Deities at home

గురు బ్రహ్మ గురుర్ విష్ణుః గురుర్ దేవో మహేశ్వరః

గురు స్సాక్షాత్ పరబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః

శుక్లాం బరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం

ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్ సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే

శ్రుతి స్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం

నమామి భగవత్ పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం

ఓం నమః శివాయ

Once upon a time there lived a person in a village. He was a pious person and used to perform his Daiva pooja every day. He used to have the small deities’ moorthis from his fore fathers, which he kept in his pooja room. He would perform Abhisheka every day at home and do the special poojas to the appropriate deities on the festival days. Rama pooja on Sri Rama Navami, Vinayaka pooja on Vinayaka Chathurthi etc.

His life was pretty normal and smooth without any major problems and he was contented in life.

One day his wife made Vadas and those were offered to the lord as part of the regular pooja. One guy used to come to help this family in certain works (servant maid). So after finishing the Nivedana, the wife gave two vadas to the servant. The guy ate those happily.

After some time the servant came back to the owner’s wife and asked her for one more Vada. She refused saying that they done have any more vadas in their house to offer him. The servant insisted and the woman went on refusing with the same reason. After sometime the servant said, “You still have 23 vadas in your house. Why are you saying that you don’t have any vadas? Please give me one more.”

The woman went inside the kitchen and counted and there were exactly 23 vadas. The woman brought one outside and offered it to the servant and asked him, “How did you know the count of vadas present inside the kitchen?”

The servant said, “Don’t bother. Just ignore it.” Saying that he left the house.

Later the woman told her husband about the incident. The husband was surprised. He called the servant later in the evening and asked him again.

The servant did not give any specific response and left.

The man could not sleep the whole night. He wanted to get to the bottom of this incident.

Next morning when the servant came for doing his regular work, the man raised the same question. After insisting for quite some time, the servant responded.

“From my forefathers I got one mantram. I keep reciting that every day, certain number of times. With that, I have this ability of talking to the adhishtaana devatha of that mantram. In fact it’s a raakshasi and not a devatha. I can ask some questions and I get answers whispered in my ears.

So, I asked it about the number of vadas present when your wife said that there are no more vadas.

That’s when I got an answer of 23.”

The man was shocked. He felt, “I have been doing these poojas every day and that too for more time than this servant. But so far, I don’t have any powers. No mantra Shakthi.”

He told the servant, “Please teach me that mantram. I will also recite.”

The Servant told him the mantram and the man started reciting that mantram every day. After some 8-10 days, someone knocked on his door. The man opened the door and there was a raakshasi outside the door. The man was shocked and asked her who she was.

“I am the one for whom you have been reciting the mantra all these days. I want to come in and stay with you. But you have to throw all the deities you have in your pooja room outside. I can’t come in if they are present in this house.”

At this juncture, there are two ways in which one can think. Lets look at the way which the man did not think.

“I have been praying god for such a long time. So far I could not see god. Forget about seeing god, I did not get any powers so far. What is the point praying God every day like this without any output? I recited this mantra just for 10 days and I am about to get special powers.”

With the above thought one can discard the deities inside and destroy oneself.

Now look at what the pious man thought.

“So far I have been thinking that the deities in my house have been doing nothing to me. There are so many raakshasis and evil spirits around who can come inside with or without our efforts. But they are not able to get inside my house because of the presence of the gods inside my house. These gods have been protecting me all along without my knowledge. What more special powers do I need?”

With that thought process, he asked that Raakshasi to leave and shut the door. From then onwards, he continued his poojas normally.

Its important that we pray the gods who have been coming to us from our forefathers, in the form of the small moorthies, as they have been prayed all along. They will fulfill your wishes as long as you take care of them. One need not fear the Gods as they won’t cause any harm. Worst case, they might not cause good if we don’t take care of them continuously. But they are not sadistic to take revenge on us J So one should not be God fearing. Instead one should be God loving.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.

Godavari Trip

గురు బ్రహ్మ గురుర్ విష్ణుః గురుర్ దేవో మహేశ్వరః

గురు స్సాక్షాత్ పరబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః

శుక్లాం బరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం

ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్ సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే

శ్రుతి స్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం

నమామి భగవత్ పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం

ఓం నమః శివాయ

So, this was an extremely long overdue trip to the East and West Godavari districts of AP - the green pastures with multiple pilgrimage shrines.

We went by Narasapur express from Secunderabad and landed in Narasapuram in the morning around 8.30.

Day 1

Checked into the Hotel and were ready to head out by 10 am.

Paalakollu - Ksheeraaraamam

Paalakollu is around 10 kms from Narasapuram. One of the Panchaaraamams, Ksheeraaraamam is there in Paalakollu.

Quick info on Panchaaraamams.

There are 5 of them.

