Kamalashile and Sringeri with Sri Samavedam Shanmukha sarma garu

                           This time, the tour was initiated with the blessings of Goddess at Kamalashile. This place was found very interesting by my husband and as we were planning for a stay in Sringeri for a week, to listen to the purifying pravachanams of Sri Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma garu in the divine presence of Sri Saradambal, we included this place in that itenary.

              The surroundings of the temple really left us speechless. The beauty of the nature around was just awesome. Sreeram immediately planned for another visit to this place. We reached there in the late evening and were lucky to participate in a special seva arranged by some devotee that day. 

The goddess here is Durga parameshwari and the details are as follows:

Sthala puranam:

According to Skanda Purana of Sahyadri Kanda, a Beautiful lady by name Pingala was a court dancer who performed in front of Lord Shiva & Goddess Parvathi in Kailash Mountain. One day because of her ego, she refused to dance and was cursed by Goddess Parvathi. She lost her beauty and was born as ugly women(Kubja) in Bhu-loka.

  Realising her mistake, when Pingala pleaded for mercy, Goddess Parvathi told her that She will be coming down to Bhu-Loka to put an end to all the evil deeds of Khararatasura and she will be showing up in the form of Linga in front of Raikwa Rushi ashram in sahyadri forest and the linga will be in the form of Kamalashile.

  Goddess Parvathi told Kubja to go near suparshwa cave and do penance  till goddess gives her moksha. Later Pleased with Kubja, Goddess Parvathi appeared in the form of Kamalashile (linga) at the Sangam of River Kubja & Naga theertha in front of Raikwa Rushi ashram. Kubja was told to go to Mathura and wait for Sri Krishna and she would get relieved of her curse by the touch of Lord Sri Krishna. Goddess also told her that the river which originates from sahya forest & flows towards western coast to be named after her (Kubja) and the river to flood every year to clean the Linga. 

It is said that Kamalashile (Goddess Sri Brahmi Durga Parameshwari) Linga appeared
at the same time when the world was created.
Initially the Kamalashile (Linga) was worshiped as Brahma Lingeshwara, Later people
got to know that it was actually Sri Brahmi Durga parameshwari. 
                                        

                         
                      That night we stayed there and enjoyed the annadana of the temple like nowhere else. The head of the temple was an old man who supervised the dinner arrangements personally to see that everyone was served well. The hot and delicious food with numerous varieties was incomparable with any other temple. Thus the day’s strain of driving long was vanished with great darshan of the goddess as well as great prasadam served.

                   The next day, on 27^th of March 2016, we had a good darshan of all the deities in the temple complex and set out for the other sacred places around. Our first destination in this stretch was Kollur where Goddess Mookambika blessed us with all her grace. From there we proceeded to the unique Vinayaka temple in Hattiyangadi.

Hattiangadi is well known for its Siddivinayaka Temple, which is supposed to have been constructed around the seventh or eighth century. The Lord Ganapathi Temple is situated on the bank of River Varahi. It is the only Temple in India, where the idol of Lord Vinayaka sports a jata-hair. The idol itself is carved of a Saligrama stone and is 2.5 feet high and Vinayaka’s curly hair is left loose at the back. The trunk is bent towards the left.
                                

It is believed that the idol may be in standing posture. The deity’s right hand is situated inside the basement and holds a vessel full of Modakas in its left hand. According to experts, the deity is of Bala Ganesha, which has just two arms and various ornaments are also found on the idol. The statue grows in size every year and this is visible from the fact that it has outgrown the silver casting. The entire shrine is carved from black marble. Since the God is supposed to grant the wishes of the devotees, the title ‘Siddi’ is conferred on Lord Vinayaka.

