My chariot rolls on.....

At a Tarot reading recently...
I picked...the Chariot...
Travel on the cards???...
For sure...says the card reader...
Uhmmmm....
I do not tell her that my chariot started to roll even earlier...

For a few brief days....last week..
I managed to escape..
From Madras that is now Chennai...
Into rural Tamilnadu...

Here it is still possible to see..
Palm trees swaying...
Over field upon field...
Of emerald green, straw brown and gold...

Looking out of the car window...we gaze...
At the canopy of trees....overhead..
Little thatched huts..huddled together...
Sheaves of grain on the roadside...run over by passing vehicles...and threshed..
Tractors piled high with just-harvested sugarcane...
Goats...sometimes a cow...crossing the road...
A river meandering down slowly...
A house on its banks...

All whizz by...
And as we move forward in space...
The stresses and the burdens of everyday living......
Get left behind....
And we emerge free...
Unshackled..

At Kumbakonam we head to a hotel..
Raya's...doesn't sound good...
But it is...
Clean room...
Clean sheets...
Spotlessly clean bathrooms...
Priceless!!!!!

In the evening we make our way to Swamimalai...
Clamber up the 60 steps of this man-made hillock...
To see Him.....
This warrior God of the Tamils...
His first consort is also called Deva Sena...by some...which means...
The Army of the Devas..
He is symbolically wed to those Divine Forces....that battle evil...
My own Ishta Devatha....

Then on to Thiruvalanchuzhi.....
The Vellai Pillayar is made from the froth of the oceans...caused by the churning of the Waters...
At Samudra Manthan...
Myth once again calls for a suspension of belief...
The priest tells the story...
And it feels as if it all happened...just a while ago...

Behind this sanctum...
Is the One...
The Greatest of the Devas....Maha Deva...
I feel a strange bond with Him...
This Ancient One...
Of the matted locks...
Who has always existed.....

It is dusk...
The temple is lit only by the oil lamps that flicker....
We see the arathi...as we enter.......
There is an other worldly quality about it....
It is beautiful...says my husband...
I'am so caught up in the atmospherics!!!!!
The valanchuzhi vinayagar is at a corner behind the shrine of the lingam..
Then on to the arathi at the Devi's shrine...

The huge ramparts of this temple...
Are awe inspiring...
It should be teeming with people...
But it is quiet...
Only a few tourists...
A handful of devotees from the village nearby..
And the priests...

We see other temples...
Before we return to the city....
Once again....
Filled with calm...within...
A sense of Peace...
Which is what a pilgimage is all about anyway....

Peace...
May it be with us...always....
And..
I hope my Chariot rolls on.....