My friend Shri P. Gopi Krishna came on vacation from Delhi and we took that opportunity to visit a few holy places. We left Kacheguda Station (Hyderabad) by Kacheguda - Yeshwantpur Express with slip coaches to Vasco (via Hospet, Hubli etc.) on 23rd September, 2009 at 21:15 hours. We reached Hospet Railway station on 24th early morning and took an auto-rickshaw to Hampi and reached Sri Hampi Virupaksha Vidyaranya Matham, behind the Virupaksha temple, Hampi by about 8 AM. We bowed to Swamiji and went to the nearby Tungabhadra (Pampa) river for taking bath. We returned to the Matham, dressed and went out to the main temple street, where we could get some good idlis. I took the idlis with sugar as my stomach is intolerant to chillies. I also had tea. We bought some bananas for offering to the Gods in Matham and we also fed bananas to two young calves near the temple. In the process of eating the bananas, they licked my shirt, leaving some stains, which could not be washed away but the calves were so cute that I did not feel any anger towards them and in fact felt love to them!
We went back to the Matham and Sri Swamiji was busy with Puja. We waited for Him to finish Puja and in between, I showed my friend the Samadhis of earlier Swamijis and the place where Sri Paramacharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham did Tapas for nearly six months and where He was visited by Smt. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India.
At lunch time, we were served simple but good food by the priests and archakas attached to the Matham. Swamiji took care of my food restrictions by instructing them to serve bland and sweet items only.
We took some rest after lunch and then left for seeing nearby places after taking permission from Swamiji. My friend was impressed so much by the natural beauty and silence of the place that he was repeatedly mentioning that he would like to visit that place and stay for at least a week! I told them that he is most welcome any time.
We went first to Sri Kodanda Rama Swamy's temple at Chakra Teertha. We asked for directions to Sri Sugreeva Guha and went further. On the way, we saw some old temples and the whole place was so beautiful and so serene. We saw the Guha (cave) and saw the marks on the stones left by the golden ornaments wrapped in a saree that Sri Sita dropped when She was being abducted by Ravana, and which were discovered by the monkeys of Kishkindha. As the monkeys could not lift the ornaments, they dragged the bundle into the cave and that left permanent marks on the stones.
We were exploring that area when we came across a sign board and we took the path pointed by that sign board and came to a wonderful spot that was new to me too (I visited Hampi several times in the last decade but did not notice that board, may be because I did not visit that area often and because some renovation works are going on in recent times). The Brindvanam (Samadhi) of Sri Raghunandana Teertha was located near the bank of the river and the place was so quiet and peaceful that both of us spent a few blissful minutes there.
We returned to the Kodanda Rama temple and saw Sri Suryanarayana Swamy temple behind, the Yantroddharaka Anjaneya Swamy temple on a small hillock and Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in a small cave a little higher. We came back to Sri Kodanda Rama temple and got the Archana performed in our names. We returned to the Math and had darshan of Lord Virupaksha, Goddess Pampa Devi, and Goddess Bhuvaneshwari. We returned to the Math and had a light dinner.
We took bath in the matham itself next day morning (25th September) and went to the river to explore the possibility of crossing it but found the motor boat moored on the other side. We waited for a few minutes and had idlis for breakfast in a different place but found that the quality was so so. We found the motor boat still on the other side and people were mentioning that it may not ply because of the heavy flow in the river. We then hired an autorickshaw for sightseeing around the ancient monuments and palaces of the Vijayanagar Empire. We returned for lunch to the matham.
Swamiji gave some good time to my friend Gopi Krishna. We went to the temple again and had darshan of the God and Goddesses. We returned to the Matham for dinner. My friend was engrossed in some discussions with Swamiji and I retired to bed.
At our request Swamiji arranged for an autorickshaw to pick us up from the Matham, take us to the Malyavantha Raghunatha Temple, show us the Museum, take us to the Sai Baba temple on the way to Hospet, take us to the Tungabhadra Dam and finally drop us at the Hospet Railway Station.
We found Akhanda Parayan of Sri Tulsidas ji's Ramacharitha Manas going on at Sri Malyavantha Raghunatha temple. We also visited Goddess Lakshmi's temple a little behind the main temple and Lord Hanuman's mandir outside the gate. We found the atmosphere there very serene and divine. The vibrations at the Akhanda Parayan were very strong.
We found the Sai Baba mandir (Stupam) a little off the road on the way to Hospet very enchanting. The construction work is still going on but whatever has been built already is very beautiful. The pujari there is a telugu speaking person and he told us that we are welcome to visit and stay there if so desired. We thanked him and left for the TB Dam as it is popularly called.
We found the Tungabhadra river in good flow and about 12 gates of the dam were open. Thanks to a phone call from Swamiji, we were taken good care by Sri Vijaykumar, Security officer of the TB Dam. Our thanks to him and to Swamiji.
We had lunch at Shanbag Fast foods, a popular place in Hospet and reached Railway Station, Hospet, in good time. The train (Amaravati Express) came in time and we got in. We spent good time in satsang through the 5 hours of waiting and linking to Yaswantpur - Kacheguda train at Guntakal Railway Station. We reached Kacheguda at about 5:30 AM on 27th September.
We left Hyderabad the same evening to Chennai by Charminar Express and were joined by another friend Srinivasa Rao Kotamraju (Srinivas). More about that in a separate blog.
Photos of Hampi and near by temples can be found at the following link:
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