Vaikunta Ekadasi Vendudhal in Singapore Perumal Temple

                                                                                       

Our Singapore visit was coming to an end on the Vaikunta Edadasi day and we decided  to    visit the  Srinivasa Perumal Koil in Serangoon Road. Fortunately, our place of stay was nearby in the Farrer Park area. Myself and my wife Raj had planned to cover this important place of interest before we boarded our flight back to Chennai the next day. My wife is highly sentimental and religious minded too. She insisted that we should seek the divine blessings of the Vaikunta Vasa for remedying some of the serious issues bothering us.  Having decided, she started listing out some of the serious issues that needed to be remembered for seeking the blessings of  the Deity of the temple. By virtue of the privilege of having spent longest of my life with her, my well being with a host of age related problems hurting me topped her list. Followed by this, the blessings of the Lord were to be sought for getting suitable alliances for the boys and the girls in the family waiting to be married, for begetting a heir to those who got married in the recent past, success in securing a job for a relative who lost his job a few months ago, getting a suitable buyer for the unsold property hanging heavily on her for over a year for one reason or the other etc., etc.  Though I was not approving of her style of seeking blessings of the Lord, she was unmoved.

At Vaikuntam, the Lord in the Celestial-net in his hi-tech computer was browsing the lists of demands likely to be placed before him by the devotees the next day in the temple. He knows that most of our demands  would be difficult to be conceded.  But, he did not want to take his job lightly and  so he worked overtime with his team of strategists to help him with ideas whenever such piquant situations arise to him from time to time so that he can continue to play his role as the Protector of all of us in the Universe.

On the Vaikunta Ekadasi day, we walked down the road and reached the temple. It was crowded with devotees waiting for a darshan of the Lord. The Bangalore fame MTR (Mavalli Tiffin Room) was just opposite to the temple and it was open.  So, we changed our mind to eat our breakfast first at the MTR which was a sumptuous one before going to the temple.  The Lord watching us, smiled that he had succeeded in lulling our thoughts with a heavy breakfast.

Inside the temple, the Lord was seated for public darshan in a well decorated pedestal in a large hall adjoining the sanctum sanctorum. The Lord was fabulously decked in diamonds and other precious stone studded jewellery.  The devotees waiting in the queue moved slowly to have His darshan. Unlike in temples in India, we found it strange to see the devotees taking snaps of the Lord with all varieties of smart mobiles and  cameras in their hands before reaching Him. My wife who is equally crazy in taking selfies on all the possible occasions, prodded me in my ribs and cheered me to take a snap of the Lord before we moved  near his position. But by then we were there in front of the Lord and my wife opened the camera icon of  the android mobile in her hand and pulled me near her and took a clear selfie of two us with the Lord. The priest  nearby raised his voice and moved us  away quickly to give way for other devotees standing behind us to have

darshan of the Lord.  We just got only a glimpse of the Lord and moved away. Whether anyone can claim to have taken a selfie with the Lord before? The answer would be a clear ‘No’. My wife, once out of the queue, was  admiring herself for the way she could achieve in taking a selfie with the Lord which she considered unique.  I could not but admire her talent in taking selfies.

The Lord could not but admire himself as he succeeded in making us forget placing the list of  our demands before Him seeking His divine blessings instead send us out satisfied with just a ‘Selfie’ moment.

Govinda! Govinda!