Pre Jan 3 - Nine people from the US (3 from bay area, 2 from Maryland, 1 from Virginia, 1 from St. Louis, 1 from Kansas, 1 from Atlanta) congregate at Chennai.
Jan 3 - Nine of us along with 14 others (who come from Chennai, Pune, Bombay, etc.) tie Irumudi at Chennai at Guruswami's home, one at a time, all while singing bhajans, sarana ghoshams, etc. Three Ayyappas did their 18th yatra and, hence, carried the coconut sampling. After a great lunch we leave for Chennai Central to board Trivandram Express.
Jan 4 - We get down at Chenganur, and proceed to Chenganur Bhagavati Amman temple. We bathe at the nearby river, which we later came to realize was river Pampa, and visit the temple. Then we proceed to Pandalam, where we see Lord Ayyappa, Pandalam palace, and Thiruvabharanam. This year for the first time, they've replaced the old jewelry boxes with new ones made with sandal wood. They had carvings of the Sabarimala temple on the boxes. Then we proceed to Erumeli. We perform pettai-thullal, visit Vaavar sannathi and visit Sri Dharma Shasta temple. Then we begin the 60-km long trip via Peria paathai. We cross Perur-thodu thavalam and complete about 15 kms for the day ending at Kaalai-katti. Kaalai-katti is where Lord Shiva ties his bull and witnesses Lord Ayyappa killing Mahishi.
Jan 5 - We continue our trek past Azhutha malai, mukkuzhi, etc. walking almost 30 kms. Walking past karivalanthodu, puthu-cheri river, etc. we climb Karimalai, which is a steep 4km ascent. We halt at top of Karimalai for the night. It was very cold during the night.
Jan 6 - We descend the steep 4km Karimalai and proceed to Pamba past Seri-yaanai-vattam and Peri-yaanai-vattam. At Pamba we take a bath and climb the Neelimalai. The security was heavy past Pamba Ganapathi, where every one had to go thru metal detectors and all the bags were scanned using machines. When we reached Sabari-Peetom at 12 noon, the line for the 18-steps began right there, same as last year, when we stood in the line for 12 hours. Fearing the same this year, we approached the police and showed them a letter from the pilice commissioner and pleaded with them to let us walk past the line all the way to 18-steps. We climbed the 18-steps and at 12:58pm, 2 minutes before the Sannadhi closes we see Lord Ayyappa. It was just 30 seconds before Lord Ayyappa, but it felt like a 30 minutes before him - all the troubles of walking for the last 2 days on rocks with blisters and pain was instantly forgotten. Then we proceed to our accomodation in the donors cottage. We sang bhajans in the evening, and then proceeded to see Lord Ayyappa again at 11pm when Harivaraasanam was played - listening to the devotional voice of Yesudass.
Jan 7 - Early in the morning we waited in line to see Nirmalaya dharshan, but they started Nei abhishekam early by 5am, which we got to see. Then back at the room, we removed Nei from the Mudra coconut. We came back again to Sannadhi to perform Nei-abhishekam, then after abhishekam, we carried the abhishekam-ed Nei, accompanied by Karpoora Aaghzi, to the room, where we consumed the Nei. Then we visited the Manja matha temple, and got one more dharshan of Lord Ayyappa before we descended the Neelimalai back to Pamba, where we boarded our bus. After a long ride we reached Ettumanur temple. Then after dinner we proceed to Kaladi where we stay for the night.
Jan 8 - Kaladi is the birth place of Adi Sankara. We took bath in the Periyar river that Adi Sankara diverts by 3 kms closer to home so that his old mother doesn't have to walk that long to take a bath. Kaladi has a great temple for Goddess Saraswati - Sharadhamba. Then we proceed to Kodungalur Baghavathi temple, and then to Guruvayur. If you didn't know the story of Guruvayur, Guru and Vayu find Lord Krishna's statue (one that's formed by nature) washed from Mathura on the shores of Kerala and hands it over to Parasuram, who installs it at Guruvayoor. They change the alamkarams of Krishna every 1/2 hour - dressing him up as a boy in the morning and ending as a old man in the night. Finally we visit Shiva at Vadakunathar temple in the night. Then we board Trivandram express back to Chennai.
Jan 9 - We reach Chennai, go to Guruswami's house, distribute the prasadam and then go our ways after another great Sabarimala yatra.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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