S. No	Location	Installed by	Name	Siva’s Face	Bhoota
1	Bheemavaram	Chandra	Someswara Swamy	Sadyojaata	Prudhivi
2	Saamalkot	Kumara Swamy	Kumara Bheemeswara Swamy	Vaama	Jala
3	Daksharamam	Surya	Bheemeswara Swamy	Tatpurusha	Vaayu
4	Amaraavati	Indra	Amaralingeswara Swamy	Aghora	Agni
5	Paalakollu	Vishnu	Ramalingeswara Swamy	Eesaanya	Aakaasa

This is a nice temple with a nice Siva Lingam in white color. Looks like that Milky Chocolate with some nodes on it... Relatively smaller temple when compared to Kumaaraaraamam or Daksharamam. This is in the middle of the town and so parking is a problem. This temple closes by 1 pm.

Someswaram - Bheemavaram

After that we headed to Bheemavaram, which is around 22 kms away. This is also a Panchaaraama Kshetra. By the time we reached this, it was 12.30 and the temple was already closed. We revisited this temple on the last day. The Siva lingam here is also white in color and has been covered with some transparent plastic container as the Abhishekams are affecting the Siva lingam. This is a pretty big temple with a small kalyana mandapam within the temple premises. There is a navagraha temple in the premises, where the Bruhaspati graham faces East. Normally Budha and Bruhaspati grahas face North. When I asked the Purohit about that, he did not have an answer and said “It’s an old temple and so it’s like that.” The other famous temple where I saw Bruhaspati facing east instead of North is Mattapalli temple near Kodad.

Maavoollamma Temple - Bheemavaram

We went to the famous Maavoollamma temple in Bheemavaram. Every town has a local deity and this local deity is very famous because its supported and sponsored by the business community of the town. The goddess is a huge figure with extremely big eyes and body. Difficult to take your eyes off the deity. The Prasad sold there is Bandar laddu, which tastes very good J

Antarvedi

This place is about 22 odd kms from Narasapuram, but would take a little more than an hour easily. This is a very famous temple of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. This is close to the place where Godavari merges into Bay of Bengal. The temple Aavarana is very nice and there is a Gosaala right across the temple. Couple of interesting things about the temple.

1.      The God faces west. Normally the deities face east in all the temples. The temple in Gokarna, Karnataka is the other temple that I have seen where the God faces west.

2.      There is a stair case to climb onto the temple, which I have not seen anywhere.

The beach is very close by, though the sangamam point is a bit far off.

Lot of cultivable lands being converted to breed sea food L

Appanapalli

Went to Appanapalli which is about 30 kms from Antarvedi. This is the temple of Lord Venkateswara. There is one old temple and one new temple. There is just a big framed Photo of Lord Venkateswara in the old temple and the new temple is pretty big. There is a big Kalyana Mandapam along with rooms for staying there. Annadaanam is done every day here.

Returned to Narasapuram from there and rested in the AC rooms after a nice day.

Day 2

Pattisam – Near Rajahmundry

This is popularly known as Patti Seema. This is an awesome temple in the middle of river Godavari. Around 20 kms from Kovvur with the road all along the River Godavari. Once you reach the Pattisam village, you need to cross the river by boat and reach midway of Godavari. Walk in the sand for half a km or little more and reach the temple. Once the Polavaram Project is complete, there would be any water in Godavari and the boat trip might not be there at all L

The main deity of the temple is Veerabhadra Swamy. After the Daksha Yagna Dhvamsam, Agasthya Mahaamuni pacified Lord Veerabhadra and tied his hair knot here and so the Siva lingam here has a knot on top of the Lingam. Very peaceful place and go there prepared to have a dip in the river Godavari.

Datta Temple – Pithapuram

This is one of 18 Shakthi peethas and is about 60 kms from Rajahmundry. The Main god here is Lord Kukkuteswara Swamy. The Siva Linga has a carving of a Cock, barely visible. This place is also called Paada Gaya, where pitru poojas are done. The Kolanu here is just awesome and extremely well maintained. This also has a Dattaatreya Swamy temple within the premises.

In Pithapuram there is another temple of Sree Paada Sri Vallabha, an avatar of Dattaatreya. Annadaanam is done here too and the food is pretty tasty as well.

Kumaararaamam – Saamalkot

From pithapuram we headed to Saamalkot, which is some 14, 15 kms away. Kumaararaamam is pretty close to the Saamalkot railway station. This is a pretty big temple with a very tall Siva lingam. There is a ground floor where the Siva lingam starts and ends in the first floor of the temple. The poojari there was pretty good and was quite elaborate in conducting the pooja. That was a bit late in the evening, but we still decided to go to Bikkavolu, which is on the way to Narasapuram.

Bikkavolu – Vinaayaka temple

This is some 40 kms from Rajahmundry and around 18 kms from Saamalkot.

It was around 7.30 by the time we went and the temple was closed. Actual closure time is 8 pm though.

This was a very small temple way back in 2006, when I visited it for the first time, and it was in the middle of a paddy field. Now they have constructed a pretty nice temple with a good praanganam and mukha dvaaram. It is said that if you have a wish to make, you just need to whisper that in the right ear of Ganapathi and it will get fulfilled. This temple has become famous for this.

