. I pointed it out to him and he smiled sweetly, he said "a little more, but not too much".

The ratha yatra solely missed the presence of HH Jayapataka Maharaja, who was present for all the 16 previous ratha yatras ! But Sarvaisvarya Prabhu mentioned in his speech that he spoke to Maharaja and Maharaja said that he was present in spirit even though absent physically.

It was a blissful three hours of non-stop chanting, giving mercy and prasadam of Jagannatha to everyone on the way. It was also opportunity to meet old friends like Swayam Nitai Dasa who was in KKD before and now in Hosur. He was his usual dancing self !!! I also met HG Jagat Sakshi and Sathyamedha Prabhus from Thiruvananthapuram, Anantha Sri Krishna Dasa from Cochin and many others. Myself, Vijayendra Krsna and Rasanidhi were travelling together alongwith Prana Sakha and others from Guruvayur. I also finally got to meet HG Sarvaisvarya Prabhu in front of the Ratha after he came down from the chariot and he led a dynamic kirtan even with a malfunctioning sound system. His kirtan roared even without a microphone. All together it was an unforgettable experience !

Back in the hall after the ratha yatra there were lectures by both the Maharajas and tthe next day, there were two really deep and high-tech presentations by HH Bhanu Maharaja. It was very fantastic for many intelligent devotees, but I could hardly understand it all with my dull brain. Anyway, 2 days passed like 2 minutes and we were back in the bus goiing back to Kerala.

One thing I was able to appreciate very much was the organisational side of things. All glories to HG Sarvaisvarya Prabhu and his team for putting together such a wonderful festival. Everything was fantastic -- the personal care, the prasadam, the hospitality and all the arrangements. It definitely took many many hours, days and weeks of careful planning and organization to put together such a fantastic festival.

I am now looking forward to the next festival !!!

On my way to Coimbatore rath yatra.......

Last week has been one of hectic travelling for me. After coming back from Guruvayur on Sunday, we went to take darshan at a temple called Thiru maandhaan kunnu - in Malappuuram district of Kerala. My wife had performed a mangalya puja there before marriage - to get married ! Anyone who does this puja is suupposed to visit the temple with their husbands. So, we finally made it after 5 years and 2 kids !! How is that for delaying your vows ! Anyway, this temple has Siva-parvati deities, Bhadra-kali and Ganesha. Ironically enough, the mangalya puja is performed in front of Ganesha who is famous as a bachelor !Its a big temple and very crowded. Obivously its crowded with lots and lots of unmarried girls. It was a 4 hour drive from my place and we returned late in the afternoon after a tiring but rewarding trip. Both Gauranga and Madhava were down after the long journey. The great devotee of Lord Guruvayurappan named Poonthaanam Nampoothiri also lived near this temple and there is small temple nearby where he has established a Guruvayurappan deity. Unfortunately, we got there late and the temple was closed. I plan to make it up the next time I visit there.

In my town, we have a big Mahadeva temple and it was utsavam there for 10 days. Lord Mahadeva is very merciful and attracts lots of people. Krishna deity is there in the same temple compound but in a smaller outer temple. I visit there everyday because its just 5 minutes away from my house. On Friday,there was "pooram"there. Pooram is a festival where the Lord sits atop an elephant and is accompanied by other elephants. Then, there will be vaadhyam in front of the Lord for His pleasure. This year there was a total of 11 elephants with the Lord being carried by one of the biggest elephants in Kerala. I was told that the elephant is rented for 200,000 rupees per day !!! This does not include his food and transport charges !!! Anyways, it was wonderful to see a team of more than 80 performers with "panchari melam" performing in front of the utsava murthy. The function started at 3.30 in the afternoon and was going on till about 7 in the evening.

I took all the family and went to see the celebration. Gauranga and Madhava thoroughly enjoyed it and Madhava was troubling me so much that he wanted to touch the elephant and sit on top !!!

I left by 5.30 because I had to take a bus to Guruvayur. I arrived at Guruvayur by 10 in the night and went for darshan at around 2.30 a.m. I got darshan by 5 a.m. due to heavy rush. This is Sabarimala season in Kerala now and every temple is crowded. Guruvayurappan already attracts millions, but during this month he attracts more people. Many people come to see Him on their way to see Ayyappa at Sabarimala. Anyway, the darshan, though short, was very sweet. The Lord had His usual sweet smile. There wasnt much time to submit too many prayers in front of Him, so II just prayed, "please do what is in my ultimate bbenefit". I guess that covers everything.

The bus to Coimbatore leaves at 7 in the morning and I am ready by 6.30. On to Coimbatore.....where Lord Jagannatha is preparing to shower His mercy on thousands of Coimbatorians !!!!

This is Guruvayurappan !!!!

I am back !!!

Its been a while since I blogged. Now that I am back here in punya bhumi, I think I should start writing again.

Yesterday, I was in Guruvayur. Guruvayurappan darshan is durlabha. So. I just paid obeisances to the kodi maram (flag post) and satisfied myself. I went there because HH Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaja was coming there en route to COimbatore. Maharaja gave a nice lecture from Bhagavatam 3rd canto - Kapila siksha portion. The verse spoke about becoming disinterested in sense gratification.

Maharaja jokingly mentioned that there are more churches in Kerala than in the whole of Italy, the pope's place !!! I guess its true. Kerala is like that !!! That makes it a challenging task to distributes Prabhupada's boooks in Kerala. He also mentioned that Caitanya Mahaprabhu had visited the whole of South India and converted everyonne into vaisnava. Somehow, they all seem to have turned into other things by passage of time. Anyway, I pray to the Lord of Guruvayur, Lord Sri Krishna to help the movement of Srila Prabhupada to gain a foothold in "God's own country".

Bhakta Gaurahari blessed by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami

The material world is a sad place..

Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that the material world is dukhalayam asasvatam, and we nod our heads and say, yes, I know that AND do nothing about it. We have been going through this process since time immemorial and still haven't learned our lesson. How wonderful is the influence of Mahamaya Devi ! Hats off to you mataji ! You are the best !

What brings me this realization on this fine and wonderful April morning is something that happened yesterday. I had a meeting at work with some people in the afternoon. As everyone knows, there are good meetings and then there are bad meetings. Yesterday's one was slanting more towards the bad end of things - so to say. The guy begins with a verbal attack on me, then transfers the attack to his own subordinate. I always remember something that Jayadvaita Maharaja once told me "defending is an animalistic tendency and I don't like to do it". Whenever I have to defend myself for anything, I always remember him. Thank you Maharaja for that wonderful instruction. So, I kept my defense to a minimum. I was thinking in my mind, "poor guy, he has got up on the wrong side of the bed today, or maybe he is always like this. Pity his poor wife. What sanga she must be having with this gentleman ! Then, he again started a new attack on a technical point and since he was not an engineer and in my team I had my project engineer, he was told off politely that he was absolutely wrong. This put an end to his attacks and the meeting could be rounded off quite cordially. I was happy that the engineer could quote from his "sastra" and break the unfounded argument by someone, even though highly qualified in his own field, was not an expert in the engineering domain.

The lessons I learnt yesterday were many.

People will give you hell, however you try to avoid it ! (dukhalayam asasvatam)

If we are well versed in our sastra as my engineer friend was in his "sastra" we can refute any whimsical theory put forward by others. (je krsna tattva vitta sei guru haya)


Defending is an animalistic tendency. (aahara nidra bhaya maithunam ca )