Kumbakonam | 6thStation

Ancient temples have always fascinated me, because they are unquestionably great sources of mystery that are filled with unparalleled imaginative fairytales (I grew up with them as bedtime stories) that have resolutely influenced the way of life, the classic example is the manner in which we celebrate our festivals. Early in our engineering career, the above facts were greatly discussed at length and after north Indian stint, we were all geared up for Tamil Nadu Temple tour! 🙂 It had remained a dream until now.

To begin with we had plans to visit Khajuraho, Panna, Bandhavgarh (Aug 15^th to Aug 20) but after googling, we came to know that Panna, Bandhavgarh national parks will be closed for monsoon (July to October) so we decided to fly to Lucknow, cover Allahabad, Varanasi and Khajuraho. We contemplated so much on booking air tickets because Lucknow return flight charges were close to 10k. Also, tickets to Kanpur was double expensive; if we were to partake in the trip it would’ve easily fired up our budget and in addition, the schedule turned out to be very hectic for 6 days. Therefore, we dropped the MP-UP plan and focused entirely on Tamil Nadu.

After consulting a colleague (who knew more about temples of TN) and as per his recommendations we came up with the below plan, which again was revised umpteen number of times. Initially, we only wanted to travel in trains but due to various constraints had to book tickets (To/Return) in the buses.

The bus journey in SRM (AC/Sleeper) was decent and we reached Thanjavur at 4.45 am (new bus stand). We were in a dilemma whether to take a room or not because we only intended to stay in Thanjavur for about 6 hrs. At that moment, we met high school boy named Rajesh who explained the accessibility of Big temple from his lodge (Thendral Rooms), the price he quoted was 450/- for a day which we willingly acknowledged. I really dunno why I don’t pick good vibes when I travel to TN, its like you feel somewhat uneasy in there at first but later,will somehow get attuned to the surroundings.

Most of the tea shops in TN still use Copper Boilers; the sight restored some balance and further, while walking towards the room an elderly woman (Freshly bathed, with distinctive white mark on the forehead) was drawing rangolis in front of the house (it was 5:15 am! ) Such a comforting sight in the morning which undeniably indicated that we were indeed present in the land of Nataraja!

Rajesh had earlier conveyed that he would get us the hot water for bathing; as a result he brought a small electric heater, it was so small that you can only prepare 2 cups of boiling water ! We were stunned!! 😀 After a quick cold shower we hopped into the bus (with long chassis, similar to BMTC’s 360b, 600F, 201 routes) which took us to the old bus stand. One in the front and other in the back, two conductors monitor the issue of tickets which is satirical when compared to BMTC’s one bus-one conductor rule. For breakfast, we had idly-vada, dosa, pongal and awesome filter coffee (served in traditional TN style).

At 7.00 am, we entered the great Brihadeeswara temple and I really must admit that it is one of the greatest temples I’ve visited. Colossal is the word! Brihadeeswara temple was built by Raja Raja Chola I in 11^th century. It is the greatest of Chola temples and is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

The temple building activities are governed by a standardization procedure. These are detailed in the Vaastu Shastra.

“It is laid down procedure; the sanctum of the temple is the vimana, a dark chamber but marked by a shikara from the outside. In front of the doorway to the sanctum is the mantapam while the place where the deity is located is the garbhagriha. The mantapam is a pillared hall which also serves as an assembly hall. While the mantapam was a detached structure in the earlier temples, later ones were liked to the vimana by an intermediate chamber or antarala. Leading up to the mantapam , is the porch or ardhamandapa. The central deific chamber is left untouched and the outlaying places are linked with prakara (Courtyard) walls and gateways, they are adorned with towers known as gopuram that have given the temples a definite majestic grandeur.”

Prominent features of the Great Brihadeeswara Temple:

The Brihadeeswara Temple was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
The vimana is 66 m high and is among the tallest of its kind in the world.
The Nandi is made of a single stone and is about 2 m in height, 6 m in length and 2.5 m in width.
The outer wall of the upper storey is carved with 81 dance poses of Bharathanatyam.
The presiding deity – shiva linga is 3.7m tall. (Literally massive!! The temple Priests were performing abhisheka from second-storey!)

