Living Temples: Three Temples

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam

It is well known to the followers of Sanatana Dharma that every pilgrim must make a pilgrimage to 4 Dham or four Holy spots in his/her lifetime as designated by the great sage Adi Shankaracharya.The 4 Dham are situated in four corners of Bharat Varsha namely- Puri in the east,Dwarka in the west,Badrinath in the north and Rameshwaram in the south.
I made my first pilgrimage way back in 1996 to Puri.
Then it took me 22 long years to make the southern part of the pilgrimage to Rameshwaram.
Through this blog I wish to describe my spiritual experience.

I started my pilgrimage from Srirangam in Trichi ,Tamilnadu.

My arrival to Srirangam was quite dramatic.I arrived in an express train at around 10:30 PM at night.The small railway station was nearly deserted.I was tired from 3 days of nonstop train travel ,I was hungry and I had not taken bath in 3 days because the railway does not provide such amenities.I was desperate to find a place to spend the night,so I went straight to the railway enquiry counter to book a guest room at the station.But alas there was no room available,so I pleaded with him to somehow arrange a single bed in a nearby hotel describing my condition.But he wasn't much optimistic about that either.I was almost about to faint from fatigue.
Suddenly there appeared a local priest who was an aquintence of the man I was talking to.He gave his name as Suresh Iyer and spoke only Tamil.So the railway employee was interpreting for me.I came to know that the priest has a friend who runs a small hotel jus near the main entrance to the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple.I showed him my sacred thread (Pavita /Janau ) and introduced myself as a brahmin and begged for help.He smiled and acknowledged my jesture and promptly arranged a room for me at the hotel and an auto rickshaw too.
He was truly a God sent,otherwise I had lost all hopes of getting a shelter in the dead of the night in a completely unknown place where people spoke a language completely unknown to me.
God bless this priest Suresh Iyer and bring prosperity to him and his family.You hardly get a man like this these days- a brahmin willing to help his fellow brethren.

The next morning I entered the temple through the main gate and was awestruck at what I saw.

There it was - a thousand year old magical temple gift wrapped right in front of me. I just stared and stared at the temple much longer than I had ever stared at anything before in my life. I slowly walked up to it,touched it,felt it, it was awesome. I had finally made it to the Srirangam temple, the temple I had previously seen only in pictures .It was all willed into solid reality and I had an entire day to explore its mystery.

The Apsaras sculpted at the facade were beckoning me to enter the sanctuary and I followed spellbound.
There was a pillared hall in front and sunlight coming from the other end created a magical play of light and shadow because of the temple's alignment with solstice and equinox. That's what a great temple built as per Vastu Shastra does - it taps into nature's free energy and enhances it for the welfare of people.

I just moved from pillar to pillar admiring the sculpted pillars and taking photos - capturing the essence and saving it for posterity.

I walked down the hall and came to the temple flag, the Dhwaja Stambh and saw a ritual being performed. The Dhwaja Stambh was aligned to the temple's Vimana - the sanctum sanatorium and the pyramid shaped spire.The Dhwaja Stambh acts as a receiver of the Scalar energy that emanates from the temple's Vimana and the main idol within the Vimana. The Vimana indeed acts as a link between heaven and earth, literally and generates Scalar energy by tapping into the earth's energy grid and the energy of the atmosphere - this is the secret of Vastu Shastra. The Vimana and the Dhwaja Stambh are always covered with metal plating for channeling the energy and good conductors of energy like gold ,iridium, copper, brass ,bronze and other metal alloys like Astadhatu are used. That is why the Dhwaja Stambh is worshipped before entering the sanctum sanatorium.

I stood there spellbound and watched the ritual .

I slowly walked into the open courtyard in front and approached the main sanctuary and stood before the gigantic door which was sculpted with numerous figurines of Devas ,Apsaras and Yakshas, each with it's specific purpose. The ceiling also had beautiful carvings with esoteric meanings.

The main sanctuary had anther Dhwaja Stambh, only this time more elaborate and intricate.There were multiple Apsara statues holding gigantic oil lamps that burns throughout the day.I circumambulated the Dhwaja Stambh and stood in the queue for the Darshan - entry to the sanctum sanctorum -holy of holies.

