Kurdumale Vinyaka temple

                    The Sunday single day tour on 12th of October,2014 with great group of 20 people lead us to the Ganesha temple of Kurudumale near Mulbagal.
     
Kurudumale, a place just 8km away from the mulubagal town, is known for its Ganesha temple built by a Vijayanagara kings. This place was believed to be the place where Devas would descend from the heavens for recreation on earth. The ganesha temple is considered to be very powerful. Many people start new jobs or new work only after taking the blessing of Lord Ganesha.
                                 As Hindu trinity established this idol, the place came to known as kotadri, and the hill in which it is located is known as ''Kootamale'.' However, over the years it became kurudumale, a very rude form to say. This saligrama Ganesha Idol is the epicenter of all positive energy. This energy is omnipresent, and indestructible. This energy can create any sort of miracle. This idol is being worshipped from past four yugas. Another speciality of this idol is no matter how far you stand and view, the idol only grows bigger and bigger! Something even eye physicians cannot give a conclusive explanation! This is the same idol lord Rama first worshipped in treta yuga before fighting Ravana. Rama emerges victorious and rescues his wife Sita, who was held captive by Ravana! In Dawapara yuga, Sri Krishna worshiped this Ganesha in order to get rid of shamantha kamaniya's curse. The spell is removed. In fact, this is the same temple, where Pandavas visited before they went to war with Kuravas, and pandavas too defeat Kauravas and hence taking back their kingdom! In Kaliyuga, Krishna Devaraya of vijayanagara dynasty understands its importance. In fact lord ganesh shows up in his dreams and request for a temple  to be built around the idol with meticulous details depicting its importance. Today, one can find fine sculptures etched on the temple pillars depicting the stories of Lord Rama, and Lord Krishna.
                                          

                  
   There is another temple dedicated to Shiva called the Someswara temple which is also situated in Kurudumale. The interesting thing about this temple is that it is built of a rock without any foundations. Another interesting thing is the architectural style of the temple; this temple is considered to be older than the Ganesha temple and was built during the Cholas period. Half of the temple has different style of carving, believed to have been done by artist Jakanachari and the other half is believed to have been carved by his son Dhakanachari. The part of the temple supposedly built by Dankana's has statues and carvings which are more intricate and sophisticated.
                     We took the highway back to Bangalore after paying a visit to the Hanuman temple near the bus station of Mulbagal. We had a great time as the 20 people group is all interested in visiting such sacred places. We all wait for more and more such chances to step into sacred lands. 

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.