By PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU (VRS.Somanchi)
(1)
On 3-8-24 morning our people went for holy bath in the sea and for the ceremonial baths in the 22 “Thirthams”(holy wells) . Most unfortunately I felt extremely tired and could not go and also kept our grand-children along with me .The feeling of missing these “Holy Snaans”( holy baths) will always pain me — being in Rameswaram coming from our place 1000 miles away and and not visiting the holy places. I pray to Lord Shiva and Mother Parvathi and Lord Rama and Mother Seetha– to forgive me for this big lapse. Luckily our people brought a bottle of holy waters containing waters of Agni Theertham and other theerthams. We mixed this holy water in the water we used in the hotel for bathing. While visiting other holy places on Rameswaram island I went to the sea two or three times and sprinled the holy sea water ( i.e. water from the sea near holy Rameswaram) on the head .
(2)
Our people returned at
about 11am from their visit to the seaside and from the Holy Snan in the
22 wells while I and children remained in the hotel. After some rest we
had our meals and got ready to visit several other holy places on Rameswaram
island.We vacated the hotel ,loaded all our baggage in the car and proceeded to
visit other holy places on the island connected with legend of Lord Rama.It is
a journey of great love and reverence to the great gods of Ramayana and the
several Puranas.
There was “Gandhamaadana” hill where
Vibhishana, the evil king Ravana’s younger brother and great devotee of
Lord Rama alighted from the skies to join Lord Rama’s side after parting
with his cruel brother king Ravana. There is a Rama Temple on the hillock and a
large flight of steps had to be climbed. Due to joint pains I could not
climb the large number of steps and remained below. All of us had coconut water
and sweet coconut pulp after our people returned. Here I met an NRI
devotee and his wife(Telugu people) who came all the way from US to see
the holy places of India. I talked with them off and on for a few minutes
but As their travel bus ( tourist bus) was ready to leave, they left in a
hurry.
Our car took us to Dhanushkodi
(the Land’s End on the Indian side).The entire population of Dhanushkodi
perished during a terrible cyclone in 1964 .It is a horrible tragedy. However
the ruins of the place are kept undisturbed by the governments so that
visitors realize the scale of the tragedy and pray for the souls of
the departed. I prayed for peace to the souls of the departed of that tragedy.
As already said in beginning the Sri Rama temple at Dhanushkodi constructed
on a low hillock was not damaged by the cyclone. The statues there
were reportedly shifted to the Sri Anjaneya temple in Rameswaram.
There is also another story relating
to Dhanushkodi . After reaching the vast sea between India and ancient Lanka
(modern SriLanka) Lord Rama requested the god of oceans to help him build
a bridge to Lanka. The sea god ignored Lord Ram’s request . Lord Rama became
angry and he was about to fire a magical arrow full of divine power in to
the sea to entirely evaporate the sea. The sea god was frightened and
appeared before Lord Rama agreeing for construction of a bridge of floating
boulders over the sea.
We heard of the holy
“Vellondi Theertham” . Legend says that when Queen Seetha felt very
thirsty Lord Rama shot an arrow deep into the sea and created the sweet water
spring. The modern Vellondi theertham exists at the same spot. Videos show a
beautiful beach section where a raised walk in the shape of a
narrow concrete bridge— one or two hundred feet long and wide enough for two
people to walk side by side— is built in the shallow sea right up
to the spring near the base of cement well .
(3)
There are many other beautiful and
holy theerthams linked to the Ramayana mythology. Particulars of some of them
are given below.
The “Sethu” theertham near
Dhanushkodi area. Vibhheshana became the new king of Lanka (after
cruel Ravana was killed. King Vibheeshana asked Lord Rama to dismantle
the floating stone bridge after it served its purpose .The theertham here
is called “Sethu”theertham.
Jada Theertham. It is located on
rameswaram island 5 kilometers away from the temple town and on the road
leading to Dhanushkodi . Here Lord Rama after killing the cruel king
Ravana washed his matted hair (jada).
Lakshman Theertham:It is a big
temple tank(“teppakulam”) near to the main temple of Ramanathaswamy. There is a
temple of Lord Shiva here.
Seetha Theertham and Rama Theertham:
It is said that Dharmaraja the Pandava king bathed in these theerthams to get
absolved of speaking untruth during the Mahabharatha war about death of
Ashwathama the warrior son of sage Drona.
