Sringeri Sarada Peetham and Annapoorneswari Temple

Sarada Peetham

This Peetham is the first and foremost of the four Peethams established by Sri Adi Shankara. The Goddess Sharada is the presiding deity enshrined on the Sreechakra Peetham, holding a japamala in her hand and a parrot perched on her head. (We used to visit the one in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, in USA often). The driveis very scenic. Oddly,but for a few monkeys and crows, I did not see any animals or birds in that forest like setting!! This Peetham also was one of the places one must visit in their life time. Very clean, methodical, strict in their procedures and policies and in the implementing of them. There were not many visitors the day we visited.

A number of Vedic schools and temples are maintained by the Peetham. Besides this, a hospital and a few colleges are run too. There is a library with rare Sanskrit volumes. We enjoyed the Pooja performed by young men in their orange clothing. The nature's beauty is such that you don't want to move away from this area. Perfect place to sit and meditate.



At the top of another small hill, there was a Temple of Shakti Ganapathi. We drove to that location which you can see from the Sarada temple location and a very young (teenager?) man performed the pooja archana for us. They must all be students of the Vedic school. Here, a few women were chanting slokas. The third temple is of Bhuvaneswari. Yet another one was of Vidyashankara temple where the 12 Zodiac pillars are arranged in such a way that Sun's rays fall onthe pillar corresponding to the appropriate month. Evidently, I wasn't there long enough to verify this!!!
On this day, Nov 29th, after visiting Udipi and Sringeri, the next one was of Annapoorneswari.

The Annapoorneswari Temple:

This one is about 75 kms from Sringeri. Another long drive, I thought!! I love the name Annapoorna. She is the giver of food for all!! Now, about the temple.
The idol is made of pancha lohas (five metals), 5 feet in height and were told that it weighs around 55o kgs. I wonder what type of technology they had to move such a weight!! She stands on a peetham with Devi Gayathri, Srichakram, Shankha and Chakra in her four hands. It is so enchanting that you cannot take your eyes off her. No one ever mentioned this temple before. We just did not feel like moving away from the inner sanctum. We sponsored food for 50 people and we ourselves were allowed to measure the rice into a container for anna daanam. We had a simple meal at the dining hall after the pooja and came out.
We decided to stay in the choultry there on the spur of the moment. By God's grace, there were rooms available and we were very comfortable. It was nominal fee which included hot water for bathing.

After another morning darsan, we reluctantly left the place. We were on our way now to Kukke Subrahmanya temple