Today we had to go to Sringeri temple. It is dedicated to Goddess Sharda, more popularly Goddess Saraswati. So, naturally she is the go-to goddess for all educational, academic and career related pursuits.
And from all I had heard, she usually listened to your prayers. -🙂
We had to start by 6: 30. Sringeri was 100 Km from Mangalore. A 2.5 hours drive!
After the happening and hectic yesterday, it was almost a tapasya for a kumbhakarana i.e me to wake up at 5 today!
I did, wake up at 5: 15. By 6:30 we had all started. It was a 2.5 hour drive to Sringeri. And as always, aunty was more than happy to drive us. She says she likes driving and I wonder how! To me it is a big effort, though a fruitful one.
As ungrateful as I can be, I slept almost as soon as the drive started. While Mrinal and aunty chatted. Once we reached the forested area, I woke up. It was Kudremukh hills, western ghats, straight out of my geography book. Mentally trying to roughly locate Kudremukh on the map.
Then just added a note to check its location after going back and enjoyed the view. It was a hilly terrain and I was again in awe of aunty’s driving skills in the hills.
She showed us the local cows in Sringeri. They were smaller and cuter than the ones in Bangalore and Delhi. It was pleasant here, since it was located at a height.
There were police checkpoints too. Aunty told us that there used to be a lot of smuggling of forest products, hence the strictness!
Soon we reached the Sringeri temple. It was beautiful. Again, like a south indian temple straight out of pictures. Mostly, carved in stone! There were multiple small and large shrines, but all had an academic tinge. The main shrine was dedicated to Goddess Sharda. The Shiva and Ganesha shrines here were called- VidyaShankar and VidyaGanpati.
After paying our respects and asking for our wishes from the Goddesses and Gods, we went to a hall where a popular ceremony was going on. It is called Akshara Abhyasa.
When a child starts his education here, parents take him/her to the temple. The priest chants some shlokas to invoke the Gods. Post that parents make the kid write his first words on rice with a supari wood stick marking his initiation to education.
It was a meaningful and cool ceremony.
Post this we clicked some pictures to remember this trip by!
In the temple complex there is a pond, with large black fish and people offer them murmure. We checked that out!
Post that we went to the priests’ complex. It was a separate space.
It was like a forest city!
There we saw multiple kids in traditional gurukul costumes practising their mantras all the while playfully teasing each other and stealthily glancing at passers-by like us, who were watching them with awe.
I clicked a picture of them and as always was told off by a guard to not take pictures.
Then we went to a hall, where the current temple head usually meets his bhakts. Me and Mrinal were all in to skip that for our modern discontent with godmen.
There was one more attraction. Kaal Bhairava Mandir. Kaal Bhairava is a form of Lord Shiva in his angry avatara I guess. It was located on the hilltop so we had to climb a bit. Lord Shiva is known to reside in durgam places to test his devotees! This was a moderate climb! The only setback was we were hungry and tired, but we still went. #noregrets.
Once we reached, we saw a small and calm temple. And since it was on the top of the hill, cool air. We paid our respects and sat there for a while!
Then we began our descent! After we reached back to the gates, we spotted some elephants. Mrinal told me, they will be happy if you give them a coin and happier if you give them food. There was no food available in the temple complex so, we had to be happy with just the sight.
I usually shirk away from touching animals. But when I went close to the elephants, I felt like touching and hugging them. Giant and clean and awe inspiring creatures were they! I did touch it, although I had neither a coin nor food. It gave me a disappointed look but thankfully didn’t attack me.
It was then I saw a mahout with it! And suddenly I felt they should have been free beasts running around the Kudremukh forests instead of blessing wannabees like me here!
And so, ended our temple trip! With many prayers and wishes and gratitude that we could visit the Goddess.
There are 4 temples set up by Saint Shankaracharya all over India. In Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Puri and one here in Karnataka
Before starting our drive back to Mangalore, we grabbed a quick snack and started on our way back home! Home sweet home!
No wonder I feel so much at home at Mrinal’s place, where I am a guest!
Home feeling! It's about how people make you feel! How all of them took me in as family and gave me all the royal treatment! No wonder I would feel so! One more thing I would take back home! I had goals of building a house! Sustainable, decentralised, 3Z3S, but I had never thought about making a home! The homely feeling! That I am yet to master..
After reaching home, me and aunty had tea, and we all relaxed. And next 2 days, we decided to just relax.
--manu
--twwg
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