In tribute to the great Raja Raja Chola, we hymned Raja Raja Cholan naan [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH_ATGp5As0 Music: Ilayaraja, Singer: Yesudas ] 🙂

We left Big Temple at 11 to pay visit to Thanjavur palace, Saraswati Mahal Library, since it was public Holiday (Independence Day) both were closed so we traveled back to room, packed bags and left to Kumbakonam in a local bus. The distance is 40 kms and it took almost an hour; we dropped our bags in Railway Station’s cloak room. In view of the fact that Kumbakonam is filled with loads of temples, we had no appropriate plan. So, we dined in fancy – Vinayaga Restaurant (opp to Railway Station) and later arrived to a conclusion that we will first visit the two Navagraha temples , which included 18km ride to Agniswara Kovil – Kanjanur, Suryanar Kovil and after that, cover all the important temples of Kumbakonam. Therefore, we negotiated an Auto for half-day to all the above places.

Temples Visited:

Agniswara Kovil – Shukran Temple – is one of the nine Navagraha sthalas located in the Cauvery Delta region dedicated to planet Venus( Sukra).
Suryanar Kovil- It is dedicated to the worship of the Hindu Sun-God and the other Navagrahas (the temple priests accurately resembled the sumo wrestlers)
Panduranga Temple – Govindapuram (very much like ISKCON)
Sarangapani Temple – dedicated to Lord Vishnu (Temple is enormous, esp Gopura!!)
Adi Kumbeswarar Temple – dedicated to Lord Shiva, The town’s name is derived it. (Again Temple is huge, really enjoyed the ambiance inside the temple)
Kasi Viswanathar Temple – dedicated to Lord Shiva, The temple has a nava kanniyar/ nava kannigais (Nine rivers) in the form of deities worshiping Lord Shiva and hence the temple is referred as ‘Nava Kanniyar’ temple. The nine rivers are Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Saraswathi, Cauvery, Godavari, Krishna, Tungabhadra, Sarayu (Mahamaham tank surrounding both the temple is extremely picturesque)

After a refreshing tea, we traveled back to the station and took the train Rock Fort (Malai Kottai) Express/16178, It nearly took two hours to reach Tiruchirapalli Junction (89kms) and the train was ahead of its scheduled arrival. We checked into Hotel Saraswati on Rockins Road. (Very bad hotel) After a quick shower rushed towards the restaurant as it was closing for 23:00.

Day2 started off on a slow note because we spent nearly two hours in getting a confirmed ticket to Rameswaram (overnight journey). In Tiruchirapalli, only one private tour operator has buses running to Rameswaram i.e Parveen travels, the starting point is Chennai and the departure time from Tiruchirapalli is 1:30 am!! However, SETC (TMSTC) Buses ply every half hour from Tiruchirapalli to Rameswaram.

We left to Srirangam in a local bus at 10:30, zing-chak shiny bus with two conductors!! 😉 Through the narrow streets (Tiruchirapalli is the fourth largest city in Tamil Nadu) it took nearly 45 min to reach the temple. I had only read, heard about the temple, its enormous gopura in books, internet (Temples of South India, wiki) until I saw it real. My goodness! The giant 13 tiered Rajagopura of the seventh enclosure is 72 m high! A landmark that can be seen for miles!

Prominent features of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple:

The temple lies on an islet formed by the twin rivers Cauvery and Coleroon (Cauvery’s tributary).
Srirangam is the foremost of the eight self-manifested shrines of Lord Vishnu.
Srirangam can be considered the biggest functioning Hindu temple in the world, as it covers an area of about 631,000 sq.m with a perimeter of 4 km.
The Srirangam temple complex is composed of 7 concentric walled sections and 21 gopuram.

However, all the greatness, splendor is completely ruined by the authorized/unauthorized temple priests who literally treat you as a king, if and only if you pay them generously (only in thousands). Equipped with big pot bellies, adorned with Vadakalai Tilak on the forehead, outfitted with fat thread (bright white) hanging around their hideous body, HMT watch on their hands and with thick fat gold chain on their smutty necks (it resembles a bike/cycle chain), they are nth order basterds who do not have any shame, humanity left in them. All they want is money and strangely, money is what the niche-public provide them (for immediate instant darshan!) and on top of that, they fall at their stinking feet and seek blessings! It is so much commercialized that everything looks vulgar, even the lord himself! This is a clear-cut case of discrimination, corruption and we only have ourselves to blame.

