Bhoologa Vaikuntam - 2

The travel we undertake should encapsulate your feelings and vitalize from inner and should never drain your energies, in that aspect this was refreshing due to the magnitude of these ancient temples. At the same time, attention should be provided to all in the group so that the travel is made interesting. I want Ananya to enjoy the holidays so the story of Adi Shankara and the significance of these temples were shared during our journey. Also promises like bathing in the same river where Shankara faced the crocidle and Athirappilly falls excited her and kept her in high energy.

Soon after our Nirmalaya darshan checked out and started for a long day travel to cover the places as per the plan. 

Nalaambalam

Nalambalam pilgrimage is gaining more and more popularity. Nalambalam, means four temples, which are in different locations of Thrissur district.

Nalambala Darsanam involves offering prayers at the shrines of Lord Rama (Triprayar), Bharatha (Koodalmanikyam at Irinjalakuda), Lakshmana (Moozhikulam) and Shatrugana (Payammal), the celebrated quartet of the epic Ramayana respectively, on a single day. In India you will find temples for the brothers of Ram only at these places.

It is believed that the idols of Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shathrughna were the pooja idols of Lord Krishna. He worshipped these 4 idols in Dwaraka. At the end of Dwapara Yuga, Dwaraka was swallowed by the sea. These four idols floated over the sea water all together and at last reached the Cheetuva region of Kerala shore. They were duly installed in four temples at these places by Vakkayil Kaimal as directed in his dream by HIM.

It is believed, Bharata , second amongst them, is the avatar of the Panchajanya (Conch held by Vishnu) .Lakshmana is the avatar of the Adisesha, Satrughna is the avatar of the Sudarshana chakra held by Lord Vishnu.

Triprayar Temple(Temple for Ram) houses a 6 ft tall idol of the Lord, holding Shankha, Sudarsanachakra, Stick and Garland, in a very ferocious form in standing posture. When we entered we saw a grand ceremony where the Utsavar is being taken around on a Gajaraja, we followed the procession till the Garbagrha.

Koodalmanikyam Temple( Bharatha's) houses another 6 ft tall idol of the Lord,seen in ferocious form in standing posture holding the same things as seen at Triprayar. This is one of the rare temples where only one idol is there in the entire temple complex which is huge.

Moozhikkulam is the only one among the four temples which belong to the 108 Divya Desams. The temple houses another 6 ft tall idol, similar to the idol at Guruvayoor, holding Shankha, Sudarsana chakra, Mace and Lotus, in standing posture.

Payammal is the smallest temple of the four, having the smallest idol, also similar to that at Guruvayoor.

We were fortunate enough to cover all these before noon but not in the prescribed order due to the proximity of Satrughna and Bhartha, so Lakshmana was the last one we visited(Refer the map in my first part). Probably they are closer since the other two left for forest.

When we refer Adi Shankara and Lord Ram, there should be a mention about "Sri Rama Bhujanga" the great work by Shankara on Lord Ram. I love the 15th Verse for its absolute eloquence.

Shilapi thwadamgrikshama sangirenu,

Prsadhadhi chaithanya madhatha Rama,

Namasthwath pada dwandwa seva vidhanath,

                                       Suchathanya metheethi kim chithramathra?

Adi Sankara says he offers his salutations at the feet of Rama, His feet are the ones that brought Ahalya back to life. In fact, Adi Sankara says it is the dust on Rama’s feet which rid Ahalya of her curse.If even the dust on His feet can do this, is it any surprise that worshipping His feet grants salvationn?

Kalady

Kalady is the birthplace of the man responsible for the resurgence of Hindusim, AdiSankaracharya, the great Indian Philosopher who is considered responsible for rescuing Hinduism from its deteriorated state. 

There are couple of stories which I would like share before providing the details of the temple. One such story is, Little Shankara’s mother found great difficulty in walking towards the river for her daily bath, this made Shankara to request Lord Krishna to help his mother. Krishna blessed Shankara that the river will follow his footmarks thus Shankara marked a place in the soil from the main river. You can find the river bends at this place as a tributary and flows near this place.

