By Shobha Rao Smilemaker
Mar 10: Our Ladies only temple tour trip was filled with fun loving devotees, ready for a day of adventure, doing maximum visits in minimal time.
We started our day at the Amriteshwari devi temple of Kota, which is famous for the power of granting wishes of childless couples, and is also known as Halavu Makala Thaiyi...the Mother of Many children. We were exactly on time for the early morning Aarathi and what fascinated me was the number of divine black stones considered as lingas in different shapes that were supposed to have emerged mysteriously behind the idol in the inner sanctum many centuries ago and are considered as the children of the Devi. Local people worship these stones with oil or horsegram in the stong belief of the wish fulfilling power.
We also visited other temples - The comparatively new Chandika Durga Parmeshwari temple at Anegudda had amazing wooden sculpted interiors.
The Venkatramanna temple in Kundapur, was started by a gram selling devotee who was not able to get the Lord's darshan at Tirumala and installed a clay idol brought from there at his home itself.
The Brahmalingeshwar temple at Marnikatte, where all the idols in their bright red colour seemed to stare back at me. This is the place where Goddess Ambika killed Mukasura, and later performed a Marana Homa here to give him salvation as Brahma Lingeshwar. It also contains the holy Sri Chakra yantra installed by the great Shankaracharya. I admired in fascination the two dwara palakas called Malayali Yakshi and Vat Yakshi, and the other family spirits or daivas called Hashiaguli, Haiguli or Chikku.
We drove off the highway and got onto to a mud track in the midst of dense jungles to reach our next cave temple at Keradi. It was an unusual experience to walk slowly inside the cave,by wading through knee deep water with fish sometimes for company. The main Shivalinga and Naga idol was barricaded with steel rods, yet we were able to touch a syambu Shiva linga which was immersed under water, which locals believe has powerful healing properties. The friendly caretakers gave us locally vegetables and we feasted on fresh cashew fruit, plucked straight from the tree. A unique cave water temple experience indeed.
We again drove through a beautiful mountainous region to go to the Suparsha cave which is next to the famous Kamalashile temple.
A priest cum guide with a powerful torch took us down the steep rock cut steps inside the dark cave which seemed to be in the shape of a lotus. He told us that at the entrance a Bairava stood guard and showed us spots inside the cave where King Suparshwa, Adi-Shesha and Sri Sridhara Swamy meditated without disturbance for many years.
As I walked gingerly with slow careful paces at the rear end of our group, the priest suddenly pulled me swiftly across the length of the cave, upon jagged edges of the rocks which suddenly turned to soft sinking mud under my feet.
We were noww under a huge dome, with thousands of bats on the ceiling and I even saw a rat enter a hole on the floor. But surprisingly I was not scared as I prayed in awe to the stone Linga, which is said to be convergence of Goddesses Mahakali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswathi.
He told us a legend of how Goddess Parvati had cursed an arrogant celestial dancer called Kabja to go to earth as an ugly woman. When the dancer was repentant, the Goddess asked her to meditate at this cave in the Sahya forest where the river (called Kabja now) is joined by the Naga Theertha water. We were not allowed to go further to the place where the Naga God had meditated.
Suddenly we all switched off our torches in stood silently in stark darkness, as the priest told us to experience few moments of the life of a blind person..it was eerie standing there in darkness among bats and rats knowing that Devi Shakti would completely take care of us! This is a Spiritual Experience that can never be described with mere words.
Suddenly the priest again held my hand and I had to literally run with him from the base, to the top of the cave - a feat that saved me precious time and energy. I felt privileged to be chosen for his help when he said that I reminded him of his sister.
We made it just in time at 12.30 pm to the aarathi at the famous Kamalashile temple and I was lucky to get to sit just in front of the idol..it was just me and the Goddess7, oblivious of everything else around us! I felt even more lpersonally blessed by her when I found a golden colored Rs.5 coin with a devi image...which is now proudly sitting in my God's shrine at home! The temple gives free food to all the devotees as prasada, and we really had a good sumptuous tasty lunch.
On the return journey we stopped at a sugarcane processing unit called Alemane at a place called Kedoor Shanadi. We quenched our thirst with fresh sugarcane juice and watched how fresh jaggery was made, by just boiling the huge quantities of its juice. It was one of the tastiest organic liquid jaggery that I ever brought hone.
Another photo spot was at the quaint wooden bridge at Parampalli Padukrte over the small Thodukatte stream surrounded by lush greenery literally on all sides . There was something magical about this simple place in its natural glory.
Our last stop was the Guru Narasimha temple with the lion faced idol's seemingly fierce line of sight and being matched with the Hanuman temple on the opposite side of the highway at Saligrama.
If you had the energy to read this article till here, then imagine the energy of our group of senior citizens who are always ready to discover new places with frequent trips around Mangalore..yes there is so much to smile and discover about these hidden temples and spots around Mangalore.
Shobha Rao Smilemaker has a vision of living in a world where people use their ability to find and make smiles in any situation. She is a lawyer by qualification, a soft skills trainer by passion, a motivational speaker, a freelance journalist, a bestselling author, an avid traveler and founder of 'Smilemakers Trainings'. She can be contacted at www.shobhasmilemaker.com.