Shenpakkam and Virinchipuram.....Son and the Lord blessing the world

                            The name Shenpakkam first entered in my mind from Sri Chaganti Koteswara rao gari's discourse. From that time, we were waiting for the call of the Lord to get the chance to step into that holy land. It is very near by to Vellore on the Bangalore-Chennai highway. It was 5th October, 2014 that made us grasp the grace of Lord Ganesha in eleven forms.(Ekadasa Ganapati swarupas). The Sthala puranam goes like this: 
                        Once when a Marata king was going this way one night, the wheel of his chariot struck something hard and stopped by itself. There was blood oozing out from the place. Surprised king decided to wait till next morning to decide about the further plan of action. That night lord Ganesha appeared in his dream and said, "I'm present here in 11 forms. It's time for me to come out and bless the devotees. Dig the land where your chariot stopped and make a temple for me here."
        As the king followed the lord's order, he could find the 11 idols of Lord Ganesha, some resembling the shape of a Shiv Ling. The main one that was struck by the wheel was Selva vinayaka. The names of other murtis are  Bala Vinayagar, Nadana Vinayagar, Omkara Vinayagar, Karpaga Vinayagar, Chinthamani Vinayagar, Selva Vinayagar (moolavar), Mayura Vinayagar, Mooshiga Vinayagar, Vallaba Vinayagar, Siddhi-Buddhi Vinayagar and Panchamuga Vinayagar. Bala Vinayagar is still under the ground and only the top portion is visible.     
                                              

                               
                         Aadhi Sankarar once visited Virinchipuram Margabandeswarar Swayambu linga temple near this place and from there he came to know about this temple by his spiritual power and visited this temple. He is said to have installed a Sri Charka at the Esanya corner near the Navagrahas.
                  Once when Maha periyaval and Sree Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal were travelling by this route, the elephant on which the Chinna swamigal was sitting refused to move when it got near the temple. Any amount of coaxing or cajoling by the mahout did not make it budge. It was only then that the Maha Periyaval remembered having made a vow to offer 108 " Setharu Thengai" ( breaking 108 coconuts for the Vinayakas) to the Shenbakkam temple which he had totally forgotten about. He immediately requested the accompanying Mutt officials to organise for the same. Once the offering was made, the elephant quietly started moving forward without any protest. Vinayaka was able to remind Maha Periyaval about his prayer through himself!(The Elephant). This is really a one of its kind temple and a not-to-miss site for all Ganesha/temple lovers!
       There is one more place here in this village named NavaBrindavanam sacred for Madhwas contauning the 9 brindavanams of the previous Mathadhipatis of their peetham.
                                          

                            
                           One can get the Darshan of the following Swamis in these premises:
Sri Vidhyapti Theertharu, Sri Satyadhi raja Theertharu, Sri Kesava Udayaru, Sri Govinda Madhwa Udayaru, Sri Boovaraga Udayaru, Sri Raghunadha Udayaru, other few and The Mrittika from the bridavanam of Sri Raghavendra swami in His Brindavanam.         

                   The next divine spot was Virinchipuram Margabandheswara temple.
The presiding deity is a swayambumurthi in a leaning form. The rays of Sun fall on the Lord in the month of Panguni (March-April). Palm tree is the sthala Vruksha of the temple which is in the inner corridor – prakara of the temple. This has a peculiar character of giving the fruits in black in a year and white the following year. The importance of the temple lies in the Rudraksha roof above the Sanctum sanctorum.
                 Sthala puranam:  Lord Brahma was born as Shivasarma here in a priest family. When Shivsarma’s father died at his early days, Shivsarma was to undertake the pooja responsibilities as a small boy. Shivasarma’s relatives had planned to take away the priest’s rights and land from them and so they warned that his rights and land will be taken away, if he does not perform the pooja when his turn comes up. Shivasarma’s mother prayed to Margabandeeswar and He appeared in her dream. It was the last Saturday night of the Karthigai month. The next morning, Shivasarma took bath in the Brahma theertham and Lord Shiva came as an elderly person and conducted the Upanayanam, Brahmopadhesam and Shiva Dikshai to Shivasarma and disappeared as Mahalingam in the temple tank bund. The small boy was then paraded on an elephant with the holy water pot and the temple door opened automatically to everyone’s surprise. As if he was very experienced in the pooja procedures, he conducted the pooja activities to Swarna Ganapathy and while attempting to do the abhisheham for the Margabandheeswarar, as a small boy, he was unable to reach the head of the lingam. He then submitted his inability to Lord Shiva.
In another legend, once Brahma and Vishnu got into an ego battle and they set out to reach the head and foot of Lord Shiva but both failed. Brahma lied to Shiva that he had seen the head with Tazhampoo as a false witness but here Lord Brahma accepted his inability to reach the head of Lord Shiva and offered his failure to the Lord Himself. Lord Shiva, then bowed His head to accept the abhisheham and Brahma got his curse cleared off and attained salvation. So the Margabandheeswarar lingam can be seen in a slightly tilted position here.
                                                   

                                    Dhanabalan, a Kundala desa pepper merchant lost his loads to thieves. He prayed to Lord Shiva and He came as a soldier on a horse and not only retrieved the pepper loads but also accompanied Dhanabalan till Kanchipuram. Due to this He is called ‘Vazhi Thunai Nathar’ in Tamil and Margabandu in Sanscrit (Marga meaning way and Bandhu meaning company)
                  The following divine place was the Ranganatha swami temple of Pallikonda.After Lord’s departure from Vaikundam, accompanying Him, divine serpent Adisesha offered himself as a bed to Perumal first in this place only, according to the history of the place-Sthala Purana. As Perumal took His reclining form in the milk ocean, the river also is named Palaru – Milk River. Staying in this temple for a night and worshipping Perumal ensure salvation to the soul, according to Brahmmanda Purana. The idol of Lord is made of Salagrama stone.
                                     

                      Near by on a hill Called Mahadeva malai, there is another Swamyabhu Shivalinga and a very huge temple construction is going on there now which holds many idols of Lord Ganesha and Ammavaru in different forms.
                              

Thus our single day trip proved to be fruitful with blessings of Lord in many forms.

Scotland proved to be Scenic land

                                   As a part of our London trip we included Scotland in our itenery, as we were advised by some of our relatives as well as friends. But we were totally unknown of how to start and how to end the tour since it was totally a blank page for us and we weren't even able to collect total picture from our research. There were many tour operators and choice of transport for stepping into that divinely beautiful land. At last our choice was 'highland tours' which proved to be a good option with a very good guide cum driver cum navigator Mr. Mike. Not to forget the grace of God in the form of very much cooperating weather which is normally a dream for many visitors of Scotland.
                     All these days, we were blessed with many opportunities to witness god in some extra-ordinarily powerful places and temples where we could get to see Him in some form or the other which we could directly perceive. But this time, I felt, we were given a chance to make ourselves strong and capable enough to witness His presence in the very beautiful nature spread all around us. What a beauty!!! We were speechless many a times. The very feeling that God Himself is again present in the form of all that beauty, made us feel the beauty Divine.
                       Witnessing the Divinity started from the time we boarded the train from London to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Blinking for a moment could miss a fantastic view...that was what we felt all through the journey. Just greenery all around... The season when we landed there might be the perfect one to make us feel so. The train was felt as if a flight running on the track, very fast, well maintained and well equipped. Running through the country side, it felt as if the huge trees and mountains were running back, leaving the train at the same point. I'm not rich in words to put it so beautifully.
                                            

                                     

                             
                             Stepping out of the train in Edinburgh, we felt the chilled breeze welcoming us to the serene land. The very old buildings on both the sides of the road looked very royal and well organized. After relaxing for a while in travel lodge we booked earlier, we proceeded to visit the local attraction Edinburgh Castle. It was a nice walk through the castle and great history recalled there with beautifully carved sculptures and historical monuments. By the evening, we were done with castle visit and a walk on the royal mile that connects the building of local parliament and castle. We even spotted the point where we had to take bus to start our tour the next day.
                                             

                     The next morning, punctually, the tour started with 25 people on the mini-bus with Mr. Mike being the guide. He proved himself a professional, knowledgeable, well-mannered guide by the end of the tour. Ours was a 3 day tour titled "over the sea to Skye" in the site www.highlandtours.com.
                             The places covered were not as mentioned in the web site but were worth visiting . We were given enough time at every spot stopped to enjoy the beauty of the surroundings, grab the beauty in photographs and refresh with few hot coffee breaks. Through out the 3 days of the tour, it was sunny so we were able to grasp the total beauty spread over there.
         Lochness, Isle of Skye, Eilean Donan Castle were he main attractions of the tour. There is a monument at Kilmuir to Flora Macdonald who assisted Bonnie Prince Charlie escape from the troops hunting him by helping him "over the sea to Skye" disguised as her maid.     
                                           

                        The hotel we were provided with on the day 1 was really superb and we were totally lost in the very picturesque surroundings over there.
                                         

 The day 2 hotel was above average when compared to day 1 one. but over all we could say, the tour was a well organized one. We enjoyed the ride of cruise in Lochness as well as the natural beauty of the town inverness. The major part of the 3rd day passed in travelling, but the scenic surroundings made us forget the time how long we were sitting in the couch. We were taken to a wine distillery where all the visitors were offered a peg of wine. We enjoyed the capture of their enjoyment in variety of wines served free of cost.
                                          

                                       

                   
   The very big lakes spread over acres of land and the very huge mountains covered with green carpet like trees made it look amazing all the while. Though we were left with very few options when it came to food, we were so happy at heart that we didn't realize much that our taste buds were having deficiency of our native dishes. After all, it was a matter of 3 days, so, we felt not much bad. The everywhere available Pizza  and burger filled our bellies for the major time.
                If we had an own vehicle with us, we would have enjoyed at least a week there driving through the country side as well as the scenic ways. Better luck next time. But this was the best choice to explore the land for the first time with a tour package.
 

London-Dream come true destination

                        This time the destination is such a place which blessed us with loads of memories to be treasured for a life time. Many moments where we felt "how lucky we are, having such a time in our life!", made our trip a grand success. Though the plan got postponed many number of times for no specific reasons, at last it proved again- God plans everything in a very perfect way, blesses us with the best outcome.
                   Till the moment we both were together  in the sky towards London, Sreeram was not relieved- see how blessed I'm to have him in my life. I was the culprit, discouraging him many times for my inclusion in the plan, being a typical housewife, calculating the expenses to be faced. But, it was a nightmare for me to be away from him for 2 long weeks. So, everything went well starting from my passport renewal (because of a small editing in my long name), fast track visa and purchase of the ticket. We were very excited, as it was our first out of India tour, the moment when we were in the airport. But Sreeram a little upset when we were informed about the delay of the flight. I was, as usual, ready to enjoy whatever way it comes.
                         The delay at Bangalore airport turned our onward journey into really enjoyable, as we were totally making use of the new camera as well as the Longue in the Abu Dhabi airport. That was in fact a perfect delay that left us with enough time in the transit to just grab the happiness in the unknown place.
                                    

                                        

 At last we safely landed in our destination Heathrow airport, of course with an expected delay, by late night. But the relatives there were so cooperative to meet us even at that odd hour and supply us with dinner, milk, curd, vegetables and especially the basic necessities like sim card, credit and debit cards.
                 The studio apartment we were provided with, was a very nice one in the heart of Central London, fleet street. Sreeram's office was 3 minute walk from the stay. That was really a joy for me since we used to have lunch together, which was a dream for me (sounds silly, but true). From my window it was the perfect view of buildings, restaurants, people running after the unseen time, people enjoying the tours in busses etc.......I grabbed the joy of each moment there peeping from the window with a hot tea of typical London flavour and variety of fruits.
                    The stay of 2 weeks there was just like 2 moments at the end. We didn't realize how it passed, but were at last left with a very refreshing and memorable time. One more dream of mine which came true there, was Sreeram returning home early in the evening. Wish, this happens in India too. The very next day we landed there, we had other relatives who were all set to dedicate the entire day to us with their kids Sravya and Anirudh. It was a very long walk to places like Trafalgar Square, Buckingham palace and other sites near by to our home. The strange thing I noticed was, we never realized how far we were walking, we were just enjoying every sight of the nature, buildings, people and everything around us.
                                      

                               With this inspiration, in the week days too we walked towards destinations like St. Paul cathedral, Thames river, Canon street and other places around us. Destinations like Piccadilly circus, Tower bridge, Shard, Eastham were reached in tubes (local trains as we know them). The tube system there built underground provides excellent connectivity to each corner of the city with very good frequency. It might be walking under the umbrella in the rain or sitting in the tube or walking in the cold breeze, but going together on the totally new streets, holding each other's hand and chatting about everything possible was just a feeling to be treasured for ever. The big sized coffee added real flavour to all those moments. 
                                The series of tours in London started with Brighton where Sreeram's friend Pavan was the navigator for us in all the ways. We felt really lucky to have him there since the short and sweet tour left us with great collection of memories, in the form of photos as well as heart-filling scenic views. The Stone henge, Durdle door, 7 sisters country park and devil's dyke were the major places covered which were stunningly beautiful, each competing with itself. The drive through the country side was really a fantastic experience. This was just a 2 day tour in the week end, but proved to gift us memories for ever. The train journey from London to Brighton was a feast for eyes and refreshing for mind. Greenery spread everywhere was felt as if a carpet was placed all around. This, we felt, everyone must go through once, definitely.
                                           

                                     The view when the Bridge of London opens to give way for larger ships, was again a master-piece. We were lucky to get a chance to grab that view in the very first time we went there. The night view of the buildings around the tower bridge was sparkling. This was the evening of a week day when Sreeram was a little early home.
                                            

 On other such day, we went to Piccadilly circus. The name circus was not actually what we mean circus here. It was the very big hoardings in a junction which shine very bright with lights all along the street. People spend time just sitting there, enjoying the view all around. Shard was another day's evening visit, suggested by my friend Pavan. It was the view of the gigantic city of London from a 62 floor building, with open top on the last floor. What a view! The beauty of the surroundings makes us feel the worth of the costly entrance ticket. As the night approached, it became still beautiful.
                                              

  
                              After Sreeram finished his official purpose of the visit, we started exploring the city locally as we went to Madam Tussads Museum and London eye on Saturday. The purchase of national rail ticket to Scotland, offered us the 2 for 1 scheme for the museum visit. It was a museum bringing all the celebrities alive into wax statues to give us chance to take photographs with them leisurely. The very huge London eye gifts us the 360 degree view of London where the wheel moves very slowly to facilitate us enjoy the view.
                                              

 We even enjoyed the drives of Cruise and cable car which provides almost equally beautiful views of the city, each leaving us with an experience of its own worth. The Greenwich was a place rich with museums containing the stuff used for the scientific inventions of all time. It was also a very refreshing place with very big park as well as restaurants.
                                               

                          During the conclusion of the tour, our relative accompanied us to other shopping complexes along with the glassy buildings of Kennery Wharf. The lively and energetic people all around were bade good bye silently on that night. We were all set to leave the British for reaching the Motherland, ever respected and richly cultured.                
   

