My Spiritual Trip

Almost every year we trip to Rambhapuri peetha (peetha=holy place). We started on 9^th Oct (Vijaya Dashami) around 3 PM from my place, Hospet and reached there around 10 PM. The moment we reached, we took a room to get ourselves settled for which the peetha authorities charged just Rs. 100/- and the room was very decent and well furnished.

Rambhapuri peetha is located near Balehonnur in Chickmagalur district in Karnataka. It the first and foremost peetha of pancha (Pancha=five) peethas for the people who practice Veerashaivism. The other peethas are Ujjaini (Karnataka), Shrishaila (Andhra Pradesh), Kedar (Uttarakhand) and Kashi (Uttar Pradesh) in India. Veerashaivism – a heroic shaiva faith(Shaivism). Veerashaivism strictly believes Lord Shiva is the only supreme reality and he is usually worshiped in the form of Shivaling.

We woke up early morning and the first thing we could notice was the fantastic view of malenadu (meaning hilly region in kannada). The fog was kissing the trees and birds were singing. The scenes cherished me. We got freshened ourselves and firstly we visited the temple of Shri Jagadguru Renukacharyaru. He is the first and foremost guru or rather founder of veerashaivism. Now this holy place is headed by Shrimad Rambhapuri Veerasimhasanadheeshwara Sri 1008 Jagadguru Prasanna Renuka Veera Someshwara Raja Deshikendra Shivacharya Bhaghavathpadaru.With his blessings many educational institutions, Hospitals and many other social work is going on mainly for the people who are less privileged.

Next we went to Shree Veerabhadra (is another son of Lord Shiva) temple, the god whom we follow in our home, we call it manedevaru and then followed a visit to shri Choudeshwari temple (goddess of power). And lastly followed delicious breakfast which was made of rice (pulav).

And then we left to Horanadu which is around 40 KM from this place located again in Chickmagalur distrcit. Horanadu is known for Shri Annapurneshwari temple. Annapurneshwari means “Feeding all”. It is believed that lord Shiva once had a curse and that this curse was reversed when the lord visited Goddess Annapurna and sought her blessings. It is believed that whoever seeks the blessings of Annapurneshwari would never have any scarcity for food in life. The statue of Annapurneshwari is so beautiful that a sense of fulfillment is felt when a person visits the temple. Male visitors remove their shirts and preferably cover their shoulder with a towel as a symbol of respect to the god. This I have seen, that is being followed in almost all temples in Malenadu area.

After visiting the temple we had a nice food offered to us from the temple authorities. Before leaving Horanadu, my mom never forgot to buy Coffee and Tea Powder, Spices and Honey which is well known here in Malenadu. This she does everytime when we visit this part of Karnataka.

Then we moved to back to our home. On the way, we also visited one more temple in Kottur called Shri Guru Kottureshwara temple which is around 60 KM from my native place, Hospet. It is a home of Saint Kottureshwara who preached Veerashaivism. This temple was built during 15^th century.

All these three places were spiritual retreat for me. It brought peace and serenity to me. Now, I am again back to my karmabhoomi (the place I work), Bangalore :-).