The next form of god was Lord Shiva at Koteshwar followed by Anegudde Vinayaka. The vinayaka temple is in the village Kumbhasi. This is a very famous place in Karnataka the details of which can be found at http://www.anegudde.in/
                                    

After saluting Sri Krishna at Udipi, we left for Sringeri for a stay of a week there. 
                          The stay in Sringeri was a memory for a lifetime for us. God blessed us to the fullest by making us come in contact with the great scholar Pravachana karta Brahmasri Samavedam Shanmukha sarma garu. He is such a down to earth person that we really feel surprised if this is the same person who roars like a lion on the stage preaching the tatwam of God in the best way. He is an ocean of knowledge and flow of energy, but while talking personally, He is just affection personified. I was searching for words how to express our gratitude for blessing us with such great discourses. 
               There was a group of people accompanying Him from Hyderabad and other places. So, every morning, when we went for Saradambal's darshan, it was a feast for eye to see His devotees sitting in every corner of the temple doing japam of the Mantras, doing Anushtanam and other parayanas. That was really inspiring. The whole day was just spent in thought of the next session's pravachanam. The discourses were arranged twice a day and during the other time, we went for darshan of the peethadhipatis. We were very lucky that both the sadgurus were in Sringeri for the entire period of the week and blessed with their divine presence daily. We were blessed to attend the Chandramouleeswara puja for almost 4 days. Sri Shanmukha sarma garu attended that puja every day without fail, such was His devotion to the Jagadgurus.  The last session of His discourse was conducted in the divine presence of both the Jagadgurus and that ended up in an awesomely divine way. Sri Sri Sri Bharati Teertha swami gave Anugraha Bhashanam and blessings to the scholorly Shanmukha sarma Garu. I was excited to see the child like joy of Sarma garu when He was informed about how well the session went on and the response of the Jagadgurus. Such humility made us bow down at His feet.
           We were very fortunate to get introduced to many elderly couples spending their lives in just Bhagavat seva. They all really inspired us a lot to transform our lives in more spiritual way. Every day, we visited the local temples of Sringeri taking along with us an old couple. That at last left us build relation with godly people. The best part was, Sri Shanmukha sarma garu boarded our 'ratham' to bless us with the chance to take the pujya dampatulu around all the 4 temples and the very attracting Surya narayana temple. Guruvu garu really liked all the temples and we both were just on 9th cloud for this enexpected grace. I was just speechless. I followed them in an auto, not to miss the chance to visit those powerful temples along with such a powerful sadhaka. This is the best part of our life, in fact, best of all our journeys. I was just falling short of words when He was enquiring "are you happy?", "is it ok?", "hope you are totally happy" etc..... Everytime when He looked with a smiling face, He reflected divine affection which was leaving me totally content. 
                                     
        Whatever I write in this regard is just a drop of the ocean of happiness we experienced. 
    The last day, accompanied by one more couple, we drove back to Bangalore, on the way paying our pranams to Annapurneswari in Hornadu and Kalaseshwara in Kalasa. 
   Thus, the trip left us with uncountable memories to be treasured for a life time. That ecstasy  lasted for a long time for both of us. We are indebted to God all the time for all such grace and blessings.

Sringeri-in depth

                         Though god blessed us with the darshan of Sringeri Maha Kshetra many times, this time was special since we were still blessed to visit all other temples there, less known to many people.
      The temple of Sri Saradambal, Sri Vidya Shankara and other many temples in the premises of Devasthanam was completed initially. Then we came to know that Sri Adi Shankaracharya also installed four kshetra palaka devatas in the four directions of the main temple of Saradambal.
They are Kalabhairava, Kali, Hanuman and Vanadurga.
                      They are located very near by to the main temple and are maintained by the Sarada Peethem only. One can go by auto to cover all the four temples. The temple of Kala bhairava can be approached from the Guru nivas also. In the vanadurga  temple, Lord Shiva is Swayambhu.
   The place where Sage Rishya Srunga performed His penance is Rishya Sringa pura and His father Vibhandaka Rishi performed penance where now stands the temple of Malahanikareswara. These two place are really powerful as they are treasured with the tapo-shakti of the two great sages. We can have the darshan of Stambha Ganapati in the temaple of Malahanikareswara. 
                    One more very interesting temple in Sringeri is the temple of Lord Suryanarayana, the direction for which can be found while going for a visit of the above mentioned temples. The peethadhipati comes here every year to perform the puja on the day of Ratha saptami. The Lord here is found in Dhyana mudra, not a very common one for Surya Narayana Murthy.