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I vowed to offer Betel leaf mala to HIM!

Updated: Sep 28, 2021




Sadguru ways are mysterious indeed especially how he helps his sadaks. Hanuman worship and upayes are well known for their speedy results namely use of pan leaf and vade mala , Hanuman sindhoor ,dry coconut ,and Hanuman Chalisa recitation for Mangal and Shani difficulties. Padmalata Kompella is from Andhra Pradesh, but completed her engineering education in Karnataka State. She is fluent in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, English. She shares her inspired experiences.


The Smile on His face will never fade away from my memory ever.

I am Padmalata Kompella from Perth Australia; I feel blessed to narrate and share my experiences with Sri Swamiji with every member of this universal Datta family.


Hanuman loves Betel leaves mala made with devotion…....


Our Sadguru deva Parama Pujya Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji has been propagating the message for world peace to chant Hanuman Chalisa. His Holiness has been encouraging people to regularly chant Hanuman Chalisa and send the count to Mysuru. Mass chanting has been conducted by Dattapeetham all over the world and wherever Pujya sri Swamiji has been visiting, devotees have been flocking to participate in the mass chanting. 1st ever Guinness World Record was created in Tenali (Andhra Pradesh) when the 1st mass chanting gathering was organised. Since then people have been chanting and sending their count to Dattapeetham Mysuru along with their name and the number of times they chanted. More than 11 billion (1100 crores) chanting count was received from worldwide devotees.


I am an Engineer by Profession, Working in Oil & Gas. I was once given a project to replace 40 Analysers in a refinery. There were many contractors involved and many drawings to be prepared and issued by my team which I was leading.


It so happened that we were replacing these analysers phase by phase as we couldn’t shutdown the plant. While replacing each analyser we had several safety precautions to be followed and practiced. This incident happened during once such analyser was being replaced.


These days the plant Automation is so advances that the plant can run without any human intervention. But when we replaced the Analyser, we are required to update the software to meet the required changes. We had issued stage wise drawings to the contractor and the contractor was supposed to execute according to the drawings related to that particular analyser only.


One fine day I received a call from my site team that there was some error as the software was already modified but the actual analyser was not replaced. That would cause a huge issue, as this would stop the process plant from running. It was a safety breach. I immediately went to my reporting manager and disclosed the issue. As a team leader, I was responsible to get to the bottom of the issue. I was in a great trouble and if It is my team’s problem, I will be held responsible, further that my job and career was at stake. My husband was working in India and I called him to explain the situation; he gave me some guidance on the professional front, but I was so worried and was not able to calm down at all.



Having heard and read that Hanuman loves betel leaves mala, I started to offer betel leaves mala to Hanuman at Perth Bala-Murugan temple (Australia) and chant Hanuman Chalisa.


On Monday, when I returned to my work, my manager told me that there will be an investigation conducted to resolve the issue and it was a safety breach. From Engineering side, I had to provide all the evidence and solution to the problem so that it will not occur in the future. When I proposed the feasible solution; my manager was kind enough to allocate a special team to implement it.


On Tuesday, my manager was attending the investigation on my behalf as I was busy with the team getting the solution implemented in the drawings. While doing so, one of my colleagues, brought to my attention that we were repeating something that we had already done as part of the initial engineering. As this was a huge project, it was difficult to remember and keep a track of all the drawings.


I took those drawings, that we had prepared and issued as part of the best engineering practice, to the investigating room and handed over to my manager. When my manager provided those drawing to the investigating officer, Engineering was given a clean chit and there was no fault of engineering. But the contractor who was executing the automation on site was responsible.


Out of the 1000 drawings that Engineering had produced, it was not possible that we could identify the right drawing before the investigation proceeded. It was definitely grace of Hanuman that came at the right moment and saved me from the disaster.


Since then I have been doing betel leaf mala for Hanuman. This became a practice and every Saturday I have a vow to fulfil i.e to visit Hanuman with my betel leaf mala. The priest in the temple also started looking forward for my visit and started to advise people about the importance of offering betel leaf mala to Hanuman, to the devotees that visited temple. Soon my betel leaf mala became famous amongst the local crowd.