We wandered around in the concentric walled sections, took a few photographs, gobbled up few different types of prasadam (you have to pay for it though) and left for Samayapuram which is 10kms from Srirangam. In the mini-bus we interacted with an elderly man who answered our questions in tamil-kannada and also guided us into the temple. Furthermore, he spoke at great lengths about different temples around tirchy and also on issues pertaining with the river Cauvery.

The temple is called Mariamman Temple and it is dedicated to Goddess Pravathy.

Samayapuram is a significant symbol of the native culture in rural Tamil Nadu and there a number of unique practices concerning the Mariamman temples.
Samayapuram has been used a model to describe rural folklore in a number of research works on sociology and religion.

After a quick darshan, we traveled back to Thiruvanaikaval (near Srirangam). Evening darshan timings for Jambukeswar temple is 4:00 pm – 8.00pm . Therefore, in order to kill the time(it was 3:15 pm)we entered a hotel where we ate ice-creams (locally manufactured). It was not that great but the ambiance inside the hotel was really comforting. Vintage, mellow tamil music coming from the radio, we were the sole customers inside the hotel relishing ice-creams one after the another, the cashier (fat-lady) counting the amount of cash in each of same-valued bills. There’s not much to talk about this scenario but the distinctive silence that surrounds us in those peculiar moments make it so very unique, special.

Jambukeswar temple is one of the five major Shiva Temples of Tamil Nadu (Panchabhoota Sthalams). It represents the element of water.
The temple was built by Kocengannan (Kochenga Chola), one of the Early Cholas, around 1,800 years ago.

Again, the temple is huge and has five enclosures and really enjoyed quiet walks around the walls. At the same time, train ticket got confirmed (via-SMS) and to get the bus ticket cancelled we had to rush-back to Parveen Travels (to tirchy) which meant, we had to again travel back to Rockfort Temple from Tirchy (Rockfort is very near to Thiruvanaikaval). So at 6pm, after quick snacks (near Main Bus Stand) we left for Rockfort Temple.

Rockfort temple is situated in the heart of the city which offers stunning view of Trichy, Srirangam and river Cauvery.

The temple is constructed on 83m high rock.
There are two temples inside the Rockfort, the Uchchi Pillaiyar Koil (Lord Ganesha) – carved at the top portion of the rock and the Siva Temple – carved in the middle of the rock.
Geologically the 83m high rock is said to be one of the oldest in the world, dating over billion years ago.
The Shiva temple is the bigger one, housing a massive stone statue of Shiva in the form of Linga along with a separate sanctum for goddess Parvati.

We were about half way up when it started raining but we continued our climb, quickly reached the summit and took shelter. We nearly spent two hours inside the shiva temple; Beautiful rock-cut architecture and design – built by pallavas, further enhanced by nayakas of Madurai.

After quick shower and dinner, we took the train Chennai Egmore Rameshwaram (Sethu) Express/16713 from Tiruchirapalli junction. The train was delayed (30 min) but it reached rameswaram on time. It took nearly 6.15 hrs to reach Rameswaram (266km). Southern railway 3A coaches are really awful, outdated. AC’s will not function, recharge-slots will be broken, toilets run out of water supply and overall maintenance is horrible.

Rameswaram is located on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel. It is situated in the Gulf of Mannar, at the very tip of the Indian peninsula.
According to Ramayana, this is the place where Rama built a bridge, ramasethu across the sea to Lanka to rescue Sita from Ravana.
Together with Varanasi, it is considered to be one of the holiest places in India to Hindus, and part of the Char Dham pilgrimage.
There is a saying that the people who visit Kasi should visit Rameswaram in order to complete their holy journey.

