Sri Harish Achar from Washington DC was the official priest for the function. It was our first time meeting him. Ram had

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Marilynn Marshall
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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.

1 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! 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. 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! Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 1 Sri Harish Achar from Washington DC was the official priest for the function. It was our first time meeting him. Ram had

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.

2 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 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. Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 2 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, 2 nd & 3 rd 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

I mean, everything was so meticulously planned & executed. Kudos to the DC/NJ teams!! Campfire was built & all the kids raced to have fun.

3 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. work 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. 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 Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 3 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!

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.

4 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! Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 4 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.

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!

Hello JK avare! Are you listening!! Please do so ASAP!

5 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 11 th 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 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! Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 5 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.

that we can start our Mettilotsava on time. The procedure had changed since last year.

Due to special event of Sahasra Kalasha Abhisheka during this long weekend, parking was at an off-site location near the

Though there was brief sharp rain at the beginning, it was clear during the entire procession period.

6 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, Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 6

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.

7 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. 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! 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 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 Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 7

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!

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

8 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? We particularly missed Sri Keshav Rao and Smt. Meera. Their absence was very much felt. 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. 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 Mettilotsava 2014 August 30-September 01 Page 8

Hare Srinivasa! Namaskara ellarigu!

Hare Srinivasa! Namaskara ellarigu! The much eagerly awaited annual METTILOTSAVA function was held during the labor day weekend and was a grand success this year. For those who missed the function, here