We Visit the Golden Temple

On the morning of November 10, we were invited to attend Shree Jayendrapuriswami's daily Sri Chakra puja, an elaborate two-hour puja made fascinating by two young boys, barely 8 and 10, who handed each item to Swami in perfect timing and grace.

As we were departing, Swami took us up to the roof, where he has installed a solar field and a solar steam generator which used four 9-foot-in-diameter concave mirrors. The steam is the main energy for his kitchen. We departed Bengaluru with Senthil and Thurai heading to Sripuram in Vellore to visit Shakti Amma and her Golden Temple. 

We tour the massive complex, beginning with an anthill where Narayani Amma had a profound spiritual awakening at the age of 16. Then off to several temples. Finally we reach the Golden Temple, a breath-taking gem sitting in a spiritual garden and surrounded by a 1.5 kilometer six-sided prakaram that we follow to reach the sanctum at the enter. The guide tells us it cost 300 crores of rupees. The full story of this spiritual oasis and its remarkable founder was published in the January 2011 issue of Hinduism Today. 

At 9pm we are taken to meet Narayani Amma, offering a gift of Hawaiian Macademia nuts and a terabyte drive containing nearly a million palm leaves that we digitized two years back Amma tells us, with a big smile, that this is the "the best gift Amma has received all year," then asks lots of questions about how we achieved this important feat. Lots of questions followed about our life at the monastery, every detail seems important to Amma: when we wake up, how and what we eat, how do the kulams work and more.

We joined Amma for a "light dinner" that will take care of our breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next day as well! 

The next morning we attended Sri Puram's daily cow puja. We note how much cows have been present in our travels, probably because at the outset we were faced with the journey and decided to go for it. After saying aloha to Senthil and Thurai, we are greeted by Nellaiappan who takes us  off to Chennai, writing this report on the highway. 

We conclude with this recent news report which shows that the Indian government itself is taking cow protection seriously:

Modi Govt. launches $107,000,000 project to protect Indigenous cows.
Towards fulfilling the Bharatiya Janata Party's poll promise to protect the cow and its progeny, the Government on Monday announced the Rashtriya Gokul Mission to protect the ‘indigenous' breeds.

Jayendrapuriswami gathers the gurukkulam boys for a departure photo

Let\

s go up on the roof'

Solar field and steam generator, which have replaced 30% of the ashram electrical bill

From the roof we see the three main golpurams

The road to Vellore is so good we think for a while we are in California or New York.

Our guide at Sri Puram

The anthill where Amma had the first samadhi

On the shadkonam path

Amma recently had this pure silver Gomata made for all pilgrims to touch and get blessings

The temple is surrounded by a reflecting pond

Before the Narayani sanctum

Amma spends more than an hour with us

Thank you, Amma

The daily gopuja will be a sidebar in our gomata article next year, so we take lots of photos

Careful decorations by the three priests

She gets 8 big goodie balls for her patience and gobbles them down

Swami and I are invited to decorate her too

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