DivyaDesam– Lord Vishnu | One of the DivyaDesamVishnuSthalam |
Region | Vada Naadu |
Vada Naadu | 2ndVishnuSthalam |
HISTORY:
It
is situated at the junction of roads from sitapur and hardoi. it is around 105
kms from lucknow. 129 kms from kanpur to Hardoi and 35 kms to naimisaranyam if
you are reaching the place from kanpur. If you are reaching from delhi board
any train from delhi to lucknow. Get down at hardoi. This kshetram is said to
be one of the 8 swayam Vyaktha kshetrams. The other swayam Vyaktha kshetram are
Sri Rangam, Srimushnam, Salagramam, Thotadri (Vaanamamalai), Tirupathi,
Pushkaram and Badri.
This Naimisaranya kshetram is said to be regarded as "Tapovanam".
There are 9 tapovams. They are Dandakaranyam, Saindhavaranyam, Jambhukaranyam,
Pushkararanyam, Utpalaranyam, Badrikaranyam, Gurujangalaranyam, Aruputharanyam
and Naimisaranayam. It is belived that the perumal is found in the form of
forest. And this Naimisaranyam is regarded as a holy forest. The forest is
worshipped as the lord. It has got chakra theertam where the lord to demolish
demons has put the sudarsana chakra. In the old age, all the Maha Rishis along
with Sownakar went towards Brahma devan and asked him which is the best place
suited for doing Yagam and tapas. As the answer, Brahma devan took a dharbai
grasss and made it as a wheel shape and rolled the dharbai grass. Brahma devar
said after he rolls the grass, the place where it stopped is said to be the
ideal place for doing tapas and yagam. He rolled the wheel and it stops at a
particular place in the Earth and that place is said to the place which is
called as "Naimisaranyam".
Nemi
means chakkaram and Naimisam means the place where the chakkaram landed.
Aaranyam means forest. Since Nemi, the Chakkaram which landed on Aaranya the
forest, the sthalam is called as "Naimisaranyam". This Naimisaranyam
is said to be the place where lots of Rishis and lots of yogis have done tapas
and dhyanam and have explained the meaning of old puranas and vedams. Dont go
during poornima because heavy rush is expected.
If
you go to sacred places where there are divine waters purified with the touch
of the lotus feet of great people and kshethras where great sages, people
experienced the divine presence of God and sanctified those places. Punya
Kshethra or Punya Theertha is NOT the place where God is seated, because God is
everywhere. God is not limited to a particular place. God is in every object
and is pervaded everywhere.So why we call certain places as Kshethras .
Not because of the presence of God. But, Because, Great people stayed there,
experienced God, had the vision and wanted similar vision to all the followers
who come on their way. When they had the vision in a form at a place, they
request God to be there for generations to come and bless the similar vision to
all of them. Such places become Kshethras.
Theertha
is the water which purifies us. Each water drop is purified with the divine
touch of the lotus feet. No doubt about it. Then why we call some of the waters
as Theerthas, shrines ? It is because great devotees visited that place, stayed
for a while and purified that waters with the dust of their feet. So that water
became Theertha and the place became Kshethra. Unless we see the great places
like this, unless we take a dip in the sacrified waters, unless we serve great
people, unless we have the attitude of seeking Truth, unless we have the
eagerness to attain that divinity, interest is not generated to listen to Lord
Vasudeva. This is such a great place. A very sacred place. The ultimate of
Puranas, Srimad Bhagavatham starts with description of the glory of this place.
This Naimisaranyam is considered as Animisha Kshethram., ie., the place of
Devathas (Demigods) (Animisha = those who have no blinking to their eyes) It is
said that all sages performed Deergha Sathra Ya:gam for several hundreds of
years. Yajama:na is the one who makes people to perform the Ya:gam. Usually
Yajama:na is the one who desires something and Ruthvik is the one who
celebrates the oblations in order to fulfil that desire. Sathra Ya:gam is the
one in which a person does the role of both Yajama:ma and Ruthvik. Why did the
sages performed it here ?
Once
upon a time all the sages went to Lord Narayna and asked O’Lord ! we are
experiencing several Yugas. In each of these Yugas, Dharma (righteousness) is
prevailing to some extent. In the Kali Yuga, Dharma will be totally lost. But
we have to survive somehow even during this period. Where can we survive ? We
do not want to become the victims of Kali Yuga. Then Lord said don’t worry.
I’ll send my discus and let it go. Wherever it stops that is the place where
there will not be any impact of “Kali”. The divine discus went all over the
world and finally when it reached this place it stopped. That place here became
“Chakra Theertham”. The rim of chakra (discus) is called “Ne:mi” and as it
stopped, it became “Ne:misa” in Sanskrit. Here a big forest was formed and
hence this place became “Naimisaranya”. There is another name also to this
place. Some people call it Ne:visa. Because, all sages come here and stay here
for long long years to perform their rituals. Hence the name “Naivisa:ranya” is
also mentioned in Purana. What is Aranya ? It is a cluster of a variety of
trees. But, this forest is unique.
According
to Purana God appears not only as human but also in the form of other species.
A human wishes to see the form of God in the form of a human. May be an animal
wanted to see Him in its form. There are some beings which move and some which
do not move like trees, mountains, stones, water. So Lord Narayana in addition
to takind different incarnations like Mathsya,Ku:rma, Vara:ha etc., he also
took self – attained forms (Swayam bhu:).
There are 8 Swayam Bhu: Shrines. Four of them are in North India and the other
4 in Southern part of India. This Naimisaranyam is one among those in the North
shrines, where Lord took the form of a huge forest. So here, each tree, each
plant is the form of Lord Narayana only.
In
olden days there used to be many trees. It is so unfortunate that many trees
were removed and buildings were constructed and no mention of the Puranic
history was displayed anywhere. Maintaining the purity of the land is also very
less now a days. We need to do that and learn how to protect the purity and
sanctity. If it is in other country they keep each place so neat so clean and
also display the importance of the place written in many places for the
information of the people so that they can learn and understand the glory and
greatness of the place and experience the divinity. Let us expect that such
things happen here too.
In Badarikasram Lord took the form of a big mountain. Here He took the form of
a big forest. In Mukthinath God took the form of small Sila (stones). In a
place called Ajmir, there is a place called Pushkar, where God has taken the
form of big water tank.
As
Prahlada said, urvya:masthi udake:shu cha:sthi udupoda:vasthi… he:pitha:
thvayyasthi, maiyasthi …. Prahlada in reply to his father said, what dad, He is
there is the Earth, in the Sky, in the Fire and in the Air, You are hating God
is there in You, Iam loving …. In me God is there. To prove his existence, He
took the form of inanimate objects and also the lifeless objects in these
places.
This place is free from the effects of Kali. The great sage Ve:da Vya:sa used
to stay in Badari when the place is open and during other 6 months he used to
stay here. Sage Veda Vyasa presented all the Puranas. His father, a great sage,
Parasara taught him all the Puranic knowledge. Sage Parasara got it directly
from Brahma. So Vedic literature was passed on by Parasara to Veda Vyasa and
Veda Vyasa used to sit there on the banks of river Saraswathi in
Badarikasramam, used to write all the Puranas, write all the Brahma Suthras,
divide all the Vedic mass into different branches. Then, he wanted to delegate
responsibility to some people so that they can preserve that literature. If it
is given to one or two they may not be able to pass it on to generations. In
the course, he taught Rig Veda to sage Pippalada, he gave to Yajurveda to
Vaisampayana and he gave Sa:mave:da to his disciple Jamini and Adharvana Veda
to a disciple by name Sumantha. To give the Puranic literature he chose his
disciple Ro:maharsha a great scholar. Ro:maharsha’s son was Su:tha. Su:tha’s
another name was Rowmaharshani. He was born to a Vyasa. He was a very very
great scholar. He is the powerful narrator of all the Puranic literature.
Su:tha stayed in Naimisaranya. Vedavya:sa:s disciples used to teach them to
many people when Veda Vyasa was at Badari. Some disciples used to go around the
world to teach this Puranic literature to all the seekers.
“Gaddi”
is a seat. Here is a Gaddi where Veda Vyasa used to sit and preach to the
teachers. Su:tha and other teachers used to teach that literature to all the
Rishis like Saunaka etc. The one who was the leader of all the Rishis and the
main disciple of Su:tha was a greatest sage called Saunaka. Along with Saunaka
there were thousands and thousands of Rishis staying over here. They used to
learn from Su:tha and teach them to others. That was how the vedic literature
was spreading all over the world. If we go to the traditional countries like
Mexico, parts of Australia, parts of Newzealand, North Eastern provinces,
Eastern countries like Cambodia we can see the similar tradition and customs as
Indians follow. The prayers we do, the rituals we do and the process of doing
these things observed even by those people, and also the structures made there
are similar. Because, originally all these scriptures were taught by the same
sage Veda Vyasa.
