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B y PragyanSharma Polavarapu We had lot of shopping at the big bazaars on the temple streets. We had a lot of work packaging our samans. We came to hotel and took food and rested and talked a lot on phone to our relatives at Hyderabad. Our plan was now to move to the sea side resort at Varkala to celebrate our daughter’s birth day(in a simple way). I may specially add here that only because of initiative of our daughter and son-in-law we planned this hurried very long temple trip a month before and this temple trip proved a most wonderful and most holy trip . Seeing so many great ancient temples lifted our souls.We fixed the dates of the long trip in such a way that we would visit Lord Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple before the birth day date. We were very happy and satisfied that we could implement our plan. On the way we saw many of Kerala’s famed “backwaters”. They were created by nature centuries back when cyclones and high tides pushed colossal quantities of water int...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (A)INTRODUCTION (1) The temple’s gopuram(the holy tower) is 100 feet high and has magnificent sulime sculptures of Hindu gods . There is a magnificent sculptured corridor directly leading upto sanctum sanctorum and it has 360 majestic stone pillars of great hight with beautiful sculptures of gods. In addition there is the famous “Ottakkal Mantapam” a little monolithic entrance mantapam before the sanctum . It has a base stone platform (2mx2mx2.5 feet). Half of this platform extends into the sanctum sanctorum. Thus its surface in the Ottakkal mantapam is as holy as floor of sanctum sanctorum. Only a devotee who sacrifices all his wealth and belongigs to god and surrenders to god can stand on it. The great Travancore king Marthanda varma who renovated and reconstructed the temple donated the entire kingdom to Lord Anantha Padmanabha. (2)Since 2000 years or more there was lot of sea trade (by huge sail boats) with ancient West Asia through the Arabian sea...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1) We reached Tiruvananthapuram at midnight on 4-8-24 and stayed in the hotel already booked there by us . On morning of 5-8-24 we got ready at 6am and started for the temple. We were there before the time suggested by the guide( 8am). I could not believe my eyes . We were at that moment in the majestic Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple by the sea side and we were a full 1300 kilometers away from our home! The gopuram is decorated with most sublime and most artistic sculptures of gods . I wondered how the sculptors could create such sulime art on the temple towers and the many pillars and in the mantapams we saw in various temples. It appears a great temple art renaissance took place throughout south India.All the temples renovated reconstructed during last 300-400 years in south India (particularly in the far south) possess most sublime temple art. Even ordinary persons can detect this uniform high art standard.Many internet sites shower high priz...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu SRI SUCHINDRAM TEMPLE , SRI VIVEKANANDA ROCK, SRI TIRUVALLUVAR TEMPLE –ALSO MUPPANDAL WIND FARM. I remember we started early at about 1o’clock in the afternoon(4-8-24) from Thiruchendur after a little rest after food. We had important places to visit on our way to Thiruvananthapuram which is about 200 kilometers away. The direct journey would take four and half hours but we would be slowly travelling and the journey may take two or three hours more. We travelled close by the sea.It was a most pleasant journey for us from distant Deccan Plateu lands i.e.from Hyderaad city. Now of course we actually started from Pune, Maharashtra and would be returning there for a stay at our daughter’s house. We travelled among millions of coconut trees and often in close view of the sea. (1)MUPPANDAL WIND POWER FARM. After journeying for about 70 kilometers we passed by the Kudamkulam Nuclear Power station(Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu) which is said to b...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (A) At about 4 pm on 3-8-24 we started from Rameswaram to Thiruchendur (220 kms, 5 hours journey, Thuthukudi district ) to visit the famous and most holy and most beautiful sri Murugan temple. We travelled near to the southern sea boundary. For us who live in land-locked Hyderabad 1100 kilometers away it was really a thrill to travel very close to sea coast and journey amidst millions of coconut trees and endless greenery. The sea “was here there and every where”. When winds are strong the waves grow to huge size and look like foaming angry horses.It was night around 10 pm when we reached Thiruchendur. We just went to the nice hotel and took rest. The Tiruchendur temple is said to be the most popular and most visited temple in Tamilnadu .The temple is of huge proportions just like the temple at Srirangam, Jambukeswara temple,Sri Villiputhur temple,Madurai Meenakshi temple and Rameswaram temple. The pillared corridors and mandapams are as ...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (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 . There is a very interesting point here about the sea at some places in Rames...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu The fact that the great temple complex was built within 500 metres of the sea and on solid and rigid stone platforms (using huge blocks of granite stones obtained from distant places) proves that the creators of those temples possessed extraordinary architectural, engineering skills equal those of modern enginees and thought most scientifically like modern engineers. It is said that the ancient kings of Jafna ( a small peninsula in northern SriLanka and about 90 kilometers from Rameswaram island at tip of south India) were followers of Shaiva Hinduism and so were interested in developing the Lord Shiva temple at Rameswaram and supplied stones (perhaps big stone slabs and sculptured stone pillars) by ship to Rameswaram island and also sent workers . It is to be noted that the country of SriLanka is a Buddhist country for last 2000 years and 80 to 85% of its people are Buddhists . The small Jafna peninsula being near to south India ,large number ...

