In search of correctness

Travelogue – Temple visit to Trichy – Part 1

October 30, 2008 at 4:09 pm (Uncategorized)

Thanks for your comments in my previous blog… Through this blog I am starting a new series – Travelouge. Through this series I will share the experiences I am going  through whenever I go out of Chennai.

In this first post I am sharing the experiences I had during my recent visit to Trichy. The purpose was to visit some temples in and around Trichy. I wanted to visit my Kula Deivam Subramania Swami temple there. My friend Rajeev agreed to gang up with me. We packed our bags and started.

An eventful train journey is the last I expected on a Friday night. But as always railways stands out with its avatars of comedies and errors. We had booked a Tatkal ticket. The new arrangement in trains with three seats in the side is a problem for passengers and a headache for the TTE. One passenger grew furious after he did not find his name in the chart and the TTE called his E-Ticket printout as invalid. He TTE made the best comedy when he said that the person with a supposedly invalid ticket call and enquire the place from where he had got his ticket, not realizing that it was  purchased over the internet. Fortunately for me and my friend, though the seats were changed we identified the new seat numbers and settled down. Later we discovered that there were three persons who were allocated the same seat number in IRCTC online booking. We planned to catch the foto of the people and publish it in CNN citizen journalist (typical IT guy  way of fighting for justice). Buy the lighting was a worst and we could not do that.

We talked for some time and as usual with me and Rajeev the topic was centered around one issue which seems omnipresent now. No gifts for guessing the right answers – The recent market crash. We got down in Srirangam just in time otherwise we would have gone to Kumbakonam ) . As we got down a new world was staring at us – the world of power cuts. We heard from the Auto driver that the power cuts happen from 3 AM to 6 AM. I think we are lucky chaps in the city at least. We have a schedule for power cuts that starts from 6 AM. My friend commented that people will be up at 3 AM and scolding the power minister for all these (the word he used kaddupoda sounded apt in that situation).

Now with enough stories in the background I come to the main story I wanna convey my spiritual experience throughout the day. When my friend told me that we can visit four temples in Trichy and one in Pudukottai all within a day I thought we cannot do so. But as I realized at the end of the day, the trip was more fulfilling in experience than any other trip I undertook with the same intent.

As we were nearing a lodge near the temple, there were scores of people waiting for the temple doors to open. Rajeev and I took bath in the darkness as we thought that the temple will get crowded if we start late. As we entered the main door of the temple there was already a big rush to enter the Renganathanswami sannidhi. We were all waiting for the vishwa rupa  darshan which eluded me during the last time I visit, I told my mom during the last visit that Rengan did not want to give darshan  to us so lets try another time. I was happy that the time had come. Taking the Rs. 50 ticket we got the darshan, but we couldn’t see the padam as it was covered for this period for ennai kappu. After that we went to the Thayar sannidhi. There were two vigrahas sree devi and boo devi. As I looked at the grandeur of the temple I thought that it anyone need to spend one week just for seeing and admiring the architecture and feel the Bhakthi of the people who built the temple with such magnificence. Then I remembered some facts that make this temple complex one of the most revered Vaishnava temple in the world

1. This temple is called as Boolokha vaikuntam (abode of Lord Vishnu) as Srirangam is an island surrounded by Cauvery on one side and Kollidam on another (just like Vaikumdam)
2. This temple is one that is revereed by all the Alwars and Vaishnava Acharyas
3. Built by Thiumangai Alwar (Thirumangai mannan), the temple complex is consists of 7 praharas and huge walls that sorround it. I think it was envisaged as a fortress
4. The Renganatha Swami vigraha belonged to the Ishtavakuta vamsa (Lord Rama’s ancestors) and was given to Vibeeshana by Rama. And it reached Srirangam – that is one story on its own
5. The alwars and acharyas were so close to god that Renga used to come down from his abode to hear hymns from them

Some things that caught my attention were

1. The huge walls surrounding the temple
2. The inscriptions written in Tamil and Telugu (yeah true) on the temple walls
3. The huge statue of Garuda in front of Renganathar Sannidhi (I think it was built in competition to Nandhi in Big Temple – Thanjavur Periya Kovil)

After finishing with Srirangam temple we had our breakfast there and started to my Kula Deivam temple which was a bit distant from Trichy. I told Rajeev that it was 10 kms from the city ut actually to get to the main road itself it took us 30 min.

As we crossed the railway crossing gate I told him the temple was 3 kms from there. He gave me a stare.

“What 3 Kms he asked me”. I replied yes.

After hearing some censorable words we started walking towards the temple. There is one place on the way where we get cycle for hire. But our day was not good as the cycles were not available. We continued to walk. On reaching the temple we had darshan. The temple is very small without any grandeur. We prayed to the Lord Subramania Swami and Lord Siva there and sat there for some time to take rest. Then we started to walk back towards the main road, hearing more censorable words from him as we walked. My saving grace came in the form of an auto in the midway. We reached the main road and took bus back to Trichy..

To be Continued…