Breakaway from the routine - an escapade with the GODS

One fine day one of my friends casually asked me if we could go on a day long trip to visit temples of lord Shiva, "Why not?", I said and that is how the plan was made.  We initially decided to visit Chidambaram, Vaitheeshwaran koil, Seerkazhi and Mayavaram.  8th December, the Saturday was chosen as we could afford to take rest the next day.

It was decided that we start as early as 4:00 am in the morning in order to cover all the 4 temples in one day, we requested the cab driver to come by 3:30 in the morning since everyone had to be picked from different locations.  I woke up by 3:00 am, soon after my morning routine, I woke my mom by 3:30 and asked her to prepare some breakfast for the group, the idea was to spare the time spent eating breakfast in a hotel.  The breakfast was prepared and packed by 4:00 am, Amma had already made the arrangements the previous night, the commitment of our mothers are bluntly incontestable.

I received a call from Sangavi by around 4:30 in the morning, she said that they have started from Korratur and would reach Mylapore in a while, though the driver had some difficulties spotting my place, the cab arrived at 5:00 am.  The cab was occupied by Sangavi, Nitheesh (Sangavi’s younger bro) and their mom.  I got into the front seat after waiving a "hi" to the three of them and gestured a "bye" to Amma, she was standing in the balcony to send me off.  We left straight to Tambaram to pick others.  By 5:45 am we reached Tambaram to pick Jaishree, her mom, Chitra and Vijay, pleasantries were shared as we got introduced to each other (since we were meeting for the first time).  We left from Tambaram by sharp 6:00 am, a mighty 2 hr delay from what we had planned.

The roads were covered with fog, there was barely any visibility beyond 10 mts.  Myself and Nitheesh were seated in the front seat and we got ourselves cracking on a variety of subjects.  Building a conversation was never a problem, I have a topic for everyone ;).  We were discussing about Cash Flow statements and their financial implications, we also discussed about the key financial parameters to be scrutinized before investing, while the girls were having a gala time giggling and chitchatting, girls you see ;)..  It must be around 7:30 am, we stopped at a place that read ‘Kumbakonam Coffee’ it was hard for us to resist, we had breakfast and sukku kaapi and left by around 8.  Straight to Chidambaram.

  (Sri Panakatteshwarar temple)

I was sharing my experience about 1,500 to 2,000 year old Sri Panakatteshwarar temple that is located in a small village by the name Panayapuram near Villupuram, I had visited this temple a month before.  As per the inscriptions in the temple, King Sibi Chakkravarthi (the one who offered his flesh to save a dove) had offered his prayers to Panakatteshwarar.  

   (Sri Panakatteshwarar temple)

It is said that Surya Bhagavan worshipped Lord Shiva here to regain his brightness.  A rare feature in this temple is that, in the months of April – May (Tamil month Chithirai) the Sun rays fall directly on the lord as well as Ambal, bathing them from top to bottom as he transits from morning to evening!!  Is it not an architectural marvel??  As I spoke about the temple, it so happened that Nitheesh spotted Panayapuram sign board while we were driving past Villipuram, we thought it was a good idea to stop by and visit the temple before we proceed to Chidambaram.  Do we call it a coincidence?  In my opinion, nothing is coincidental, it is all well planned, orchestrated and executed by HIM.  After the soulful darshan of Sri Panakatteshwarar and Puravammai, we left to Chidambaram by 10:30 am. 

We had to rush since we wanted to cover Chidambaram before 2 pm, else the temple will be closed for visitors.  We reached the Thillai Natarajar temple in Chidambaram by around 11:45 am, exactly when uchi kala poojai was going on.  It was splendid to see the lord of the lords Nataraja in his “Ananda Thandava” posture amidst the ringing bells and deeparadhana.  The “Ananda Thandava” posture of Nataraja represents pancikritya functions of the head of Gods, Shiva is believed to have formed the dynamic force to create the world.  Hara Hara mahadeva.. Goosebumps as I write..  

(Natarajar)

After worshipping Thillai Natarajar, we offered our prayers to lord Vishnu who was in the form of Govindaraja Perumal, it is to be noted that  it is one of the 108 divyadesams.  As we moved around the temple we offered our prayers to Shivakami Amman, Ganesha and Murugan.  We were mesmerized and stunned by the architecture of the grand old structure, there were amazing sculptures all around the temple pillars and extraordinary paintings in the ceilings.  It is believed that the temple was originally raised in the Sangam period (30th century BC to 4th century CE) with additions later in similar style in the 12th and 13th centuries respectively by Aditya I, Parantaka Chola I, Kopperunchinga I, Krishnadevaraya and Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan.  Marvy!! isn’t it? to be offering prayers in a temple that was worshipped  before 2 millenniums.   

(Thillai Natarajar temple Gopuram)

The time was 2:00 pm and the authorities asked us to vacate the temple, while we were moving out, Chitra gave an interesting explanation about the mythical creature Yali that is found as stone carvings in numerous temples in Tamil Nadu and across South India.  Since Lion was the emblem of Pallavas, the Cholas created an imaginary character Yali that has the head of a lion with tusks of an elephant and tail of a serpent.  Chitra also shared her spiritual disclosure with respect to vibrations and positive ambiance that she experiences while visiting temples, especially the Ancient ones.  It is wonderful to be on a spiritual tour, particularly with "Like minded" people around, the feeling is simple inexplicable.

