Wednesday, August 8, 2012

A Trip to Dharmasthala


“Dharmasthala -  a place on earth where Dharma is practiced, experienced and propagated. To be in Dharmasthala would make one feel being in heaven, factually.  I had heard my parents telling that Dharmasthala is a spiritual  “must-go” place at least once in a lifetime, also for its unique style of Annadhanam provided.

I had been planning to visit Dharmasthala for quite a while, but things anyhow didn’t materialize as planned. My 4 best friends (Kumaran, Diwakar, Balaji and Giri) from my Apollo days, decided to go on a road-trip for the week-ending 22th July. We had got two options, either Dharmasthala or Tirupathi and zeroed on Dharmasthala. Neither of us had visited nor had any clue about the whereabouts of the place. We decided to travel in Kumaran’ s Scorpio, a perfect choice for a long drive. We had only two skilled drivers in Kumaran and Balaji, though Giri and Diwakar can manage to drive short distances. I didn’t test my driving skills L

We planned to start our trip on 20th July from Balaji’ s house, which is relatively closer to the Chennai – Bangalore National highway 4. Our initial plan was to start around 8 p.m. and reach Dharmasthala via Bangalore, Hassan and Sakleshpur.  The plan looked so simple and easy on papers but the hardships we faced during the travel were totally unpredictable. Dear Readers, Let’s start our journey. Fasten your seat beats, the wild beast on the road, Scorpio is ready to roar.

We all assembled around 9 p.m. and I have to admit that I was late by at least an hour L We had delicious dinner at Balaji’ s house and hit the road by 9.30 p.m. I was not in the pink of health, with temperature at 99.7, though managed to travel with the help of antibiotics L

We stopped by near Shri Krishna sweets, near Queensland and Giri picked up lots of sweets and savories to beat the boredom during the journey. Kumaran drove the car and we all started cracking jokes and pulling others’  legs, not definitely the drivers’ J We were nearing Ambur around 1.30 a.m. , which is around 186 kms from Chennai, famous for its yummy Biriyani. Blame the mid-night, no shops were kept open. We spent at least 20% of our total expenses towards paying the toll-charges and roads were in tolerable condition. Balaji was driving car while we crossed the TamilNadu border and entered Karnataka. It was 3 in the morning and stopped for a nap, were awfully tired. Screeching noises of tyres and honking horns didn’t allow us to sleep. We once again started our journey and reached Bangalore at 3.30.

The climate was so soothing, gentle wind blowing across and everyone had a sleepy morning L. Kumaran once again started driving and we took the Nice road to Neelamangala. The toll collected in Nice road for 30 kilometers travel was Rs.140, which was too costly and didn’t have any options left as this is the only road that can get us to Neelamangala without entering the Bangalore city. We stopped well before Neelamangala toll-gate for tea. We picked up TOI newspaper, the only available English newspaper (which I don’t personally recommend for the readers) and started our engine once again. It is National Highway 48 connecting Bangalore and Mangalore. Kumaran was driving the car and I was sitting next to the driver’s seat and the rest fell asleep. We stopped the car near a river for half an hour quick nap and we took some snaps before we could start. Balaji in driver’s seat now. I missed my jacket there and we crossed almost 20 kms before I could realize that I had missed it. People had different opinions that it could have flown away with the wind but I decided to return and fetch that back. Luckily someone had picked it and kept the jacket carefully on the road divider, making sure it doesn’t fly away with the wind. Thanks to that unknown face J. Was this the reason why it rained J, yes it was drizzling then.

Reached channarayapatna, a relatively big town at around 8 a.m. Had breakfast at Hotel Krithika on Hassan Road. The hotel could only accommodate 12 at a time and the varieties the hotel offered was amazing. They had conventional south Indian breakfast varieties and Uppittu (upma in Tamil) and BesiBeleBath (hot sambar rice with dal), a traditional food in Karnataka. We all had till our neck and the bill was only Rs.170/-. I just imagined for a second as to how much our so called “High Class vegetarian” hotels in Chennai would charge for the same. The next objective for us was to reach Hassan at the earliest. It was drizzling and road was not so good. Vehicles were allowed to travel in one side of the road due to road maintenance. It was 11 when we reached the outskirts of Hassan and were awfully tired. Didn’t even know how much should we travel more and everyone we inquired gave us a different number. Time to fill the stomach of the beast, Scorpio. A whopping 180 kms to be travelled more is the information we gathered in the petrol station. We were totally demotivated as this could take another 2 hours of travel to reach the temple. Our next objective was to reach Sakleshpur which was a 30 kms drive from Hassan. The road from Channarayapatna to Hassan was a straight one and full of ups and downs. We could even see a vehicle coming 3 kms away from us. Wind mills welcome us en-route to Hassan.

