Sabarimala trip in Feb 2019

In Feb 2019, about 15 of my office colleagues went to Sabarimala led by a fellow colleague Guruswami called Radhakrishnan Swami. He was just 36 years old from Nellikuppam!. He has been to Sabarimala 52 times in the last 22 years!

In my current state of acceptance of all sattvik thoughts as divine god sends, I decided to join this year along with 13 other colleagues. Unlike the traditional 45 day austerity period in the past, we were going to wear the mala on Thursday Feb 14^th around 5:30pm and get on a flight at 10pm from Bangalore to Cochin. The temple where a Guru swami gave my irumudi and mala was in sriramapura, Malleswaram, Bangalore. Nandhini and Medhansh contributed to the rice offering in the irumudi. There was very tasty dinner prepared by the mother of one of my dear friends and subordinate, Hariprasad.

We reached Cochin and got on a tempo traveler to erumali. From Erumali, we took a local KSRTC bus to Pamba. Pamba was under flood recently but the flood had long receded.  Sabarimala was open from Feb 12-17 and the crowd was not at its peak post Makara Sankranti and possibly due to the not so great press related to Sabarimala controversy.  You break a coconut at home when leaving for Sabarimalai and Irumudi, one coconut at the temple before leaving for journey, one coconut at the Pamba Ganapathy temple,  one at the foot of 18 steps.

I had heard stories of how tough the climb was before from relatives, but nothing would prepare me for what we were about to encounter. We just took the short path of about 5 km back and forth to the Sannidhanam. Phone stats was 13.5km, 54 floors and 20000 steps but it was my toughest climb and trek down ever. It is supposed to be 332m altitude climb of 4.3km through Pamba Ganapathy temple, Neelimalai, Appachimedu and then Sannidaanam. We started the climb after a holy dip in Pamba at around 6am.

We reached the 18 steps around 7:30am on Feb 15^th morning. We got Divya Darshanam around 8am. The Sannidaanam has inscribed on it the concept of “tat tam asi”. Tat Tvam Asi (That Thou Art): This is contained in the Chandogya Upanishad of Sama Veda. This is Upadesha Vakya uttered by the Guru to disciple. This is one of the 4 mahavakyas.

After the great darshan, we got all ghee laden coconut dumped in a big vessel and got the ghee for Nei Abhisekam (ghee offering) to the sanctum santorum. After the nei (ghee) was used for abhisekam, we got the nei prasadam for  all of us in the group. We then took darshan of Bhagavadi Amman and used another coconut for worship there. There are 6 coconuts and a ghee laden coconut involved. Once we got down the 18 steps, we broke another coconut before proceeding on the arduous trek back down to Pamba not before polishing off a very good breakfast.  By the time we climbed down, it was close to noon and the sun was very hard on the feet along with all the sharp stones. Lord Ayappa was testing our grit and I don’t know if I passed at all. We reached Pamba around 2pm and immediately got a bus to Erumeli. Standing room only!

Once at Erumeli, we took the long ride to Thiruvananthapuram (also called Trivandrum). We reached Trivandrum around 6pm and immediately went to Ananthapadmaswamy temple for darshan. Got darshan at 7pm. Divine darshan. Got our lunch/dinner at a nearby hotel and retired in a dormitory. Guruswami and I got up next morning at 2:45am and got the 3:30am Nirmala darshan at Ananthapadmanaba Swamy temple again. Others got their darshan later at 7am by which time, we caught up on our sleep. We had our very heavy breakfast at around 8am of Puttu etc., and got on the long road to Guruvayur…8 hours on the road. We reached Guruvayur at 6pm having skipped lunch. Someone mentioned that it was Bhishma Ekadashi and it was good to skip lunch. Life is divine J

I went to Ananthapadmanaba Swamy temple after 17 years. I went to Guruvayur after 19 years. Last time was just before my marriage to fulfill an undone Thulabaaram requested by my meena patti to help me recover from grave illness at the age of 3 years! Some things are worth the wait. The darshan at Guruvayur was heavenly.  My colleague had to catch a flight at 9:30pm to Chennai so we rushed to Cochin airport not before haggling for 10 rs to get a kg of Nendharanga chips…you cannot take the haggler from us desis!

Reached home at Bangalore at 1am. Broke the 6^th coconut if someone kept count, took a shower and unloaded my Mala at the Pooja room in our house. If God wills, will be on another trip in the near future. Until then…Tat Tvam Asi, Guruvayoor Appam Saranam, Swami Saranam, Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya!