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brahman
04 December 2010, 04:40 AM
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय

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SRI. GURUVAYOORAPPAN





Sri. Krishna temple Guruvayoor is one of the most important places of worship for Hindus and is often referred to as "Bhooloka Vaikuntam" which translates to the holy abode of Vishnu on Earth.

The divine idol installed here represents the enchanting form of Sri. Krishna endowed with the four lustrous arms carrying the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana Chakra, the mace Kaumodaki and the lotus. Adorned with the divine Tulasi garland the idol represents the majestic form of Maha Vishnu as revealed to Vasudeva and Devaki at the time of Krishna avatar; Hence it is also known as Dwaraka of the south (of India).

Shri Krishna is popularly known here by different names such as Kannan, Unni-Kannan (Baby Krishnan), Unni-Krishnan, Balakrishnan, and Guruvayoorappan.

The presiding deity in the sanctum-sanctorum is Mahavishnu, faces east and his idol is 4 ft tall. Even though this is not a much small idol, devotees consider lord as Little Krishna; has 4 hands : The upper right hand holding chakra, lower right hand holding lotus, upper left hand holding shankha and lower left hand holding gada. Lord stabs gada on the basement.

Guruvayoorappan is worshipped according to the pooja routines laid down byAdi Sankaracharya and later written formally in Tantrasamuchaya (the Tantric way) by Chennas Narayanan Namboodiri (born in 1427).


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ADI SANKARACHARYA'S VISIT AND CHANTING OF GOVINDASHTAKAM
Once Sankaracharya was on his aerial journey to Shringeri. While above Guruvayur he smiled at the pompness and vividity of the procession of Sreebhootha Bali (feeding celestial attendants) and tried to pass the temple without making any obeisance to the Lord. Suddenly he came crashing down and the procession stopped there at the northwest corner. He soon recovered and saw the Lord in all his royalty. Realizing the cause of his fall, Sankaracharya prostrated before the Lord and tried to win the Lord's favour by chanting 8 slokas in praise of Govinda, known as Govinda Ashtakam. The small opening in the roof over the North- West courtyard is in commemoration of this event. Sankaracharya is believed to have instituted the Mandala Vilakku (lighting of lamps for 41days).


SANCTITY OF THE LOCALITY
Guruvayur became divine on account of the "tapas" performed by Lord Siva and later by the Prechethas (the ten sons of Pracheenabarhis and Suvarna are together called Prechethas) in the Rudratheertham - the sacred tank on the northern side of the present temple - where Lord Guruvayurappan has His Arattu (holy bath on the last day of Annual Utsavam). Siva worshipped Mahavishnu for years under the waters of the Rudratheertham ( hence the name Rudratheertham due to the presence of Rudra, Siva). Prechethas came to this place to do tapas to attain "prajapathithwam" ( king of all kings) from Lord Mahavishnu. Sensing the motive of Prechethas, Lord Siva emerged out of the Rudratheertham and revealed to them the "Rudrageetham", a hymn in praise of Mahavishnu. Siva suggested them to chant it with all their heart to get their wishes fulfilled. The Princes won the favour of Mahavishnu after rigorous tapas for 10,000 years under the waters of Rudratheertham chanting Rudrageetham


SANCTITY OF THE IDOL
The idol of Guruvayur temple is unique, since it is carved out of "Pathalanjana Sila", and is considered extremely sacred. This idol was once worshipped by Mahavishnu in Vaikunta. Vishnu handed it over to Brahma. King Suthapas and his wife who worshipped Bhrama for a child received this idol from Brahma. He advised them to start worshipping the idol. Once Lord Vishnu appeared before them and blessed them that he himself will be born as their child in their three re-births in three different forms and in three different situations. Thus they got the good fortune to worship the same deity in all three rebirths. They gave birth to Prasnigarbhan who gave to the world the practice of Brahmacharya Vratha (Celibacy) . In their next birth, Suthapas and his wife were born as Kashyapa and Adithi . Their son in that birth was Vamana. The third rebirth was as Vasudeva and Devaki. The Lord Krishna was born as their eighth son. In the long run , the Lord Krishna himself installed this idol in Dwaraka and worshipped it.


