Our recent trip to Ramanasramam was an unexpected one. Suddenly on Tuesday last, I had thought of going there and sent a mail to the Ashram. The next day to my surprise, the Ashram authorities confirmed the accomodation. Normally they do not entertain such short requests. And there I was, on Saturday morning (the 27th Jun) in Ramanasramam along with my wife. My wife was excited as usual on her going to the Ashram. We spent the whole day in the Ashram and decided to do the Girivallam on the next morning. On Sunday morning, we set out for our Girivallam. On the way, we were helped by a gentleman who asked us to step aside the road because a snake was crossing it. We completed the Girivallam at about 9 am and return to the Ashram after having a Darshan at the main Arunachalam temple.
In the evening, we had the good fortune of hearing the President Shri V.S. Ramanan reading out the English rendering for the day. We also met Sri Swami Shantananda Puri Maharaj and took blessings from him.
Sri Parthasarathy Garu was very kind as usual and gave me two English books for my reading. We returned to Bangalore this morning.
Lepakshi is a small village located in the Anantapur District, in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is 15 km east of Hindupur and about 120 km north of Bangalore. The famous Veerabhadra temple, dedicated to Veerabhadra, is located here. Built by the brothers Viranna and Virupanna, the temple is a notable example of the Vijayanagar architectural style.[1] It is famous for its sculptures, which were created by the artisans of Vijayanagara empire. A huge Nandi bull made out of single granite stone is one of the attractions in Lepakshi.The place is renowned for being one of the best repository of mural paintings of the Vijayanagar Kings. Many old Kannada inscriptions dating back centuries can be seen on its walls Legend has it that the Naga of the Nagalinga was carved out of a single stone by sculptors while they waited for their mother to prepare lunch.
We had set out for the trip to Lepakshi on 16th Aug, Sunday at around 7 AM by our Car. We took the Devanahalli, Chikkaballapur, Bagepalli route to reach Lepakshi. We had breakfast at Kamat Upachar restaurant adjacent to Bharat Petroleum Outlet which is located on NH7 before Bagepalli. The drive up to Bagepalli on NH 7 was smooth as most of the route was four laned. We had to take a left turn from there to reach Lepakshi. Once we took a left turn at Police Check Post near Bagepalli, the route became worst and it took us almost 45 minutes for us to cover around 25 KM. Just before the temple, there is a big Nandi statue where we took some photographs. Later we entered the temple and went around it for almost an hour. The temple is not properly maintained. Some renovation work is going on and I hope after that the maintenance improves. On the way back we had our lunch at the same restaurant and reached our house back by 2 PM. We covered a total distance of around 230 KM to and fro. 
