A Re-post from Sage of Kanchi – (http://mahaperiyavaa.wordpress.com)

Sri Mahesh Krishnamoorthy shares about his visit to Nochiam Maha Periyava Tapovanam…

After almost 18 months of interaction with Smt Rajalakshmi Vittal mami over the phone from US from the inception days, I finally got the opportunity yesterday to visit this great temple on the banks of Cauvery.

I was excited to see mami and temple for the first time….I was simply amazed at the temple and how well it has come up in little over 12 months. Temple has everything as per Periyava would have liked– Rajarajeswari as main deity, Adishankara, Periyava, Vyasa Baghavan, a ghosala, parnasala, veda patasala etc..Veda patasala vaadhyar is doing nithya nava varna puja to ambal!!

An old lady at 80 years stood all by herself in completing a project from scratch – that is close to the tune of Rs 2 crores – working nearly 20 hours is absolutely beyond human comprehension. Till yesterday, she was cooking there too until two women stopped by to meet her and contributed some amount to get a cook hired! Out of her kindness, she brought some sweets, vada for us – she made pure cow’s milk for us etc….Absolutely kind!!

I know mami may not like using the word “achievement”, yet, to me, it is a huge milestone. Honestly, I see another Pradosham mama in mami. This is true. One can understand this statement only after interacting with mami in person – she lives & breathes Periyava. How many challenges – physically, mentally and financially mami went through? All vanished with the blessings of Periyava. Total surrender and feeling too small or feeling nothing about themselves are few things we all can learn from these great people. That alone made this Himalayan task possible…Mami said that the phone did not stop ringing for almost 48 hours after the posting came in the blog. I wasn’t proud – I was happy that I was like that squirrel to Lord Rama in Ramayana. Mami need some more support in maintaining this temple – I will share more details later on this – awaiting some information from mami on that…

The Periyava mani mandapam in NJ is another initiative that is starting to brew…There are lots of challenges in this initiative also. We look at these great examples and rest all the problems at Periyava’s feet for resolution. However, we need more bakthi & surrender and on top of all, the blessings of Periyava to bring more people together in this initiative and complete this project successfully….I am sure Periyava will guide us all the way through. US devotees – We will reach out to you all on this initiative soon.

Jaya Jaya Shankara Hara Hara Shankara