We felt really blessed and excited to find our journey towards Thrissur, the Kailash of the south,fixed exactly after one year i.e; 27th of Feb, 2015. But this time its with the lovely group including our in-laws and sister-in-law, Prasanna. With a keen intention to spend a night in the lap of Sri Sankaracharya, we made a little change in the plan to reach Kalady first instead of Thrissur as planned earlier, as per the availability of the room. We started on Friday here in Bangalore and reached Kalady by evening 4 O'clock, the journey being 10 hours. We booked a room of Sringeri Sarada Mutt in Kalady. Now, there are very few rooms of this mutt available, but some more are under planning. The advantage of staying in these rooms is that one can feel the peace and sanctity of this place with no disturbances at all. On the way, we had our breakfast at Saravana Bhavan Krishnagiri and lunch at Palakkad Aaryas hotel. There were few more tea breaks to boost the driving of the Chakradhari, my husband.
Once we reached Kalady, we checked in the rooms and got fresh at once, as the atmosphere there made us so happy that we felt no strain of the long journey at all. Then we went inside the temple to have the sacred darshan of Goddess Sarada mata, Adi Sankaracharya, The samadhi of Aaryamba (the mother of Sri Sankaracharya), the birth place of Sri Sankaracharya and Shakti Ganapathi. The inner sanctum of these temples is so peaceful that one feels like spending more and more time there. Behind this complex, flows the river Purna, whose flow was redirected by Sri Sankaracharya to flow before his home, to make it easy for His ealderly mother to take bath and do puja. We sat there infront of Sri Sankaracharya and recited His Soundaryalahari and Lalitha sahasra namam and few more stotras composed by Him and felt really blessed to have such a chance and peace of time. The next darshan was of Lord Krishna, the family deity of Sri Sankaracharya whose idol He rescued from the flow of Purna river when redirected. The beauty of the oil lamps here is a feast for eyes.
The night was spent waiting for the dusk to open the shower of blessings again. The room was a basic one with minimal facilities. But that was the right choice to grab the complete spiritual taste of Kalady. Early in the morning, we jumped out the room to take a dip in the pious river Purna and felt a great bliss receiving that blessing. After again having darshan of all the deities in the temple complex, we had our breakfast and proceeded towards Chottanikkara Bhagavathy temple. The Goddess here is famous for curing devotees possessed with evil spirits and other such things. During the previous 2 visits to this temple, we missed the darshan of this beautiful as well as powerful goddess as we reached at the closing time in the afternoon, i.e; after 12 noon. Thats the reason why we reached here in the beginning of the day this time. There are few other upalayas in this complex housing Bhadra kali and Lord Shiva. There lies a tree here in this complex to which people strike nails to get rid of the evil spirits, which we missed.
On the way back to Kalady lies the Swarnath Mana which is the house of Kanakadhara stotram, available for darshan of devotees. We spent considerable time there reciting the sacred Kanakadhara stotram and feeling the joy of the previously (of course, ever) present presence of Sri Sankaracharya in that place. Even now, the descendents of that family stay there whose ancestors were the blessed ones to receive the rain of golden amlas from Goddess Laxmi.
We were back in Kalady in the early afternoon and were served the lunch in the Mutt with very sacred and tasty food. Having a chance to get the prasadam with the veda pandits and their chanting of slokas is a great feel. All of us felt really blessed.
After thus packing great memories in Kalady, we headed towards Thrissur, Vrishachala as called in Puranas. This is the place where the parents of Sri Sankaracharya did penance to be blessed with an offspring. The town of Thrissur itself is a great attraction, as it is situated circularly around the temple of Vadakkunathan. The darshan of the lord won't be very clear in the evening,as it is covered with the kavacham in front of the Ghee mount Lord. But stepping in the premises of this temple is again a great feeling of bliss. After finishing the Darshanof all the deities in the complex namely Vadakkunatha, Ganapathi, Parvathi, Rama and Sankara narayana, we felt the grace of Lord guiding us all through, to be there.
We also had the Darshan of the very beautiful Goddess in the Paramekkavu temple and Chinni Krishna in the Thiruvambady temple. We felt very lucky to witness a seva to the Goddess in that temple where a male, wearing the anklets around his waist, danced before the mother,to the rhythmic sound of drums in an ecstatic state. That was a great scene. We took ticket for the next day's ghee abhishekam and went back to relax in the hotel Emarald.
Early in the morning at 4, we were in the temple to witness the amazing ghee abhishekam to the Lord. Every alayam in the complex is opened with the sound of the bell and each deity is offered the abhishekam seva and the last was the ghee abhishekam of the Vadakkunathan. The priest ascends a ladder like thing inside the antaralaya to pour the ghee on the tall mount of ghee already accumulated there. That is a feast for the eyes. Nobody knows the actual size of the Shiva lingam inside the ghee mount. There is no trace of any insect or bad smell in the temple though the ghee accumulated there is thousands of years old and the ghee won't melt as long as it is on the lingam.It melts only when it is taken out to be offered as prasadam to the devotees. The God is then covered again with the Kavacham within 20-30 minutes. Witnessing the sacred ritual is definitely a boon.