No wonder the train was full with pilgrims from all over India. After an excellent tea near the railway station, we met and started talking with some random guy on availability of hotel rooms and he directly took us to Uttaradi Mutt!! The manager (70+ age) only asked one question: where you guys are from? And he gave us a room on the first floor! He also spoke in kannada which was really hard to comprehend but we somehow explained to him that we wanted to primarily visit Dhanushkodi, initially he said ok and also conveyed that he would arrange a jeep at 7 am but after an hour he instructed us to finish the normal pooja, procedures w.r.t Ramanathaswamy temple and later at 2pm proceed to Dhanushkodi.

Actual Pooja Procedure at Ramanathaswamy temple:

Mani Darshanam – Darshan of Sphatica linga, first thing in the morning at main temple. (Timings: 4 -5 am, we arrived in Rameswaram early Friday morning, around 5 am, so we did not get a chance to get a sneak peek of the same.)
Samudra Snanam – Next, you should take bath in the sea. (Since it was shravana amavasya, there were hoards of people on the beach. It was so dirty, polluted that we did not take the risk! )
Teertha Snanam – Next, visit the temple for Teertha snanam (straight from the sea!!) The temple has 22 wells that are said to contain holy water from different places. You need to sequentially take bath at each place. J (This was again hilarious! People were literally fighting and arguing against each other! Perfect example for blind faith)
Main Pooja – You must now change into new clothes before entering the main chamber.

We also paid a visit to the school in which APJ Abdul Kalam studied (Lower primary Govt School, near the mutt) also to his house which is just two furlongs away from school.

Dhanushkodi was certainly one of the best experiences of the trip. We left rameswaram at 2:30pm, the jeep: it was a piece of iron junk and we still wonder how the driver managed to drive the vehicle out. First stop was at Kodandarama Temple where Ravana’s brother – Vibishana believed to have surrendered before Rama.

Dhanushkodi is a thin strip of land with sea on both sides, it ends after 20kms (from Rameswaram) and offers fantastic view; the meeting of two seas named Aaan (Male) and Penn(Female) kadal (sea). Aaan kadal towards the right, ferocious, roaring and Penn kadal towards the left; very serene, calm. The journey to Dhanushkodi is an experience in itself; you will see nature in its rawest and most awesome form and will definitely enjoy the wilderness surrounding the bay. It is a gigantic wasteland but very picturesque, once you are out into the open you can easily spot mirages. It was all dark and blue towards the right and all plain and white towards the left and because of the convergence of the two different seas, it is really hard to judge the depth of water in the area.

High tidal waves destroyed Dhanushkodi village in 1964 cyclone. After the great disaster, Government of Madras declared Dhanushkodi as Ghost town and the remains of a railway station and church have become a living testimony to the terrible tragedy.

We took bath at the junction of the two seas; a classic mystical experience, lying on the sand and staring at the sky, It felt wonderful and there was absolutely nothing playing on my mind, no persistent mind chatter, no future plans, no nagging worries, it went just blank. When I think about it now, the first thing that comes to my mind is Lester Burnham’s (Kevin Spacey) epic monologue from the movie: American Beauty.

“It’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.” Phew! I’m just glad I figured out what he meant 😀

We were back in rameswaram at 6pm, again went to the temple. This time, it was relatively calm and there was no queue for Teertha Snanam.

The temple has the longest corridor among all Hindu temples in India.
The total length of those corridors is 3850 feet.
There are about 1212 pillars in the outer corridor.
There are two lingams inside the sanctum – one built by Sita residing as the main deity, Ramalingam and the one brought by Hanuman from Kailash called Vishwalingam.

Post dinner, as we spoke to the manager, he explained that it would take atleast 2 days to cover all the major temples in Madurai (our next destination). The little basic details he provided us were so significant, accurate. He even mentioned bus fares correctly!

Day 4 started very early, thanks to mosquitoes; we woke up at 3.30am and took the 05:25 train Rameswaram Madurai Passenger/56724. The moment we have all been eagerly waiting, finally arrived. Ride on the historic Pamban Bridge. It is a bridge on the Palk Strait that connects Rameswaram to mainland India. The bridge spans a 2 km-straight between mainland and island and is the only surface transport link between the two. Warm hues of the morning sun plus the train ride on the bridge made our day so much more special!

