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.