I
could get a week off from my routine work to attend the marriage of one of
my friend’s son in Chennai. Whenever I
go to South I make it a point to make full use of time and visit the pilgrim
centers nearby. Me and my sister, who
was also invited to the marriage made a plan to visit my uncle at Rajamundry,
after the marriage at Chennai and see as many places as we can. We got our
tickets booked from New Delhi to Chennai and from Chennai to Rajamundry for
June 23rd and return by 1st July.
We were very lucky to get tickets as most of the trains were full. I always check for the availability of return
tickets along with on going tickets and only then I take a decision of
undertaking the journey.
Both
of us stay in the same society so we reached the New Delhi Station together on
23rd morning. Now after
boarding the train and setting our baggage in place we settled in our
seats. Here we had all the time in the
world to clearly chalk out our programme without any disturbance. We would be reaching Chennai on 24th
night and the marriage was on the 26th so we thought of having
darshan of lord Venkateswara at Tirupathi on 25th. We got two seats booked from AP tourism. Our journey from Delhi was very comfortable
and we reached Chennai the next day at 10 in the night. Auto service is very expensive in Chennai and
they usually do not go by the meter. But we had no option as we did not want to
disturb our relatives at that odd hour so we took auto and reached home. On reaching home we were told that we are
supposed to reach AP tourism office by 5:00 in the morning. We had light dinner and retired for the
night.Woke up at 4 in the morning, got ready, had tea and were dropped off at
the tourism office.
Tirupati
Tirupati
The
bus started exactly at 5.30. It was a
pleasant ride with greenery all over our route.
Our bus had a brief halt at Sarita Hotel maintained by AP tourism for
breakfast and coffee. After half an hour
we were all inside the bus and from here we were climbing the seven hills,
supposed to be the Seshnag. We reached Tirupathi
by 10. We deposited our camera, mobile
etc. at a shop as directed by our guide. He was there till the security check
and asked us to assemble at the same place after the darshan. After moving in along queue we waited in an in an enclosure and after half an
hour we were heading in the queue to the sanctum sanatorium. I noticed a lot of changes from my previous
visit, which were made keeping in mind the comforts of the pilgrims like better drinking water availability, seating arrangement, cleanliness etc. Thanks to P.V.R.K.Prasad garu Executive Officer in Tirumala during early 80's who was instrumental in making major changes in Titumala as we see today. The queue moved on chanting Govinda, Govinda.
At last I reached in front of the deity and stood there with folded hands and didn't want to take away my eyes from him for a single second. After all the hardships I am standing in front of him. I am thankful to him for giving me this opportunity. People were pushing and shouting to move on. But I stood there little adamantly for a few minutes longer. Volunteers were pushing us to move on to let others too see him. Satisfied of having good darshan of Lord Venkateswara and seeking his blessings, I moved on. Only my faith in him gives me strength and keeps me moving. We came back to the stipulated place where our guide asked us to wait. Later we collected our Cameras.etc. Our guide from the bus collected the prasadam and handed over to us.He would get us extra laddus if anybody wanted. After that we proceeded to have the darshan of the Devi Padmavati the divine consort of Lord Venkateshwara at Tiruchanur. It is believed that Lord Venkateswara comes here daily to visit her. My father used to tell us that he needs new footwear daily and that the worn out foot wear can be seen by the people who take steps to reach Tirumala. I have not heard of such thing these days. Due to the constraint of time we usually go by road.
At Tiruchanur there was less crowd. The goddess stands there in all her glory one hand showing towards her feet and the other in the form of blessing. This means those who bow at her feet are never disappointed. She always fulfills their wishes. After having seen the charming, ever attractive divine mother. We had our lunch and returned to Chennai at about 9pm.
The next day we attended the marriage and spent the whole day with relatives and on 27th we left for Rajamundry. We reached Rajamundry on 28th morning and reached my uncle’s place who received us very affectionately. Surprisingly I met my uncle's elder daughter who came there from Hyderabad. I visited Rajamundry after a gap of 8 years. He and his younger son stay there. After our breakfast, we chalked out our programme to visit the nearby temples. That evening we went to the banks of River Godavari. It is a huge river with many old and new bridges over it, one can sit on the banks of the river enjoying the cool breeze for hours together. Godavari is one of the largest rivers in India and it is known as Dakshina Ganga. They have developed a beautiful park around the river and one can even go for boating. I was pleased to see such clean surroundings and the steps the govt. is taking to maintain it. I was visualizing the Yamuna river bank to be like this when I return home.
River Godavari with old and new bridges
On the banks of River Godavari
The next day i.e on 29th we hired a cab and went to Pithapuram which is about 50km from Rajamundry First we went to Sri Dattatreya Swami temple. It is the birth place of Sripada Sri Vallabha, the incarnation of Swami Dattatreya. His idol is worshipped here. Southern temples are famous for their architecture and their gopurams.
Sri Dattatreya swami temple
Pithapuram
From there we went to Pithapuram popular for Puruhutika Devi temple. This is a very big temple complex. As we enter we could see the Pada Gaya with a statue of Gayasur. Gayasur got boon from Lord Vishnu that he should get powers so that he could grant moksha to people. Lord Vishnu obliged and his body started to grow in size his head in Gaya in Bihar which is known as Siro-Gaya, his Nabhi in Orissa dist. called Nabhi Gaya and feet in Pithapuram called Pada Gaya. Sensing danger and to stop this growth of Gayasur, Devtas approached him with a promise to make his body pious by performing a yagna on him. So that his wish could be fulfilled.