The train was packed to the core and the old ladies sitting next to us continued with their usual banter. A small but tough man in early 20’s wearing lungi, sporting a goatee, provided raw and unspoiled entertainment (Local style.) He stood near the door of the train and played loud music on his phone, it was so loud that it prompted me to ask him the name/model of the mobile. 😉 Song that he played was: Dang Dang Diga Diga Dang Dang Ayyayyo 😀 we immediately googled it to discover the movie name: Manam Kothi Paravai. Oh Boy! After the song we all laughed so hard we couldn’t breathe! Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M33oakKEwc

We reached Madurai (second largest city in Tamil Nadu) at 9:30 am. It took four hours to cover distance of 166kms. We dropped our bags in the cloak-room and headed out. West goupra of the temple is very near to the Madurai junction and can be easily reached on foot. Before entering inside the temple we had breakfast in Shree-Sarbarish Hotel (Awesome coffee, Idly vada and Pongal).

In Meenaxi temple, if men are found wearing shorts they are not allowed inside the main chamber. Since all of us were wearing shorts that day, we bought white panche (dhoti).

The main temple is dedicated to Parvati who is known as Meenakshi and her consort, Shiva, named here as Sundareswarar
The complex houses 14 gopurams, the tallest being the southern tower, 51.9 metres (170 ft)
The temple is a significant symbol for the Tamil people.

Hall of Thousand Pillars, Pancha Sabhai – Temple Art Museum where icons, photographs, drawings, and other exhibits of the 1200 years old history of the temple is displayed. (The bronze statute of Nataraja is so stunning!)

We ate ice cream for lunch, left for Thirumalai Nayak Palace situated 2 km south east of the Meenakshi Amman Temple. Nothing extraordinary about the palace, except that it has a huge courtyard, surrounded by massive circular pillars. There is also a museum which houses paintings and sculptures.

Thirumalai Nayak Palace is a 17th-century palace erected in 1636 AD.
The Palace is a classic fusion of Dravidian, Islamic styles.

We came out of the palace at 2:30 pm and had two hours to spend in Madurai before we had to return to the railway station. We mulled over going to Gandhi Memorial Museum but dropped the idea because it would eventually turn out hectic, so we left for Koodal Alagar Temple(near to the Railway station). When we reached the temple, it was closed so walked all the way back to station, lazily spent an hour on platform 1 (near A2b sweets, I was a little disappointed that hey did not have the menu item – rasmalai on their list)

We got into Chennai Egmore-Guruvayur Express/16127 at 5:30 which was 1 hour late! I was so tired that I climbed upper-berth and dozed off but I only slept for an hour thanks to defunct unresponsive fans, loud and persistent noise from the children on the other side of the berth.

Our co-passenger was an elderly man (Mr.Ramanathan Pillai – EPF officer ) in his late 50’s, who was traveling with his wife to Nagercoil. We were not sure about our plans (tomorrow), so we interacted with him and asked him many questions pertaining to lodges, places to see in Nagercoil and it led to more meaningful, rich and interesting discussions on temples of Tamil Nadu. He introduced his wife who also gave many inputs and clearly elucidated the pre-requisites for temple travel. According to her, if there is a plan to visit all the temples present in Tamilnadu, one must dedicate a min of 2 days for each district (Tamil Nadu at present has 32 Districts = 32*2 = 64 days!) We were grateful for their generosity, humbled by their simplicity.

We reached Nagercoil at 22:00, wandered in the main streets for about 45 min before finding Hotel Deeban (co-incidentally, located near Nagaraja Temple.) At the Lodge we were pestered by mosquitoes again, therefore pulled the bedspread back and used it as an extra protection against the buzzing pests.

Day 5 started off pleasantly enough, our first visit was to the Nagaraja Temple (which gives Nagercoil its name). As it was a local festival, the temple was full, so we left for Suchindrum (7 km from Nagercoil. We caught a local bus and I really enjoyed the 20 min drive to Suchindrum cos it aired rahman’s song “Kurukku Siruthavale(Chalo chale mitwa)” ( Movie: Mudhalvan Singer: Hariharan, Mahalakshmi Iyer) Amazing love duet, just the right Song for the occasion. The rhythm is so contagious!

Suchindram – (Thanumalayan Temple) is unique because it is dedicated to three different deities represented by one image in the sanctum and is called Sthanumalayan (Sthanu-Shiva; Maal-Vishnu and Ayan-Brahma)
There are bbout 30 shrines to various deities within the temple complex.