Another story that is worth mentioning is how Sankara got his mother’s permission for Sanyasa. While bathing in the river Poorna one day, a crocodile caught hold of his leg. Shankara appealed to his mother for permission to become a sanyasi. His mother finally gave consent, only to have the crocodile let go of young Shankara.

There are two main temples on the banks of the river, one is Sringeri Mutt and another one is Sri Krishna Temple.

In the Sringeri Mutt temple premises you will find the Samadhi of Sri Shankara's mother, Aryamba. Also there is a small shrine to Lord Ganesha where Shankara used to pray daily and a shrine dedicated to Sri Shankaracharya and the other to Goddess Saradamba. The pooja rituals in these temples are done by Tamil or Kannada Smartha Brahmins, and not by Namboothiris as is the custom in Kerala.

Whereas the other temple is dedicated to Sri Krishna. This temple is known as the ancestral deity (Kula deivam)of Sri Shankaracharya, you can find this being mentioned in one of his verse in Prabodha Sudhakaram. This idol of Lord Krishna is made of Anjana stone that has high properties of iron and copper. Only Guruvayur and Kaladi temple have this idol of Krishna made of this stone.
The temple is under two Namboothiri families who had close associations with the life of Shankara. It is also the only surviving structure from the time of Shankara. The pooja rituals in this temple are conducted by Namboothiris as is the custom of Kerala. Other significant is the Crocodile Ghat.

Athirappilly falls

As mentioned earlier to make the travel a memorable picked this place and Ananya was not willing to come out even after 1 hour.   CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS

Finally some observations I made during the travel which will pave way for a good debate

1. Though the people of Kerala should have some lineage to either Aryan or Dravidian races similar to other southern states of India, but the discipline I saw was awesome especially the self-managed queue system.
   
2. Couple of years ago when I visited Ananthapadmanabaswamy temple in Trivandrum, I was not pleased when I was asked to surrender my shirt in the locker cabin even though I was not wearing. I was not able to get the reason, whereas in this visit I observed most of the men especially Keralite were wearing shirt with one hand inside the sleeve (Please refer the attached photo).When the instruction was not to wear why this innovation? Now I got the reason why in Trivandrum they practice that policy.

While we do utmost planning there might be some slip due to time constraint, we also had some like Vadakkunnathan temple, Annakotta Elephant Sanctuary and Chavakkad Beach. Probably this could be the reason to visit again this wonderful place.

Bhoologa Vaikuntam

In the current scenario, Long weekend without travel will be hard to find in any family, if you spend long weekend at home then you will be g(R)azed down by your own family and friends as if you are an Alien.

To elude from these controversies, planned a short trip during one of the long weekends that followed Diwali, Nov1st being a local holiday in Karnataka. These kind of short travels helps to de-stress your mind since more time is spent with family when compared with routine day. If we are able to pick right place then it also rejuvenates you mentally and physically.

Picked a place so that it can be removed from our pending list which has occupied top of the list for a decade. When I suggested this place it was readily accepted by all and as usual planning and preparation completed. During the planning process thought of accomplishing yet another promise made to Prathiba some couple of years ago. The vow was to take her to Kaladay, where me and Ananya went to that place few years back and on that occasion both Prathiba and Amma were not able to join us. Finally the itinerary was finalized with Guruvayur and Kalady and was able to include Nalaambalam.

Guruvayoor

The Krishna temple in the town of Guruvayoor in Kerala is one of the famous Vishnu temples in India. Even though the idol in Guruvayoor is that of Vishnu it is still known as a Krishna temple since the boy Krishna is always said to be running around in the temple premises. The presiding deity is MahaVishnu, in standing posture with four hands carrying Sankhu Panchajanya, Sudarshana chakram,lotus and gada.

The presiding deity in the Garbhagraha is Mahavishnu, worshipped according to the pooja routines laid down by Adhi Sankaracharya.

Guruvayur has its own glory and greatness, mainly because of the divinity enshrined in the Sanctum - Sanctorum of the temple and the unique charm of the idol installed in it.

