Four temples: The following are famous and there are many other sacred places to visit here.
The first time I visited Kanchi was in 1962. My friend Ramamani wanted to buy her wedding sarees there. We took a bus from Tirupathi and there were three of us and we enjoyed the adventure trip. A local guide took us to the four Temples and the saree shops. We found out that all the best selection was sent to the big stores in Chennai. The next trip was with the children and Sulochana and her husband Krishna Pillai in 1993. We still have fond memories of that trip. We never tried saree shopping again.
Ekambreswara (Shiva), Kamakshi (Parvathi), Varadarajaswami (Vishnu) and Kanchi peetham. The two Peethadhipathi swamis were just finishing their discourses in two different rooms when we arrived. We just could enter one room. Rao talked to the older one for a few minutes. We came out and I sat in front of the huge statue of the previous(periavar)swami and the place was charged with His energy. I was blessed with His darsan in 1993 before He went into samadhi.
We also visited a Temple of Rajarajeswari in Nemali near Kanchi.
Rao first heard about this location from someone in the Rajarajeswari Peetham in Rush, NY and after a lot of inquiries found the exact location. Also, this time Nirmala made sure we got a driver that was a good driver, polite and knew where he was going. Rao was thrilled. He offered the huge package of Hershey's miniatures that he was holding on tight to the priest. We sat on the floor for the pooja. There were a few other devotees in the room. The priest did not offer our candy to the Goddess Bala. He saved it for a time in the future? It was like a shrine in a home. We, the three women did not feel any Temple vibrations at all!! They tried to sell their brochures etc. after the darsan.
Tiruttani:
For Nirmala, Rao and myself this concludes our visit of the six Murugan (Subrahmanya) temples.
In our student days and later on while I was on the teaching staff of SV university, we made several visits to this Subrahmanya Temple. It hasn't changed much.
This was one day trip. The next day trip the four of us made is the following.
The next list:
Kaanipakam: This place isvery near Chittoor. Sulochana was excited because she grew up in Chittoor. here, the temple is of Vinayaka.
Kanipakam is a small village on the bank of Bahuda River.
"Kani" means wetland and "Pakam" means flow of water into wetland. The idol here is 'swayambhu' meaning self manifested in the local Bahuda river(baahu means arm, there is a long sthala purana that goes with this name). The water is supposed to be as sacred as the holy waters of Ganga (Ganges).
They say that the idol is still growing in size. At present, we can see the knees and the abdomen of the idol. Sri Varasiddhi Vinayaka as up-holder of truth.
If there is a dispute, people in the dispute take a holy dip in the temple tank and swear before the Lord. It is taken as gospel truth (and then what happens?). I think the holy water is like a truth serum and the people involved tell 'the whole truth, nothing but the truth'.
I just want to mention again the other places we visited. No details remembered.
Arthagiri, Ponnai (Navagraha), Vepanjeri (Temples for planets, Dasa avataaras, Lakshminarayana, Ashta Lakshmi).
Tengaal (brass Venkateswara) , Samadhi of a Yogi (a mouna swami)
Tiruvannamalai: (Ramana maharshi aashram), Arunachalam
The first time I visited this place was in 1961 when I organised a trip as a student. Ramamani was already a lecturer in the Women's college and she was our staff member in charge. That is when I met her and we became very good friends.
This time, we saw everything leisurely. The place has grown a lot and just beautiful and as peaceful as it was in the sixties. We did the parikrama (by car ofcourse) around the hill. It was the month of Karthikam and the famous karthika deepam(light) was seen everywhere from Tirupathi onwards.
Arunachalam and Sri Ramana Maharshi ashram
One must make this trip in their life time. The ashram is so peaceful inside as well as outside. Absolutely no disturbance of any kind. Please click on the names to see more details
Golden Temple of Lakshmi Narayani:
This is a more recent addition to the area. Very modern, situated in a park like setting. Ample parking for cars and buses outside the compound.The wait and the walk was very long. Sulochana was exhausted. Rao kept close watch of her. The actual shrine was very small and the darsan was quick. The end of the darsan line was much closer to the entrance/exit area. So, we did not have to walk the great distance to the exit gate. I would go here again, not for the spiritual reason, but to see it as an exhibit of beauty and uniqueness.
From here, Rao and I made our trip to see our beloved Lord of Puttaparthi, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. It was an overnight journey, we had beautiful darsans during the day and we made it a one day stay there. After we returned to Tirupathi, we went to Tirumalai to see the Lord Venkateswara and that culminated our yatra-2.
The rest of it was one day trip to Hyderabad to see my family. By then, I was exhausted with these back to back one day trips. I returned to the USA on Dec 19th, spoke with my first grand daughter Geethanjali whom I missed a lot and on Jan 9th, Sharanya, my second grand daughter was born. Rao enjoyed his extended stay in India till Feb 27th.
Here is Geethanjali:
Here is Sharanya
See you all soon during my yatra 3.
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