Subsequently
they performed a yagna on him for seven days on the condition that he should
not move till it is completed. He kept
counting the days by the crowing of the cock and on final day Lord Shiva takes
the form of cock and crows at midnight. Gayasur counting it to be the last day moves his body thus breaking his promise. He regrets for what he did. Then Lord Shiva appears and gives him a boon that only those who takes bath in the pond where Gayasur lies and visits the god would get salvation. His body which had been growing earlier takes
normal size. Earlier people used to take bath in Pada Gaya and then enter the
temple. Now it is banned as there is
hardly any water and the steps are in dangerous condition. We had the darshan of Puruhutika Devi, One of
the Ashtadasha Shaktipeethams. After Daksha yagnam the parts of her body fell
in different places, which are known as shakti peethams. Her back is supposed to have fallen here.
Earlier the place was known as Puruhutika puram. Gradually it became Pithapuram. The divine mother was supposed to have been
worshipped here by Lord Indra. Here we
also had the darshan of Kukkuteswara Swami who is believed to have been there
since Treta yuga and Sri Raja Rajeswari.
Gayasur at Pada Gaya
Samarlakota
Next
we went to Samarlakota which is an hour’s drive from Pithapuram. This temple is one of the Pancharamas of
Andhra Pradesh. The other four being (Draksharama) at Draksharamam,(Amararama) at Amaravathi, (Somarama) at Bhimavaram and (Ksheerarama) at Palakollu. This temple was built during the time of
Chalukyas.According to the inscriptions in the temple, it is built by the son of King Vikramaditya (Bhimeswara)The god is also known by the name of the king who built it as Bhimeswaraswami. It is known as Kumararamam because Kumaraswami installed the lingam. The Shiva Lingam is 16 feet tall. It reaches up to the second floor. Shiva Lingam is white in colour and the
abhishekam is done from the top. It is in a huge complex and we can see
some beautiful architecture depicting gods and goddesses and a huge Nandi which
is carved on single stone. Here the goddess is BalaTripura Sundari. Daily Annadanam is done in the temple.
Nandi at Kumararamam
Next we went to Ravulapalem, had our lunch and from there we proceeded to Ainavilli.
Uma Kamandaleshwar and Jaganmohini temples at Ryali:
There was Kshana Mukteswar temple an old Ramalayam, 2 km away from aina villi we visited these temples and from there we headed to Ryali which was 20km away and famous for its Jagnmohini Mandir. Here the main deity is Jaganmohini. After offering our prayers from the front side the purohit led us to the back of the deity and we were surprised to see the Stree rupam the female form of the lord. (lord Krishna from the front and Mata jaganmohini from the back). We bowed to the divine mother and sought her blessings. The story so goes that during the samudra manthan when the holy nector emerged from the ocean, the demons and the gods started to fight to get hold of it. Then Lord Vishnu takes the form of Jaganmohini and assures to distribute it equally among the two fighting groups. She very cleverly gives it to the gods and avoids the rakshasas. After the distribution Lord Shiva falls in love with her and follows her. Jaganmohini while trying to run away from him drops her flower from the hair. Here he stops and Lord Shiva comes to know the truth. The place where Jaganmohini stood is known as Ryali. The deity here is Jaganmohini Kesavaswami. In Telugu Rali means to fall. Another unique feature of this temple is water constantly flows from the feet of Lord Vishnu. Opposite to this temple there stands Lord Shiva with his consort. He is known as Uma Kamandaleswara swami. It is very rare to see Shiva and Vishnu temples opposite to each other.
On the last leg of our trip we went to Vadapalli. Very famous for its Venkateswara Swamy temple. Here the deity is made of red sandlewood. We offer our prayers here to the lord known as Kalyana Venkateswara and returned to Rajamundry at about 9 pm.
Papi Kondalu
The next day i.e on 30th we went boating in river Godavari up to Papi Kondalu a very picturesque and beautiful sight. We could even see the sight of controversial Polavaram project.
Annavaram Satyanarayana Temple
Annavaram
On 1st we went to Annavaram Satyanarayana Swami temple. The main temple is in the form of a Chariot. Be it a marriage or Gruha Pravesam or just for the well being all the Hindus perform Satynarayana vratam(puja). Probably this is the only temple dedicated to him as far as I know. The main deity here is Sri Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Swami. The temple is on a hill top called Ratnagiri and the buses ply up to the temple premises. Anna means whatever you wish for, varam means boon. He is a very powerful deity and fulfills the wishes of the devotees. The temple is of two storied building and the presiding deity is on the upper story. There is yantra on the lower story. This temple is believed to represent Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara in lower, middle and upper part of the temple. On four sides of the Yantra there are Lord Ganesha, Bala Tripura Sundari, Suryanarayana and Maheshwara. The Yantra is believed to have power to attract Jana and Dhana. There are temples dedicated to Vana Durga and Kanaka Durga in the complex and these goddesses gaurd the lord day and night.
The Lord is beautifully decorated with flowers along with his consort Rama Devi. There was not much rush and we could sit there for our heart's content.
Annadanam is organised to all the devotees and Prasadam is distributed. They give so much prasadam that you don't need to have lunch. Steaming hot and very tasty. We came back to Rajamundry by evening and on 2nd morning we boarded the train back to Delhi to join our respective duties and face the hustle and bustle of city life. For planning, arranging transport and accompanying us to most of the places, I must thank my brother who left his aged father behind requesting his friends to look after him.
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