Once JET-Australia (Perth chapter) was organising Sunday Sundarakanda for 16 weeks and I got to know only on the concluding one which was organised in Perth Bala-Murugan temple. As usual I offered to prepare Betel leaf mala to Hanuman and Special Prasadam (Appalu) for Hanuman. The group didn’t expect and neither I knew about the height of Idol they had at the altar. The betel leaf mala that I had prepared fitted exactly and I was so pleased. Also that day we had a crowd of about 300-350 gathered in the temple and got the opportunity to conduct a mass chanting of Hanuman Chalisa at the end.


Soon I got the message from DYC-Australia about our Pujya Sri Swamiji’s visit to Melbourne on His return from New Zealand visit and also mass chanting of Hanuman Chalisa was being organised. I felt the inner, divine calling and that was it – I decided to attend the event. As it was a week-end program, made it all the more convenient for me to fly to Melbourne and return. Again as the event was on Saturday, I wanted to offer Betel leaf mala to Pujya Sri Swamiji (as Sri Swamiji is in the form of Hanuman whenever He conducts the mass chanting). It was a dream come true to offer the betel leaf mala. I was concerned about obtaining betel leaves in Melbourne as it was on a day trip and if I would be able to organise the leaves??


I started contacting Australian Quarantine department to seek permission to carry Fresh Betel leaves from Perth to Melbourne, as there are strict rules of carrying any fresh plant material interstate too. Luckily I got the permission to carry the leaves but not fresh flower. As I alighted at Melbourne, hired a car and went to a florist that I knew from when we lived in Melbourne. and she was very generous in giving me flowers. She also offered few bouquets free as I was visiting her all the way from Perth.


Visited Sri Swamiji at Melbourne Ashram and Pujya Sri Swamiji blessed my daughter and myself and had a blissful moment and we were all charged to attend the mass Hanuman chalisa chanting in the evening. All the while I never discussed my desire of preparing betel leaf mala to any of the committee members as they were all very busy. I went back to the motel completed the mala and arrived early at the venue for the chanting. The seats where we chose to sit, I found whole lot of fresh betel leaves in a carry bag. I asked one the organisers what they were intending to do? One of the committee member was known to me, she requested me to do a mala for the Altar. As I didn’t carry any needle and thread, I just started making the garland by rolling each leaf. The garland became very big and I didn’t do any adjustments as I was unaware how they would use it. My friend left the handmade betel leaf mala at the Altar where Sri Swamiji would perform Pooja along with other flowers as Sri Swamiji had already arrived.



As Pujya Sri Swamiji arrived, He first saw the betel leaves mala and as we couldn’t hear what He asked didn’t know all the proceedings… Later observed that one of the DYC members took that mala (that was kept at the Altar) to offer it to Pujya Sri Swamiji. As I was unaware that the mala would be offered to Sri Swamiji I was really thrilled. My heart leapt! As soon as Sri Swamiji wore the mala, Hanuman chalisa chanting began. Sri Swamiji instructed the crowd to chant 9 times. It was a blissful to chant along with Pujya Sri Swamiji waving Hanuman flag. After the 9 rounds were completed, I wanted to offer my betel leaf mala that I had initially prepared to offer. As the organisers were unaware and it was not in the schedule, I requested if I could make my offering. The organisers had just then offered Vada Mala to Pujya Sri Swamiji and I was standing near the stage to offer my betel leaves mala. As soon as Pujya Sri Swamiji saw me, the MC’ also announced of offering the betel leaves mala.


As I offered Pujya Sri Swamiji wore it graciously. I felt my Tapasya (vow) of all these months of making betel leaf mala and offering it to Hanuman and chanting Hanuman Chalisa and everything associated with that Tapasya, bore fruit. The Smile on His face will never fade away from my memory ever.




Sri Swamiji has composed in one of the Bhajans, “Hey Hanuman I will offer you Betel leaves, please give me a pure heart”. I pray to Hanuman “our Pujya Sri Swamiji”, please keep my heart only filled with pure devotion and nothing else.

I offer all my devotion to our Parama Pujya Sri Swamiji.

Even Today I feel Hanuman waits and looks forward for my betel leaf mala. I feel extremely blessed to be making the mala every week.


Shri Anjaneya Swami Ji ki !!!!!

Jai !

Padmalata



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