Divinity witnessed in "The God's own country"- Thrissur

                          Inspired by the discourses of The Great Sri Chaganti Koteswara rao garu, of late, I was very eager to go to Thrissur to witness the divinity and kalady to step in the holy land where Sri Adi Shankaracharya took birth. We were waiting for a 4 days span of holidays so that we can leisurely cover the places in and around Thrissur.
             See the God's plan, it was on the day of Mahasivaratri, we started to enter the place where Sri Vrishachaleswara (Vadakkunathan) blessed the parents Siva guru and Aryamba and born Himself as their child in the form of Sri Adi Shankaracharya, as an answer to their Mandala deeksha in that place for an offspring. We felt blessed to be present there in that holy land on such an auspicious day. Thank God for such grace.
             On the holy day of Sivaratri, 27th of February, 2014, we offered prayers to god at home and started at 6 in the morning towards Thrissur. we had few breaks on the way for break fast, lunch and tea and at last were at the destination by 3 in the after noon. Once we entered there, first we went directly to the temple to pay our pranams to the Lord of the place. We were very surprised to find the temple with very few people, who were in fact making arrangents for the oil lamps to be lit in the night, and were not the queue for darshan. We had a very leisurely and satisfactory Darshan of the lord Vadakkunathan and other temples in the complex. But we couldn't properly understand the actual appearence of the Lord as it was covered with a decorative kavacham.
          Once we finished the darshan, we started our hunt for a hotel room and we were able to find one after almost an hour(Hotel Emarald residency). But the end result was good. We relaxed for some time in the room till evening and after taking bath, we started out to visit the other temples in the town, Paramekkavu temple of the Godess and the Tiruvambadi temple of Lord chinni Krishna and the kids Ganesha and Subarahmanya. In these two temples, gents are allowed inside only with Lungi or Dhoti, not in phants.
                       The specialty of the town is, the ground of the temple is spread in around 10 acres and there is a circle en-round it. so, wherever we go, we have to be in the one-way round itself as if we are doing Pradaxina to the Lord Shiva in the temple as it is in the center of the ground. That way we did many Circumambulations to the Lord indirectly while searching for a hotel.
    We inquired about pure veg hotels locally and were left with 2 choices Dwaraka and Prasadam. After dinner, we again went inside the big temple to have a glance at the oil lamps lit all around the temple. It was a beautiful sight which filled our hearts with a kind of joyful emotion, far from description of words. Even the other 2 temples were seen with the same kind of beauty. We didn't dare to enter the Darshan queue this time since it was too long, as people flock to have darshan at the Lingodbhava kalam in the mid-night. The temple is open round the clock on this day with full police protection and systematic management of the queue.
                               

                                         The next morning, we started to move towards the most sacred Kalady and the entrance of the village welcomed us with a Dharma stoopa establishe by the peetadhipati of Kanchi. As we move up the stupa on stairs, the life history of Sri Sakaracharya depicted in pictures and related description is found till we reach the top. The pictures left us in surprise as we didn't feel the strain though we were at the top of the stupa since our mind was totally focused on the pictures.
                                           

 Then we headed towards the Janman Bhumi Kshetra of Sri Sankaracharya where lies a temple dedicated to Sarada mata and Sankaracharya. Here, we found the lamp post that helped in marking the birth place of Sri Shankaracharya which was present at the cremation place of Aryamba, the mother of Sri Shankaracharya. Exactly at the place where HE took birth, lies His temple. The Purna river can also be seen beside the temple, whose flow was redirected to come in front of the house by Sri Shankaracharya to reduce His mother's strain in going to the far away river every day. This is the same river in which a crocodile held the feet of Sri Shankaracharya and gave Him a chance to convince His mother to give him permission for becoming a Sanyasi. We sat there for some time, reciting the Totakastakam, Dakshina Murty Stotram amd some other Shiva stotras to spend some time in such a powerful  and holy land. There are facilities for accomodation too in this complex provided by the Sarada peetham of Sringeri, which can be booked in advance also. There is also a temple dedicated to Lord Krishna in the same complex.
                                               