SANCTITY OF INSTALLATION
From Mahavishnu the sacred idol has passed through the hands of Brahma, Suthapas, Kasyapa, Vasudeva, Sree Krishna and finally at the time of Krishna's ascension to Vaikunta, he instructed Udhava to entrust Brahaspathi (the Guru of Devas) with the task of taking the idol to a suitable place where people could worship it, so as to get salvation in Kaliyuga. A deluge had closed in on Dwaraka, but Guru salvaged the idol with the help of his prime disciple, Vayu. Guru and Vayu went around the world in search of an ideal place. They met Parasurama who lead them to a lush green spot with a beautiful lotus tank where they felt the presence of Lord Siva. Lord Siva along with Parvathy welcomed them and said , "This is the same spot you are looking for, here it was, I imparted the Rudrageetham to the Prechethas" .The idol was installed there. Siva with Parvathy left to the opposite bank, at Mammiyur. Siva permitted Guru and Vayu to perform the consecration rites and blessed them that henceforth this place would be known as GURUVAYUR (since the installation was done by Guru and Vayu)



EARLY HISTORY
According to the legends, the idol worshipped here is more than 5000 years old. But there are no historical records to establish it. In the 14th century Tamil literature 'Kokasandesam', references about a place called Kuruvayur is made. As early as 16th century (50 years after theNarayaneeyam was composed) many references are seen about Kuruvayur. In ancient Dravidic, Kuruvai means sea, hence the village on the coast may be called Kuruvayur.
But according to Prof. K V Krishna Iyer (eminent historian), the Brahmins had begun to come and settle at Kodungalloor during the period of Chandra Gupta Maurya ( 321-297 BC). Trikkunavay in the Guruvayur documents is the same as Thrikkanamathilakam or Mathilakam mentioned in the Dutch and British records. And this place was in between Guruvayur and Kodungalloor. Guruvayur was Trikkunavay's subordinate shrine since they were destroyed by the Dutch in 1755. That way Guruvayur must have come into existence before 52 AD. The story of Pandyan King building a shrine here may be a reference to the Azhavars , but they are all silent in their writing about Guruvayur.
It was Melpathur's Narayaneeyam through which the Temple got publicity. The concept of Unnikrishna popularised by Poonthanam ,Kururamma , and Villwamangalam brought more and more devotees to Guruvayur.



E- Offerings (https://www.guruvayurdevaswom.org:10443/offer.shtml)



THE TEMPLE CUSTOMS
1. Only Hindus are allowed to enter the temple.
2. The temple pond on the northern side is known as Rudratheertham. Devotees can purify themselves by taking bath here and can enter the temple preferably with wet clothes.
3. Follow the temple rules and regulations, so that all can comfortably worship the Lord.
4. Do not enter the temple wearing shirt, banyan, pyjama, lungi, chequered clothes, chapels etc. There are facilities to keep them outside the temple.
5. Co-operate with the Temple officials, who are always ready to guide and help the devotees.
6. Do not take video camera, mobile phone, radio, tape recorder etc. inside the temple wall
7. Do not take, camera inside the Nalambalam
8. Do not touch on the big altar stone (Balikkallu) by foot
9. Immediately after marriage , the couples should not enter the Nalambalam.
10. Do not spit in the temple premises
11. Do not retain babies and children for a long time within the Nalambalam.
12. The receipt for the remittance for offerings (Vazhipad) can be obtained from the booking counters on the ground floor of the oottupura. Be careful not to get deceived by fraud agents for such bookings.
13. Receipts obtained for the feeding of the poor etc. should be put inside the box for the purpose in front of the booking counter.
14. Such items as miniature human figures, replicas of hands, legs, eyes, abnormal body eruptions etc. made of gold and silver can be obtained from the temple official, who are available near the Kodimaram (Flag-staff). Keep these on the platform of the Kodimaram and offer prayers. Put the amount you wish to offer in the Bandaram (Hundi). Do not buy these items from outside, which are fakes.
15. Udayasthamana Pooja, Vilakku, Bhagavathy Chuttuvilakku, Namaskaram, Krishnanattam and offerings of the like , have to be booked in advance.
16. Ornaments and such other costly offerings can be put in the Bhandaram.
17. Enter the temple with an absolute sense of devotion.
18. Take special care of your valuables.
19. Offerings and the relevant letters should be sent to theAdministrator, Guruvayur Devaswom, Guruvayur - 680101, Kerala. Complete information about offerings and full address of the person making the offerings in bold capital letters should be given on the money order coupon or covering letter of DD. If these are not given, the amount sent will be put in to the Bhandaram.
20. Bank drafts or Money orders should be sent well in advance to make the offerings on the desired date.




