Vaikunta Ekadesi and my memoirs

Today being vaikuta edadesi, (for details click -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaikunta_Ekadasi), I went to the Bridgewater temple in New Jersey and went through the "Sorga vaasal". I was thinking about how this became a practice for me over the years. I was reminded of my days in Erode, Kumbakonam and Pondicherry. My father would take all of us to the Perumal temple every year. When we continued the practice in Kumbakonam, we were surprised to find no "Sorga vaasal" and on enquiry it turned out to be that Kumbakonam is also called "Bhoologa Sorgam" and hence no perumal temple in Kumbakonam have one.

Parents take kids to the activities, which they feel the kids should be exposed to and by taking them to places they communicate the significance of those specific activities. In the companies, if the manager wants to show how much importance he / she attaches to a programme, the manager expressed it through the physical presence and incentives. Until the kids can understand the importance of various things, the parents repetitively expose kids to the activities of their interest and this way the culture, values, customs gets communicated and reinforced generations after generation.

People from Srirangam, Triplicane and Tirupathi will have their own experiences. You are welcome to share.