A day out on a hillock-Melkote

                                        Yesterday(26th Jan 2011), we both started at 7 in the morning with the guidance obtained from team BHP and other sites to visit the place Melkote on Mysore route. Being highway, the route was great till Mandya and from there the route passed through many villages where one can enjoy the scenic beauty of sugarcane farms and bullock carts. We had our breakfast in Adigas restaurant near Maddur and were in Melkote by 11.30. First we proceeded towards the top of the hill and had the darshan of Lord Yoga Narasimha which was believed to be a swayambhu. The steps to go up are not very steep all the way but at some points they were. Having a own vehicle, one can go a bit more up to avoid some steps. The view from top of the hill and the atmosphere were simply superb. 

                                                   

                                             After having a satisfactory time spent on the top, we came down and went to Sri Cheluva Narayana temple which was again a master piece.It is believed that Lord Vishnu is fond of Alankara so the decoration in the temple was a proof to this belief. Then we instantly decided to pay a visit to Srirangapatnam which was 30KM from Melkote. This route again passes through some villages till some point and then meets the Bangalore-Mysore high way. The temple in Srirangapatnam opens at 4 in the evening. So we had to wait till that time to grab god's blessings. The idol in this temple was the sleeping pose of Lord Vishnu on the serpent king with Goddess Laxmi at his feet. That was a huge idol. 

                               The holiday being properly utilized, we then moved back to our abode, filled with ever fresh and refreshing thoughts.  

                                                                      

The place where a creature blesses us-Kanchi

                    After a lot of discussion and research about the route and distances, at last we started on our trip to Kanchi with our in-laws on 22nd of Dec 2010. Our only concern was about the road condition since it was our first drive out of the city. But the Chennai highway to reach Kanchi was extraordinary, I must say. We 4 enjoyed a lot with the songs and chatting we had through out the journey. We started at around 7 in the morning and we reached Kanchi by evening with a bit of relaxation in the middle. A person followed our car as soon as we entered the town and I was a bit doubtful about him. But he took us to a good hotel and said that he would come again after an hour to take us to all the temples in that place. We were surprised when he even rejected to accept the tip offered by my husband.
                            At sharp 6PM that person turned out again and took us to the very big Ekambareshwar temple first. Wow! What a temple! Being a winter night, we couldn't capture its complete beauty in that electric lighting. We thought, we must come again in day time to that temple. The temple area was very big and looked like the temple that was shot in many pictures.
                       Then we were directed to the Varada Raja swami temple where the golden and silver lizards are present along with lord Moon and Sun. We first went to touch those idols and by the time we came out, the Varada Raja swami Garbha gudi was closed. But we were not worried since we could visit it the next day again. Then we went to the main temple of Kanchi that is Kamakshi Godess. The temple seemed to be very old construction but the beauty of the Godess's idol was stunning. We stood lot of time paying pranams to that mother. We then finished our lunch in Saravana Bhavan, the most popular one in south and went back to hotel located just adjacent to that. The person who accompanied us took us to a saree shop in which he was a worker and we were supposed to have a look at the very popular silk sarees first in that shop. But the collection there seemed us good and me and my mother-in-law both theft 10000/- from my husband's pocket for our sarees. The next morning we visited the temple of Godess and Varada Raja Swami and even visited the Vamana Murthy temple. Then we headed towards Arunachalam, the refugee for many spiritual aspirants.
                               The road to reach there was not so comfortable. That nigh we took sufficient rest and next morning, we started on the Girivalam in our car which took around 1 hour to get finished. On the way of Girivalam we spent a considerable time at Ramanashram and even purchased some very valuable books to be treasured in our spiritual library. The darshan we had of the Arunachaleshwarar was like nija rupa darshanam since that time there was no Alankara except Vibhuthi. Even the darshan of godess Apithakuchamba was awesome and we were still happy that being a Friday. Then we had our lunch and finished other formalities at the hotel to check out and moved towards the garden city. This route was even worse and the road till we reached the chennai highway was a nightmare. Once we touched the high way we felt like we were in a jet and were playing a video game of cars. That was a feast to eyes to watch the cars just staying behind us and we moving ahead as if we were the boss of all.
                                   Reached home with pack of great memories and thanked god for such a great blessing. Really an unforgettable tour with more of feelings and less of expressions.

