period and confided in him my frustration and how I stupid I felt about having embarked on a major
undertaking like this with no experience or expertise. He was always very sympathetic and very
compassionate, but he also told me that I worried too much. His constant advice to me was to leave
everything to the will of Sri Lakshmi Hayagreeva and He would take care of them. In hindsight, I now
think that he was not at all in any doubt about the ultimate success of the endeavour. He also told
me that if the vigraham arrived in time, he would take it with him to Hyderabad and perform the
samprokShanam there along with the temple samprokshanam, and bring it back with him for me to
take it to US.
During the first week of June, I was desperately working on two things: (i) repeatedly contacting the
stahpathi begging him to send the vigraham before Acharya’s departure to Hyderabad on June 11;
(ii) to locate a priest who was a US Citizen or Green Card holder who would be willing to work for us.
Both efforts were going nowhere. Finally on June 7, we began to see some light. I got a lead from the
Devagiri temple in Bangalore to contact one Sri Varadraja Bhattar who is a US citizen and presently
staying in the US. I immediately wrote an e-mail to Sri Balagopalakrishna (who has already been
introduced earlier) to contact him. Miraculously at the very same time, he had received
independently a lead from someone in the US to contact the same person! Within a few days, we
concluded an agreement with Sri Varadraja Bhattar to accompany our dolai Hayagreeva Perumal on
the US Tour.
On June 9, two days before Acharya was to leave for Hyderabad, we had found an Aradhaka but the
vigraham and dolai mantapam had still not been delivered. However, later that day, the sthapati
called to inform me that they were ready with the vigraham and mantapam but were waiting for the
carpenter to finish a box to put them in later that day. On June 10, everything was ready but there
was no way they could deliver it in Bangalore by next day morning via any commercial carrier. Finally
they suggested a way out. If we could pay the expenses and arrange for transportation from the bus
stand to the Matham, they would send the box with their man by a passenger bus leaving
Kumbakonam at night and arriving in Bangalore on July 11 at 6 AM or so.
Lakshmi Hayagreeva in His mantapam at Bangalore Mutt
No need to say that we agreed to this proposal. Sri Krishna Prasad waited at the bus stand in
Bangalore in his car that morning and brought the box to the Matham by about 7 AM, as the Mutt’s
vans were being loaded for departure later that morning to Hyderabad. With great excitement, I
waited at the Mutt for the arrival of Sri Krishnaprasad with the box. My heart however sank on
looking at the box. It was a “gigantic” wooden box and was so heavy that it required two persons to
carry it into the kutheeram from the car. I quickly realized that there was no way I could take it with
me on an aircraft. Anyway, we opened the box and unpacked it and began to assemble the
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