My tour to divyadesams

[Guest guest]

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 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.