A
spiritual Journey – Kollur and Kodachadri Hills
Brief description about Kollur
Kollur is one of the seven pilgrimages
which were created by Parashurama. It is is situated at the banks of the river Sauparnika
and surrounded by thick forest.
Kollur is north of Udupi (100 km from Udupi) and around 176 km from Mangalore Railway station. Here we see the famous temple Mookambika at
the foot hill known as Kodachadri. The
Sowparnika River that originates on the
hill flows past the temple
My journey from 6th June to
10th June, 2015
6th
June, 2015
My trip to these locations was not
scheduled. On the 6th (Saturday) morning, I took the Coimbatore-Mangalore
train at 6.30am and reached Mangalore around 1.15 pm. The hotel folks had organised a pick me up
from the Mangalore Station. It costs
around Rs.2700/- to get dropped in Kollur.
On reaching I checked in at Hotel Beena Residency at 4.15. It is a three hours
drive from Mangalore Station to Kollur.
Since I had stayed at this hotel last year, they were kind enough to
give a room even though they were over booked being a weekend.
Mookambika Temple opening and closing
details:
Morning: 5 am to 1.30 pm
Evening: 3 pm to 9.30 pm
After taking a bath around 5.30 pm I
went to the temple. It is 2 mints walk
from the hotel.
Being Saturday, it was slightly
crowed. However, I managed to get into
the temple and had a very good darshan. After darshan, by sitting inside the temple I recited
Lalitha Sahasranam and Vishnu
Sahasranam. It took 40 to 45 minutes
for me to complete and I returned to the hotel.
Brief description about the temple
The skanda purana describes the glory
of this holy place and how a sage named kola did penance here. Devi Adi Shakti,
who vanquished the demon Mukasura, was
praised by the devas as Mookambika. It
is also said that the panchaloha idol of
the Devi and Sri Chakra were installed by Sri Adi Shankara himself and he had
also set up the methods for the various rituals and worship. . It is understood
that many yogis and sages have performed
austeritie at this holy place.
The temple houses a swayambhu lingam
worshiped as the form of Shiv Shakti.
The devoted accept that all three firms of shakti namely Mahakali, Mahasaraswati and Mahalakshi are housed in this sacred image of Mookambika. The
image of the devi holds a conch and chakra and shown the hand gesture of blessings
and freedom from fear. Onc can also see the images of Kali and Saraswati nereby
the main deity. Also in this temple are
enshrined images of Vinayaka with ten hands, Anjaneya. Virabhadra, Siva, and
Subramaniya.
It is quite difficult to get good food
in Kollur as this being a small temple town.
There are only two good places one being Mookamabika Palace and Beena
Residency (where I stayed). Since the
choice ares very limited, I had a nice dinner at Mookambika Palace and hit the
bed around 9.30 pm.
7th
June, 2015
Got up around 4 am and after
completing my routine activities I went and stood in the line around 4.,30 am.
By the time the temple opened, it was quite crowded being Sunday. Normally the
temple is crowded on Fridays thru Sundays.
I entered the temple around 5.15 am
and as usual had a very good darshan. I could stand in front of the idol for
around 10 minutes. Thereafter I sat
inside the temple and recited Lalitha Sahasranam and Vishnu Sahasranam. I got back to my hotel around 6.,30 am. Thereafter I managed to get some Kerala
breakfast in one of the kerala hotels.
After that I went and enquired about trip to Kodachadri Hills.
Only jeeps are allowed to take
one to Kodachadri hills. All such jeeps
are parked in front of the Kollur Police Station and they take minimum 8 people
in one jeep. If one hires the entire
jeep, the cost works out to be Rs.2700 to Rs.2800/ otherwise the jeep people charge an individual an amount of
Rs.350/- per trip. Hence I went and registered myself. After 10 minutes or so, they
managed to get 6 more people and we left around 7 am.
Kodachadri hill is on
Kollur-Shimogha-Bangalore national highway.
After 12 kms, one needs to take a deviation at Nettur to Kodachadri
hills. From this point, the base of the
bill is around 2 km but this 2 km ride took around one hour. There is no proper road as this being
through forest. It was very bumpy.
After reaching the base camp, we
started our treak. It was very windy and misty. First temple we covered was Kalabharavi and a
devi temple. Thereafter we visited one
more a kali temple which is the moolastam (means original place where devi sat),
I don’t know whether this true or not.
Thereafter we started the trek and it was comfortable for sometime.
but after sometime, I found it very
difficult. One point I thought I should
be return to the base as the path was very narrow and windy/misty. Due to my enthu I decided not to surrender
and moved on. Then we saw a small cave
where we saw a ganesh idol and pooja being conducted on a regular basis.
While climbing I was thinking why did
Adi Shankara has to come all the way here and did meditation. After struggling a
lot I managed to reach the Shankafra Simhasna.
Located in the scenic western ghats,
Kodachadri (1343 m) is around 14 to 15 km away from this temple. It is here the Devi Adi Shakti
is said to have also appeared before Adi
shankara . The stone seat called the shankara simhasana is
revered by devotees who meditate near it
to receive the blessings of the guru. Adi shankara is said to have meditated
here.
