Narsobawadi

                                       Narsobawadi in Maharashtra, located near Kolhapur is the land sanctified by the penance of Sri Nrusimha Saraswati swami for a period of 12 years. He is the 2^nd incarnation of Lord Dattatreya in this Kaliyuga. He blessed the devotees here with neumorous leelas and teachings. The detailed description of these leelas can be found in Sri Guru Charitra. This land is still pious due to the presence of the sangam of the river krishna with 5 other holy rivers, namely, Siva, Bhadra, Bhogavati, Kumbhi and Saraswati. Many saints in the Datta sampradaya performed their sadhana and penance here, making this land still rich in spiritual power.  The samadhis of few saintsare located in the premises of the temple itself with names indicated on the boards.

            The author of the book Sri Guru charitra and the very famous datta parampara saint Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati swami, alo known as Tembe Swami sanctified this land by staying here for many years during His sadhana and Yatras.

                  Near by to Narsobawadi are the places which are related to the leelas of Sri Guru charitra. Audumber, Bhilavati, Amarpuram and Shirola are the place we were blessed to visit when we happenend to step into that land for 2 times. To reach the first 2 places, we have to cross the river Krishna or one can reach there by road way also. Audumbar is adorned with Datta padukas where as there is temple of Sri Bhuvaneswari Devi blessing the devotees inn Bhillavati.

               Amarapuram is the place where there is a temple dedicated to Amareswara and the house where Sri Guru received Bhiksha and blessed the family with a hiddden treasure under a tree is just adjascent to the temple. There is a mandir for Sri Vasudevananda saraswati swami too located here. This place is locallu called as Aurwad here.

                         Shirol is the place where one can witness the handprint of Sri Guru on a rock. It is believed that after Sri Guru received bhiksha from a house here, He put His hand on a rock here and the image of the hand got imprinted on that rock as a blessing. That rock is still worshipped as a pious remeniscence of the Lord. One can have the darshan of the hand print during the morning abhishekam and during the latter paart of the day it is covered with a kavacham and decorated with flowers. Even the actual padukas, known as Manohara padukas at the sangam also can be seen directly durin the morning abhishekam only.

                                     

Satara Uttara Chidambaram

                               We felt very much blessed to have the grace of the Lord to step into the land of Satara where stands the dream temple of Kanchi Paramacharya which was stated by Him as “the temple close to my heart”, on june 24th, 2017. The great Sadhaka whom we were blessed to get introduced there in the temple , Mr.Jagadish Bhat, explained us in detail how Paramacharya made this temple take shape by giving prerana to the many hands involved in completing the Dream Temple.

                                            

                                             

                  When Paramacharya visited Chidambaram of Tamilnadu for the first time, He had it in mind that He should get a temple build in some place which would be a replica of Chidambaram before He leaves His mortal body. But that was not revealed to anyone at that time. As time passed and Paramacharya was travelling vigorously throughout the country, it so happened that He came to Satara on Padayatra and stayed there for 11 months long time.

Near by to Satara is the place named Mahabaleshwar, where the River Krishna originates along with 5 other rivers. Out of them, 3 rivers flow towards East and 2 towards west. Satara is considered as the most sacred place as per the direction of the rivers flowing there along with Krishna river. As Paramacharya halted here, He fixed His mind that this is the best place for the temple of the king of the dance, Nataraja.

                                That was the Daiva Sankalpa, so other arrangements for the temple construction were done as per the Eeswara prerana to the required people at the proper time. As we can see now, the four gopurams of the temple were built by the four different states’contribution Andhra, karnataka, tamilnadu and maharashtra and the entire teak wood was supplied from kerala state. Even the other amenities were donated by the respective departments to give the final form to the temple as we witness it today.  The blessed devotee Shamanna Shanbag who donated the entire land for the temple was asked to get the measurements of the actual Chidambaram temple to get the replica properly.

                              A Sphatika lingam brought from Kailasam by Sri Adi Shankaracharya is worshipped with Abhishekam in Chidambaram twice a day even today. Sri Paramacharya handed over a Marakata lingam here in Uttara Chidambaram to be offered Abhishekam daily. The timings of the Abhishekam are 10 AM and 7 PM. Those are the ony time during which one can have the darshana of the Marakata lingam since after abhishekam it is enclosed in a silver container placed before the main idol of the Lord. Aarati is followed after the Abhishekam in both the times.

             The person playing the key role in the management of the temple Sri Jagadish Bhat was a very impressive sadhaka who explained us in detail about how he was sent by Paramacharya from Kanchi to Satara to take care of the temple and its management. He was a gold medalist in Rigveda who finished his course of veda in just 4 ½ years, which typically takes 8 years, just by his guru’s as well as Paramaacharya’s grace. His guru was an ardent devotee and close associate of Parmacharya. He used to wash clothes of Paramacharya, help in cooking the suitable food for Paramacharya and other sevas, being one in the aantarangika parivaram of Paramacharya.  We were lucky to have the darshana of Padukas of Paramacharya at his home, which he used to carry in his own hands while travelling with Paramacharya.Sri Jagadish bhat even accompanied Paramacharya in many of His Pada yatras in the state of Maharastra. As he described, Paramacharya considered this as His dream temple and the place is mentioned to be very powerful.

                 During His pada yatra in Maharastra, Paramacharya went on top of the Sajjanghad Hill to reach the samadhi sthal of Sri Samartha Ramadaasa Swami, but as per His Ashram rules, He didn’t have the darshan of Samadhi. Paramacharya had also met a family in King Shivaji’s family and payed His heart felt respects to the great Maratha king who saved Hindu dharma and our country from the avaidika people and their attacks.