Murudeshwar Sivan Koil - A temple tour to Mangalore

             After lunch, we started to Murudheshwar Sivan temple. This was the temple which I was waiting for... While travelling before a few kilometers itself.. we are able to see the gopuram of the temple. This temple is build on the beach shore. We parked our vehicle in the beach and went towards the temple. Wow..It’s most majestic Gopuram I have ever seen. I was superb, it took a while for me to return back to the real world.  From the beach you can see the huge statue of Sivan (123 feet , seen very long from Arabian sea) which makes us stumble in devotion. If I am not wrong, this is the tallest Shiva statue in the world.

            To reveal the history of this place, you have to travel back to Ramayana. To tell the story in short. Once Ravana got the athma Lingam (which belonged to lord shiva ) through his prayers for immortality and started travelling. Lord Vishnu appears and blocks the sun, to appear as dusk. Since Ravana has to perform the evening rituals, he needs someone to hold the Atham linga which cant be grounded on earth. Mean while a small brhamin boy passed near by.  Ravana told the Brahmin boy to hold the Athma Linga and he also told him that the Athma Linga must not be grounded. 

               Being tricky, the brahim boy kept the Aathma Linga in the ground and ran away. Actually lord Ganesha was in disguise of the Brahmin boy. Vishnu unblocked the sun and the dusk turned into normal daylight. Now Ravana after rituals, knowing that he is tricked got angry and tried to uproot the Athma lingam. Due to the enourmous force exerted by Ravana, the Linga broke into pieces. 

               One of the head piece went to Surathkal. The famous Sadashiva temple is built around the scattered piece. Then he decided to destroy the covering of the AtmaLinga, and threw the case covering it to a place called Sajjeshwara, 23 miles away. Then he threw the lid of the case to a placed called Guneshwara (now Gunavanthe) and Dhareshwara, 10–12 miles away. Finally, he threw the cloth covering the AtmaLinga to a placed called Mrideshwara in Kanduka-Giri (Kanduka Hill). Mrideshwara has been renamed to Murudeshwara.

                I clicked a lot of pictures. Thank God I had a bit wide angle lens to tilt the camera and take the picture of the whole Gopuram. Many of the cameras were not able to cover the whole temple in a single shot.  We then entered the temple, worshipped and climbed up to see the huge Shiva statue. From there you can find the Big Ratham (war scene).  

                 Near to the huge Shiva, you can find the Saneeswara bhagavan temple.One good facility in this temple is they provide the lift facitlity to go the top of the gopuram and have the entire site seeing.. It was superb for us and we enjoyed the sunset in the sea with our Shivan statue. The ticket cost for this is around 15rs . Don’t miss the lift trip.

                 From there we went to the beach which was a silent beach which less waves. There some sports like speed boats and individual boat rides were there. It was around night, and we enjoyed the lighting around the temple. But I still wonder why they did not give lighting facilities to the Gopuram.  We then left to the room. It was a wonderful temple.

How to reach the temple:

Road: (1 km off National Highway)
From Mangalore: Udupi - Kundapur - Byndoor - Bhatkal - Murudeshwar
From Karwar: Kumata - Honnavar – Murudeshwar

              Bhatkal - 16 kms

              Idagunji - 20 kms

              Gokarna - 65 kms

              Karwar - 120 kms

              Kollur - 63 kms

              Jog Falls - 90 kms

              Manjuguni - 90 kms

              Udupi - 100 kms

Clicks:

Aanakutte Vinayagar Koil - A temple tour to Mangalore

            

                       Actually this temple was not in our list to visit. We had a sudden plan to visit this place. Renovations were going on when we went there. This Pillayar (Vinayakar) temple was built good with lot of parking space. The cement carvings inside the temple were beautifully carved. When we went, they started the pooja which was really good as the pooja went for long time. There is a sivan parvathi statue with gangai from his head nearby. We started from there for lunch to a nearby hotel and had a good lunch... 

Kollur Mookambigai Temple - A temple tour to Mangalore

           Early morning we started and reached Kollur Mookambigai temple. It is the only temple that is dedicated to goddess Parvathi and believed to be created by Parashurama. Many lodges were there near to this temple. We were invited by a huge elephant near the temple gate. In the side of the temple some bidding of sarees was going on.

           Actually the bidding was on sarees and other things used for Lord Mookambigai. We just saw it for some time and entered inside the temple. A huge queue was maintained inside the temple. You can see a lot of pigeons inside the temple. Few monkeys were entertaining the queued devotees. A beautifully carved radham (ther) was kept inside the temple.

           

            The main deity in the temple is  Jyothirlinga (Shiva Linga). This Jyotirlinga is in front of the idol of the goddess Mookambika. A line of gold divides this Linga into two unequal parts and is only visible in the light reflected sunlight pointed at the Linga. The smallest portion of this right Linga he would represent Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva (as conscious principles static) and larger left part, Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Saraswathi and Goddess Parvathi (like the creative energy principles).

How to reach the temple:

Distances from Kollur:
1. Kundapur: 40 Kms
2. Udupi: 80 Kms
3. Murudeshwar: 55 Kms
4. Mangalore: 140 kms
5. Bangalore: 405 Kms (via Shimoga)
6. Sringeri: 115 Kms

Kollur is well connected to Mangalore, Bangalore and Mysore. Regular buses ply from Udupi.

Clicks:

Udipi Krishnan temple - A temple tour to Mangalore

                

                We reached the temple by night. This was the last schedule for that day. I was bit worried as we had only small amount of time left and many told this is one of the very famous temples. Even at that time we found a huge rush towards the temple. On the way to the temple, you can find the amazing radham (ther) fully made of bamboos. Near to it, we found some ducks & swans in the pond and there starts the rush and push.. 

               There was absolute "0" maintenance, and everyone started to push here and there even though they were not allowed inside. I came out of the rush with my wife and little girl.  My father and mother was in the mid and they were unable to come out and they were moved with the crowd. Few got hurt during the push. No security persons or the temple in charges were there to control the crowd. At last a security person came and he also started yelling and pushing. A lady became a victim to it and she fell down and her leg got hurt badly and that was a mistake of the security person. The security suddenly closed the iron gate and her leg just crossed, else it would have been worse. The lady told that she is going to raise a complaint.. don’t know what happened later.

            The main god is Krishna, who is bit different from other Krishna temples. The unique feature of Udipi Krishna temple is that the Lord is worshipped only through a window with nine holes called the Navagraha Kitiki. The window holes are silver plated and it’s a tradition to worship the lord through the window. There is a story behind the window worship . Kanakadasa was a great devotee of Lord Krishna. Once he was not allowed to see Krishna. But Kanakadasa was not upset, rather he started praying from the backside of the temple. On seeing this Krishna turned up and the wall was broken to Kanakadasa. That’s why, Krishna is still worshiped throught the window holes. The temple was good and we had a good dharshan with ultimate rush and push.

How to reach the temple:

Udupi railway station lies on the Konkan Railway line connecting Mangalore to Mumbai. It is well connected with all major cities in Konkan line, and also with other cities in India via Mangalore rail terminal.

Clicks: