Yathni's Travel to Vaikunt

By Venkataraman M

This book is an offshoot of an earlier book titled 'Yathni's Travel to Kailash' by the author.

Yathni is a little girl studying in Fifth Grade. Yathni's paternal grandfather guides her on moral values through the practices of Hindu religion. Impressed by her devotion and conduct, Lord Ganesha took her on an excursion to Kailash.

Subsequently, Sage Narada takes Yathni on an excursion to Vaikunt and Brahmalokam. On the way, there was a halt at the South Pole.  Her experiences on this unique journey form the basis of this story. 

The book contains some factual information on the world-renowned temple of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati-Tirumala in India, a few other holy places in India, the Antarctica etc. Colourful illustrations have also been provided.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M. VENKATARAMAN
• Release date: Jul 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201604677

Book preview

YATHNI’S TRAVEL

TO VAIKUNT

(A Story)

M.VENKATARAMAN

Year of Publication-2015

Copyright - M. Venkataraman

☺

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Published by:

M.Venkataraman,

G-10, Ground Floor,

Innovative Timberleaf,

Somasundarapalaya,

H.S.R. Layout, Sector II,

Bangalore-560102.

e-mail: [e-mail]

Dedicated to my sister, M.Pankajam

Table of Contents

PREFACE

PART -I

1.LORD VENKATESWARA

2. MATHSYA AVATAR

3. KURMA AVATAR

4. GODDESS PADMAVATI

5. VARAHA AVATAR AND NARASIMHA AVATAR

6. TIRUMALA TEMPLE

INTERLUDE

PART-II

7. THE AVATARS IN TRETA YUGA AND DWAPARA YUGA

8. THE PROGRAMME OF THE EXCURSION

9. SAGE NARADA

10. GETTING READY FOR TAKE OFF

11. THE TAKE OFF TO VAIKUNT

12. THE ANTARCTICA

13. DHRUVA, THE POLESTAR

14. YATHNI IN VAIKUNT

15. DESCRIPTION OF VAIKUNT

16. DARSHAN OF LORD VISHNU

17. THE ALWARS

18. THE AARTI

19. VISIT TO BRAHMA LOKAM

20. RETURN TO EARTH

PREFACE

I had earlier written and published a book titled, ‘YATHNI’S TRAVEL TO KAILASH’.  This book is a successor to that publication.

Just as its precursor, the story in this book is fundamentally based on Hindu mythology. I pay my obeisance to Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala hill of Andhra Pradesh in India as the concept of my story is derived out of His blessings.

One of the principal characters in this story, Yathni, is a fictitious name coined by my father, S.A. Muthukrishnan. He passed away in 1988. About thirty five years ago, when my daughter Nithya was a child, he used to tell her a lot of anecdotes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata etc in his own style to make her listen with enthusiastic attention. While telling them, he used to impress upon her the need to cultivate good qualities like cleanliness, punctuality, respect to elders etc. While doing so, he used to tell her that she should be like ‘Yathni’. Once I asked him who that Yathni was. To my amusement, I found that it was an imaginary character created by him by putting my daughter’s name in the reverse by taking two letters at a time. This ‘Yathni’ has remained in my memory and I have made her as one of the principal characters of this story as well as my earlier story ‘YATHNI’S TRAVEL TO KAILASH’. I salute my late father for introducing ‘Yathni’ to me. I have portrayed him as ‘Muthu Thatha’ in the story (‘Thatha’ means ‘Grandfather’ in Tamil language).

Though the story is based on Hindu mythology, I have included a few facts about the solar system and Antarctica. The facts have been collected from various sources including Wikipedia. Broadly, however, I submit that for facts on religion, I consulted the websites of Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam of Andhra Pradesh in India and other religious institutions.  For facts other than religion, I consulted mostly the websites of the Government e.g the websites of NASA, ISRO etc.

Since the story is based on Hindu mythology, quotations have been given from the religious texts and other Hindu literature. Quotations have also been introduced from Tamil, Hindi and Sanskrit languages along with meanings, wherever possible.

