Thiruvarur

It is an hour's drive from Sri Vanjiyam to Thiruvarur.

How many times had I planned to visit this place, and how many times had the plans been dropped?

I remember Sri Aurobindo's words. You don't chose the divine, the divine chooses you.

Not a rough ride along the state highway. The ground was wet with recent rains, and the morning sun was pleasant.

Thiruvarur boasts of three big names: Saint Tyagaraja, Shama Shastrigal and Muthuswami Dikshitar.

The town reverberates with a spiritual flavour. Clean roads, huge temple tower and a beautiful temple tank.

Unless you have a guide, you get lost in the temple. You don't know where to begin and which sanctum to visit first.

The presiding deity of this temple is Vanmikinathar, but visitors throng to the Tyagaraja temple; this is the place where Siva as Somaskanda within an anthill gave darshan to the gods.

However, the temple you should not miss is Roudra Durgai and Rina Vimosanar.

Somewhere in the astral worlds, the gods operate, and there are junction points in this world where the deities come and help you.

The temples of Roudra Durgai and Rina Vimoasar are good examples.

It is said that the mind and body are freed of anxieties and apprehensions when these temples are visited.

By the time we came out, it was an hour past lunch. We had to wait for another half an hour before we could settle for a good South Indian meal.

We were on the road again. Our next destination: Thirukollikadu – Pongu Saneeswaran Temple.

Sri Vanjiyam

As we did not get a direct train to Tiruvarur, we got off at Kumbakonam. It was about four in the morning when the taxi took us to the hotel.  Raya's Grand is a good hotel to stay. After quickly catching up with some sleep lost during the night journey, we started off at 8.

After breakfast on the way, we were on the road to Tiruvarur. The state highways are narrow, but the traffic moves fast. The names of places on the way sound exotic--needamangalam, kapisthalam. It depends on the road you a take or the detour you make.

We thought the 41 kilometer stretch should not take us much time, but we were to be delayed.

The sign 'Sri Vanjiyam' on the way rang a bell. After a kilometer after the sign, we made a U turn to visit the holy place.

Srivanjiyam is a small village in Tiruvarur district. Located between Mudikondan and Puttur rivers, the temple houses a 'swayumbu' (Self-born) Lingam. Shiva here is called Vanjinathan, and his consort, Parvati, by name Mangalambika. Managala means 'auspicious' and 'ambika', mother--the auspicious mother.

When you go to a temple in South India you look for three things to get an idea about the place and people: Sthala Puranam--the history of the place, Sthala Vriksham--the tree in the temple and the Sthala Devathai--the presiding deity of the place or temple.

Yama Temple

diff. Iconography of Ragu and kedhu together

diff. Iconography of bairava

What is special about the temple is that the Linga (The phallic symbol representing creative energy) is self-born and faces both west and east. Prayers and puja are offered from both directions. Accordingly there are two Nandi's--Shiva's vehicle, the Great Bull; one in the East and one in the West.

According to legend, this is the oldest Lingam on the earth. Sandal is the Sthalavriksham. Sandalwood leaves are used for worshipping Shiva in this temple.

There is also a temple for Lord Yama, the god of death. Tired of taking so many souls since beginning, Yama felt he himself needed some rejuvenation. On the advice of Brahma, the god of creation, Yama came to the bank of Cauvery and worshipped Shiva. Shiva was pleased with him and asked Yama to be his vehicle. Yama stayed back, and there now, you have a temple for him also.

Legends work on our subconscious stuff. They remould some ancestral memory in us. Back from the temple, we felt rejuvenated ourselves and we travelled to our next destination--Tiruvarur.

Tiruvannaamalai

Thiruvarooril pirandhaal moksham,
Kaasiyil irandhaal moksham,
Annamalayaai ninaithaalae moksham:

so goes a Tamil saying.

It says that you get salvation if you are born in Thiruvaroor,
You get salvation if you die in Kasi,
But salvation is yours if you just think of Annamalai.

Thiru Annamalai---literally an 'elder brother mountain'--is about 210 kilometers from Chennai. Take National Highway 5, and drive for about three and a half hours till you hit Tindivanam junction. Hang a right, and you are on the road to Annamalai.

The drive slows down on this road. It is narrow and traffic is high for the size of the road.

You have to cross Gingi to reach Annamalai. Gingi offers a big tourist attraction in the form of a fort built of Raja Dhey Sing. His original name is Raja Tej Singh, but the Tamils call him Dhey Singh.

The fort is about two hundred years old, and some the structures still make you hold your breath. Life must have been beautiful but raw, about two hundred years ago.

But our visit was to Annamalai. After a brief stop at Gingi, we reached Annamalai.

The majestic hill inspires you. Feels like spirituality was in the very air. But for the din of the town life at the foothill, the hill beckons you as it once did the famous sage of Arunachala--Ramana Maharishi.

Arunachala is the presiding deity here. Like the hill, the temple towers too are majestic. As you scan the tower and the pinnacle, you vision mergers into the formless sky--a quick transition from the mundane to the sublime.

We started walking round the hill--a perimeter of 15 kilometers--around seven in the evening. It was a full-moon day, and you could see thousands circumambulating  the hill like us. Some holding incense sticks, some chanting Om Nama Sivaya--the fifteen kilometer walk as fascinating if a bit tiring.

