Mantralayam

Time: April 8th-10th, 2022

Place: Mantralayam, Bichchale, Panchamukhi

Company: In-law families (12 members!)

Highlights: We had been thinking of visiting Guru Raghavendra Swamy's Mantralayam since some time and brother-in-law's arrival (with family) to India in summer with the intent of visiting the same place kind of gave a boost to that thought & action. Since the dates had to coincide with his visit, we agreed upon a weekend in April and booked the train tickets to and fro. 

On the day of travel, packed some dinner via swiggy delivery, and got them all handed over to each person since we all had seats in different seats/coaches. Overnight travel in Udyan express and reached MALM at 4:30 am. Took a tempo directly to the reserved hotel in MALM. Soon after check-in, we split into different groups. Some went to river for bath, some for direct darshan, and sub-groups within. As a result, I went with MIL, Mom and Daughter to river and had a nice, pleasant bath. Surprisingly the water was not too cold. Post bath, it was a wonderful experience doing the sandhyavandanam on the banks looking at the dawn. It reminded me of having done the same thing so many times in the past whenever I used to visit this place with my parents during my childhood. 

Then I went directly to the mutt alone. Had darshan of the Brindavan. They had just completed the Abhisheka and I guess were performing Alankara. BIL had mentioned that he'd do 108 circumambulations and I got inspired by that and thought why not. In fact, he always does that whenever he visits MALM. So, I started off at about 6:35 am, and by the time I complete, it was close to 10:30 am. Roughly I was taking about 2.5 minutes per circumambulation. As the day passed, the crowd increased and the sacred rice (Mantrakshathe) on the floor started piercing to the feet. But I did not feel tired. Paavani joined for about 30+ rounds and for her age (11), that was great.

My wife did Hejje Namaskar - which is like she went step-by-step for 3 rounds and then 2 rounds namaskar for each step. It was her first time too. All in all, by the time we all finished (BIL, MIL, etc.), it was about 11 am. We waited for lunch, and it was served at 11:30 am. Lunch done, we went to our room and hit the bed for a much-needed rest. By this time, it was soaring hot.

Got up by 3 pm and got readied for a trip to Bichchale & Panchamukhi. Unfortunately could not get the same tempo driver, so had to make-do with an auto. Issue was it was too slow. So felt like more travel than amount of time spent in the temples. Reached Bichchale at about 6 pm and then saw the house where Raghavendra Swamy used to stay, and then headed to Panchamukhi. The last time I was in Bichchale was just before marriage in 2008 Feb and it was very different. The floods in mid-2010s ravaged much of the place. Thankfully they have re-engineered as much as possible. 

And then we left to our next stop. It was close to 7 pm when we climbed the stairs of Panchamukhi temple. Thankfully there was not much crowd. I remember coming here long ago and it seemed different, maybe because of the glass partition that they have put now inside the cave. Anyways, by the time we reached our hotel was close to 8 pm and we hurriedly checked out with packed dinners from a nearby restaurant. 

Once again auto-ride to railway station. This time, the ride was painfully even slower. But thankfully reached on time. However train was late by an hour, so we finished our dinner on the platform itself. At about 11 am, Udyan express came and we boarded. A new experience for us this time was that this was a AC-3E (economy) berth which meant new berth-layout manufactured recently. It was nice to have experienced it. Although an hour late, it arrived right on time in BLR at 7:30 am. (Side note: Incidentally, when I was a small kid, the exact same thing had happened - Udyan express came at 11 pm instead of 10 pm at MALM but reached BLR right on time at 7:30 am. At that time, my dad had remarked thus 'The driver made up the delay'. The phrase 'make/made up' regarding time had been the first time I had ever heard then other than the 'make up' that I was used to hear about females!)

Anyways, reached home by about 9 am. To conclude, it was a great feeling to have done the seva to Guru Raghavendra Swamy (for the first time)! In all the previous trips, it was just a visit & Darshan...