It was the tradition in the family to put some coins every Saturday in the Hundi kept in front of God. Those days travel was a big adventure and hence many old people, single ladies, widows, orphans depend on family people for their travel to pilgrimage centres. JR (Sri Jatadhara Rengaswamy Iyer) was head of a big family, taking care of his own family of wife and children and the family of his elder brother - freedom fighter, lawyer who died early - and also some members of his wife's family, a widowed sister of his wife, and also some members of his own sister's family. Hence, all these relatives depend on him for their pilgrimage. Thirupathi Tirumala was the pilgrimage that he would conduct as many times as possible.. may be once in two years or three years with the money collected in the Hundi. So naturally, everyone used to wait for this trip with anxiety.
In one such trip nearly 20 members of the family and extended family being led by JR to Tirumala reached the holy hills by trekking all the way from Tirupathi to Tirumala having travelled by train upto Renigunta. So much crowd was there and those days there was no system of "paid darshan / special darshan / VIP darshan" etc. They all had their ritualistic dip in the Swami Pushkarani, changed and went and joined the long queue of devotees for Venkatachalapathy Darshan. They must have waited for some hours and the situation did not look like they will be able to have darshan any sooner. It was getting late for the return train, which they have to take from Renigunta Junction by travelling by local bus from Tirumala.
Those days these buses also used to be very scarce and TTD had not yet started free bus service.
JR was concerned about the return trip of them and told the group to get out of the queue. Obediently they all got out of the queue thinking that he might have found a way for a quick darshan. Alas, he told them all to do "sashtanga namaskaram" to all the devotees in the queue and move towards free prasadam counter and then to bus-stand saying "Every stone, every tree, every step, every devotee and the very air we breathe in Tirumala is Venkatachalapathy Himself... so we all have had His darshan and hence, we can start our return journey".... somehow all members in the group got convinced and they walked up to the bus-stand after a quick round of free prasadam.
They waited for long but not a single bus in sight. It was getting dark and in the bus-stand JR and his group of 20 members were only waiting. Street lights were not there and they were all standing in the dark night chanting "Venkataramana Govinda".
After some time, one bus came with just the driver and he said "ekkandi ekkandi thwaraga" ( get in get in fast) and JR and his group got inside the bus quickly chanting "Govinda Govinda"... driver drove them to Rengigunta Railway Junction. As they got out of the bus, JR was wondering why the driver came alone without conductor and why he did not ask them for tickets.. he wanted to pay the bus-fare and by the time everyone alighted from the bus, it went off in a jiffy without a trace. Then he realised that there were no other passengers in the bus other than himself and his group.
JR was in tears as the whole group took the train which had just reached Renigunta. He knew in his heart of hearts that it must be Venkatachalapathy Himself who came as a driver just to drop the group to Renigunta so that His dear devotees do not suffer for their return journey.
Thus, this trip to Tirumala - though without "actual" darshan of Venkatachalapathy, became a memorable pilgrimage to all in the group and this incident had been recalled by many members afterwards with fond memories and great devotion. As children, we had listened to this story told by our grandmother who used to get tears as she recited this to us.
Very fortunate for being JR's grand daughter and hope and pray that I get at least 1% such deep devotion to Guru and God.
More on JR will be coming in the coming days...
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