We had excellent breakfast in Hotel Maruthi situated opposite to Kalyani , traveled back to Hotel and left for Kanyakumari.

As our expenses were very minimal(so far) We wished to stay in an excellent sea facing hotel in Kanyakumari, that needed a lot of googling, so we sought the help of another friend (in Bangalore) and asked him to book a room online. Therefore, we just checked into the Hotel Tri-Sea (opp to Lighthouse, Beach Road) dropped our bags and headed straight to the beach.

Our first stop was at Ghandi Mandapam – a tribute built in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi who famously said “I am writing this at the Cape, in front of the sea, where three waters meet and furnish a sight unequalled in the world. For this is no port of call for vessels. Like the goddess, the waters around are virgin” and essentially it is ,the confluence of Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean, an unparalleled sight indeed. There is also a memorial built in the memory of those who lost their lives in 2004 Tsunami.

Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Thiruvalluvar Statue, Kanyakumari Temple and all the major tourist attractions of Kanyakumari are in just one place. It is so small that one can easily cover the whole town on foot. After pathetic lunch in Saravana Bhavan we purchased ferry tickets to the twin rock memorials, Special entry ones (150/- per head, to and back) .

The Vivekananda Rock Memorial has two Mandapams, one belonging to Swami Vivekananda and the other belonging to a Holy Foot (Goddess Kumari).
Swami Vivekananda is said to have meditated on this rock for three days.
Also there is a Dhyana mandapam, an area for meditation.
The Thiruvalluvar Statue is a 133 feet stone sculpture of the Tamil poet and saint Tiruvalluvar, author of the Thirukkural – a treatise on the Indian way of life (book of maxims, Aphorisms).
The statue stands on a pedestal that represents the 38 chapters of “virtue” in the Thirukkural.
Thirukkural is the masterpiece of Tamil literature with the highest and purest expressions of human thought.
It is written in the form of couplets (two line poems) expounding various aspects of life. It contains 1330 couplets, divided into 133 chapters of 10 couplets each.

We thought we would try the sunset view from Thiruvalluvar Statue, but the authorities did not allow anybody to stay behind. The last ferry leaves the island around the sunset time with all the remaining visitors as well as the staff. As a result, we walked towards the edge of the Rocky Pier, the local lads were fishing and they had caught a small eel, we sat on the edge of the pier and remained there until nearly dark and it was really a wonderful experience – swathed in brightyellow hues, the western horizon looked magnificent.

While returning to the hotel, we decided to look at the temple.

It is the first Durga Temple created by Lord Parasurama and is also one among the 108 Shakthi Peethas in the world.
The worship of Devi – Kanya Kumari dates back to the Vedic times.
The sparkling diamond nose-ring of the deity is said to be visible even from the sea. (Legend says that it was so large that it shone like a lighthouse beacon!! It was stolen and the present two diamond nose rings was donated by the Maharajah of Trivandrum)

It took only 7 hrs to cover all the major landmarks of Kanyakumari, We headed back to the hotel to get refreshed before going for dinner. As we had loads of time, we wanted to try local food plus some good beer. We chose Seashore (fancy one) primarily because it had restaurant on 7^th floor and offered brilliant view of the sea. The food was not that great and the beer was horrible! (Charges 220/- for a local beer!!!!) but we had fun, recalled the names of the temples that we visited so far, 16 of them in 5days, not bad really (my colleague had covered 30)!!

On Ramazan, We lazily woke up, readied ourselves and headed towards the church. Our Lady of Ransom (more 100-year-old) Catholic Church dedicated to Mother Mary.

There was a wedding taking place, we were fortunate to witness such a glorious event on Ramzan!! It reminded me of eight grade social studies class, Constitution of India: India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. Ah memories, they hit you right out of the blue, seamlessly transforming the intangible into actions that are consequential.

