Char Dham

 Char Dham :

While India has innumerable religious sites and temples, we Hindus consider four pilgrimages as essential in one’s lifetime. There is one site/temple in each of the four directions. Thus we have: 

• Badrinath (Uttarakhand) in the north which is the place where Vishnu as NarNarayan performed tapasya. 
• Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu) in the south is the spot where Ramchandra ji, on his return from Lanka, prayed to Shivji for absolution of any and all sins committed in the war and especially from brahminhatya when he killed Ravan.  
• Dwarka (Gujarat) in the West is where Krishna ji made his kingdom after leaving Mathura and Vrindavan. 
• The fourth is Jagannath Puri (Odisha) in the east, which is dedicated to Krishna ji.

Incidentally, Badrinath is also one of the four Dhams in Uttarakhand, the other three being Kedarnath (a jyotirling), Gangotri (the source of the River Ganga) and Yamunotri (the source of the Yamuna river).

Tirupati Padmavati

 A visit to Padmavati Temple for her blessings is considered essential before visiting the Venkateshwar Temple of Tirumala, which is said to be complete only with the blessings from Padmavati.

Outside Padmavati Temple

                                                              Padmavati Temple

It is said that Lakshmi once, annoyed with Vishnu (for his forbearance over an insult from Bhrigu rishi), left him. After several years, her incarnation was as Padmavati, the daughter of Akashraja, and is believed to have been found on a lotus flower in a tank in Tirupati. Meanwhile Vishnu, as Venkatesh or Srinivas, came to earth and later married Padmavati. The tale goes that after marriage, searching for curry leaves she reached the Padma tank where she was born, and decided to remain there. It is said that Srinivas travels from Tirumala to Tirupati, and visits her at night to enquire about her welfare – how many times he visits her is not known but his footwear at Alipiri is said to be worn out. Alipiri is the foot of the seven hills of Tirupati and the journey to Tirumal starts here.

The city of Tirupati is at the foothills of Tirumala and has a few other noteworthy temples. There is the temple of Govindaraja Swamy, the elder brother of Venkatesh, who was the caretaker of massive wealth obtained from Kuber for conducting the wedding of Venkatesh / Balaji with Padmavati. He efficiently utilised this wealth to conduct one of the most glorious weddings of religious history.

A newer beautiful temple is that of ISKCON.

Iskcon Temple at Tirumala

Tirupati Balaji

An important temple in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh is that of Balaji / Venkateshwar / Vishnu at Tirumala near Tirupati. Two aspects of this temple are unusual, first that it is comparatively new. References to it are found in the Purans, where the site is associated with Vishnu’s Varaha avatar. The temple itself traces back to the 10th to 15th century CE. The second important aspect is that unlike most temples where the idol is representative of God, here the idol is said to be Vishnu himself.

Image outside

The story goes thus – Vishnu, in his incarnation as Srinivas had agreed to marry the daughter of Akasa Raja (and that is another story). His daughter Padmavathi (also known as Alamelu Mangamma), was found in a lotus in a pond. For the marriage Srinivas / Venkatesh / Vishnu borrowed heavily from Kuber, the treasurer of the gods. He also promised the following:

- that he would stay at the spot till the end of Kaliyug

- That he would fulfil the wishes of any devotee visiting there, and all donations at the temple would go towards repayment of the interest on Kuber’s loan.

Today the number of pilgrims visiting Venkatesh temple is very very large (in the range of 40,000 to 70,000 per day) and for a few seconds of darshan one has to stand in the queue for 8-10 hours. Photographs are strictly prohibited.

The beautiful area around

Incidentally the 30 kms drive from Tirupati ti Tirumala is enjoyable – the road is really well maintained and the view picturesque with flowers all along.

Sita, Luv and Kush at Valmiki’s ashram in Bithoor

Valmiki, the author of Ramayan, had his ashram in Bithoor near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Ram had met Valmiki during his 14 year exile. Later, when his wife Sita was banished, she took refuge in Valmiki’s ashram where she gave birth to twin sons Luv and Kush. The early years of the twins was spent here. 

Valmiki ji

                                                     Entrance to Valmiki ji’s Ashram

Luv Kush janm bhoomi Mandir, outside Valmiki's ashram, Bithoor

Ram, Sita, Luv and Kush

Sita with Luv and Kush

Hanuman temple in the Luv Kush janm temple outside Valmiki's ashram in Bithoor

In preparation for the ashvamedh yagya in Naimisharanya (please see earlier posts on this blog), Ram had released his horse – it reached Valmiki’s ashram and was captured by the twins. It is here that the latter also fought and tied up Hanuman.

Luv and Kush capture the horse and tie-up Hanuman. (Valmiki's Ashram in Bithoor)

Sita ki rasoi or Sita's kitchen at Valmiki's ashram, Bithoor

After the yagya, Ram visits the ashram to take Sita back to Ayodhya but she prefers to go back to Mother Earth who hears her prayers and opens herself to take Sita.

The spot where Sita entered Mother earth. Valmiki's ashram in Bithoor

Valmiki wrote the Ramayan about 2000 - 2500 years ago in Sanskrit. The poem has approx. 24000 shloks (verses/couplets) in 7 kand (काण्ड ) or chapters, and has the famous tale of Ramchandraji, the 7th incarnation of Vishnu.

The entire Ramayan is written in pillars in Valmiki's ashram in Bithoor

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(Grateful thanks to Shri Uttam Chand Bansal for these photographs.)

Valmiki’s Ashram in Bithoor (near Kanpur)

While the Mahabharat was written by Vyas ji in Naimisharanya (please see earlier posts here), the Ramayan, consisting of 24,000 shloks, was written by Valmiki in Bithoor, in his Ashram there (circa 500 BCE to 300 BCE).

Entrance to Valmiki Ashram in Kanpur

A popular story on Valmiki that we heard from childhood is now disputed as having no proven origin and thus may not be true. However it is interesting and goes thus : The daku/dacoit Ratnakar, who robbed to feed his family, came across Narad Muni and tried to rob him. On being asked whether his family would partake of his sins since they were partaking of the spoils, Ratnakar learns that his family is not agreeable to do so. Realisation then dawns on him. Being a sinner, he is unable to even take God’s name. Narad ji asks him to chant “Maraa Maraa Maraa” repeatedly and these words ultimately merge into “Ram Ram Ram” and change his life. During the long period of his meditation, an anthill or valmiki grows over him, thus giving him this name.

Valmiki Dwar, Bithoor. The entrance to Valmiki Ashram and associated temples.

Entrance to Valmiki Ashram

The board outside the entrance to Valmiki Ashram.— at Bithoor, Kanpur, Uttarpradesh.

Ram, Sita and Lakshman visited Valmiki’s ashram after leaving Ayodhya. When Sitaji was left in the forests by Lakshman, on the instructions of Ramchandraji, it was Valmiki who gave her shelter. Sita ji’s entire life thereafter took place here.

Valmiki ji

Valmiki is also said to have written Yog Vashist (with 32,000 shloks) which has Guru Vashist’s teachings to young Ram.

(This post was written by me in December 2016, uploaded now)