The idol of Guruvayur temple is unique and considered to be extremely sacred since it is carved out of "Paathalanjana” stone. This idol was once worshipped by Mahavishnu in Vaikunta and finally reached Krishna himself where he worshipped this idol in Dwaraka. At the time of Krishna's ascension to Vaikunta, he instructed Udhava to entrust Brahaspathi (the Guru of Devas) with the task of taking the idol to a suitable place where people could worship it, so as to get salvation in Kaliyuga. A deluge had closed in on Dwaraka, but Guru salvaged the idol with the help of his prime disciple Vayu. Guru and Vayu went around in search of an ideal place. They came to this place of lush green spot with a beautiful lotus tank where they felt the presence of Lord Siva. This is the place where Lord Shiva imparted the Rudrageetham and allowed to install the idol and HE left to the opposite bank, at Mammiyur. Since Guru and Vayu consecrated the idol in this place henceforth it was known as GURUVAYUR.

As the idol was once worshiped by the Lord Mahavishnu himself in Vaikunta, Guruvayur is considered to be "Bhooloka Vaikunta" - the heaven on earth.

The day of the lord begins with Vakacharthu and it is the preparation for his holy bath. The garlands, the flowers of the previous night are removed after the Nirmalyadarsanam and gingelly oil is poured over the idol. This oil collected thereafter, is considered to be very sacred.It is believe that it acquires medicinal and spiritual value.

Crowds throng the temple at 3 A.M in order to see this charming sight. Then water from the temple, consecrated with mantras is poured over the idol for his ritual bath. This holy water is then eagerly drunk by the devotees since it is said to contain a little of the miraculous properties of the stone of which the idol is made.

We landed early morning at Thrissur station and took a bus to Guruvayur, reached the home stay that was booked. Will share more details about the place of stay later.As soon as we checked in we all got refreshed and proceeded towards the temple, Mr Gopinath the owner of the property offered us to drop near the temple since we are new to the place, even though it was less than 500 mts from temple.

Being holiday the crowd was mammoth and unique to this temple we do not have any special darshan and everyone has to follow the queue to enter the temple. I asked the other 3 to wait near the gate and I stood close to 4 hours in queue where they joined me. We had a blissful darshan and after getting the Milk Kheer and butter the prasadam that was offered we headed towards the Mammiyur Shivan temple on the opposite side of the tank.

Around noon returned to our place of stay and all of us rested till evening.

Guruvayur means Nirmalaya Darshan, later on realized why it is so? We all want to experience the Nirmalaya darshan so checked with some people about the process and we were told that we need to do join the queue around 10.00 pm for a darshan at 03.00 am next day. We marked a plan, come what may, we will go to the place around 02.30 am and let us take it from there and if HE wishes we will have one. Ananya resisted for getting up early for second day consecutively, so we advised she can stay back and we will lock from outside and will be back ASAP, this was agreed.

As per the plan Me, Amma and Prathiba were ready by 2.30 am and again this time there was an offer from Mr Gopinath to drop us which was seized since it was drizzling and this will save time.

We were among the first 100 and had a heavenly darshan, even while writing this after couple days able to recollect the darshan in front of me. Since the crowd was less Amma and Prathiba want to have another whereas I headed towards the place of stay to take care of Ananya. We were able to see Nirmalya darshan and after that Abhishegam and the Gingely oil was offered as Prasadam.

I was able to return around 4.00 am whereas they returned around 4,30 and we checked out around 6.00 am with immense fulfillment of a long pending desire. 

Sri Anandan Residency

This one is a home stay and you will get top rating in almost all travel related portal like Tripadvisor etc., Mr and Mrs Gopinath are very friendly in their services, though the property is huge they have built only 4 units. Both of them were working in Middle East and returned in the year 2014 and ventured to make use of their ancestral property. The rates are highly competitive with breakfast as part of the deal and flexible check in time. Our first home-stay too was a pleasant one.

Will share about Kalady and Nalaambalam along with pictures in my final edition that will follow soon.....