Trip to Sringeri
When I finished my periods earlier than usual, I called Chitra to find out if I could still travel with them and she said, "Of course!"
I was ecstatic.
I booked my to and from train tickets on their same train but I was placed on the waiting list. Even on the date of travel! So, I booked a seat on Vande Bharat to Mangalore. It was not an easy decision as I would have to stay overnight in Mangalore alone in a hotel.
I reached Mangalore after an adventure and stayed at The Saffron overnight.
24 October 2025. Friday.
Early in the morning Chitra and her parents reached Mangalore and we left after breakfast. The taxi took us on a 3 hour drive through scenic reserve forest to Sringeri. We had continuous conversation all along the hair pin bends!
Our room in Sringeri was inside the temple premises. Meaning even when the Gopura Dwara was closed we could access the temple premises.
We placed our bags in the room and rushed for darshan of Saradamba.
Sringeri had always been my dream to visit. I had seen so many photos of an old stone carved temple and wished to visit it. I had thought this was Her residence. I was so wrong.
The older 3500 year old structure is where Sri.Vidya Shankara sannidhanam is.
Saradamba's temple is relatively newer structure and has better facilities!
Inside the temple, my first impression was She is rich!! What else was I expecting?
The goddess was bedecked in gold. She sat there with her raised right arm to grant us Her blessings. The inner confines were so cool and smelt divine of incense and camphor. Even though the bhakts were creating an uproar, it was easy to find peace here.
(PC: Sringer Matha Photo Library)
Shakti Ganapathy, Lord Shiva all find their space inside Saradambal's temple. Adishankara's sannidhanam and Thorana Ganapathy are just outside towards the gopuram on the north side.
Sri Sureshwacharya Sannidhanam , Vageeshwari Vidyaranya Sannidhanam, Hanuman swami, Maha Vishnu and Sri Garuda Sannidhi are towards Vidya Shankara temple. There is a large 3ft circular copper yantra of Lord Sudharshana placed inside Maha Vishnu's sannidhanam.
Shankaracharya Sannidhi
Torana Ganapathy
Vagdevi
Anjaneya
Vidya Shankara temple is under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India owing to its architectural marvel. On one side of the Garbhagriha is Vidya Ganapati and Durga sannidhi is on the other side of the entrance. On the other three sides of the Garbhagriha are shrines to Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara with their consorts which are not open to public.
VidyaShankara
Durgambal
When we were there, Vidyatirtha Rathotsava was being celebrated on a grand scale as it was kartika maasa Shukla paksha. I was so happy to see His sheeveli upon arrival and called up my family on whatsapp for darshan. I felt Ernakulathappan was blessing me.
Balamuruga temple is located on the southern side of Sri Sharadamba temple very close to the Tunga river.
AdiShankara has consecrated 4 peethoms across Bharata in the 4 cardinal directions.
North - Jyothir Mutt , Bhadrinath, Uttarakand
East - Govardhana Mutt, Puri, Orissa
South - Sringeri Sharada Peedam, Sringeri, Karnataka
West - Kalika Mutt / Dwaraka Sharada Peedom, Dwaraka, Gujarat
We went down to the Tunga river and saw the origin point of the temple.
But why did he choose this particular place along the banks of Tunga river? He saw an amazing sight of a frog being shaded from the sun by a snake with it's hood open. Natural enemies lived in harmony. That meant this was a punyabhoomi....a tapo bhoomi. It was the place where Sage Rishyasringa did his prayers / meditation. That was why Shankaracharya decided to to establish the Dakshinmaya Sharada Peedom here.
Our lunch was in the temple. Simple. Homely with one side dish, rice, rasam, sambar and Majige (flavoured thin curd). We were served with love and care.
I just couldn't get enough of the temple. I was like an elephant in a forest of sugarcane...I wanted to explore everything!
After a brief rest, I changed into a sari as inside Her temple only traditional outfits are entertained for closer darshan. Either Sari or Churidhar with shawl or half sari. No frocks. Men must wear dhothi with upper cloth.
We had coffee at the small eatery (Sri Maruti Tiffin Centre) where the menu is fixed (Idly, Vada, Puri, Tea, Coffee, Milk) and everything costs ₹15! They can seat 9 people on table and chair. Rest must sit on the floor.
Chitra and I sat in front of her and chanted Lalitha Sahasranamam. Her parents went to meet he Peshkar to pay for the pooja on Sunday.
By around 7pm the Golden chariot was wheeled out and the idol of Saradamba was placed on it and decorated.
