Sringeri, Udupi

Udipi,Shringeri,guruvayur

As we alight from Mangalore express at 9 am on 3^rd Feb 2015 at Mangalore, I am a little tense about the cab driver’s slow pace ,his lethargy and his almost nil knowledge of either English or tamil.

We decide to drive straight to Sringeri to have dharshan of the two Swamigals. Sringeri is one of the four Madams established by Adi Sankara to propagate  Advaita philosophy. One at Sringeri, one in Kashmir, one in  Puri and one in Dwaraka. Sringeri has had a new young Swamigal installed a week ago.

The  drive through the Kudremukh forest area is  refreshing ,and the cut pineapples we get at the checkpost here is delicious. It struck me that being amidst  green trees itself has become such a treat .

The office on the main road at Sringeri offers rooms at Rs 100  with a view of the river “Thunga”. Dumping our suit cases and after a quick bath we head to the temple.

It was our misfortune that we arrived only at 12.30 and the bridge across the river that lead to the Ashramam was closed till 5.30. But we had a beautiful dharshan of Sharadambal,  decked in diamond nose ring and a green emerald studded crown, covered in flowers ,a smiling face. The bridge is built over the river Tunga which has water running  about knee deep.

After dharshan we are told to go for lunch to a huge hall ,which has rows and rows of a slightly raised platform in granite for us to sit on while gleaming steel plates are placed along with tumblers. Rice is served from a four wheel steel cart, and tasty rasam first,  kai and then sambar, payasam and then a very watery buttermilk. A quick service team of 8 ladies come to clean the used plates and in no time it is clean and a shining hall waiting for more devotees..

On our way back , close to Udipi , we visit a Durgambal temple on a hill, near the birth place of Madhvachar. A beautiful temple with wooden structures and low entrances, this temple is said to have been the play area for this great SEER.

Madhvachar is believed to have been the avatar of the great Bheem and The great Hanuman.

To prove his physical prowess, this Seer  has jumped from rock to rock to reach his home about 100 mtrs away, on the plains in Pajaka kshetra his birthplace. Here, once having borrowed money from a moneylender his father had nothing to return but young Madhvachar gave the moneylender some puliyangai.(Tamarind seeds) which turned into gold. So the Prasad here is a tamarind seed from the old tree which stands here bearing fruit even today. His Aradhanai deivam here is Anantha padmanabhan who sits ,Narasimhan ,Narayanan ,one below the other in that order,

UDIPI

We reached Udipi around 6:00pm on 3^rd Feb. Udipi has plenty of Matts and is surrounded by them and these matts have built huge rest houses. We check into  Admar mutt  where the rooms are huge airy and v clean .It is right opposite Woodlands hotel and a five minute walk to the temple.

The phone number of Admar matt is 0820-2520320   the rooms are good but there seems to be no western type toilet.

At the temple we have good dharshan ,there is no big crowd here no tickets to see the Lord, and no middlemen to haggle with devotees ,everything is at a slow pace, the temple is big, cool and very disciplined.  Much to our delight there is a theppam in the small pond inside. We stay in line for this and there are 2 boats tied to each other and a nice Adiseshan on it. The God plaque is brought in  to the accompaniment of a Band and chandei vadyam ,a small harathi is performed and then two men clad in Panjakacham veshti sit behind with oars and row this  twin boat around. Then this same God plaque is brought out and kept on the huge tall Rath (temple car). For once we can actually see the brightly lit diety inside the thare and we get an opportunity to pull it even.

The Mada streets or Car streets as they are called are wide, about a KM long overall and in no time the chariots come around .There is also a diamond studded smaller Rath, which comes along. About 2oo people are to be seen here at one time .In one of the streets there is a small café, Mitra Nivas,  which serves no onion no garlic food and one hardly gets a seat here.

Morning first dharshan is at 5 am and we are ready at the temple at 4.45,waiting with hardly 15 people around we get to see Krishna ,many time round. then starts the Abishekam which can also be viewed on a cc tv inside .

After   breakfast at Woodlands ( Buns a mangalorean dish made of Maida and bananas and masal dosai) , we head to the temple again at 8.30am to find Krishna all dressed in a bright pink veshti and decked in many jewels.

The story goes that Kanaka Dasar, who was of a low caste sung Krishna’s praises always but was denied entry to the temple, though the East Gopuram. Kanakdasa then walked around the temple and once again started singing from the west side. Angry with the vain Brahmin system ,Krishna turned his face to Kanaka dasa and stood facing Dasa ( Deity faces west today ) . So we see Krishna only though a grill , because Krishna refused to see anyone else.