Reached Sakleshpur. It was 12 p.m. and all we were about to climb up the WESTERN GHATS(WG). Kumaran is an expert driving in GHAT sections, thanks to his previous driving experience in Coorg.  It was raining Cats and Dogs in the WG. Driving was so difficult and visibility was  close to zero. The streams were gushing with water and we had to see and enjoy from the car only as we were unable to get down. Need to mention, the NH 48 always has heavy lorry traffic, predominantly Oil carriers, thanks to refineries in Mangalore. NH 48 is the only highway to connect Mangalore with Bangalore. During the monsoon season, the drivers avoid this highway and go around mysore, though it is a circular route. We stopped for a hot tea. This time we managed to walk down to the shop from the car as rain had slowed down. Got to know that the temple is only 35 kms away. It was 12.30 p.m. already. A small road deviated from the NH48 for Dharmasthala. We could see lots of fruit and vegetable sellers on the road sides. Ultimately we reached Dharmasthala at 1.00 p.m.



It is a beautiful, spiritual, clean and cool town. I was under the impression that this might be a very small town but amazed to know the history, facilities and culture of the town. “Dharmasthala Temple is an 800-year-old religious institution in the temple town of Dharmasthala. The deities of the temple are Shiva who is referred to as Manjunatha, Ammanavaru, Chandranath and the Dharma Daivas (guardian spirits of Dharma) namely Kalarahu, Kalarkayi, Kumaraswamy and Kanyakumari. The temple is considered unique since it belongs to the Shaivite sect of Hinduism. The priests are Shivalli Brahmins who belong to the Vaishnava sect of Hinduism and the administration is run by a Jain Bunt family called the Pergades.

(The lodge complex in Dharmasthala)

 

The most important thing now was to book a room. There are many lodges in Dharmasthala like Vaishali, Nethravathi, Gangotri, Saketha, Gayatri etc. all of them being rivers of India. We managed to get a room in Gayatri for all the 5 of us. The room was so spacious, it had two beds with cots, 5 pillows and mats with a pretty clean bathroom. Hold your breath, the rent was only 100. We were so tired due to 15 hours travel and were told that the Annadhanam was being provided in the temple premises. The temple was closed for darshan and were told that it would be opened only at 7. We went to the Annadhanam hall and surprised to see such a big hall which could accommodate no less than 2000 people at a time. Chairs and tables were provided for aged and physically challenged. The Annadhanam was provided in such a sophisticated manner and their approach was so professional. The plates were brought in a trolley and we had to pick our plates. The plates were now filled to rice, the pleasant smell of the rice is a treat to our nostril. In Dharmasthala, Rasam is always served first, sambar next and the curd at the last. The food was so delicious and I have never had such a meal before in any of the temples. The time they take to serve a batch (which consists of no less than 500 people) is only 15 minutes and immediately the next batch starts. The cleaning of the floor is done is less than a minute. It was a treat not only for our taste buds but also for the eyes.

(Dharmasthala temple)

 

Thanks to the heavy lunch, desperately we needed sleep and slept till 6 in the evening. We all took bath and left for the temple. It was not so heavily crowded and we took tickets for a special darshan, Rs.100 per person. Gents are not allowed with shirts and banians. We first worshipped Lord Ganapathy in the praharam and entered the temple. The queue was moving decently and the wood work on the doors and the ceiling of the temple were amazing.

The architecture outside the temple is more of a Kerala + Karnataka style and the architecture near the sanctum sanctorum reminded me of the Great Chola sculptures. The sculptures, pillars and the gopuram are more of  typical south Indian style. The Lord Manjunatha was fully decorated with flowers and the darshan was most satisfying. We then moved on to worship Ammanavaru (Amman) and the darshan was a feast to our eyes. We got the pradasam from the stall, a typical kannadiga sweet item. Our next target was once again to attack the dining hall for the mouth-watering dinner. It was heavily crowded this time, thanks to the crowd inflow as the next day being the Sunday. For dinner we were given leaf instead of plates. The meal was once again fabulous. Giri had forgone his dinner due to the heavy lunch. It was shopping time for us and purchased swami photos and other Pooja items. It was raining heavily and the climate was so soothing.  Came back to room at 9 and we could only hear, nothing but snore. J

The plans on cards for the next day was to get up at 6 and proceed to Kukke Subramanya temple. We had to travel 22kms to reach NH 48, travel another 15 kms on the NH and deviate to the opposite direction of the NH, travel for 18 kms more to reach Kukke. We started from Dharmasthala at 8 a.m. We initially thought we could make this distance easily in 1 hour, never knowing what was waiting ahead for us on the road. On reaching the NH, we were struck in heavy traffic, the vehicles queuing up. Giri walked down for 1 km and came with the news that 3 gigantic trees fell down on the road, blocking the traffic. The local people didn’t wait for the fire and rescue team to reach, they themselves acted upon the situation. In the meantime, the vehicles queued up to 8 kms. Fortunately, the traffic got cleared and we reached the temple at 12.30. It was once again raining. We got tickets for darshan and worshipped Lord Subramanya. Kukke is a  relatively bigger town than Dharmasthala.

The temple is situated in the heart of the village. Subramanya used to be called as Kukke Pattana (town) in the past. In the “Shankara Vijaya” Anandagiri observes that Sri Shankaracharya camped here for a few days during his religious expedition. Shankaracharya referred to this place as 'Bhaje Kukke Lingam' in his “Subrahmanya Bhujangaprayata Stotram”. We took tickets for Special darshan and worshipped the almighty and got Laddu as Prasadam. It was raining continuously. We had our lunch in “Hotel Kumara” in Kukke. The hot sambar and Rasam was very gentle on our throat, as it the climate was very cold. Otherwise the meal was disgusting except for the payasam L We got drenched before we reached the car parking. We started from Kukke. We missed many temples in and around Kukke, blaming the heavy rain. We stopped near a small stream and took snaps and we knew that we were going behind the schedule. We took the same way and reached Sakleshpur. We stopped near a coffee shop for half an hour. Balaji took the baton now from Kumaran and we were heading towards “SravanaBelgola”

SravanaBelgola, meaning “White Pond of the Shravana" is named with reference to the colossal image of Gommaṭa. More than 800 inscriptions have been found at SravanaBelgola, dating to various times from 600 to 1830. The status is 17 m. (55 feet) high and is visible from a distance of 30 km. There were more than 600 steps to reach the temple. The temple used to get closed at 6.30 daily and we started climbing at 6 and managed to make it J It was drizzling once again and we came down immediately and did shopping in the nearby shops, where we got handmade articles. Diwakar tried his driving skills and he drove till Neelamangala. We were busy playing games in mobile and chatting. We reached Neelamangala at 9 and took the Nice road once again to reach Bangalore. We had our dinner in a hotel near Electronic City and the food was so devastating, sorry to forget the name. We started at 11 and crossed the Karnataka border. Reached Chennai at 3.30 and rested in Balaji’ s  house. We started dissipating from his house at 5.

It was a wonderful, fun filled, spiritual trip with my best friends. I hope this travelogue will inspire you to pay a visit to these temples and get the blessings of the almighty. Thanks to all. Special thanks to Kumaran, Balaji and Diwakar for driving us safe to home and Me and Giri for not disturbing them J Last but not least, our thanks to the Scorpio, proved its mettle on the road J Will meet you all with another travelogue soon.

Note: Please also pay a visit to Belur and Halebedu near Hassan, which is of historical importance.


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A holy trip to Sabarimalai

Decision was made long back, not by us but by the almighty that we ought to stand before him. We were all just toys dancing to his tune and the tune was too HOT this time.

We all had started coming one by one to the Egmore Ayyappan temple at 11 in the morning on 16th Mar. All of us were filled with a great feel of euphoria. The mood was highly infectious. We couldn’t have asked for a better occasion than that. Everyone reached the temple around 12 and we started off with the kettunera.

We had two Kanni swamis Murthy and AthuKutty (5 year old Giri’s niece). I would never be forgiven if I don’t mention one thing as the Kids did a wonderful job throughout the trip. They were one of the important motivating factors for us to climb up the hill and a special thanks to them for taking all of us to our childhood days. Tons of  thanks to Vijay Swami (Giri’s Mama) for guiding us throughout the trip.

Spiritual chanting filled the entire temple as we were finishing our kettunera. Relatives of all the swamis thronged the temple and the moment was awesome and everyone were in an impeccable condition and mindset to move on.  Food was served to all the swamis, thanks to Raj Bhavan, but the food was a sub-standard category. We didn’t mind it as we got mouth-watering homemade Sweet Pongal.