Half day trip to Puttaparthi

                    Last Saturday(22-01-2011) we suddenly decided to drive to Puttaparthi and encouraged my cousin and family to accompany us to that holy place. I prepared Pulohora for lunch and we 5 started at around 1 PM at home. The road was too good that we felt no specific strain at all through out the journey.
                  On the way there were Kamat restaurants but we had with us the express item I prepared so we went ahead on the race-looking road. We applied breaks in a tree shade beside a lake which was fantastic place to feel like a garden party. After half an hour break we again used the accelerator to reach our destination.
                     We reached Puttaparthi by 4.45PM and tried our options to find out a hotel. But since the time for darshan of Swami was any time between 5.30-7.00, we parked our vehicle on the road side and went inside to sit in the Prashanti Nilayam. By that time there were lot of people waiting there for Baba's darshan. Within 10 minutes after we sat there, Swami came out of his Mandir in the wheel chair and we had got an eye-filling darshan since he stayed there till the end of the bhajan (7PM).
                   After having a fabulous darshan of the moving God, we were in a confusion for some while and finally decided to leave for Bangalore since it was not so late in the night and even the route was excellent. We had in our batch my brother, the night driving expert, so left at around 8.45PM from Puttaparthy. With no considerable traffic on the way, we comfortably reached Bangalore by 11PM.
 We finished our dinner in Nagarjuna and proceeded to take rest for the rest of the day.

To the abode of Sarada Mata-Sringeri

                                  We both started on a trip to Dakshin kannada district to cover the major places in 3 days of Makara Sankranthi festival i.e;14th to 16th of Jan 2011. We first started towards Dharmasthala, in fact with no exact plan of tour, but on the way we came across the direction board showing Sravana Belagola. So we continued in that direction to get the tour go ahead with the blessings of Gomateshwara there. The huge statue of the Jain Tirthankara really stunned us and we could even find the idols of the 24 Tirthankaras of the Jain tradition in that temple. The temple was atop a hill with around 800 steps, with no roofing. we had an excellent view from the top of the hill but were unable to capture its complete beauty in the camera.

                                                The story behind this is like this: The elder brother Bahubali defeats his brother in a war and becomes the king as per their condition of the war. But then he realizes how fatal are the worldly riches so sacrifices the kingdom to his brother and starts his penance in a standing pose which continues for a year. In memory of that Tirthankara the statue was made.

                                           

                                         Then we went to Halebeedu to visit a very old temple rich in its architechture. The temple built by the king for Lord Shiva is Hoysaleshwara temple and the one built by the queen is Shantaleshwara temple. There are statues of beautifully decorated nandis which is the unique feature of the temple. We were assisted by a guide to know the amazing history of the temple.

                                       From here our next destination was Belur which is a temple similar to this but of lord Vishnu-Chennakesava swami temple.

                                       Our next stop was at Dharmasthala for a night stay. The temple of Sri Manjunatheshwara here is again a master piece. We were lucky to enter the temple at the time of some seva going on(may be on the eve of Makara sankranthi) so thart we could see the idol of the god for a long time with no obstructions. The seva was quite different from that which we'd seen earlier. A Pujari was wearing many ornaments and a traditional dress and he carried the Utsava vigraha on his head to do circumambulations to the temple with an elephant for some time and later the idol was placed in a palanquin along with lights and bands.
                                     The accomodation of the devasthan was simply superb in the Rajatadri Guest house. We even had our dinner in the annadana which was in typical Karnataka style.
             The next morning we went to get blessings of Subrahmanya Swami of Kukke which was around 60 KM from Dharmasthala. The beauty of the idol of the god here is simply beyond expressions.

                          The drive all through the way was felt like we were going deep into the forests which was fantastic. The scenic beauty really made us enjoy the long drives.We even crossed some ghat roads which we felt thrilling and challenging
                                              Our next halt was at Sringeri-The true land of Sarada mata and the land blessed by Sri Adi Shankaracharya. Here also we opted for temple accomodation which was again a nice choice.We were even blessed to get a chance to attend the Chandramouleeswara aaradhana performed by the peethadhipathi Sri Bharathi Teertha Swami. The darshan in these temples is not like that of  famous temples in Andhra. We can stand before the main idol of the god for a considerable time to have a satisfactory darshan to be kept as a memory in our database. The beauty of the golden Sarada mata idol just left me spellbound. The definition of beauty is before our eyes when we stand there.Awesome.......
                            On day 3 morning we started back to pavillion and the high way route was really enjoyable. Just had a break for lunch and reached the garden city by the time of sun set.
       Altogether, we had gathered great memories to be treasured and shared.

