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.