Kodavasal or Kuda vasal , is my native place.I do not really know whether any one in the present fast moving world can claim any place to be his/her native place. Most of us have moved far away from our native places on account of various factors, the most important being the desire to survive and earn a livelihood.Our roots have been removed form our native places and planted elsewhere and depending on one's luck or other wise, the growth or decline of various family trees have taken place.
However, over a period of time most of us have kept in touch with the nativepalce, for a variety of reasons and the most important of them used to be the visit to kula deivam/deity as and when any good event is taking place in the family to pray for the blessings of the almighty.I am no exception and am in touch with my kuladeivam temple at Kudavasal, situated about 10-12 kms on the Kumbakonam-Thiruvarur route.
Presiding deity at the temple is Lord srinivasa with his beloveds Sridevi and Boodevi.Few more deities have been installed during the samprokshanam celebrations held in 2009, which include Lord Hayagreeva Lord Laxshmi narasimhar , Lord Yoga Narasimhar and Anjaneya.
The visits to the temple have always remained green in memory for a variety of reasons.The most important one is the inner peace and level of comfort that i used to get once i get into the sanctum sanctorum.You are simply transformed to a different world and the present world's worries and inhibitions are simply given a go by, in the presence of the almighty. The more time i have spent there the more i a have satrted appreciating the concept of 'saranagathi"...i.e leaving every thing to HIM and proceeding in the path ear marked to once self.
The recent visit to this temple , last week gave rise to this blog post.Possibly I have lost count of the number of visits that i have made to this temple. But i vividly recall some of these visits for some special reasons.
One of them relates to the decade of 1980"s when me and my family visited the temple to offer the prayers(by giving the hair of the new child as part of the customs in the family)along with my son aged 3 years and daughter aged 2 years , with my brother and my parents.I remember the dip that we had in the near by pond, the food that we had in my cousin's place who was residing in Kodavasal then and the prayers we offered at the temple (when only Moolavar was present and the urchavar was kept in the sIva temple near by for security reasons).
The visit is remembered for the simple reason that my son, just a few months before this visit only, has started walking(after a tense period of waiting for 2 years)when we were consulting various doctors . all of whom assured taht there was nothing to worry, but still he was moving only witrh the help of his hands and the back and not with legs. Now any one who see him will not believe that he had taken two years to walk, considering the speed with which he walks.
The next one i recall was almost after 15 years , in EARLY 2001 when i visited the place along with my family members, immediately after the upanayanam of my son.In between these 15 years though quite a few visits have been made they were flying visits with no special purpose except to visit my brother and to have glimpse of God.This visit was remebered because it was a close family circuit and all my sisters along with their husbands besides my brother were present compensating for the absence of my father/mother/Chithhi/ manni in that order who left for heavenly abodes during these 15 years, and the last 3 in a row in 1997.
Then it was the visit during samprokshanam in March 2009 when i had visited the temple along with my wife, elder brother (no more now) and elder sister, when other relatives as also other kodvasalites gathered in thousands of numbers to make the occasion memorable.WE stayed at O.KOIL and transported to and from O.kOIL thru vans to particiapte in various functions and to take prasadams /food at Kudavasal.This visit was remembered since both my son and daughter who were accompanying in the visit in 2007, were not ther with us and were pursuing their own ambitions/careers under testing and trying circumstances at Mumbai and Raichur.Our united prayers then were to have a life free of worries and problems to both our children.Nothing else mattered then.AS if to answer our prayers within an year the life of my son and daughter took some positive turn for betterment exactly in an year and by march 2010 we were heaving a sigh of relief that things are going in the right direction for both of them.
Then came the recent trip to Kodavsal in March 2011(again after an year to be exact)and i was travelling alone to Kodavasal.From 2001 , in which i made the trip along with all my family members to 2011 when i took the trip alone.Such is the life's journey.And my dear bother who was with me in my every trip to Kudavasal breathed his last in MARCH 2010 and was not around .Life's journey is such where in it can be equated to a train journey. The train stops at various places and many get in and many move out.But the journey shall continue till one's destination is reached and once this recognition comes, journey becomes smooth like a tide.
I proceeded directly to kudavsal (a 10 hour journey by Bus form Chennai) and when i approached my destination, the evening shadows were becoming longer, the sun was at his crimson red, preparing to rest in the west, and the cool breeze carrying the moist from the rain filled ponds enroute ,all made me to forget the tiredenes of the lloonngg(Mistake intentional)journey and energised me .the purpose of the visit this time was to have a dharshan of the lord after almost 2 years and to invite the almighty and invoke his blessings to grace the occasion of my daughter;s wedding scheduled on 5th June 2011. Purohit was waiting for my arrival tp perform the evening pooja and the moment i entered he accompanied me to the sanctum sanctorum and performed archana to the presiding deity.I stayed in the temple premises enjoying its silence, magnificence, the fragrance and the absolute peacefullness for almost an hour and then proceeded to another Siva temple situated at Kodvasal itself, which i did not have an occasion to visit so far. Invariably we used to come from Kumbakonam and or O.kOIL to Kuda vasal and when there is a crowd it becomes difficult to carry out one's own desires . Now that i was alsone and had already decided to saty at Kudavasal, for night, i had the entire evening at my disposal and thuis the visit to Siva temple.
To my utter surprise and astonishment, the moment i stepped into temple, i knew what we all had missed all along.The siva temple dates back to 2nd century and was reportedly built by Kotchengot Chozhan.The presiding deity is Koneswarar.There are 18 steps to be taken to reach the presiding deity and it is claimed this temple is the first role model for many temples of alter years (Especially iyappa temples-where in 18 steps to God is considered as holy journey to bliss).
The thala purana for both Srinivasa temple (Our family deity at Kudavasal) and the Koneswarar siva temple had lot of similarities pointing out to the basic fact that Hari and HARAN and one and the same and the belief systems of Saivits and Vaishnavites have many common similarities.The thala purna for both Temples describe that the almighty,with a view to giving new life to the universe at the end of Kaliyuga had chosen various specimens of life and had put the same in a pot filled with nectar (the life saving sanjeevini) . This pot when it broke into pieces, resulted in the mouth of the pot falling in the place, subsequently christened as Kuda vasal, Kuda vayil. symbolically representing the place where the mouth of the pot and consequently the nectar had come to stay.As a result the almighty had chosen to take the same place as its abode to give divine blessings to the human beings.Whn i visited the siva temple, there was power cut and i could see the Linga in natural lights , taking me to an altogether different heavenly experience. When i cam out of the sanctum sanctorum and looked at the sky (since it was only few days to Amavasya) the sky presented another marvellous sight. It was a blue carpet of vast expanse studded with millions of diamonds and i got the feeling atht the almighty is watching the universe with its thosands of star studded eyes.I did not pray for nay thing as there was nothing to pray for. There was abundant peace within and also outside.
An unforgettable experience which possibly could not be reflected/described in words but one which is to be experienced by individual experience only.
KANDAVAR VINDILAR, VIDAVAR, KANDILAR
TOWARDS THE NIGHT WHEN I RETIRED TO BED, THE BEAUTY AND GRANDEUR OF THE SMALL YET THE MOST ATTRACTIVE DEITY OF LORD SRINIVASA AND THE MIGHTY AND MAJESTIC LORD SIVA ALLOWED ME TO HAVE AN WONDERFUL REST DEVOID OF ALL EARTHLY WORRIES..
may the deities of the Kudavasal town bless all the readers as also non readers of this blog with peace, health and prosperity.
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