                                        

                                      

                                        
                                       
                                 

First long drive on our new car-Ghati

We had our very exciting first long drive in our new car on 12th December to the famous Subrahmanyeswara temple in Ghati. The temple and decoration were awesome and we felt very happy to begin our new series with a great place.

    

                              
                

       

          From there we proceeded to Nandi Hills which is 25 KM from Ghati. This was the most memorable part of the drive since my husband was going up a hill for the first time, that too in a new vehicle with no prior planning or preperation. At the end when we reached the top of the hill, we were as if we reached the top of Everest peak. The ghat to reach the top leaves us with good scenic beauty. We can feel so pleasant the atmosphere on the top. May be the time reached there also was great part of day to be there(Evening time).                       

                                         There were some temples on the top and down the hill there was a temple 1200 years old which was the highlight of the day's tour. The very old type of construction, the spacious surroundings, the calmness that brings peace of mind ....... left us all with feelings far out of reach of description.

                               
                                             By the time we reached down the hill, the Sun god was on the way back to his adobe to take rest for the rest of the day. We were told that there was a statue of big Nandi near by in that village so we proceeded to that spot. This was a place something like a horror film scene with no light at all in the visibility except our car lights. Even the room where the Nandi is present is also disappeared spot with no shade of clues at all to be recognized. But we were lucky to try our luck with cell phone lights an camera flash that presented us the darshan of the gigantic Nandi. So thus the ending was great to a great starting.

Flying on wheels

                     Many a times we had long drive from Bombay to Pune. But the drive that dropped us at SriVardhan Beach was an outstanding bit that presented us a great memory to be treasured for a life time. The inspiration for this was drawn when we first went to visit the Murud-Janjira fort that was in the middle of the sea. This itself was a wonderful place that again on the way shows us the stunning beauty of Kashid beach where we can relax in the hammocks. The view of Janjira fort is too good while you drive towards it.
        When we were at Janjira fort we found that we can opt for a ferry to go to Diveagar from Janjira which carries our bike too. So our next target was to finish the Diveagar-Srivardhan-Harihareshwar on our Rajahamsa "pulsar".

                                           

                                  Next weekend we were on road early in the morning and reached Janjira jetty in around 2 1/2 hours. We were on a challenging drive to catch the ferry in the last moment. (if we miss that ferry we have to again wait for 1 hour for the next trip). The ferry took around 45 minutes to drop us at Dighi jetty. From there we again started our engine to reach Harihareshwar. our actual plan was to finish off the 3 places on the same day. But the MTDC cottage in Harihareshwar tempted us to have a break to enjoy the adjacent beach and peaceful surroundings. Luckily w got a room there despite it being a weekend.              
                                                                     
                                We had some break and fresh up in the cottage and had our lunch. The restaurant here is on the sea shore that makes us enjoy the nature in the waiting time of the food order as well as the hot dishes on the cool shore. In the evening we visited the Harihareshwar temple that was again on another shore.The idol in the temple had Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwar and Goddess Parvathi incarnated on the same stone. The rest of the day was a peaceful time that was spent in the echo of the roaring waves of the sea.
                                  The next day we completed Srivardhan  and then headed to Diveaghar where the temple of Golden Ganapathy is famous. This was a Swayambhu Ganapathy temple where even the golden ornaments of lord Ganapthy were found along with the idol of the lord. We found the temple constructions here to be just as that of a house which makes us search for them. We spent a little time in the beach and raised the accelerator again to fly to Mumbai. On the way one can capture great beauty of the nature because we drive a long way on the road which has sea on its side. On the way we went on the top of a hill where there was a Datta temple. From there we had an eye-feasting view of Murud-Janjira fort and the coastal area.

