Shabari malai
A trip to shabari malai...
All this started on one fine day, when my colleague Chandru and i were doing the usual work in our office i.e. "kala harate" :) After finishing all the subjects we both knew, suddenly the talk turned its way to Shabari malai. Chandru has already been to this place twice and this was his third time... At that moment, without any planning or prep, i requested him to enquire if he can get a seat for me in this trip. Its always true that,things which are unplanned.. executes faster than things what we plan to do... and in the same way, plans to shabari malai finalized without much problems. And the plan was,,, to put "male" on festival day (Jan 15th) in Mysore and start our long journey on 16th morning.
With all this background, i started my journey to Mysore on 15th afternoon in our KSRTC Volvo. After having my lunch at Chandru's house.. reshen up and we went to Ayappa Swamy temple which is just beside the Chamundi hill. After some small pooja, temple pujari put the mala to me. And from that time, i became "swamy" first time in my life. The feeling was different at that moment... calling everyone as swamy and with some strict rules to follow.. i spent the rest of the day in Chandru's house.
FYI : Some rules to be followed (it doesn't contain the full list and its only my understanding)
1. Continence
2. No alcohol, no non-veg food, no smoking
3. Bath twice a day
4. No footwear
5. Sleeping on a mat. No pillow
6. No shaving. No hair-cuts
The day (16th) started with a cold bath in the early morning and we went to temple to complete the process of putting "mudi". From long years, i have seen this process in my native but at that time, i never thought.. one day i will be a part of it. After going to temple, i saw our full group of 13.. and in all of them, i knew only Chandru. As i and 2 others were "kanyaswamy" i.e. putting the "mala" for 1st time, we were chosen to put the "mudi" first. I liked our "guruswamy" who was so active and doing all the pooja in high speed. For our guruswamy, this is the 28the consecutive visit to shabarimalai !!!! After all the pooja got over, now we have become full fledged "swamies"... one strange thing happened. All relatives and ppl in the temple started giving money for our journey to shabarimalai and they all started touching our foot !!! At that moment, i was so confused as i normally never let any of my cousins or anyone to touch my foot. But this time, there is no option for me to talk or to run either..... i just let the god to handle all the things happening around !!! After this, we settled in our vehicle and started our journey to Shabarimalai at morning 10.30. I have to mention one thing here.. normally, who ever puts "mudi", the whole family will come on that to give a send off. As i was in remote place, none of my family members were there but still i didn't feel the difference because Chandru's full family treated me as one of them and gave me full support at this special moment of my life.
Our next stop was at river near Nanjanagudu for the breakfast at 12. As we were on the past from the morning, everyone was in great enthu to drag the breakfast box out of the vehicle and refill the stomach. BUT.. but, in that small vehicle, all 13 of us were not able to search the box having upama :( It got missed out during the loading !!! Anyway, our stomach was not in a mood to listen to these reasons... we decided to have early lunch.. rather call it as a brunch !! Sitting beside river.. we ate the "wangibath + curdrice"to our level best and thx to guruswamy who got the food for full journey to all of us. With a full stomach, we continued our journey through bandipur, kalpetta, calicut.
As 8pm, we reached Guruwayur. After having one more cold bath in the temple pond, we were in the temple and got dharshan of god Krishna. After the darshan, we saw the special end of the day pooja. They lighted hundreds of "deepa" on the walls of the "garbagudi" and the god was taken on a elephant around the temple with three other elephats following it. Our stress from the full day journey went in the pond during the bath and the josh for the remaining trip was given by this scene :) Our next stop was the outskirts of Guruwayur for the dinner. Finishing the full box of "puliyogare" and remaining curd rice.
Half sleeping, half awakened.. we continued journey in the dark roads of Kerala. At night 3pm, we stopped in the Edumalai which was a place of some interest to me. Here, all the ppl first go to the temple and then to mosque which is right infront of this for special prayer. From here our destination was 1.30 journey. With a crowd lot above our expectation and with terrible cold, we took the mudi and left our vehicle behind.
