You are here: SriPedia - Oppiliappan - Archives - Mar 2006

Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00209 Mar 2006

 
Mar 2006 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


My tour to divyadesams

        I recently visited the divyakshethrams in and around 
Kumbakonam with my husband and I wish to share my experiences with 
other devotees.We first visited Sirangam on the way to have a darsan 
of Ranganatha. 

        We reached Thiruchi in the morning on 14th March and 
proceeded to Srirangam in an auto,. We were told that the sannidhi of 
Ranganatha will open only after 8 but did not know that the other 
sannidhis would have opened earlier.We entered the temple at 9am and 
there was a long Q for the darsan and one fellow approached us and 
said, probanly we looked dumb enough, that he will arrnge special 
seva for us for 100 rs. showing the special deeparadhana etc. We paid 
him the money only to find later that thereis a special Q for paying 
only 20rs to which we had to join anyway. It is not the money that 
mattered but the fellow did not do anything other than what we would 
have done by joimning the Q oursekves. Any way we had a good Darsan 
and I felt that we could have been allowed to stand in front of the 
lord a little longer than minute but considering the long Q outside 
it is only fair.

         After coming out we lost our way and could not find the way 
for other sannidhis especially that of udayavar and Nrsimha which I 
was very keen on.We sasked for directions but somehow seemed to run 
aroun d in circles but finally we found the sannidhi of Udayavar and 
saw the 'Thaanaanathirumeni' It was worth all the trouble and simply 
thrilling.Then we also had the darsan of Nrisimha climbing the steep 
steps wich except for the fervour  to see the Lord I would never have 
manipulated. That very evening we arrived at Kumbakonam by bus  and 
went to Sarangapamni temple and had the darsan of Aravamudhan.

        Next morning we took a taxi and went to Nachiarkovil. The 
PerumaThirunaraiyur Nambi , whom Titumngaiazvar calls as 
thirunarayurthEn stands as 'nalirvai mullai muruvalikkum narayur 
ninra nambi,' in all His vyaha forms stole our hearts. The kalgarudan 
is so majestic to look at. Our next visit was to Thirukkannapuram 
where the Urtsavar had gone to sirgazi and we saw moolavar only. and 
then to Nagai. We saw Sondararajaperumal, who makes one 
exclaim 'achchO oruvar azagiyavaa' along with the azvar.

        Then we proceeded to thirkkannangudi where also the utsavar 
has gone out to some divyasthala and the temple was locked . We were 
sorry to have missed darsan but my loss has been amply made good by 
the recent pictures of the perumal from the groups.Our next visit 
that morning was to thirukkannamangai to see Bhakthavatsala perumal 
and lastly we went to Thiruchcherai and had the darsan of Sarnatha 
perumal and returned to Kumbakonam.That evening we went to the 
udayavar sannidhi nearby and also to Chakrapani temple.

        The next morning, that is on 16th we went to Oppiliappan 
kovil, which I wanted to visit  particularly because the last time I 
went I missed seeing the Perumal due to thaila kkaappu. It was worth 
anyway to have waited so long since we had a wonderful darsan , 
thanks to Sri Sadagopan of NY ho very kindly referred us to sri 
Govindarajabhattar who arranged a special darsan for us . After 
seeing the Lord there I no longer felt the inability to visit 
Thirupathi and became completely  content with  the darsan of ' 
ennappan enakkaayirulaai ennaippetravaLaai, ponnappan maniyappan 
muththappanen appanumaai minnapponmadhil sooz thiruviNNagar 
sErndhappan thannoppaarillappan,' From ther we wentto Sooriyanaar 
kovil and came back to Kumbakonam.

        That very evening we proceeded by the same taxi to Aadanur 
where I had an exhilerating experience. As it happened in most of the 
temples there was nobody else visitibng and we had to call the 
bhattar to show us the sannidhi. The sannidhi was open and we entered 
in and immediatelyn I wasthrilled to see the huge form of reclining 
perumal who looked the exact replica of Sri Ranganatha of Srirangam. 
At that moment my husband went to stand outside to wait for the 
bhattar as he was perspiring inside and I was left alone with the 
Lord on the rightside of whom on the wall was a painting of Sri 
Lakshminrsimha, who is my ishtadevatha. The few minutes I was 
standing near the Lord and my feelings the ncannot be described by 
words as Thyagaraja puts it'eelaagani vivarimpalenu tsaala 
svaanubhavavedhyamE' In short I felt that any moment the Lord  is 
going to  move and speak. I really did not want to come back to this 
world and continue to live after such experience.

        Our next visit was to Pullambhodhangudi. where Sri Rama is 
seen in sayanathirukkolam. Outside the sannidhi ther is a sannidhi of 
Yoganarasimha seeing whom I cannot drag myself away but went on 
standing in front of Him for several minutes. Only the thought that 
we had to visit few more divyasthalas before night fall made me leave 
the place.

        From there we went to Kapisthala  and had the darsan of 
GajEndravaradan and then to Nandipuravinnagaram to see 
Jagannaathaperumal. Only we missed the small temple in Narasimhapuram 
where the Bhattar had locked the templle and had gone to Nagai for 
shopping.

         The next day we visited the rest of the temples in 
Kumbakonam, namely , Ramaswami kovil, Varahperumal kovil and last but 
not the least, Brahma kovil. The Ramaswami kovil is the only place 
whre Srirama is seen as Pattabhirama with His brothers and Anjaneya 
with a veena in his hand. On the walls of the praakaara the scenes of 
Ramayana are painted in detail as could not be seen anywhere else. 
Usually the Ramayana paintings will show only important scenes but 
here not a single incident is omitted and going through them in 
detail is like reading the valamikiramayana. After that we went to 
Varaha perumal kovil and had the darsan of Lakshmivaraha. The best 
experince was at the Brahma kovil where Lord Narayana is flanked by 
the sannidhis of Brahma and Nrsimha facing each other.  A little  
away down the street is Varadaraja both temples being managed by the 
saurashtra community. The bhattar of the kovil, Sri Rajamani is an ex 
LIC employee who took over from his father the temple duties when  
the latter became too old and he seems to be very dedicated. He asked 
us to come the next day which was svati and watch the thirumanjana of 
Narasimha.. As I secretly wished that I should be able to have a 
darsan of Narasimha on the day of leaving for chennai, even befor 
knowing about this Narsimhan kovil, I felt as though the Lord has 
granted my wish. The next day we went for the thirumanjana and 
started for Chennai in the night.

        We had to thank the Lord for two things. One is that we had a 
very good darsan in most places , more or less ekaanthaseva as it is 
off season. Secondly we had a very good guide in the form of one 
Mr.Ravi who owns the taxi we hired and about whom we ame to know 
through a friend. He is very dedicted to his work and showed us even 
the places which we would not have known otherwise like the Brahma 
temple. He even presented us with alovely picture of Sounderaraja 
Perumal of Nagai. If any one intends to go to kumbakonam I can 
strongly recommend him  to be of service. His email is 
ravichand_kmu@xxxxxxxxx and phone;0435-94430 70357. Address'sri annai 
aravindar cabs,63,bhakthapuri street, Kumbakonam.

        Above all I thank the members of the groups Divyadesam , 
Oppiliappan and otheradiyars who have given me useful information and 
wished me a good trip. 






 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list