Sri Rangam

Famous Depiction of Sri Ranganath

Arrived in Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) on Thursday August 6th and left on Sunday 9th for Kumbakonam.

Sri Rangam, possibly the largest temple in India, is the foremost of the 108 main Vaishnava temples ( Divya Desams). It is situated 2kms from Trichy on an island surrounded by the Kaveri and the Kolladam rivers. It is vast! The temple complex itself covers over two and half square kms and other than the Balaji deity at Tirupati, attracts the most pilgrims of all temples in India.

Sri Rangam

Vishnu here is said to have been worshipped by Lord Brahma and Lord Rama.  Ramanuja acarya (1017-1137) the celebrated teacher of Vedanta, made his headquarters here and his  mortal remains  have been interred inside the Sri Ramanuja shrine within the temple premises.

Ramanuja acharya's samadhi

Given the  historical, cultural and theological import of Sri Rangam, it was with great anticipation that I queued for an hour for my opportunity to take darshan of (to see and be seen by)  Sri Ranganath (Vishnu). Depictions of Lord Ranganath  reclining on a couch provided by the coils of the celestial serpent, Ananta Sesa with five raised and wide -open hoods is a famous image throughout India and beyond. Now I was actualy here and would see this form myself.

The devotional fervour of the hundreds of others queueing was palpable and I sought for an appropriate meditation as we approached the inner sanctum. What prayer could I say? what offering should I make ? what blessing could I ask for ? or what should my meditation be  when my turn arrived.

Finally the moment came, all 10 seconds of it as we were ushered past, and I didn’t see any reclining deity or serpent couch. I missed him completely!  In the darkness of the cave-like sanctum I saw only the small front (utsava) Vishnu deity.

So that was it…all the way from Oxford to South India…. and finally, I saw nothing I expected to see.

That afternoon I queued again and this time I had just one less complicated thought.:’ Please let me see you! ‘

This time I did see his face and form but it took a third time for me to see Ananta Sesa hovering above Vishnu’s head.  I laugh now thinking of so much  anticipation evaporating in an instant. There’s that expression about how you can take a horse to the water trough, but you can’t make him drink.  I was so full of my heads ideas that I could not just ‘be’ there and look. It took three times for me to just ‘show up’ and ‘drink’ and leave the corridors of my head.