We enjoyed kidding one and other while we were waiting for the CAB to reach the temple. Our holy trip started and no looking back from then.

We all had reached station at 3 p.m. and our train was scheduled at 3.35. Of the nine travelled, 2 were allocated different compartment and myself one among the two. We didn’t do anything special in the train but for battling with the scorching heat.

We had two other swamis travelling with us in our compartment, who shared their knowledge on Automotive industry which helped us to enrich our knowledge and more importantly it allowed us to kill the time very well. We had our dinner, roti and idly soaked in gun powder, perfect dishes for a train travel. We pulled the curtain down for the day and went to our respective berths.

The train was on time and reached Kottayam at 4, a typical Kerala wee-hour climate welcomed us. The cab was waiting for us even before we could reach the station. A small healthy fight among us as to who shouldn’t sit on the back seat of the Innova.

The joy and enthusiasm filled our hearts as we travelled on the zig-zag, up and down, snake like roads from Kottayam to Erumeli and Illayaraja songs would have made this stretch feel much better L

We took a dip at a river on our way to Pamba. It wiped off all our tiredness which we developed during the overnight travel. Gone were the days, witnessing gushing flow of water, blame this summer, increasing mercury level drastically decreased the water flow, even in Kerala. Terrific swimming activity triggered the hunger, and we entered into Aarya Bhavan (never get carried away with the name is the lesson that is learnt) and had Pongal (the only available dish).


Our hearts jumped in joy and even we were scared if it would pop out of our mouth, as we saw the holy Pamba and the Neelimala. The sun was at his worst and we witnessed many people running in search of shades. Started climbing the hill and made many Soda and Juice sellers turn richer on our way.


The physical and mental sufferings that we underwent flew like a paper in a  storm, upon seeing the holy 18 steps. Climbed up the 18 steps and went near the sanctum sanctorum. Lost were the words, electrifying feel from head to toe, tears rolling out of the eyes, even forgot the world and felt like detached from the materialistic world for a moment.


Booked room in KAILAS pilgrim Centre which could accommodate no less than 10 people. Thanks to the Annadhanam provided to all the pilgrims and blessed were those volunteers. The Menu included Sambar, Rasam, butter milk, kootu, poriyal, appalam and payasam, I can’t ask and won’t get more.  our team ate till the neck and straight into a siesta.

We all went for a short walk around the temple and visited the nearby temples. I developed a small muscular sprain in both the legs and I stitched the thorn on my left leg. I didn’t mind it and ignored.
We all were set to witness the “Padi Pooja”. Exhaustive Pooja for the holy 18 steps was performed and all our lips were reciting the almighty’s name. Our heart was filled with a  spiritual feel but stomach wasn’t.  Had so called, Oothappam (Difference between a Dosa and an Oothappam is its diameter, a new lesson for the day) and started untying our Irumudi bag for our next day’s Ghee abhishekam.


Deputed two of our swamis for the ghee abhishekam task at around 4 a.m. Packed our things at 7 and bid-adieu to the lord for the year and started climbing down. The sun was not at his worst until we reached Pamba. Finished our breakfast near the hill-top, which I would rate better as the Sambar vada was tempting us to consume more. Apologies for forgetting the name of the comparatively better hotel L

The Plan was to reach Chengannur, the nearest railway station, 93 Kilometers from Pamba. This time we didn’t need to fight for the seating, as we were too weak to fight, instead we sat quiet. Some of us had stomach-ache due to the scorching heat and didn’t know how to beat it, inspite of drinking of gallons of fluids. We didn’t need Illayaraja but an anti-vomiting pill  to enjoy the ride this time. Reached Chengannur at 1.00 p.m. , too early for our 4.30 train.

(Un)luckily we found a Vasanta Bhavan ?! at Chengannur, as learnt from my previous experiences, went with a pre-occupied mindset about the food and my instinct didn’t let me down. Filled our stomach, purchased chips for our colleagues. Back to station, picked some magazines and waited under the asbestos roof (most horrible wait). To our rescue, I found one Tamil speaking guy running business, selling juices and snacks. It was so pity to know that he had been a successful building contractor in Chennai, fighting for his daily bread near a remote railway station. Train was on time and got down at perambur at 6.30 a.m. on  the next day. It was one of the most enjoyable and interesting spiritual journeys of my life. Swami Saranam.

Hope you enjoyed the journey with me. If so, you have added one more count to your sabarimalai visit.