Kanyakumari Railway station-CAPE. We call it the mystery station because it was from CAPE that we wanted to commence Kashmir-Uttarakhand trip, we had even booked 3A tickets in Himsagar Express/16317 , Imagine- CAPE to JAT !! The plan went super flop, we didn’t make it to CAPE and due to various reasons altered the original plan to Himachal-Uttarakhand, but we did enter the legendry Himsagar Express/16317 at Katpadi Junction. For the above reason, we paid visit to the station and a surprise was waiting at the station. We inadvertently stumbled on Science Express (the route map which we saw in Madurai Junction) and volunteers of it were conducting a School Quiz.

Science Express is an innovative mobile exhibition mounted on a specially designed 16 coach AC train, traveling across India since October 2007 (Covers 52 major cities)
The state-of-the-art exhibition aboard SEBS aims to create wide-spread awareness on the unique biodiversity of India, Climate Change, Water, Energy Conservation and related issues among various sections of the society, especially students.
The train also presents exhibition on Legacy of the Science Express.

We checked out of the hotel at 1:30pm, indulged ourselves in an expansive lunch at Sea view restaurant (it was certainly better than Seashore). Two large LCD TV’s curtailed, routed our conversations to Bollywood masala movies. Our very last visit was to the aquarium (small but neatly maintained, near sparsa resort, beach road) there were different types of catfish, ornamental fishes; the one that stood out in particular was “Miss Kerala” they were like miniature torpedoes, agile and fast. As a final point, we took the Bus at 4.30 pm (SRS- Sleeper). At the start there were only 5 people inside the bus (including us) however it reached its capacity at Nagercoil. The bus took the popular NH-7 route (via Tirunelveli, Madurai, Dindigul, Salem, Krishnagiri)

It was neither religious affiliation nor faith the reason behind temple tour, it wasn’t a search or pursuit made in order to find or obtain blessings from the supernatural. It was only to gain insight into the culture, where life; predominantly revolves around the temples, just wanted to observe and comprehend the elaborate ritualistic ceremonies, practices that have gone on for centuries and it still amazes me that the continuity is still intact! (even with numerous foreign invasions, changes) and whole experience made me so proud!. Despite the chaos, there is a presence of an equilibrium constant, which persistently searches for simplicity.

Atheists would describe all of the above as utter nonsense!! But again, Why question the happiness that is derived from absolute faith? Why question the faith when you do not posses it, when you do not comprehend it? Just like Mr.Smith in The Matrix revolutions “Vagaries of perception Mr Anderson, Temporary constructs of a feeble human mind trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose” and Neo just answers: “I choose to” 🙂 Well I really do not know the absolute truth, nor want to prove anything. Nevertheless, it’s really hard to imagine life without temples because it has played an integral role in shaping societal values, cultural identity. Its impact is far-reaching and has profoundly influenced our critical thinking and reasoning.The concepts, the sculptures, the murals; it possesses unfathomable, indescribable beauty which definitely reconciles mind and matter. The essay below stands testimony to what i’ve experienced during the TN temple tour.

The Individual and his God – Beyond Islam and the west: Four Essays of India by E.M.Forster

The Hindu temple symbolizes the world mountain, on whose sides gods, man, and animals are sculptured in all their complexity. The summit of the mountain is over the sanctuary, and lesser peaks lead down from it towards the entrance door. That is the outside – the universe, in all its richness, striving upwards through all forms of life. The inside is a very different story. The inside of the Hindu temple is a promenade, leading to a dark central cell, the sanctuary, where the individual worshipper makes contact with the divine principle.

The Hindu temple is not for community-worship. However large and elaborate the Hindu temple is outside, the inner core of it is small, secret, and dark. Today one hears of nothing but the community spirit. It is boosted in season and out. I weary of it, and it was with relief and joy that I saw these great temples where the individual is at the last resort alone with his god, buried in the depths of the world-mountain.

We have an inner war, a struggle for truer values, a struggle of the individual towards the dark secret place where he may find reality. Yes, the people who built these temples knew about that. They belonged to another civilization, but they knew, they knew that the community cannot satisfy the human spirit.

6thStation Adventure is out there!!

Archive for the ‘Kumbakonam’ Tag

“Vagaries of perception”? or Reconciliation of Faith? Leave a comment

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6thStation Adventure is out there!!

Archive for the ‘Kumbakonam’ Tag

“Vagaries of perception”? or Reconciliation of Faith? Leave a comment

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Archives