The story is somewhat akin to the story in ‘YATHNI’S TRAVEL TO KAILASH’. I would earnestly request my readers to also read that book.

Let me give a few lines of introduction to the story, particularly to those who do not know much about Hindu mythology or the Hindu way of life. It is said that the foundations of Hinduism are the eternal and supersensuous truths discovered by ancient Indian sages. Hinduism has no known founder and we do not know anything about those sages who discovered these truths. These revealed Divine Truths are called the Vedas. Being the revealed scriptures, they are considered the most authentic. There are scriptures supplementing and explaining the truths contained in the Vedas.

According to the teachings of the Vedas, there is one and only one God who is referred to as ‘Brahman’. It is said that by His mere will, He manifests Himself as this universe. Hence, creation, preservation and destruction of this world are the three aspects of God. These three basic aspects of God are represented by the Trinity called as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The other gods and goddesses of Hinduism personify the various other endless powers and aspects of God.

The deeper truths of the Vedas and the scriptures are difficult to comprehend. Therefore, in order to present them in an interesting and easily understandable manner, the sages of India created a special type of literature, called the Puranas. In the Puranas, the scriptural teachings have been presented through stories and parables.

According to the Puranas, Brahma resides in Brahmalokam, Vishnu in Vaikunt and Shiva in Kailash. Vaikunt is supposed to be in an ocean of milk. Lord Vishnu is stated to be resting in Vaikunt on the divine serpant called Adisesha, who acts as his seat as well as bed. Lakshmi is the consort of Vishnu. Brahma, the creater, is in Brahmalokam and his consort is Saraswati.

Just like earth, there are thousands of worlds which are under the control of the Trinity. Two of these important worlds are the ‘Devalokam’-the abode of the devas and the ‘Asuralokam’-the abode of the asuras. Devas represent the positive qualities like wisdom, activity, selflessness etc. Asuras, on the other hand, represent the negative qualities like ignorance, lethargy, selfishness etc.

With this brief background, let me take you to the story.

M.Venkataraman

PART -I

1.LORD VENKATESWARA

Kousalya Supraja Rama poorva sandhya pravarthathe 

Uttishta Narasardula karthavyam dhaivamanhikam [1]

It was seven in the morning. The Saptagiri Express started its journey from Chennai Central to Tirupati. Yathni was sitting in the train along with her parents Ramanan and Kalpana and her paternal grandparents- Muthu Thatha and Ambal.  She started reciting ‘Venkatesa Suprapaadam’- a hymn in praise of Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala.

Yathni is a cute little girl studying in the fifth standard. She is an ardent devotee of Lord Ganesha. Pleased with her devotion, Ganesha took her on an excursion[2] to Kailash[3]. She had recently returned from her travel to Kailash. She is now on a pilgrimage to Tirumala along with her parents and her grandparents. It is her maiden trip to Tirumala to have the darshan[4] of Lord Venkateswara. She is thrilled and started reciting the ‘Venkatesa Suprapaadam’ which she knows by heart.

The word ‘Suprapadam’ means ‘auspicious dawn’ and Suprapadam is a collection of hymns recited early in the morning in praise of God. The ‘Venkatesa Suprapadam’ is composed by Saint Annangaracharyar and is in praise of Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala.

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Tirumala is a hill town near Tirupati in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. It is situated 26 kilometres north of Tirupati. It is at a distance of about 140 kms from Chennai[5]. The Venkateswara temple at Tirumala is one of the temples in India that is visited by thousands of pilgrims everyday. The presiding deity of the temple is Lord Venkateswara, a form of Vishnu[6]. It is one of the most visited holy places of the world. ‘Tirumala’ means ‘Holy Mountain’-a combination of two words: ‘Tiru’ meaning 'holy' and ‘mala’ meaning 'hill'. The name ‘Venkateswara’ means ‘The God who destroys sins’-a combination of three words: ‘Vem’ meaning ‘sin’, ‘kata’ meaning ‘destruction’ and ‘Iswara’ meaning ‘God’.

Tirumala is 853m above sea level and is about 10.33 square miles in area. It comprises seven peaks which are called Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrushabhadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri. The temple is on Venkatadri, the