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.
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