Here
we can see Vya:sa Gaddi, seat of Veda Vya:sa, Su:tha Gaddi, seat of Su:tha and
Suka Gaddi, the seat of sage sriSuka where they sat and taught the Vedic
literature in Naimisaranyam. In those days they were just some formation with
stones around, under a tree. Now a days, they have constructed temples and made
those Gaddis as temples. Without considered these modern changes and the other
irrelevant things we observe, if we focus upon the real sanctity of the land
we’ll be really blessed.
Once,
Balaramar, the brother of Sri Krishnar came to this sthalam. At that time,
Soodhar was very busy creating puranas. He didnt notice the arrival of
Balaramar. On seeing this, Balaramar got angry and hit him. He got into sin by
comitting this. To get out the sin, he went to lots of Punya kshetras for an
year and finally he came back to this kshetram and help the rishis and yogis,
who were suffering from the frightening of a arakkan (Demon) by named
“Vilvalan”. All the rishis and yogis thanked Balaramar for making them to
perform tapas in peace to reach the Emperumaan.
Gayasooran,
an arakkan did tapas in this sthalam. Sriman Narayanan gave his seva to him as
he was fulfilled by his tapas. Sriman Narayanan asked him what varam he wants
as a result of complete tapas. But, Gayasooran answered the Almighty, that he
didnt want any varam from him and he was so strong powerful than Sriman
Narayanan. On hearing this, Sriman Narayanan send his chakra to kill the asuran
and his body was cut into 3 parts. The three parts are the Siro Gaya, (the head
part), the Nabhi Gaya (the middle part) and the Charana Gaya (the foot part).
This sthalam, the Naimisaranyam is said to be the Nabhi Gaya. The Gaya Kshetram
is said to be the Charana Gaya and Badri is said to be Siro Gaya. Offering
prayers to forefathers in all these three sthalams is said to be so greatful.
Thirumangai
Alwar who is the only alwar who has done the Mangalasasanam on this sthala
perumal explains about the life led by the human.
The
sthala viruksham, the tree is Tapovanam and all the trees found in this sthalam
are said to be sthala viruksham and because of this, the sthala viruksham is
Tapovanam (Vanam means the entire forest).
The Pushkarani of this sthalam are Gomukhi Nadhi and Chakkara theertham. On the
shore of Chakkara theertham, separate sannadhis for Chakarathalwar, Sri Rama,
Lakshmana and Seetha Piratti is found. On the way to Gomukhi Nadhi, a separate
temple called as “Vyasa Ghat” is found. On the other side of this sthalam, a
temple for Suka maharishi is found, where Suka Bhagavan is found as the bronze
statue.
Near
to this Suka Maharishi temple, a temple for Hanuman is found on the top of the
mountains which is known as the “Hanuman Ghat”. He is found in standing
position holding Sri Rama and Lakshmana in his two shoulders, in Vishwaroopa
Kolam.
One
of Ahobila Mutt Jeyer attained Paramapadham in this sthalam and as his
rememberance, his sannadhi and a mut of Ahobilam is opened in this sthalam.
Ramanuja koodam, Vaanamamalai Jeeyar Mutt are also found, helping the bhaktas
who come to this sthalam to get the seva of this sthalam Emperumaan.
TEMPLE INFORMATION:
|
Moolavar |
Sri Devarajan Perumal |
|
Ambal |
Sri Pundareekavalli |
|
Theertham |
Divya Visrantha Theertham, Chakkara Theertham,
Gomuki Nadhi, Nemi Theertham |
Lord here gives
prosperity and education.
Vaikunda Ekadasi in
December-January is grandly celebrated in the temple.
HOW
TO REACH:
Naimisaranyam
is located at the junction of the roads from Sitapur and Khairabad, 20 miles
from Sitapur and 24 miles from the Sandila railway station. 45 miles north of
Lucknow in Uttarpradesh. Naimisaranya is also known as “Nimsar” or “Nimkhar”
and is located on the left bank of the river Gomati. In between Lucknow to
Baalaam railway station, 35 Kms from Sandilaa Station. In between Kalkatta to
Dehradun train way, from Balamar junction to Seethapur is Naimisaranyam Station.
TEMPLE
ADDRESS:
Sri Devaraja Perumal
Temple
Thiru Naimisaranyam
Uttar Pradesh.
LOCATION:
No comments:
Post a Comment