We attended the pooja and were allowed to walk behind the chariot.
Following this was another pooja where parts of the different Vedas were read out, Nadaswaram played and huge mangala aarathy was performed.
Vidya Shankara sannidhanam was having separate poojas as it was Karthika month and it was His ulsava.
I had met Ms.Jyotsna on my flight back from Mahakumbhmela and she had told me to contact her regarding information on Sringeri whenever She allowed me to have her Darshan. Jyotsna ma'am had suggested Suprabhata Darshana Seva and I bought the tickets for the same.
25 October 2025, Saturday
We were up by 5 am and in front of the temple's closed door by 5.50 am.
The temple opened and we heard the priest (Sri.Girish) chant Sarada Suprabhatham. He pushed the door open and there She stood shimmering in the lights from the oil lamps. Soon the tube lights came on and the priest sat down and a small idol of the goddess which was supine was placed erect and he started the pooja.
We got Darshan of Her as She had a (mantric) bath, wore her fresh clothes, ornaments, was anointed with chandan, kumkum and fed (with bananas). After this was Her deeparadhana. The temple was open to the public sometime in between all this.
Then I got the most amazing gift from Her. A plate laden with kumkum, flowers, fruits and a Srichakra.
We had breakfast again at Sri Maruti Tiffin Centre, sitting on the floor from banana leaf.
And off we went to Horanad.
Prakriti Soundarya cannot be explained. Greenery everywhere. Small waterfalls.
We stopped at one to take a photo.
It was a 2 hour drive from Sringeri, but again we all were our talkative selves!!
Horanad Annapoorneswary temple got on my wish-list recently, when my neighbour's son who is trained to be a chef, went to have Her darshan. I had expected Her in her usual form - seated with a ladle in hand - like in Kashi. But in Horanad, She stands nearly 7 feet tall with abhaya-varada hasta and Paasha-ankusha held. On Her Abhaya hasta palm (Left lower) is SriChakra. There is an image of Lord Ganapathy on Her right.
The temple is small and on a hill top. Outside Her sanctum, behind Her is the image of a snake with raised hood with it's body curled around the temple's structure. Navagrahas are in a tiny room behind the office.
We saw the poornahoothi after a Chandika Homam at the temple.
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Our next stop was Hariharapura. It is a Lakshmi Narasimha temple and Chitra promised a surprise!
It was bloody hot and my feet soles burned. But the temple authorities had painted white pathway on the granite floor. Simple physics!! So I walked on this surface.
Two huge lions greeted us into the cool premises.
Saradamba was here too, even though Her sannidhi was smaller.
The temple is a new structure consecrated only in 2022. (Work had ended in 2020, but Covid made it impossible to hold the kumbhabhishekam.)
Now for the surprise.
The idol of Lakshmi Narasimha is made of emerald. Deepest green. Almost black. Imagine the cost of such a huge lump of Emerald, the expertise of the person who carved it and the aura it now eminates.
Below the idol is the dwajastampa - 32 feet is buried underground!
Photo downloaded from Hariharapura website
We went to meet the present 25th Peethadhipathi Paramapoojya Srimad Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Sri Swayamprakasha Sachidananda Saraswathi Mahaswamiji. The queue was long, but because mama is 86, we had superfast darshan. Swamiji spoke many languages and he blessed us in Tamil. He even allowed us to be photographed with Him. Each of us were asked what we wanted. But I asked Him a question.
We had lunch at the temple and another darshan of Swamiji. Then we were invited to see the largest exhibit of Ganesha idols - some 2500 pieces. They had explicitly written no photographs, but the person taking us around, hit the override switch!!
We reached back Sringeri by 3.30 pm and had a well earned rest. Evening was hectic as there was Chandika Parayanam, precursor to the next day's Chandika homam to attend.
While watching the Sheeveli of Vidyashankara, we saw a beautiful toddler (Tripuresi) and ended up talking to her family for 1/2 hour! Mama, mami and Tripuresi's grandmother discussed about Mahaperiyava. I talked to Tripuresi's dad and his brother.
Then Chitra and I went to see Sri Vidya Shankara. It took sometime for the temple to open to public after his evening Sheeveli. But after that we sat in meditation for sometime. The watchman there seemed to have taken a liking for us. He showed us the Adisharadamba idol brought by Shankaracharya from Kashmir. It is made of wood and very old.
We also had to book certain poojas for the next day. I booked the silver ratha seva.
