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Consider all your fortunes and your misfortunes to be the results of your own actions of this as well as of previous births, and hence do not feel glad when fortune favours you and do not feel sorry when misfortune betfalls you.
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To me, the Temple is an expanse of space defined by structures. The finiteness of the total structure is domed by the infinity of the space above. To stand on the western side of the Temple, somewhat away from the back of the main shrine and watch the temple buildings and the sky above is a deeply pleasurable experience. The sky and the deep space below, and the space that fills and overflows the Temple are all a continuum, an undisturbed oneness awesome and beautiful. Whether the sky is bright and clear, or greyish blue with mountainous clouds massing up, or enchanting with the moon and the stars, the Temple responds to it, height merging into luminous depths and an architectural expansiveness maintained by a limitless expanse enveloping it.
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ETERNAL obeisance to You oh! Sree Padmanabha Swamy who have subjugated unchartered spans of mighty time to reign in all glory as the heart and heart-beat of the ancient Thrippaappoor Swaroopam (Travancore Dynasty), May Your kind grace descend so as to enable me in all humility to attempt at transmitting the multifaceted glory of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple on these pages, though in abridged form.
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The ambience at the Navarathri Mandapam has to be experienced to be believed. The entire lighting is done using oil lamps. The subtle fragrance of fresh flowers, sandalwood incense, camphor fumes ad less-subtle smells of freshly bathed gentlemen waft around in the air. The concerts start at 6.00 PM sharp and finish at 8.30 PM sharp. Believe it or not, nobody is allowed to come late or leave early. (“Can such things be?” one wonders, when one takes a look at audience behaviour in Music Sabhas.)
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GOD IS OMNIPOTENT and OMNIPRESENT. The great sages have by research found out AHAM BRAHMASMI and TAT TWAMASI which denotes that” THERE IS NOTHING OTHER THAN BRAHMAN. But for us ordinary humans, it is difficult to be convinced or to conceive it in this way. We know that air is everywhere around us. But we feel it only when it moves. Suppose we reach home after some very tiring work. We are exhausted and full of sweat. There is no comfort in the KNOWLEDGE that there is air all around. But if there is a fan by which the air is set in motion, then we get comfort. Likewise we know that the atmosphere around us is full of sound waves from everywhere, but we can hear voices only if it comes from nearby sources. But if we have a radio, we can hear the sound from all places on earth and also beyond it.
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Our culture inspired our people to gladly undergo the tapas involved in knowledge-seeking and knowledge-communicating, and produced a vast fund of knowledge; and they made their country a fertile womb of creative ideas. The word tapas can be rendered into English as any privation, freely and joyously undertaken, with a view to achieving something higher, you gladly give up ten paise when you are given one rupee; there is not, what is called, a feeling of sacrifice or suffering in it, because you are getting something better, more valuable. So, in the field of education, every human child gives up physical ease and comfort, treating it as of lesser value, so that he or she may gain something of higher value.