(The place where we had lunch)

We started from Chidambaram by around 2:15 pm and headed towards Vaitheeswaran koil.  We found an excellent shady place on our way which was brilliantly spotted by our driver to have lunch.  A huge tree, branch of a river, cool breeze, two cute little puppies around, WOW, we couldn’t have enjoyed such a luxury even in the finest of the Hotels.  Sangavi and Jaishree’s mom had prepared delicious puliyodharai, curd rice, pudina thogayal, chips and pickle.  We relished our lunch and rested for a while, we utilized this time to know more about each other, since most of us were meeting for the first time.  The time we spent was sort of an ice breaker, now we were a more open lot, the journey was filled with fun and frolic as we reached Vaitheeswaran temple by 3:00 pm.

(Vaitheeswaran koil holy tank “Siddha Amritam)

We were told that the temple will open only by 4:30, we used the one hour time to freshen up.  I took a dip in the holy tank Siddha Amritam which is located within the temple complex.  It is believed that the holy tank contains nectar and a holy dip is supposed to cure all diseases.  We were still left with some time, myself, Nitheesh, Sangavi, Chitra, Jayashree and Vijay sat in a circle and were discussing about Lord Shiva and his various forms.  Jayashree and Sangavi spoke about their aptitude to connect with lord Shiva after reading Amish Tripathi’s immortals of meluha while I agreed to disagree.  Nonetheless it was a healthy conversation.

The sannidhi opened by 4:30 pm, we bought archanai tickets and vilvam for Vaithyanatha Swamy and Thayyal Nayagi.  All of us were made to sit inside the prakaram by the priests, I do not know what induced the priest to call us inside.  All of us had fantastic darshan of  Lord Shiva who was in the form of Vaithyanatha Swamy.  During the Ramayana period, Rama and Lakshmana have worshipped the deity in this place.  It is believed that Rama and his brother Lakshmana cremated the vulture king Jatayu (who was killed by Ravana) at this place.  We also offered our prayers to Angaraka (Mars) who has a separate Sannidhi, Murugan and Thayyal Nayagi.  We procured some prasadam from the temple counter, without any further delay we got into our Cab and advanced towards Sattainathar Temple in Sirkazhi.

Sirkazhi temple is just 6 kms from Vaitheeshwaran temple, we reached Sattainathar Temple by 5:30 pm.  Sirkazhi temple is an ancient temple complex where Shiva resides in three different forms, Bhramapureeswarar, Thoniappar and Sattainathar.  First we offered our prayers to Bhramapureeswarar, there was hardly any crowd in the temple, which was like icing on the cake.  We proceeded to Tirugnana Sambandar’s sannidhi, this is one temple that has a separate shrine for Gnana Sambandar.  There is a mythological story that when Sambandar was three years old, Shiva and Parvati appeared before the child that was crying for milk, goddess Parvati breastfed the little Sambandar and that is when the child became Gnana Sambandar and this incident is said to have happened in this grand old temple.

(Sirkazhi Sattainathar temple)

Since most of them were visiting the temple for the 1st time, I kept saying that everyone will be taken by surprise when they climb up and take a glimpse of Sri Thoniappar who resides at the second level.  We were ‘awestruck’ by the gigantic figure of lord Shiva who was in the form of Periyanakar with Periyanayaki sitting on a Thoni, no one could utter a word, as we were completely swept off by HIS magnificence.  I could ask for nothing but thank him for this wonderful life he has bestowed me with.  Lovely parents, very good education, a decent job, wonderful set of friends and most importantly a heart that is content..  What else could one ask for in life?  The priest explained us the sthala puranam, it is said that after pralayam (world coming to an end) in the treta yugam, Shiva and Parvati came on a Thoni and hence the name Thoniappar.  We further climbed upwards to worship another form of Shiva Sattainathar through a small window, we were told that the shrine will be open only during specific days in the year.  Sirkazhi temple remains very close to my heart for numerous reasons, it is said that those who visit this temple will get their mind purified and get over ignorance, true in fact.

(The team)

It was around 6:30 pm, we packed ourselves back into the cab, despite waking up as early as 2:30 in the morning, continued by tireless travel, everyone were so enthusiastic and overwhelmed.  We were extremely satisfied on how the day was spent.  The fact is we did not plan or organize the trip as such, things just fell in place, HE made the plan for us.  Had we planned, I am not quite sure how the outcome would have been.  It reminds me of a quote, “Surrender to the Cosmic plan, don’t be a victim of your personal agenda”.

Our way back to Chennai was really entertaining, we cracked a lot of jokes and pulled each other’s legs.  We had some confusions with regards to the route but it was later sorted out.  It was 10:00 pm when we stopped for dinner, everyone had almost lost their desire for food.  It was a usual highway restaurant, as suggested by Jaishree we all sat outside and had dinner in moon light, again a lot of jokes were cracked on a variety of topics.  Sangavi was sharing her experiences about a wild life tour that she had been with her office colleagues.  Though the food was very average, we didn’t bother much since the fun element made up for the bad food. 

At last we reached Tambaram by around 12:30 midnight.  Jaishree, Vijay and Chitra who were in deep sleep had to be woken up to be dropped.  From there I was dropped in Mylapore by around 1:15 am, and lastly Sangavi, Nitheesh were dropped in Korratur by 2:00 am.  600 kms and 22 hrs of assiduous journey had worn us out (and enriched our souls).  All of us went back home carrying sweet memories of the day long road trip..  Om Nama Sivaya!!!