It is said that the very hill is alive. Once Ramana Maharishi had said there was a city inside the subtle world around the hill.

When the wise speak, there is something which is beyond our little understanding.

Faith works, and it was with faith that we walked around the hill and returned to our room at one in the morning.

We were up by eight to walk up the hill to Skandashram. A quite place which offered you a panoramic view the town below.

Triambakeswar

Triambakeswar or Trimbakeswar is about thirty kilometers from Nashik. About half-an-hour by car from Nashik, this is a place that every Hindu wishes to visit.

Source : Internet

Tri means three, and eshvar means Lord. So, you have the linga that represents the greart triumvirate of the Hindu pantheon—Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.

Source : Internet

One of the twelve Jyothirlingas, Triambakeswar draws a huge crowd every day, no matter what season or which part of the year.

Having the darshan of the Lord here, went back to Mumbai to catch the flight next morning to Chennai.

Panchavati

From Shingnapur we came back to Nashik. It was a hectic day but not tiring. Sleep came without being called.

Tomorrow we would be moving to Panchavati. Not a long way, but an important destination to us.

Panchavati reminds us of childhood memories of Ramayana. It was here that Lord Rama with Sita and Lakshman stayed while at Dandakaranya. It was here that Lakshman had cut the nose off the ogress Surpanaka.

Today it is a big town on the bank of the Godavari. Most of the religious places have become tourist spots. Religion has become, of late, a serious affair to many people. The influence of the age of Aquarius?

The temples of Mahadev, and of Kalaram were crowded. Only the person who knows what to look for, will be benefitted. Other just mumble some prayers, and get lost in the crowd.

  It is in the Mahadev temple that you find the linga that Lord Ram worshipped.

Sita Gunpha is a small cave—a cave where Sita had hid. The five banyan trees—panchavati—had surrounded this Gunpha.

Source : Internet

Source : Internet

Kalaram temple is not that old, however. It houses black idols of Lord Ram and Lord Hanuma. Hence the term Kala—black. It was built by Sardar Rangarao Odhekar.

Source :Internet

Goddess Godavari

The place still retains the ancient spiritual flavour. It is a matter of faith. And faith is part of one’s being.

Shani Shingnapur

I do not know why people fear Saturn. He is my favourite demi-god. He is your fate, the personification of all your actions, actions done in various incarnations. He is your other self. 

Maybe, that is the reason why people fear Saturn. Meeting your otherside.

Cabbies shout themselves hoarse beckoning you to what they would say: Shani Shingapore!

Shani Shingnapur is seventy kilometres from Shirdi--74 kilometres to be precise. About a half and a half an hour drive from Shirdi.

It is a nice drive, pleasant because the day I went, it was a cloudy day in summer, and there was a cool breeze now and then. It is rural Maharashtra all the way, with the hardworking simple village folks going about their days' job.

Photo : Internet

   The soil is red, and the roadsides are littered with 'fresh   sugancane-juice vendors. Every now and then we woulds stop for a cup of tea or a glass of 'ghannaras' or sugarcane juice.

    The temple of Shani is well-kept. The god is truly at  work here--clean, sparse and austere. One thing that struck me was that the houses, hotels, rooms and inns had no doors. No one locked his or her house; nor had he or she kept it closed.

 Shani here is a rock of five feet. There is a trident by his side, and a Nandi on the south side.

I stood there for some time, offering oil and seasame grains, and thought for a moment, a god that spared no one, not even the incarnations of god such as Rama or Krishna.

Remember, when you meet Shani, be humble. He drags those who do not surrender to him. Surrender, and see what good he does to you.

When Baba calls!

Source : Internet

Devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba know that unless Baba calls one cannot go to Shirdi.
The call came to me all  of a sudden in the form of my uncle who one day said: Vijay, pack up, we are leaving for Shirdi.

The flight to Mumbai, like any other flight in India, was uneventful and boring. We are not even offered coffee on board. And sitting for two-and a-half an hours was in my opinion 'a criminal' waste of time.

I thought of Baba. A simple man, a mad fakir, a man of God who had only a couple of 'annas' in his tumbler when he died. Today, I was on my to the samadhi of that 'mad fakir'.

To a man of this world, to a man who is a stranger to Baba and his ways, Shirdi is a tourist spot. People are there everywhere, choc-o-bloc. The roads overflow with human traffic, guest houses are full, and hotels are busy 24/7 serving plain and tasteless food.

To a man chosen by Baba, the air is tense. You do not know when he would appear, in what form. Something is in the air, and in a subtle form, you do not see today's Shirdi, but the village where Baba begged and lived, surrounded by simple folks from rural Maharashtra.

It is not just the Samadhi mandir that attracts people like me. When I go Lendi Bagh, I see the well whose  bitter and brackish water Baba made sweet by sprinkling flowers. In Shama's house, I see the old school master welcoming me. In Lakshmi Bai Shinde's house, I look at the nine coins that Baba gave to this great soul. If you have the eyes, the place is rich with associations of Baba.

I visited all these places with a simple prayer in my heart--Baba, make my life meaningful.