This is where the real magic happened. The queue was literally thousand strong and more and more were pouring in by the second. I approached slowly and admired the esoteric paintings on the walls and ceiling. There were numerous carvings and sculptures all around emanating an aura which was out of this world. As I saw the statues of Jay and Vijay,the divine gatekeepers of Vaikuntha, the holy abode of Lord Vishnu, I became deeply emotional.This is what I came here for undergoing so much trouble.My dream had come true at last. The queue was slowly approaching the holy of holies and someone in the crowd chanted Govinda, the much loved name of Lord Vishnu - the entire crowd was electrified and filled with divine ecstasy, I could feel the energy deep within my spine. I walked on anticipating the moment of truth and finally entered the holy of holies and stood with folded hands before the image of the Lord. At first my eyes fell on the miniature image of the Lord that was placed in front and then on the huge reclining Sheshasayi sculpture.As soon as my eyes fell on the Sheshasayi sculpture I shuddered. If there is anything called the altered state of consciousness that was it,for a fraction of a second I felt that I had entered heaven. The priests in front of me realized it and jestured me to move away to make way for other pilgrims.I had to oblige - this is what they had come here for too. I felt like king Yayati of Mahabharat who was given a glimpse of heaven and then thrown out to fall back on earth. As I exited I kept looking back for few more glimpses of the Lord.

I came out of the main sanctuary into an open courtyard and started walking towards other shrines built around the Lord's sanctuary and saw the top of the Gold Vimana from outside.

This Vimana has a long history of over 5000 years and people believe that it had once belonged to Lord Vishnu Himself - it still belongs to Him by the way.This place is associated with the Ramayan also.King Bibhisan is said to have built the original temple around the Divine Gold Vimana on his way back to Lanka after he attended Lord Ram's coronation in Ayodhya.

Please check out the great documentary by the brilliant researcher Praveen Mohan.

I walked around the other parts of the temple complex and saw beautiful paintings of cymatic patterns on the ceiling representing various mantras. Some parts of the ceiling had gold plated carvings of esoteric symbols.The paintings are meant to induce positive energy and encourage the pilgrims.

I took photos with the Dashavatar sculptures and retired for lunch with a bagful of temple Prasadam,which was delicious indeed. After lunch I went to see the Thousand pillar hall and artistic sculptures.A large part of the hall was under renovation but I was still happy to see what was still untouched. There were kings proclaiming victory, Apsaras dancing and singing and playing musical instruments, people celebrating festivals, people getting married, woman giving birth,priests performing rituals and many other sculptures. The hall looked liked the famed court of Lord Indra that we read about in the Mahabharat.

The open courtyard in front of the hall was full of sand and there was a beautifully sculpted canopy, all carved out of solid rock - simply poetry in stone. The tall gateway Gopuram gave the courtyard a majestic look.

I visited the other shrines built around the Lord's sanctuary and got blessed.One method of blessing was putting the Silver crown of the Deity on the pilgrim's head for a moment and uttering mantras apart from putting Haldi and Kumkum on the forehead - I enjoyed it thoroughly on multiple occasions having visited almost all the shrines. Another interesting feature of blessing is the Charanamritam /Teertham or holy water given in the palm of pilgrims to drink. The water contains a bitter herb and Tulsi leaves that give the water healing properties - it's literally living water, trust me,I felt it myself .

Here are the glimpses of Lord Narasimha shrine -

I also visited the Vaikuntha Dwar, the holy gates of heaven that only opens during specific festivals and took a few interesting photos.

There were surround sound speakers placed on the outer walls that continuously chanted "OM NAMAH NARAYANAYA",which filled the air,there were incense burning and a great sense of holiness and happiness pervaded the atmosphere. I walked on and saw the beautiful temple gardens with big and small flower and fruit bearing trees. The garden was fenced off,so I could not enter it but I saw a peacock ,2 white horses and many other birds- I even heard the peacock singing. What else do you need in God's Kingdom?