 After finishing all the place here, we moved to step in the place where Sri Shankaracharya did Kanaka Dhara Stavam an the pleased Laxmi Devi showered Golden Amlas to the poor Women who offered a dry Amla to Sri Shankaracharya as Bhiksha. The house is now called "Swarnath Mana" and is located at around 25 KM from the janma bhumi kshetra of Sri Shankaracharya. Now there is temple for Laxmi is getting constructed there as kanakadhara monument to make it easy for people to locate it.
           "Swarnath Mana" is a very old house that looks like a village house of previous generations. One can sit peacefully over there and can chant the Kanakadhara Stavam to spend considerable time.
                                       

                    While returning from Kalady to Thrissur, we went to Kodungallur where lies the big temple of Kurumba Amman. This is again a beautiful temple to visit. But as temples in Kerala all close at 12 in he after noon and again reopen at 4PM, we have to wait for an hour to get the glance of Sri Kurumba. Still, the waiting didn't prove in vain. After the grab of Godess's blessings, we were directed to go to the Bharata temple in Irinjalakuda, which is the only temple for Bharata in entire India. This temple is a very big one with no sub-temples inside the complex. It was explained by the priest in the temple that there were 4 idols of Sri Rama, Laxmana, Bharata and Satrugna which were worshiped by Lord Krishna. At the end of Dwapara yuga, these idols sank in the water during the Pralaya. Then Lord appeared in the dream of a sage and asked Him to establish temples for all the idols. Thus came into existence the temples for the 4 brothers, located in the surrounding places. People generally do them in the order Rama, Bharata, Laxmana and Satrughna temples in a single day which is called "nalambalam". May god bless us the next time to finish the temples in that order.
                                         

By night 7.30. we were back at the hotel in Thrissur. We again got fresh up and went to the Vadakkunathan temple for Swami's darshan. This time we were blessed to witness the real magic of this temple.
                     It was very hot weather there in Thrissur. We can see about 10 feet of Ghee clotted above the Shiv Ling of Vadakkunathan. As long as the ghee is on the Shiv ling, it'll not melt at all. Thus the ghee is accumulated on Him from years together, but there are no traces of slight stench nor a single ant or insect in the surroundings. As soon as it comes to our hands as Prasadam, it gets melted. What a divinity! I was spell bound for being able to witness such a miracle of God. Oh my God! I was really excited. We got the ticket for the next day's Abhishekam, the incharge there at the ticket counter was kind enough to reopen the counter only for us. Thanked god again for such a grace.
                    The next  morning, we were ready at the temple at sharp 4 in the morning for the holy Abhishekam. The abhishekam was first finished in all the surrounding temples in the same complex  and then finally it was the turn Of Sri Vadakkunathan. One can see the ghee being poured on the already frozen ghee from the top most point, but we can't see it flowing till the ground as it freezes on the way itself. The priest fills the container we hand over him with that ghee and gives us to take home as prasadam. That is treated as really auspicious prasadam. Blessed to get it. 
                   After again paying visits to Paramekkavu Bhagavathy and the kids Lord Krishna, Ganesha and Subrahmanya, we headed towards the most famous Guruvayur. Here we had to wait for about 1 1/2 hour to get the darshan of the Lord Vishnu, worshipped by Lord Krishna previously and was handed over to Guru and Vayu deva for further worship.The darshan of Guruvayur is thought to be complete only after a visit to the local Mammiyur Shiva which is very near by to the main temple. God blessed us to have a peaceful darshan at all the temples and we were at Thrissur by the after noon. We took rest for 2 hours as we woke up at 3 in the early morning to go for the abhisheka that day and once we got up we were all ready to fly to our sweet home in Bangalore. We were safely at our abode by the grace of God at midight.