GURUVAYOOR SAINTS

MELPATHUR NARAYANA BHATTATHIRI( AD 1559-1632 )
The most famous among the Guruvayur saints was Melpathur. He was born in Melpathur illam near Tirunavaya, famed as the theatre of the Mamankam festival. He was married to Achuta Pisharodi's niece and settled in Thrikandiyur.

POONTHANAM(AD 1547-1640)
Poonthanam and Melpathur were contemporaries. Poonthanam was the family name, his personal name is not known. He married a heiress at 20, but for a long time , they had no children. Poonthanam began to propitiate the Lord of Guruvayur. A son was born to him in 1586. He called for a celebration and everybody known was invited , but the child died an hour before the ceremony. Grief-stricken Poonthanam sought refuge at Guruvayur and started praying with the puranic story of Kumaraharanam . By this time Melpathur had also come to Guruvayur to cure his rheumatism.

VILLWAMANGALAM(1575-1660)
Villwamangalam II was Prince Manavedan's spiritual mentor. Villwamangalam is the name of the illam in which the saint was born. He settled in Parur near Aluva. Like his ancestor, he also joined the order of the Thekkemadam at Thrissur. He was also a peripatetic religious traveler and had also the miraculous gift of seeing the Lord in person as distinguished from the idol. There is hardly no temple in Kerala that has not coined some story associating with his name. Almost every one of them reflects his divine insight and special equations with the presiding deity.

KURURAMMA (AD 1570-1640)
Kururamma was born in 1570 in the village of Parur, near the house of Villwamangalam. Her maiden name was Dhatri . By marriage she became Kururamma, the senior-most lady of the Kurur illam in the village of Adatthu near Trichur. She was a childless widow and settled in Guruvayur as a devotee. Thanks to Poonthanam, she adopted Unnikrishna of Guruvayur as her son. She lived with him, fondling him, playing with him, chiding him when he became naughty and weeping at his childish freaks. The song of "Kani kanum neram" is generally attributed to her.
MANAVEDAN(AD1595-1658)
Prince Manavedan of Calicut was born in 1595 and had early education in Sanskrit. He wrote Purvabharatha Champu in 1643.

KUDALLUR KUNJHIKKAVU NAMBOODIRI ( AD 1839-1903)
Kunjhikkavu was known as Raman in his childhood. He learnt Puranas through his mother's daily parayana (recitation ) of Ezhuthachan's works and learnt Sanskrit on his own . He formerly began his puranavayana in his illam and slowly become famous as a philanthropist and mystic. He possibly followed the Chaithanya cult. Very often he forgot this real world, he looked at every women he met as a Gopi of Vrindavanam. He started circumambulating and prostrating before animals. He used to take whatever he wanted from Sreekovil. Kunjhikkavu was more famous for his puranavayana. The particular place in Guruvayur temple where he used to sit for puranavayana is still known as Kunjhikkavu's corner.


ELEPHANT SANCTUARY Punnathur Kotta

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The Devaswom maintains a unique elephant sanctuary, the only one of its kind in the World. It has 51 elephants now. These jumbos are the offerings of the devotees to the Lord. A large number of pilgrims and tourists visit this fascinating spot every day. In this vast compound, there are road facilities for pilgrims and tourists to go around.
The present elephant sanctuary is in Punnathur Kotta about 3 kms north of Guruvayur temple. Punnathur Kotta is the ancient palace of the Punnathur Rajas, now in the possession of the Devaswom. There is also an ancient temple where Lord Siva and Bhagavathy are worshipped.

GOKULAM AND VRINDAVANAM ESTATE
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Vrindavanam Estate is a 100 acre estate at Vengad in Malapuram District, about 55 Kilometers from Guruvayur under the possession of Devaswom This is known as Vrindavanam Estate. The estate has cultivation of coconuts ,cashew trees etc. along with palm and other vegetation which provide not only cash crops but also feed for the temple elephants and cattle. Besides this, there is a 25 acre plot called Gokulam where cows offered to the Lord by His devotees are maintained. At present there are about 550 cows in the estate.


OFFICIAL SITE (http://www.guruvayurdevaswom.org/)