When I was very young I dreamt of visiting a place more than 1 kilometre in circumference with palaces all around -Srirangam is the place. My dream had uncannily come true after nearly 3 decades.

The evening was falling, so I quickly went to the temple museum before it closed. Sadly photography was not allowed but I liked the artefacts very much. Most were ivory carvings gifted to the temple centuries ago by powerful kings and rich merchants.Their precision, proportion and intricacy are impossible to replicate today because ivory carving has become a dying art owing illegal poaching and the associated stigma - the problems of modern India. But here I was looking at a glorious chapter of our country and culture when benevolent kings controlled ivory trade throughout the world and kept thousands of pet elephants in their palace gardens.Everyone feared Dharma and ivory was collected from the pet elephant only after it's natural death very much like cow's skin and killing an elephant incurred death penalty very much like cow slaughter.These things sound like fairytale in the modern evil age but we must try to save the dying art of ivory carving. The artistic merit of the ivory figurines was far superior than those I had seen in the Indian Museum in Calcutta. Some depicted kings, dancers, royal and amorous couples while others religious objects - they all seemed to be full of life,magical touch of ancient craftsmanship.

The time for the evening Darshan was at hand and so I entered the main sanctuary to stand before the Lord in the holy of holies once more.

There was a huge surprise waiting for me inside - the Swing festival had already started and I had the privilege of watching it live. The legendary Araiyar singers started singing in chorus and the musicians started playing. The atmosphere resembled Lord Indra's court with all the Gandharvas singing and playing musical instruments. The music was simply out of this world - I had never listened to anything quite like it. It is for this that people came from thousands of kilometres away to experience it live.I am a great lover of music myself but I couldn't find a word to describe it properly. It is for this that people strive to go to heaven, where it plays uninterrupted. The Araiyar singers have truly kept the Gandharva tradition alive since the glorious days of Ramayan and Mahabharat.

Since photography is not allowed inside the sanctuary I am posting some copyrighted photos and videos.

I devoutly watched the Araiyar Sevai for an hour and then made my way to the Holy of holies for the evening Darshan. Most people had gathered in the forecourt of the sanctuary to witness the Araiyar Sevai so the queue for Darshan was smaller and the morning rush was also absent. I saw it as an opportunity to spend few seconds more in the Holy of holies. I entered the Holy of holies and looked straight in the face of the Lord in the Sheshasayi posture and worshipped Him and as I placed my offering on the tray, the priest gave me a bunch of Tulsi plants as blessing. I was very happy because in the morning I barely got a second to stand before the Lord,so I cherished every second that I got in the evening and there were quite a few.But you still can't get enough of the Lord,you have to come back again and again and again.I followed the queue and came to the forecourt of the sanctuary where the Swing ceremony was taking place. I worshipped the Lord in the Swing as the Araiyar singers sang in chorus.The place looked like heaven with lamps and incense burning and flower offerings.I went ahead and stood with a thousand other pilgrims for the rest of the evening and experienced the ethereal drama.This was indeed the greatest spiritual and emotional experience of my life.

A very important point to note here is the Lord's Third Eye. It is present in the figurine in the form of a diamond as you can see above but absent in the big Sheshasayi sculpture in the Holy of holies.It was there once in the form of a huge Golconda diamond- one of the biggest in the world.In the mid 18th century a foreigner stole it in the guise of a pilgrim and auctioned it in Europe. The Russian royal family bought it and set it on the Russian royal sceptre. Today it is known as the Orlov Diamond.

Now you know why foreigners and non Hindus are not allowed to enter the sanctuary and why photography is forbidden there.The temple induces nostalgia for our glorious past when Bharat Varsha was the richest and most powerful country in the world.

The ceremony came to a close at around 9:30 PM and I started walking towards the exit after spending nearly 12 hours in the temple premises. The memories I had gathered here will last for the rest of my life.

In the end I just like to say that we need the Lord more than ever before. Five thousand years have passed since the end of the Kurukshetra war and our country has lost 80% of her territory and wealth. Only the Lord can make Bharat Varsha great again in the form of Kalki Avatar.

Come back O Lord and save us.