It is a mind blowing place. After
reaching the place, I understood why
Adi Shankara selected this place. After
reaching this place, one could feel the high positive energy created at this
place and feel the vibration.
After doing my prayers, we returned to
the base camp. Immediately after getting
into the jeep, the rain had started. Around 2 pm we reached Kollur. Since it was
feeling hungry, I had a kerala lunch at
Beena Residency. It was a very good
Kerala lunch..
In the evening, around 5.30 pm after
taking a batch I went to the temple for my evening prayers. It was crowded. However, I could manage to
enter the temple without much problem. As usual did my prayers by reciting Lalitha
Sahasranam and Vishnu Sahasranam. and returned to the hotel around 7 pm. Since
the lunch was very heavy, I skipped my dinner and hit the bed around 9.30 am.
8th
June, 2015
As usual got up at 4 am. After taking
my bath I stood in the line around 4.45 am. To my surprise, there
were 10 to 15 devotees in the line. Absolutely there were no crowd being Monday.
After my prayers I reached back to my room around 7.30. Then the question was where to have the
breakfast. Only option was to visit Mookambika Palace. Went had a good
breakfast and returned the room.
Then I was debating within myself to
stay one day( 9th June) at
Udupi and have a darshan in the Krishna Temple which is very famous. I
immediately called up and booked a room in Upupi Resiency near the bus stand
otherwise I was supposed to stay one more day in Kollur. I too informed the hotel authorities at
Kollur about my check out program.
Since there was nothing much to do
after, I decided to have lunch in the temple itself. Every day the temple conducts ANNADHANAM in
the morning and in the night. There is saying that “if one visit this temple,
one needs to have the food in the temple itself. The food is treat as Prasadam”.
This is the practice followed in all
temples in this area of Karnataka. This includes Subramanya, Udupi, Dharmsala,
and Annapurnaeswari temples. They start the lunch around 12 noon till 3
pm. I came to know that every day in the
morning around 5000 people eat and in the night around 3000. The food was excellent. As per their custom,
after serving rice, they serve rasam first, then sambar and then butter
milk. They too serve payasam. Every thing is limited – no second serving.
After lunch I went to the room and
took a break till 5 pm. Around 5.30 pm I
went into the temple and did my prayers and was back around 7.30 pm in my room.
Around 9.30 I went to sleep.
9th
June, 2015
I was up at 4 am and packed my
bag. Thereafter I went to the temple
around 5.15 am. As usual did my prayers and back into the room around 7.00
am. After having my breakfast I left for
Udupi. In fact I took a bus (8.00 am)
from the Udupi bus stand for which I paid an amount of Rs.75/-. I took
around 1.30 hours to reach Uduipi.
Around
9.30 am I reached Udupi. Since
Hotel Udupi Residency was very close to the bus stand, it took five minutes for
me to reach the hotel and check in. I
was wondering what to do next. Then I happened to put on the TV and the news of
Mr. Tomar, ex-Law minister of New Delhi was going on. I watched the TV till
12.30 pm. Thereafter I went for a lunch
to a nearby restaurant. I had a North
Indian thali and it was too good. Around
1.30 pm I returned to my room and took some rest means watching Mr. Tomar
incident on the TV.
Udupi Krishan temple opens at 5 am and closes at 9 pm. Around 4 pm after taking a bath I left for
the temple. It was a five minutes walk from the hotel.
It is a 13th century
temple. This idol of Krishna in the temple was originally worshiped by
Krishna’s wife Rukmini in Dwaraka in the Dvapara Yuga. The deity of Kishna shows Him holding the
churning rod in one hand and a rope in the other, with a little smile on his
face, reminiscent of the childhood activities. This is the place where the great spiritual teacher
Madhvacharya was born and lived.
After reciting Vishnu and Lalitha
sahasranam say around 6.00 pm I returned to the hotel. I hit the bed around 9.30 pm.
10th
June, 2015
Got up as usual at 4.30 am and after
completing my bath, I packed my bag. Around 7 am I had a quick breakfast and
left for Mangalore station to catch my train at 11.45 am. I took the bus of 8 am and reached Mangalore
around 10 am. It took around 2 hours to reach the station.
Around 11,45 my train left for
Coimbatore and reached Coimbatore around 7.15 pm. While in the train, I took
some good photographs of Arabian sea.
There are some excellent beaches between Kasargode and Mangalore and
Kasargode and Kannur.
While in the train, I had taken some photographs :
Overall it was a fantastic spiritual
journey. The experience of 30 minutes
near the shankara simhasana at Kodachadri Hills was fabulous. By this trip, I could knock off two items from
my “bucket list” which are (1) reciting Lalitha Sahasranam in Kollur
Mookambika temple and Vishnu Sahasranam in Guruavaoor Krishna Temple (during my
last visit) and Udupi Krishna Temple. It was an excellent feeling after doing
all these.