After dinner in a restaurant, we went to attend Swamiji's pooja - Chandramouleeswara Pooja by Swami Bharathi Theertha, the chief sanyasi of Sringeri Mutt; a direct decendent of Adi Shankaracharya's shishya parampara. It is at the Narasimha Vana, just across Tunga river.
The Shiva-linga which is prayed to is made of Spadika or crystal. Apart from the Chandramouleeshwara Linga and Sri Chakra, idols of other deities can be seen as well. These include the linga of the famous Appaya Deekshita, Sri Ratna Garbha Ganapati, Lord Subrahmanya Swami, and others. We sat through the whole pooja. Then Swamiji gave darshan and anugraham to all assembled.
26 October 2025, Sunday
Mama's 86th birthday.
Thula maase, Moola nakshatram.
As mentioned earlier, Chitra's parents have been celebrating mama's porandanaal (traditional birthday) by doing Chankdika Homam in Sringeri since his 59th birthday.
And mama is extremely special. You can feel his divine aura. Aura generated by chanting Gayatri Mantra 1008 times since his Upanayanam at the age of 9.
Born in Mankombu (Alapuzha district, Kerala) in a large family, Veeran (as he fondly called by family) lost his father (aged 40) when his mother was expecting his last sibling (a sister). Since a young age, mama used to visit Mancomb Bhagavathy everyday for darshan and after Upanayanam strated chanting 1008 gayatri at Her sannidhi and doing 108 namaskaras.
His first experience of the Divine was when the results of his 10th examination came and he was declared failed. This did not permute him, but the whole village could not believe that such a staunch devotee of the Goddess failed! But by afternoon, the newspaper arrived at their island village and he was declared pass with First class!
His job at LIC took him to Thiruvananthapuram, but his 2 brothers moved away and he had to shift back to his ancestral property and commute 2 hours (either way) by boat to Changanassery.
Around this time, he was asked to meet young Ratna and he saw her for the first time seated in between several loads of fresh Murukku which were ready to be parceled for marriages and shops.
"I have heard of Kanana Seetha, but I am hearing of Murukku Ratna for the first time!", I joked.
If you ask me their match is a Siva Sakthi porutham.
It seems before mama got married to her, his uncle had told him that if the woman of the house shed a tear, the whole household would suffer. And mami's father advised with fore-sight that she would find it tough to move to a village from a town like Trivandrum and live with so many people under one roof. Therefore, he advised her to develop the fine art of hearing things with one ear and letting go of the same with the other!
Mami is BA (home science) and used to love her city life filled with festivals revolving Padmanabhaswamy Temple. She found it tough getting up at 3 am, having a bath at the pond nearby as the way was filled with snakes. And she missed her morning coffee the most. Her sister-in-law was the designated coffee maker and there was no coffee filter at her new home. Coffee powder was steeped in boiling water and then mixed with milk to make a watered down version of what she used to have in her Trivandrum home.
But did she complain?
Mama was sad that she did not and attributed their late shifting to Trivandrum to her not doing so.
When they shifted to Trivandrum, the whole extended family moved along with them. So it was mama, Ratna mami, 3 kids, his mother, his grandmother, his father's widowed sister and his 4 sisters!
He has conducted the marriage of all his sisters with his meagre income working in LIC. He attended many interviews but never took a promotion as that would incur a transfer! His old widowed aunt would get very sad if he moved away and also he would feel sad to not have darshan of Lord Padmanabha everyday!!
I love his Tripti or happy contentment or satisfaction with what he has achieved in his life. Total happiness. He attributes all his success to his wife. "She is the most suitable partner for me as she seconded all my decisions and ran the large family well on my meagre income, saved money, never showed an unhappy face or complained", he says.
After wishing mama on his birthday, the early morning sound of 50 brahmins chanting the Vedas, at the Vidya Shankara temple, pulled Chitra and I up the old granite stairs. We both found our nooks to sit in and heard the japa for 15 minutes. The watchman ushered out the loud crowd as we sat in peace. The waves of the sound of Veda washed over us. It was amazing.
When we got down, we saw a Bhattar standing precariously and doing Abhisheka for Karthiveerarjuna. Among the various deities carved on the outer walls of Vidya Shankara temple, only He was being worshipped. It seems praying to Him helps us recover lost items as He has 1000 arms! We both attended the whole pooja and the bhattar gave us prasada.
