Aadi Krthikai celebrations for Lord
Muruga were scheduled for Friday the 22nd of July, 2022 at the local
Satyanarayana Swamy Temple in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. Writing this post after
almost two months – worldly mundane work has taken over life it seems like; don’t
like it; but can’t do anything about it; doing the best possible…
This year, Srimathy (Adiyen’s better half) was scheduled to go on the Pada Yatra, but was just recovering from being sick and was not strong enough to walk the long haul; hence she decided to provide the support system to me; none of our friends were available to support.
Trust me, the support process is a big task in itself.
Decided to start on Monday the 18th
of July and complete by Friday the 22nd of July.
Additionally, had to work Monday,
the 18th and Tuesday, the 19th – couldn’t help: this is
what I meant at the top of the post..
As expected, a strange thing
happened: the picture at the top of this post is me at the back deck just prior
to start. Notice the pinkish cap : the only one I could find in the house.
The very first day on Monday, just
about a mile from the house, it started raining hard. The following video shows
that.
It was mesmerizing: all the little individual drops of rain representing individual “persons” that all came from the one cloud and eventually vaporize back to the cloud !
The third day, Wednesday the 20th, left in the morning. Weather was supposed to be very hot. I had taken a short break at an old bus stop shed to drink some water and then resumed.
Suddenly discovered that my cap –
my protector against the hot sun had slipped and fallen down somewhere.
I started panicking. How would I
handle the afternoon sun; I didn’t want to pass out by heat exhaustion. Trust
me, it was hot summer.
Then I said to the Gods: If you are
with me, please give me a cap on the streets. If you do, I will consider it a “Prasaadam”
( Gift ) from You.
Kept walking: it looked bleak.
Streets here are generally clean and what is the chance of my finding one, I
thought.
Strangely enough, about a mile from
my prayer, there was indeed an cap on the same side of the street that I was
walking on !!
I was moved; took it, dusted it and
started wearing it right away, thanking the Divine.
And you know, for the next 20 miles,
there was no cap to be found on the streets !!!
The photo below shows me wearing
this cap ! ( You can compare with the photo at the top of this post. )
The journey was completed on Friday
the 22nd.
Srimathy had the strength to carry the Paal Kudams around the temple. Photo and video below show the same.
It was an amazing experience as usual. And here I am, back at the rat race !
Vel Vel Muruga !! Vetri Vel Muruga
!!
