Pratinandan Voyage - 3

Similar to the previous, In this one too I will start with a preamble which describes Guru. According to Ramana Maharishi, God and Guru are in truth no different. Guru is God in human form and he is indispensable.

Our Upanishads also describe the role of Guru in everyone’s life, “Mundaka Upanishad” not only describes the role of Guru but also about different facets like Surrender to Guru, Characteristics of Guru, Method of surrender and Association with Guru.

I would like to pick a few from that Upanishad,

‘Prashãntachittãya shamãnvitãya’. ‘Prashãntachittãya’ means stability of mind and inner satisfaction. What can a wavering mind grasp? Nothing is understood if the mind is agitated. To attain knowledge we must focus our minds and serve the guru. ‘Shamãnvitãya’ means control of the senses, forgoing unnecessary or unsuitable pleasures.

‘Tadvignãnãrtham sa gurumevãbhigachchhet’ – ‘In order to realize that brahmavidya, one must go to the guru’ It is not a merely a suggestion to surrender to the guru; it is an order, a command. There is no other way, wisdom cannot be attained by oneself. You have to go somewhere and it must be Guru.Surrender by mind, speech and actions – this is the true way of surrendering to the guru. It is not enough to merely go to him or sit near him physically. One has to surrender and become engrossed. Now back to travel…
Swamimalai – Saminathan
Of the “Aaru padai veedu” this stands at fourth and the only one which I have never visited. Lord Shiva became oblivious of all his knowledge and is said to have regained them here from Lord Muruga. Lord Muruga said that he can expound the knowledge only if Lord Shiva can accept him as guru and listen to the exposition as a devoted disciple.

This temple is built on an artificial hillock and has sixty steps to indicate Hindu cycle of sixty years. Moreover, the usual divine vehicle, peacock is absent in this shrine. Instead, there is a white elephant is found in front of the Lord. It is said that Indra, in gratitude for having saved him from Asuras, presented the Lord with his own vehicle, Airavatam, the white elephant and hence the peacock is absent in Swamimalai.

Nagakudi – Sri Kailashanathar
Association with this tiny village near Swamimalai commenced last year through a project. This visit is to observe the progress made towards the construction of an age old temple.Though there is a delay, we will be able to perform Kumbabishegam as per plan. For more details I am sharing my last year blog on this heading http://gbramy.blogspot.in/2015/10/blog-post.html

Thiruvalanchuzhi- Thiru Valanchuzhi nathar
As the name indicates(Thiru-Sacred and Valanchuzhi- right handed curve) is the holy place where river Kauveri takes a turn hugging this shrine. The presiding deity is Thiru Valanchuzhi nathar and Peria Nayaki and this one is huge and could be more than 1000 years old.

Though lord Shiva is swayambu and the main deity, this temple is famous for Swetha Vinayagar. Lord Swetha Vinayagar(Vellai Vinayagar) is made from sea water foam, hence white in colour. It is believed that Indra, the king of the Devas created the idol of Ganesha out of sea sand during the churning of the ocean and left it in a niche in the temple hoping to get back the idol sometime later. But later, when he returned to remove the idol of Ganesha, he was not able to. So, the idol was allowed to remain here.

Since the Ganesha idol is of foam,no abishegam,flowers, vastras or sandal placed on Him. Only powdered Borneol (Pachai Karpuram) is sprayed on the idol without hand touch.

Normally Goddess Kali is furious but in this temple Ashta Buja Kali( Eight hands) looks in a calm down posture and heard from gurukal that Raja-Raja Chola used to offer prayers to this deity before proceeding to war this was followed by others too in his dynasty. 

When I entered this huge temple there was no one to be seen and was taken back a bit. Suddenly saw a big team from Chennai Rotary club and to my astonishment met my ex-boss (Balaji) and ex-super-boss(Srikanth) of Ford with their family.

Thirukarukavur
This is an ancient temple of God Shiva dedicated to Sri Mullaivananathar and Sri Garbarakshambigai Amman. I went on the eve of Kumbabishegam where lots of preparations were happening around.

The main deity is Sri Mullaivananathar Swamy who is worshiped for better health. The Swamy here is swayambhu(self manifested). Even today we can see the impression of mullai creeper over him. He is made up of hardened mud and there is no Abhishegam for this God. Instead Punugu is being offered on Pradosham day, this Punugu is believed to have healing power and it is being sent as prasadam for the peoples, who suffer due to incurable skin diseases, cardiac diseases.

Goddess Sri Garbarakshambigai Amman here cures infertility related problems to women, blesses them to conceive and also helps them for safe and trouble free delivery. 

Letters from devotees on their experience are available in the below link 

http://garbaratchambigaitemple.org/letters-from-devotees/

Papanasam- 108 Shivalayam 

The main deity is Ramalingaswami and his consort is Parvadhavardhini.This temple was build by Lord Rama and the 108 Shiva lingas were installed by him. Even though Ravana was a demon, he was a great Shiva Bhakta. By killing him, Lord Rama had got Dosha.To ward off this Dosha, he installed the 108 lingas. It is believed that worshipping Lord Shiva in this temple would remove all sins. Lord Ramalingaswami is in the main shrine and in the hall (Mandap) there are 106 Shiva Lingas in 3 rows and finally Hanumantha Linga shrine is outside the temple totaling to 108. 

Darasuram – Airvatesvara Temple 
Though had time on Day 1 evening, pushed this to day2 morning to enjoy the architecture marvel of this temple, should visit this place in the day time.

Again a huge temple which comes under UNESCO, built by Raja Raja chola 2 is a storehouse of art and architecture. Apart from me and gurukal there were only some French people in this temple. Airavata, the white elephant of Indra, worshipped Lord Siva in this temple and hence named after him as Airavateswara. The Goddess in this temple is known as Deva Nayaki.

It is believed that Yama took bath in the sacred tank to get rid of the burning sensation and hence known as Yamateertham. This tank gets fresh water from Kaveri and piligrims make a point to have a bath in the tank.

Everyone will be astonished by the marvel of architecture in this temple, important one being Vaali and Sugreva fight. One cannot see Rama's sculpture from the pillar where the sculpture of fight whereas from Rama’s sculpture we will be able to the sculpture of fight.

In front of the temple, there is a small mandapa, which can be reached by three steps in the form of a ladder. The steps are stones, which give different musical sounds when tapped. All the seven swaras can be heard at different points.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES

Thirupananthal - Sri Arunajadeswarar Temple 

Another huge temple and this time I was all alone, gurukal came after some time. But he explained with lot of patience and interest.A lady by name Thadakai was worshipping God for a child. One day when she was about to garland the God, her saree started slipping down.She managed to hold it but found to difficult to garland the Lord. So Shiva bent down and accepted her garland. From that day the Deity was not straight.

Later, a King tried to straighten with his army power but failed. Kunguliyakkalaya nayanar, 11th of the 63 nayanmars tied a rope to his neck and to the linga and straightened it to the old position through his devotion.
Lord Shiva is swayambumurthy and rays of sun fall on the lord on some particular days in April.