It was Skanda Shasti. Chitra and I visited the Balamuruga temple in Saradamba premises and asked if we could do the Pachamrutha Abhishekam. But that had to be booked the previous day. The Bhattar asked us to say that he had agreed to do the pooja on the same day and see if we could make a booking at the counter. The counter person insisted we bring the Bhattar's name. I was sure that even if we got the name, the counter-person would never give us a ticket to do the Abhishekam. But Chitra is a non-pessimist. When we went back to the Murugan temple, the chief Bhattar was there and he echoed the counter-person's information and asked us to book for ashtothra archana instead.
Chitra and I together must have made tickets for 20 + individuals! And when we went back with these to the Balamuruga temple, the chief Bhattar was reading sheafs of paper - a long list of people who had booked for the abhishekam, after the Sankalpam. He must have felt bad for us and asked us for our names, nakshatrams and gothra too! It was Lord Muruga at play.
Thus we got to participate for His Panchamrutha Abhisheka.
Hara Haro Hara Hara!! Such Happiness!!
While walking back from here, we saw a very thin Bhattar taking a pot filled with water into the Vidya Shankara temple through the entrance close to Karthiveerarjuna carving. He left the door wide open and inside was an idol covered in silver kavacha. We could not understand if it was Brahma, Vishnu or Siva with their consorts. The bhattar soon walked out with a smile and said it was Uma Maheswara. And the door was kept closed because of the strict 'shudha / madi' followed in the sanctum.
Breakfast at the temple was tough! Flattened rice deep fried and spices added. My jaws were complaining towards the end!
Since I had booked the Silver Ratha for the evening (cost ₹2000), I had to participate in a Sankalpam at 8 am. Chitra went to be with her parents to participate in the Chandika Homam. When I joined after the Sankalpam, the Ganapathy homam and Navagraha homam had just started. And people who had just finished a pooja (the young baby girl was named Sringa!) made a bee-line to get Mama's blessings.
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Soon the peshkaar came in and presented the couple vastram and received their blessings.
Afetr the homam was completed, and dakshina was given to the various Bhattars, a dampathi pooja and Suvasini pooja was performed by mama and mami.
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At 11am I left again to do the Suvasini Pooja. 5 Sumangalis are worshipped as pratyaksha Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswathy and other goddesses. They are offered all upacharas and they bless the person conducting the ratha that evening. The people before me, offered the sumangalis new sari, tamboola, coconut and flowers with dakshina. And I was there with ₹500! Each lady was offered ₹500 by the Bhattar who was conducting the pooja on my behalf.
I felt so bad as I was not aware of the rituals and said as much to one of the Suvasinis. She spoke with such authority about how it was the duty of the mutt to conduct the pooja and not my work to get the necessary dravyas, that I felt sakshath Saradamba spoke to me.
By the time I returned to the Chandika homa, it was over and we all left to get aashirwaad of the Swamiji. I bought a Bhiksha Vandana ticket and joined the queue after he finished the pooja. I was asked what I wanted aashirwadom for and I mentioned about the marriage of my elder daughter. But the person passing on the message said I needed aashirwaad for my daughters marriage! Thus I got blessings for both Anaka & Ananya!
Head bath, smoke from the homam, walking around in the hot sun, all aggrevated my head ache and I hoped to consume a Paracetamol after lunch. Lunch was special with payasam.
By evening, I was fine and I relished the Goli bhaja & Mysurpa. Chitra took me to have 2 strong coffees too!!
We were at Saradamba Sannidhi by 7 pm. How fortunate were we to walk looking at Saradamba on the Silver Ratha. After 3 rounds, we attended the Mahapooja also.
Since it was our last night (on this trip) to Sringeri, Chitra and I walked around a bit soaking in the atmosphere before heading to the room.
27 October 2025, Monday
Another Suprabhatha Darshanam.
We were leaving this day. It was sad, but we had to leave.
Mami had arranged a Rudrabhisheka at a samadhi of Nrisimhacharya.
We sat there enjoying the way the pooja was conducted by the Bhattar and had to rush for lunch. The food was so hot that the banana leaf on which it was served became brown!
We left after hurriedly packing by 1.30 pm.
But not before I got aashirvadom from the saintly couple!
We reached Mangalore by 4.45 and boarded our train by 5.15 pm.
In the train, we spend a good 4 hours talking and I was blessed to hear mama talk more about his life and experiences. I hope I can remember to live my life in complete surrender to the Lord as he has.
Train pulled up at Ernakulam South at 2 am and Harish picked me up.
My dream to go to Sringeri was fulfilled, but the yearning to return there with Harish has taken root deep in my mind! I hope Saradamba blesses us both with Her darshan soon.
Om Sri Gurubhyo Namaha.
Thank you Ernakulathappa.
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