Down memory lane … 60 years !

This is Tirupati Sri Govindaraja Swami Vari Temple in 1960 … I was 4 years old then….

The temple itself is as old as the Tirumala Temple of Sri Venkateshwara . In this temple the deity is Sri Govindaraja , the elder brother of Srinivasa of Tirumalai. It dates back and even beyond the times of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Here in this temple Sri Ramanujacharya also lived for many years and learnt Sri Ramayana bhaashya from his uncle Sri Saila Purna known as Sri Tirumalai Nambi whose progeny even today known as Tirumalakumaara Tatthaachaaryas are holy servitors at the both the Tirumala and Sri Govindaraja temple in Tirupati .

This is the street in which several past generations of my ancestors lived . My paternal grandfather was a lawyer who practised in the local court during British Rule. My father went to school here. All our extended family lived too in this very street that leads right into the sanctum sanctorum of the temple . On the left side of the street just before and abutting the tall “Gopuram” tower you will see a double-storied dwelling .

That was the ancestral home in which my paternal side of family grew up. My grandmother was a descendant of the Sri Tirumala Nambi family.

I remember as a little boy of just 6 or 7 playing about on this very street with all my cousins …. brothers and sisters …. And friends. We played about all day inside the temple . Those days the crowds of pilgrims were not too heavy as it is today. We used to eat delicious food offered as Prasadam to the Deity that the priests then distributed to us generously. We used to join in merrily in the colourful temple processions too every day … the purappaadu ! The sound of the pipers, drummers , chanting of Vedas and Prabhandhams still echoes in my heart and memory today !

We lived in a large extended family under one roof those days . God was our protector and provider . We were happy . We needed nothing else in life .

60 years on now … I wonder … where is the Life I have lost in living ?
🙏🙏🤗

Sudarshan Madabushi