Bikkavolu – Subrahmanyeswara Swamy temple

This is in the same town of Bikkavolu and probably half a km away from Vinayaka temple. This is a pretty old temple as well. It has a Golingeswara Swamy (Siva lingam) and Subrahmanyeswara Swamy. There is a big putta (ant hill) within the Subrahmanyeswara Swamy temple and the Archakas leave a bowl of milk every night and the bowl becomes empty by the time they return to the temple in the morning. Putta mannu, if applied to the ears, will prevent Snake bites and if applied to the eye lids will arrest snake related dreams. Women with no issues perform puja to the Subrahmanyeswara swamy here and sleep in the temple in the night to become pregnant.

Day 3

Ainavilli – Vinayaka Temple

We went past Amalapuram. This is the most famous kona seema town, popular for veda agraahaarams and coconut gardens and paddy fields. Ainavilli is pretty close to Amalapuram, around 12 kms away. Its a swayambhu Vinayaka temple with the deity slightly below the normal level of the ground. There are multiple other temples in the praanganam. Pilgrims perform Ganapathi homam here in multiple batches. Many people break 100s of coconuts, probably once their wish gets fulfilled. So, there is a separate counter for breaking the coconuts and offering them to the God.

The prasaadam here is Ravva Laddu (probably only telugu people would know) and its extremely delicious. Full of pure ghee and very sweet, you just can’t stop with one J You can finish your breakfast with the Ravva laddu and the pulihora here.

Mukteswaram

This is in Ainavilli and is pretty close to the Godavari river. This has a Siva temple and a Raja Rajeswari Temple within and another temple opposite to this. It is said that if you visit this temple, a human being will get Mukti. I am not a great believer of such things. How can a human being who does all bad things visit this temple once and get mukti? Let me not get into that topic now. Anyways, the idea is that its very good to visit this temple. From here one can reach the Godavari river and more importantly can cross the river along with the vehicles in the ferry to reach Kotipalli on the other side. Kotipalli again has another famous Siva temple. Crossing the river through the ferry saves lot of time and effort and money for the people as reaching the other side would mean lot of travelling by road otherwise. Strange that the govt could not construct a small bridge here so far. There is a small bridge before reaching the main Goadavari river, which is pretty beautiful and you cant resist getting into the water J

Daksharaamam

This is called Draakshaaraamam, but the correct pronunciation should be Dakshaaraamam. This is just 5 kms from Ramachandrapuram and has a huge Bheemeswara Swamy temple. The praanganam is very big and lot of marriages are performed in this temple. The Siva lingam here is also white in color and is present in ground and first floors of the garbhaalayam. So, you first visit the ground floor and then climb up the stairs and have a darshan of Lord Bheemeswara. There is a silver face of Lord Shiva (Bheemeswara) which is placed on the Siva lingam. Very enchanting temple. Apparently in the vicinity of Dakshaaraamam, there are some 100 odd Siva lingas (I guess within some 10 kms radius or something like that, don’t remember exactly) and this whole thing is called Bheema Sabha. Infact in the Sankalpam recited by the people there, they use the word Bheema Sabha as well to specify the location coordinates.

This is one of the Ashta Dasa Shakthi peethas as well.

There are lot of other deities in the temple praanganam and generally there will be one guide who would accompany you as soon as you enter the temple, who would show you around. You need to pay some money at the end of it, around 500, though not insisted by them on the magnitude of the money.

Muramalla

This is another Veerabhadra swamy temple. You have to cross the Godavari river once again to reach this temple either via kotipalli through the boat or go over the Godavari bridge at Yanam. Yanam is a tax free zone bcos its part of the Union Territory Pondicherry. The ferry service at Kotipalli stops once it gets a bit dark.

Apparently after the Daksha Yagna dhwamsam, Veerabhadra swamy could not be pacified by anybody. Different Devathas and Gods tried, but could not and he was still under rage. Even Lord narasimha Swamy tried his luck, but could not. So, at that point of time the Ammavaru was prayed for. Now, this ammavaru is not the Parvathi. It is the greatest Shakthi. Thats when she created Bhadrakaali in the form of a young lady, seeing whom Veerabhadra swamy got pacified and married her. Lots of munis got together and performed their marriage. Hence this place was actually called Muni Mandali which got changed to Muramalla. (Not sure why Veerabhadra Swamy went to Pattisam to get pacified by Agasthya Maha muni. I am genuinely looking for an answer than being sarcastic).

Every day kalyaanam (NItya Kalyaanam) is performed here and annadaanam is done. Parents with unmarried sons and daughters come here in plenty to perform this Kalyaanam to get their sons and daughters married.

From Muramalla we went to Dindi, the village on the bank of Godavari. AP tourism development has constructed a resort on the Godavari bank with boarding and lodging facilities. There is also a Sterling Holidays resort just beside that and these two places are really nice. Stay there is definitely worth it. One can go on a boat ride in the Godavari river and importantly, there is a boat house where one can stay in the river for 12 or 24 hours too.

The other important thing is the greenery and the locations themselves. They (water and trees) are so pleasing to the eye that its difficult to take your eyes off them. Journey to these places is definitely a very important aspect and its thoroughly enjoyable.

There are few more important places that still need to be covered

Mandapalli (Saneeswara Aalayam)

Maamidaada (Sri Ramuni Aalayam)

Ryaali (Jaganmohana Swamy Aalayam)

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.