After coming back to the hotel room, we started towards the next holy destination Guruvayur. Though there is considerable rush in the temple, the darshan is peacefully completed by the grace of god. Here again the abhishekam of the Lord is going on when we went for the darshan. The Darshan of the Guruvayurappan is considered complete only after the Darshan of Shiva Mammiyurappan in the same village. This temple houses Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathy as Bhagavathy. We even visited the Elephant snctuary here where the temple elephants reside.
Going back to the room and relaxing for an hour, we started our return journey towards our sweet home and were at the destination by 11 in the night. That was the 3 day trip to the God's own country, concluded with divine grace.
Once we reached Kalady, we checked in the rooms and got fresh at once, as the atmosphere there made us so happy that we felt no strain of the long journey at all. Then we went inside the temple to have the sacred darshan of Goddess Sarada mata, Adi Sankaracharya, The samadhi of Aaryamba (the mother of Sri Sankaracharya), the birth place of Sri Sankaracharya and Shakti Ganapathi. The inner sanctum of these temples is so peaceful that one feels like spending more and more time there. Behind this complex, flows the river Purna, whose flow was redirected by Sri Sankaracharya to flow before his home, to make it easy for His ealderly mother to take bath and do puja. We sat there infront of Sri Sankaracharya and recited His Soundaryalahari and Lalitha sahasra namam and few more stotras composed by Him and felt really blessed to have such a chance and peace of time. The next darshan was of Lord Krishna, the family deity of Sri Sankaracharya whose idol He rescued from the flow of Purna river when redirected. The beauty of the oil lamps here is a feast for eyes.
The night was spent waiting for the dusk to open the shower of blessings again. The room was a basic one with minimal facilities. But that was the right choice to grab the complete spiritual taste of Kalady. Early in the morning, we jumped out the room to take a dip in the pious river Purna and felt a great bliss receiving that blessing. After again having darshan of all the deities in the temple complex, we had our breakfast and proceeded towards Chottanikkara Bhagavathy temple. The Goddess here is famous for curing devotees possessed with evil spirits and other such things. During the previous 2 visits to this temple, we missed the darshan of this beautiful as well as powerful goddess as we reached at the closing time in the afternoon, i.e; after 12 noon. Thats the reason why we reached here in the beginning of the day this time. There are few other upalayas in this complex housing Bhadra kali and Lord Shiva. There lies a tree here in this complex to which people strike nails to get rid of the evil spirits, which we missed.
On the way back to Kalady lies the Swarnath Mana which is the house of Kanakadhara stotram, available for darshan of devotees. We spent considerable time there reciting the sacred Kanakadhara stotram and feeling the joy of the previously (of course, ever) present presence of Sri Sankaracharya in that place. Even now, the descendents of that family stay there whose ancestors were the blessed ones to receive the rain of golden amlas from Goddess Laxmi.
We were back in Kalady in the early afternoon and were served the lunch in the Mutt with very sacred and tasty food. Having a chance to get the prasadam with the veda pandits and their chanting of slokas is a great feel. All of us felt really blessed.
After thus packing great memories in Kalady, we headed towards Thrissur, Vrishachala as called in Puranas. This is the place where the parents of Sri Sankaracharya did penance to be blessed with an offspring. The town of Thrissur itself is a great attraction, as it is situated circularly around the temple of Vadakkunathan. The darshan of the lord won't be very clear in the evening,as it is covered with the kavacham in front of the Ghee mount Lord. But stepping in the premises of this temple is again a great feeling of bliss. After finishing the Darshanof all the deities in the complex namely Vadakkunatha, Ganapathi, Parvathi, Rama and Sankara narayana, we felt the grace of Lord guiding us all through, to be there.
We also had the Darshan of the very beautiful Goddess in the Paramekkavu temple and Chinni Krishna in the Thiruvambady temple. We felt very lucky to witness a seva to the Goddess in that temple where a male, wearing the anklets around his waist, danced before the mother,to the rhythmic sound of drums in an ecstatic state. That was a great scene. We took ticket for the next day's ghee abhishekam and went back to relax in the hotel Emarald.
Early in the morning at 4, we were in the temple to witness the amazing ghee abhishekam to the Lord. Every alayam in the complex is opened with the sound of the bell and each deity is offered the abhishekam seva and the last was the ghee abhishekam of the Vadakkunathan. The priest ascends a ladder like thing inside the antaralaya to pour the ghee on the tall mount of ghee already accumulated there. That is a feast for the eyes. Nobody knows the actual size of the Shiva lingam inside the ghee mount. There is no trace of any insect or bad smell in the temple though the ghee accumulated there is thousands of years old and the ghee won't melt as long as it is on the lingam.It melts only when it is taken out to be offered as prasadam to the devotees. The God is then covered again with the Kavacham within 20-30 minutes. Witnessing the sacred ritual is definitely a boon.
After coming back to the hotel room, we started towards the next holy destination Guruvayur. Though there is considerable rush in the temple, the darshan is peacefully completed by the grace of god. Here again the abhishekam of the Lord is going on when we went for the darshan. The Darshan of the Guruvayurappan is considered complete only after the Darshan of Shiva Mammiyurappan in the same village. This temple houses Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathy as Bhagavathy. We even visited the Elephant snctuary here where the temple elephants reside.
Going back to the room and relaxing for an hour, we started our return journey towards our sweet home and were at the destination by 11 in the night. That was the 3 day trip to the God's own country, concluded with divine grace.