                         So, that was our adventurous bike ride to wind up the konkan region in a memorable way.                                              




                                                

Energizing the spiritual angle of life-Datta Kshetras

               A dream come true tour to Datta kshetras took place on a long week end i.e.; 1^st of April 2010, Thursday. We both got tickets in Coimbatore Express till Gangapur in Tatkal in sleeper class. So our yatra started at 10.30 PM at LTT, Mumbai. We got down at Gangapur at around 8.30 AM and booked tickets at this station for return journey from Kolhapur in Tatkal. We reached the temple by auto and the roads were too worse. Still, thinking about the great destination we were about to reach, the condition of the roads couldn’t disturb our inner placidity. We took a lodge at bus stop just to keep our luggage and took a ticket of Rs 1001/- to perform pooja, Abhishekam, Annadanam and Madhukaram (Bhiksha). This is like some package and goes on in a formal procedure. We reached Sangam in Auto and took a dip in the holy water sanctified by the touch of Lord Nrisimha Saraswathi. As such there is no room there for ladies to change the dress after taking bath. You must be prepared to go in the wet clothes only.

               The udumbara vriksha on the shore of Sangam is known to be the form of god which is very powerful indeed. We did circumambulations to that tree. There we find many people in saffron dress doing parayana of Gurucharitra so the atmosphere there seems very peaceful and pious. We then returned to the temple and went through the pooja and other sevas available through the ticket.  The very sight of the Nirguna padukas here is a great luck to be counted in ones spiritual journey.

              After finishing darshan, it was the time of Arathi so we find lot of people gathering there in the temple. As soon as the sound of drums starts, the people suffering from evil spirits and other such problems start dancing, jumping and moving in their own ways which seems a bit terrifying.  The people there believe that they will get rid of those evil spirits if they have darshan here in Gangapur. (We can find the promise made by Sripada Srivallabha Swami in this regard in the book Sripada Srivallabha Charitamrutham). Then we came back to the room to collect our luggage and caught an ST bus to move to Akkalkot.

              The Bhakta nivas rooms maintained by the sansthan in Akkalkot are pretty good and they keep you very near to the main temple. We reached there by evening, had room In Bhakta nivas, got fresh up and started for Akkalkot darshan in Auto. This covers the points Sheik Nuruddin Dargah, Cholappa Math, Balappa Math, Gajanan maharaj Math, a museum of armors and some temples. At last we had the darshan of the main temple at 9 PM. Having a glance at the articles used by Swami and padukas gifted by Him left us with great feeling of joy.

                    Next morning, we had darshan of swami once again and started in a bus to Tuljapur which took around 1 ½ hour journey.  We kept our luggage in the cloak room in the bus stop and proceeded for the darshan of Bhavani Devi. You can even take a guide for assisting in darshan @Rs 150/- .  The idol of Bhavani maa is very small but very attractive that fixes your glance on it. Our next destination was Pandarpur, the place that gave the history many saints to make Maharashtra a great state of mahatmas. Luckily, the crowd there was nominal so we finished our darshan within 45 minutes which is highly impossible in general. If you go there at the time of Ashadha Ekadasi, it may take more than 24 hours to have the darshan. The happiest thing here is that everyone can touch the idol of Sri Vitthal and Rukmini.  You can find many small temples in the premises of the main temple.  Then we were pushed to Kolhapur to get the darshan of one of the 18 Shakti peethas in India, that is of Mahalakshmi. It takes 5 hours in bus to reach here. The sansthan rooms here are not at all good that you have to go for the option of hotel out side.  We stayed in Hotel Atithi near railway station which was economical. Next morning we had the darshan of Goddess Mahalaxmi at early hours. We were blessed to have spent around 15 minutes in front of the idol of Goddess very peacefully. That was a fantastic darshan. If you have enough time, you can even go to Bhillavati (Audumbar) from here. 

                        Our next stop was at Narsobawadi which is a very peaceful place to spend time in spiritual sadhana. It was well maintained when compared to Gangapur and the Krishna –Pancha Ganga sangam was also very comfortable to have a dip in. we spent time doing pradaksinas, parayana of Guru charitra which left in our minds very serene impression. Better to go through book Dattavatara mahatmyam written by Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja master before visiting this place. That gives you information about the ashrams of different mahatmas in the surrounding area.  We returned to Kolhapur and in the evening, we went to see the Kaneri Math which is worth visiting. The sculptures there, are so realistic and informative. 3 ^rd day, we were in Mahalaxmi express to put and end to a heartfelt and spiritually powerful tour.