GURUVAYUR : STHALA PURANAM

Guruvayur is called BHOO LOKA VAIKUNDHAM. Do you know why ? It is the place where the Krishnanjana Shila idol of Lord which ,He Himself worshipped is installed. .

I am giving hereunder the Sthala Purana of this place.

It is believed by all Hindus that Guruvayur Temple which is in Kerala State, is equal to Tiruppathy Thimmappa in Andhra Pradesh , Udupi Krishna in Karnataka, Puri Jaganath in Orissa and Srirangam Maha Vishnu in Tamil Nadu , if not more famous. As per the legends, this Idol of Lord Vishnu was said to have been worshipped by Lord Himself, who donated it to Lord Brahma. . Later on Brahma, pleased by their devotion, gave this Idol to Suthapa and his wife Prisni .Maha Vishnu who was very much pleased by the BHAKTHI ( Devotion ) in their Puja ( worship) of this Idol (VIgraha) appeared before them and asked them to beg for a boon and they in turn asked for Maha Vishnu himself to be born to them . This they repeated THREE TIMES and hence Maha Vishnu was born to them THRICE in their later births and also said that this VIGRAHA will be with them in all their later births.

In SATHYA YUGA Lord was born as PRISHNIGARBHA , to Prishni and Suthapa.

He taught the world the importance of BRAMACHARYA.

In their rebirth during the second time, Suthapa ans Prishni were born as Kashyapa and Adithi , and Maha Vishnu was born to them as VAMANA who took with his three steps, all the worlds and sent Maha Bali to Pathala. There is a temple in Kerala for Vaman Murthy called as THRIKKAKKARAYAPPAN ( THRI means THIRU or Three , KAA is an abbreviation of KAAL or Legs KARAI meand Land and Appan means Lord. This is a very ancient temple and has lost its past glory. Let us hope that it will regain its glory very soon.

In Dwapara Yuga Suthapa and APrishni were reborn as Vasudeva and Devaki, to who lord Krishna was born as their EIGHTH SON to kill KAMSA who had put his father in jail. This particular Idol was given to Vasudeva and Devaki who gave it in turn to Lord Krishna asking him to worship this idol with great devotion.

Lord Krishna was worshipping this Idol, with great devotion till His Heavenly Return during the PRALAYA and who in turn handed over this to UDDAVA and instructed him to install it in any place which was sacred. Uddava went to his teacher GURU (BAHASPATHI) and also took the help of Wind God , Lord VAAYU to find out a suitable place any where in Bharatha Varsha. They were roaming all over Bharatha to find out a suitable place to install the Idol and lastly came to a tiny village where Lod Shiva and Goddess Parvathi were doing penance in The Rudhra Thirththa. Lord Shiva told Guru and Vayu that thjis was a suitable place to install the Idol. He also told them that since the place was very small, he would move to another place called MAMMIYUR. Accordingly the Idol was installed at this place and since this is installed by GURU and VAAYU this place is called as GURUVAYUR meaning Guru = Vaayu = Ooru ( Place). The pilgrimage to Guruvayur cannot be completed without visiting Mammiyur Temple of Lord Shiva..

Friends, In Kerala there might have been a fusion between Shaivates and Vashnavates for which this is a classic example. Again we can see there are two Agraharams in Palakkad called PALLPURAM AND CHAATHAPURAM where you can find most of the Vaishnavate Brahmins who have married Iyer girls and also given their daughters to Iyers.. I do not say that Iyers are Shavates but they believe that Shiva and Vishnu are same wereas Iyengars who mostly are the followers of Ramanujacharya believe that only Vishnu is the ultimate God. Here also we find a fusion between Iyers and Iyengars. I am also of the view that some followers of Poornaprajna ( Madhwas ) also settled in Kerala at Pallassana West Village , Palakkad where their deity is Santhana Gopla Krishna Swamy although recently a Shiva Liga is also placed there. In fact most of the brahmins from West Village , Pallassana , wear Gopi Chandana just like Madhwas but follow the principles of Shankaracharya. Whatever it may be, I leave it to the learned people in the subject but the STHALA PURANA of GURUVAYUR is the same as above.

” HANDA BHAAGHYAM JANAANAAM.”

 

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