Guruvayur The Abode of the Lord in Kerala

Anupama Nair

www.mediaeyenews.com

I am writing a topic close to my heart i.e., about my Giridhara Gopala. It is the grace of the Lord that we have managed to survive the pandemic. If you and your family is safe from Corona for more than a year, it is the blessing of the Lord. “Faith can move mountains”. This is what my grandmother always used to tell me. My belief in her old words of wisdom was reinstated whenever I visit the temples of my Lord Krishna. In the last two parts I spoke about the Lord and the city of Guruvayur, today I am going to talk about the legends about the holy temple.

When Lord Brahma was creating the world, Lord Vishnu appeared before him and conveyed his wish to get salvation for himself and his children. Lord Vishnu gave him an idol made by himself. Lord Brahma gave this idol to a king named Sutapas and his wife Prasni, who were worshipping Lord Vishnu to get a son. Lord Vishnu appeared before them and stated that he would himself be born as their son in four births, and in all those births, they would be blessed with the idol which they worshipped. Thus, in the first birth in Satya Yuga, the Lord was born as Prasnigarba, the son of Sutapas and Prasni and in Treta Yuga, when Sutapas and Prasni were born as Kashyapa and Aditi, the Lord was born as Vamana their son. In  Treta Yuga, itself, when they were born as Dasaratha and Kaushalya , the Lord was born as  Rama, their son, and finally, in Dwapaar Yuga, when they were born as Vasudev and Devaki, the Lord was born as Krishna, their son. In all these births, the idol was also with them and Lord Krishna, an avatar himself, took the idol to Dwaraka, and began to worship it.

When the Lord was ascending to heaven after his samadhi, he told his friend and devotee Arjuna, the idol should be given to Brihaspati, the guru of the Devas and Vayu, the Wind god. Uddhava took the idol from the sea and gave it to Brihaspati and Vayu. Brihaspati and Vayu went southwards with the idol. On the way, they saw a city with large, beautiful lake very close to the sea, which was full of lotuses of all colors. They then saw a huge forest near the lake. They met the sage Parasurama, who took them to the place where his guru Lord Shiva and  Goddess Bhavani were sitting.

Lord Shiva told them he had worshipped Lord Vishnu in the place they were standing. The lake on the north side is known as Rudratheeram, as Rudra bathed there before conducting poojas. Many years later, ten princes named “Prachetas” came to the place to get the title of Prajapati. When Brihaspati and Vayu heard the story, they realized that the place was suitable for consecrating the idol. They then called Vishwakarma, the architect of Devas, and he built a temple within minutes and the idol was consecrated there. The place came to be known as Guruvayur as it was Brihaspati or Guru and Vayu who bought the idol there, and the idol came to be known as Guruvayurappan.

Guruvayur Temple was mentioned in Narada Purana. King Parikshit, a descendant of Kuru dynasty, being the grandson of Arjuna and son of Abhimanyu, died due to the bite of Takshaka, a fierce snake, after the curse by a sage. His son, Janamejaya, tried to revenge this by conducting a fierce yaga named Sarpasatra and many innocent snakes got killed in the ritual fire. However, Takshaka did not die, as he had drunk Amrita or nectar. The king suffered from severe leprosy, and his condition did not improve after treatment. Both his body and mind got weaker over time. Sage Dattatreya appeared before him and requested him to worship Lord Vishnu of Guruvayur to get cured of the disease. It is said he got a cure after a darshan of my Lord.

There are many devotees who made the Temple famous. Let me tell you about them. Manjula was a virtuous girl. Every night she used to bring garlands for the Lord. One day she was late and the temple was closed. She was upset as she saw the closed doors of the Temple. Poonthanam, another devotee on his way back from the temple saw her crying near the banyan tree. He comforted her and said that she could place the garland on the stone at the foot of the banyan tree, as the Lord is omnipresent. She was convinced, and kept the garland there and happily went home. Next day morning, while the head priest was removing all the garlands from the idol, to his surprise he could not remove one garland that remained stuck on the idol. The devotees were puzzled but Poonthanam realized it was the garland, which Manjula had placed on the stone at the foot of the banyan tree.

Poonthanam then told the story to everyone and then the garland slipped down from the idol. Devotees started chanting the name of the Lord and struggled to collect the flower from the garland. Worshipers went to the banyan tree to make their homage. Since then, the banyan tree came to be known as “Manjulal”.

Once the priest at Guruvayur temple had to go out on an unavoidable journey, and told his 12-year-old son Unni to offer the Naivedya to the Lord and left. At the prescribed time he offered Naivedya to the Lord and thought in his innocence that the Lord will eat the rice, but the idol did not move from its place. Unni then went outside and brought some salted mangoes and curd from neighborhood in the belief that the Lord liked food this way. He mixed the curd with rice and offered it again. But the idol was unmoved. He cajoled , requested, coaxed and in the end threatened , but idol still did not eat the food. He started crying on his failure and shouting towards the Lord that his father would beat him. The Lord was pleased by his devotion and ate the Naivedya. The boy left the place satisfied that he had done his job. When his father returned from his journey and asked him about the food, Unni told him with great happiness that that Lord ate the food. His father did not believe him and began to beat the boy. Then they heard a celestial voice stating, "I am the guilty, person and Unni is innocent".

One day a devotee wanted to hold a feast for the Lord with a hundred measures of rice. As per the tradition, the offering to the Lord was to be prepared by the two assistant priests. One of them was on leave due to illness. The devotee was worried and spent a sleepless night pondering over how to make the next days' arrangements. He could do nothing but pray to the Lord chanting His name overnight for a solution. The next day when he went to the temple, and was relieved to see the man, who had been on leave had returned and was preparing the feast. After the cooking was over, he went to take his bath in Rudratheertham and did not return. He was not seen the next day also. When the devotee made his enquiries, to his surprise he learned that the priest was actually bedridden ever since he had been on leave. The devotee understood, it was my Lord Giridhara Gopala, himself who had come and helped him out of the difficulty.

In the next part I will talk about many more devotees of my Lord.

At the outset, it was Sri Ganesha, Mata Saraswati, my Guru  who inspired me to write this article. I am only an instrument and it was my Giridhar Gopala who came as thoughts in my mind, which got converted into words. Dedicated to Late Uncle Pai for Amar Chitra Katha and the late B.R Chopra for the serial Mahabharat).