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.
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