Pampa river which is at the base, is almost dry at this season. Luckily we got a mug from somewhere to put the water on our full body :) After this, we took the "mudi" on our head and came to the base point i.e. Ganapathi temple. The climbing or trucking started with breaking a coconut in this temple. From here, Ayyappa temple is almost 7km. In the beginning, the path is little steep and will take little time to get used to walk in the bare foot on the small small stones all the way. We took almost one hour to reach "Shabari Pita" which is the half way to our destination. After sitting there for few minutes, we continued on the path which is flat compared to the first half. On the way, ppl who will be coming down will be giving Glucose or water for free... and they feel its the least seva they can do for the ppl who are climbing.
Still after two days of "Jyothi".. the crowd was still there. We stood in the que for almost 2.5 hours... and finished darshan of Ayyappa swamy at 12. The group got together and opened the "thuppadhakayi" in each's mudi and did repacking of that. Avalakki came as a surprise from guruswamy and we gave him a nice surprise by finishing it in record time :) Coming down took hardly 2 hours... and with the hopes to reaching home early and safely we left the Shabari malai at 6pm.
After stopping for dinner at 9pm, we expected to our driver to drive full night and reach Kalpetta in the early morning where we thought of removing our "mala". But our driver was not statisfied with full morning sleep and he planned a quick sleep for one hour at 12.30am. Me and Chandru saw a petrol bunk outside and slept there for an hour. By the time we got up, i came to know that i donated more than a litre of blood to poor hungry mosquitos. At the same time, our driver was not at all in the mood to get up and we continued our sleep on the service road just beside the vehicle :( Finally, at 5am.. we started our journey with change of plan and got into Guruwayur to remove our "mala". Completing the formalities, we headed towards our home with a great joy and satisfaction. It was already dark when we entered Mysore... and after having a cool dinner in Chandru's house.. we slept with a long talk of the journey and our driver "loose madha" :)
All this started on one fine day, when my colleague Chandru and i were doing the usual work in our office i.e. "kala harate" :) After finishing all the subjects we both knew, suddenly the talk turned its way to Shabari malai. Chandru has already been to this place twice and this was his third time... At that moment, without any planning or prep, i requested him to enquire if he can get a seat for me in this trip. Its always true that,things which are unplanned.. executes faster than things what we plan to do... and in the same way, plans to shabari malai finalized without much problems. And the plan was,,, to put "male" on festival day (Jan 15th) in Mysore and start our long journey on 16th morning.
With all this background, i started my journey to Mysore on 15th afternoon in our KSRTC Volvo. After having my lunch at Chandru's house.. reshen up and we went to Ayappa Swamy temple which is just beside the Chamundi hill. After some small pooja, temple pujari put the mala to me. And from that time, i became "swamy" first time in my life. The feeling was different at that moment... calling everyone as swamy and with some strict rules to follow.. i spent the rest of the day in Chandru's house.
FYI : Some rules to be followed (it doesn't contain the full list and its only my understanding)
1. Continence
2. No alcohol, no non-veg food, no smoking
3. Bath twice a day
4. No footwear
5. Sleeping on a mat. No pillow
6. No shaving. No hair-cuts
The day (16th) started with a cold bath in the early morning and we went to temple to complete the process of putting "mudi". From long years, i have seen this process in my native but at that time, i never thought.. one day i will be a part of it. After going to temple, i saw our full group of 13.. and in all of them, i knew only Chandru. As i and 2 others were "kanyaswamy" i.e. putting the "mala" for 1st time, we were chosen to put the "mudi" first. I liked our "guruswamy" who was so active and doing all the pooja in high speed. For our guruswamy, this is the 28the consecutive visit to shabarimalai !!!! After all the pooja got over, now we have become full fledged "swamies"... one strange thing happened. All relatives and ppl in the temple started giving money for our journey to shabarimalai and they all started touching our foot !!! At that moment, i was so confused as i normally never let any of my cousins or anyone to touch my foot. But this time, there is no option for me to talk or to run either..... i just let the god to handle all the things happening around !!! After this, we settled in our vehicle and started our journey to Shabarimalai at morning 10.30. I have to mention one thing here.. normally, who ever puts "mudi", the whole family will come on that to give a send off. As i was in remote place, none of my family members were there but still i didn't feel the difference because Chandru's full family treated me as one of them and gave me full support at this special moment of my life.
