Now to Srisailam

On Dec 14th, the three of us started for Srisailam by Taxi and again saw the most beautiful sunrise. This time the road was good. Srisailam is located on black hills (Nalla mala) about 1200 ft above sea level. The total area is about 30 square miles. East west is about 4 miles and North south is about 7 miles. The important Shiva kshethrams around this area are as follows:

East Thripuranthakam
South Siddhavatam
West Alampuram
North Umamaheswaram

NE Eleswaram
SE Somasila
NW Pushpagiri
SW Sangameswaram

I gathered more information on this because it is one of the Jyothir lingams (Mallikarjuna)as well as (Bhramaraamba)Sakthi Peetham. Probably this is the only place where they are in the same compound.

We planned to reach Srisailam around 6 p.m. since we were to meet with Rao's bother and sister-in-law (remember ? they were in our party in the previous trip?)at the bus station. They promptly arrived from Hyderabad as we approached. Now, weneeded accommodation. We had two choices. One was the karivela choultry and the other was Srividya peetham. The first one, as Nirmala and I previously experienced, was very inexpensive with minimal fecilities. The second was new to us. Rao preferred the second. I assumed that it would either free or low cost since Rao had donated a very large amount to them a few years ago. We connected with our contact person and found out from their office that there were only two rooms available and we had to go two floors up. Meals are served at designated hours, would be along walk to the Temple area or should go by car and that the room rent was 300 rupees plus. I was upset and disappointed. Rao did not mind, but, we, the others minded bercause of the fact that they received one lakh rupees from Rao, their was no name of Rao on the donors list and on top of it they were charging us this much money for the room where the plumbing was very bad, toilets won't flush and so on. Also, when we finally met our contact in person, he sold Rao a book written by his nephew(?) for 200 rupees. I bet Rao would never even read that book. We gullible Americans!!!
One good news. The kitchen crew were excellent. Originally from the Northern part of India, but spoke good Telugu, great cooking and great service.

Now the spiritual, ritual stories:

We checked into the room and immediately went for darsan.At the Temple, met with a young man by name Chalapathi, who was our guide(not a hired one, but Nirmala's acquaintance). He suggested that we do the milk abhishekam to the Vriddha(old) Mallikarjuna then and return to the Temple for the early a.m. aarathi and to meet him outside the temple in a certain spot around 4 a.m. We were very pleased that we were able to have such personal service, touching the lingam etc.
The next morning, we woke up at 2 a.m. with Nirmala's cell phone alarm which sounds like a rooster's'kokkorokko' The three women were in one room and the two brothers in the other. We were ready and reached the Temple by 4 a.m. promptly. But we had to wait till 6 a.m. for that morning aarathi. [By the way, in India, if someone says' will see you, will be back in 5 minutes, it is never 5 minutes - it could go upto 5 hours also. Same goes to the phrase 'it is not too far, it is right there' - it can be 2 to 3 kilometers!!!].
We had wonderful darsans and now Rao decided to go to Alampur(the next day) with me and Nirmala. So, we dropped off his brother and s-i-l, (who had already bought their return tickets to Hyderabad) at the bus station after breakfast, around 11 a.m. and continued on our return to Nandikotkur. We just could not find a place to eat. Wer very hungry.Around 2 p.m.. we spotted a small hut type area in Atmakur, where they were serving Idli, Dosa type which wasacceptable to Nirmala also. The place was filthy. We had hot heat-hot)dosa and Rao added Idli also. We did not even drink the water that was served. On the way back, saw the spectacular sunset again.
Within few hours after reaching home, I started vomitting and had to go to the bathroom a few times. Rao was up all night with more severity of similar problem.
Moral: Don't eat anywhere you like just because you are hungry !!!
Nirmala's sister was very sorry for us. She even commented 'you Americans have very sensitive stomachs!!'.

I must add that we went to Thripuranthakam Temple which is close to a town called Dornaala first. The female consort Balathripurasundari is Thripurasundari (which many Telugu families named their daughters after in olden days). There are temples and worshippers of this form all over the world. We had lunch there after darsan and then proceeded to Srisailam.
If we saw the Srisaila sikharam(the roof top of a temple), you would get moksham (no rebirth). So far, I have seen it twice (now they are charging money to see it from that particular spot). If I am wrong in giving any of this information, please feel free to correct me. Comment freely.

P.S. Previously, we visited Srisailam Temple several times, separately and now I see it has grown a lot in riches and businesses and devoties. We did not see the pathala ganga

In the 50s and 60s, my father used to go a place called Markapuram which is more than 40 miles from Srisailam and from their walk to Srisailam.
I could not take any photos. Also, since legally I cannot use others' personal blogs, I just want to mention one blog that is superb. You can visit it away from my blog. The name is shanthirajudotwordpressdotcom. Lots of information there. I loved it!!!