One is attracted to Rameswaram as if
by a magnet and does not like to leave the temple and the picturesque island
too early. Many days would be required to visit the many places linked to Lord
Rama’s holy story. But we had to leave as we had a very tight program of
travel.
Rameswaram is a very busy
pilgrim town with population of only 45,000 but its floating population
increases to hundreds of thousands during festival times. Thousands of
pilgrims visit Rameswaram every day. Majority of the population is involved in
tourism related services. While in 1971 only 70% of people were
employed in the service sector now ,as per internet , 98% of the town
population are in service sector –mainly the temple related duties.
(4)
For 2000 years or more
traditional Indians were trained by Ramayana-Mahabharata religion in
their daily life. The Ramayana-Mahabharatha religion respects
both the Vaishnava and Shaiva philosophies . The high morality
stories create a tolerant, nonviolent, otherworldly and
optimistic and artistic philosophy in the minds of people.This same
sublime philosophy is reflected in the sculptures not only at
Rameswaram but in the hundreds of thousands of temples all over
india .
Lord Rama viewed this material world
only as a mirage and the world of beautiful gods as the real world. Many
characters– Lord Rama, Queen Seetha ,princes Laxmana and Bharatha ,
Lord Hanuman, King vibhishana– portray saintly lives.the great sages like
valmiki,vashishta,vishwamitra, narada etc speak sublime philosophy . The
Ramayana and Mahabharatha were read by people in India for 2000
years trained people in high morality.In this modern world as education streads
all misunderstandings about religion,race,caste ,color etc will disappear.
Every inch of Rameswaram is
linked to the Rama legend. People wonder at the way lord rama could
sacrifice his claim to the throne to keep flying his much revered
father’s reputation and to maintain high ethical standards. His
saintly queen respected her husband and suffered greatly. Lord Rama and
Queen Seetha are worshipped more as ideal human beings than as gods of
heavens. Traditional people grow emotional while praying to Lord Rama and
Goddess Seetha. They moulded the thinking of children in Hindu families
for countless generations.
Mahatma Gandhi recognized this
latent moral potential in millions of traditional Hindus . He could turn
simple unlettered rural folks and poor and middle class urban dwellers
into soldiers of Indian freedom movement . The satyagrahis did not
care the many hardships and punishments and not a few sacrificed their lives .
They challenged the British colonial government in a peaceful way and won
freedom for India .
(5)
CONCLUSION
I can can not conclude the
series without referring to the great king Bhaskara Sethupathi. Ancient Indian
culture is saved and glows forever because of contributions of such great
kings. When we see the numerous articles in the Internet on these temples , we
can see lots of photographs and videos which bring those glorious temples( the
gems of our heritage) before our eyes . We should really be grateful. We might
have visited the temples in a hurry and missed some must-see places. These
videos and photo in addition to rare facts in the text about the historic past
of these temples really make us happy. One of the wonders in respect of all
these old majestic temple of South India is that every temple has a majestic
central hall linking the many long majestic awe inspiring corridors. The big
temple complexes with the central halls full of sculptures and the long high
corridors look like part of the real heaven of gods brought down by the great
sculptors to earth. Many traditional devotees and many poetic-minded of the
modern generations feel that their lives are fulfilled by visiting these
heaven- like temples. They are verily like parts of heaven with vast number of
most beautiful and sublime image of gods.
In every temple , each of the many
corridors has not a dozen but a few hundred pillars built with heavy stone and
decorated with beautiful sculptures . This is a proof of the great skill of the
ancient architects and engineers of India who utilized the stone medium with
such mastery .
It is to be noted that there was
great mutual reverence between Vaishnava and Shaiva philosophers of those
glorious ancient times . This is proved by the many beautifully idols of
Vaishnava gods in Shaiva temples and Shaiva gods in Vaishnava temple. We can
see many such sculptures on the main temple towers of these temples. The
ancient “engineers” surely possessed as much knowledge of construction
engineering as modern engineers.
Such engineering skill of old
architects is “aggressively”visible in the majestic Brihadeeswara
temple of Tanjavur. At Rameswaram temple, constructing a raised platform
and a high wall all around the rectangular temple complex hardly a hundred
yards from sea is a wonder. Similar is the case in Thiruchendur where the
majestic giant sized temple exists right on the sea coast and is one of
the most beautiful sea side temples in India. We feel our lives are blessed
after we visited these temples.
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