Our next stop was at river near Nanjanagudu for the breakfast at 12. As we were on the past from the morning, everyone was in great enthu to drag the breakfast box out of the vehicle and refill the stomach. BUT.. but, in that small vehicle, all 13 of us were not able to search the box having upama :( It got missed out during the loading !!! Anyway, our stomach was not in a mood to listen to these reasons... we decided to have early lunch.. rather call it as a brunch !! Sitting beside river.. we ate the "wangibath + curdrice"to our level best and thx to guruswamy who got the food for full journey to all of us. With a full stomach, we continued our journey through bandipur, kalpetta, calicut.
As 8pm, we reached Guruwayur. After having one more cold bath in the temple pond, we were in the temple and got dharshan of god Krishna. After the darshan, we saw the special end of the day pooja. They lighted hundreds of "deepa" on the walls of the "garbagudi" and the god was taken on a elephant around the temple with three other elephats following it. Our stress from the full day journey went in the pond during the bath and the josh for the remaining trip was given by this scene :) Our next stop was the outskirts of Guruwayur for the dinner. Finishing the full box of "puliyogare" and remaining curd rice.
Half sleeping, half awakened.. we continued journey in the dark roads of Kerala. At night 3pm, we stopped in the Edumalai which was a place of some interest to me. Here, all the ppl first go to the temple and then to mosque which is right infront of this for special prayer. From here our destination was 1.30 journey. With a crowd lot above our expectation and with terrible cold, we took the mudi and left our vehicle behind.
Pampa river which is at the base, is almost dry at this season. Luckily we got a mug from somewhere to put the water on our full body :) After this, we took the "mudi" on our head and came to the base point i.e. Ganapathi temple. The climbing or trucking started with breaking a coconut in this temple. From here, Ayyappa temple is almost 7km. In the beginning, the path is little steep and will take little time to get used to walk in the bare foot on the small small stones all the way. We took almost one hour to reach "Shabari Pita" which is the half way to our destination. After sitting there for few minutes, we continued on the path which is flat compared to the first half. On the way, ppl who will be coming down will be giving Glucose or water for free... and they feel its the least seva they can do for the ppl who are climbing.
Still after two days of "Jyothi".. the crowd was still there. We stood in the que for almost 2.5 hours... and finished darshan of Ayyappa swamy at 12. The group got together and opened the "thuppadhakayi" in each's mudi and did repacking of that. Avalakki came as a surprise from guruswamy and we gave him a nice surprise by finishing it in record time :) Coming down took hardly 2 hours... and with the hopes to reaching home early and safely we left the Shabari malai at 6pm.
After stopping for dinner at 9pm, we expected to our driver to drive full night and reach Kalpetta in the early morning where we thought of removing our "mala". But our driver was not statisfied with full morning sleep and he planned a quick sleep for one hour at 12.30am. Me and Chandru saw a petrol bunk outside and slept there for an hour. By the time we got up, i came to know that i donated more than a litre of blood to poor hungry mosquitos. At the same time, our driver was not at all in the mood to get up and we continued our sleep on the service road just beside the vehicle :( Finally, at 5am.. we started our journey with change of plan and got into Guruwayur to remove our "mala". Completing the formalities, we headed towards our home with a great joy and satisfaction. It was already dark when we entered Mysore... and after having a cool dinner in Chandru's house.. we slept with a long talk of the journey and our driver "loose madha" :)
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