  By PragyanSharma Polavarapu THERE ARE WONDERS SPIRITUAL, GEOGRAPHICAL AND ALSO TECHNOLOGICAL AT RAMESHWARAM (A) INTRODUCTION Some people realize god by writing holy books about gods.These books themselves are treated equal to gods because every hymn in it creates an inspiring image of god in the reader’s mind . We know of the great books like Ramayan, the Geetha, the Guru Grandh Sahib. Some people create a painting of god or a sculpture of god which too have such effect. great sculptors of yore created some sublime and majestic idols of gods and those idols adorn some of our temples . the idols we see in srirangam,Madurai and rameswaram etc create great spiritual joy in our minds. Similarly since ancient times some sweet water springs and beautiful ponds were identified with certain gods and goddesses of our mythologies and are greatly venerated . Such are the holy theerthams( sweet water springs or ponds of water or nice beaches) of holy Rameswaram island which is c...

  By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1) Ramanathaswamy sannidhi There are two main deities. The Shivalinga of Ramanatha swamy (made by goddess Seetha with sand) and Viswanathalinga (brought by Lord Hanuman from Kailas) . The Utsava idols of Ramanathaswamy and goddess Parvathavarthini, Lord Rama and goddess Sita and the idols of Lakshmana, Sgriva, Hanuman are also kept in this shrine . The shrines for of Sun God with his queen, the Ganthamadhana lingam and Jyothi Lingam (brought by vibhishanan) are also in the first corridor There are statues of 63 Nayanars ,the great Shaivite saints and great devotees of Lord Shiva.There are shrines of Dhakshina Moorthi,Saraswathi,Nataraja, Durga Devi and Chandikeswara (2) Goddess Vishalakshi sannidhi Goddess Parvathi in the context of worship of Lord Shiva as Viswanatha lingam is called goddess Vishalakshi. Pooja to the goddess is performed along with worship of Lord Vishwanatha. ( 3 )Goddess Parvathavarthini Sannidhi– goddess Parvath...

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1) After reaching Rameswaram around 5pm and while proceeding to the hotel we could secure services of a nice and patient temple guide. He intimated on phone that booking of pooja tickets would be closed by 6pm and that because of the limited day time available we should decide whether to go to the main Ramanathaswamy temple or to the Agni Theertham (samudra snan) and other holy wells that evening. It was a little dilemma for us because of following reasons. Our return flight ticket to Mumbai was already booked. So we had to plan our further journey upto Thiruvananthapuram to visit the most venerated Anantha Padmanabha swamy temple there (one of our chief aims) and two or three other most famous ancient temples and to allot time for our stay at a resort for a birthday celebration . We have to allot time and fix visits to the various places as per a fixed plan.All our journey after Madurai was being done by car. But we had to complete the total tr...