Shabarimala Yatra Dec 16-19 2005

In between the treks I decided to go to Shabarimalai. To go to Ayyappas's abode you need to take "Deeksha" during which time you will have to lead an austere's life. You should take bath in cold water twice a day, do Ayyappa swami's bhajan, should not sleep on the mattress. Should not touch or speak to women during this time. Should walk bear-footed. The food consumed by them should be prepared themselves
The deeksha period is 41 days. The person taking the deeksha is called as "Swami" and the person taking it for the first time is called "Kanni Swami". However since people staying with the family can't follow this for the entire period, they do it for a small period(which is usually an odd no of days) or they stay away from thier family.
I decided to visit the lord's abode and take this deeksha for the complete 41 days, as it was my first visit(I was a Kanni Swami) and for the first time it has to be followed very very stringently. But I ended doing it for only 7 days.

Before leaving for the holy piligrimage(yaatra), a small ritual is done in lord's sanctity. You will have to carry a small bag-"mudi" which is placed on your head by Guru-Swami till you have the darshan of the lord Ayyappa in Shabarimalai. The mudi consists of a coconut filled with ghee, rice, which will be filled by all of the swami's relatives. This is the offering they are giving to the lord which will only be carried by us.
We left to Shabarimalai on 16th Dec, friday morning. We were supposed to leave at 7:00 but the guru-swami and his group landed very late and we started our yaatra at 10:00. Every one was chanting "Swamiyeeeeeeeeeaai Sharanam Ayyappa".


Even in this trip we travelled a lot-almost 60% of the trip time. Nothing went as we had planned, only because we left late. We had 2 breaks, 1 for breakfast(at 12:00) near kengal hanmanthayyana devasthana and other at 6:00 in the evening near sultan bathery. We reached Guruvaayur at 10:30 by which time the temple was closed. We thought we will give a break to the driver and spend the night there and have the suprabhatham darshan of Vishnu and leave for Shabarimalai. But when we told the driver he said he didn't needed any rest and he was ready to drive(he had already driven for 12 hours). He dumped us at petta-dodda paada from where the people trek the hill for 48 Km. Here the Babar masjid is situated . All the kanni swamis are asked to dance here which is called as "petta-thulli". This is because swami would love them all who would come to see him singing and dancing whole heartedly.
We all danced in a manner similar to the tribal dhollu kunitha(see the photos). Then we left for pampa, took a dip in the holy river. Then we started to climb the hill- a distance of 4km. We reached the temple at 1:00 in the afternoon by which time the temple was closed. We were still lucky because we got to climb the 18 steps(gold plated) at a very slow pace which otherwise you can't as the police will not even let you to touch all the 18 steps, they will carry you as an object and pass it on to the next police. We waited for 3 hours before the temple was opened at 4:30. Had a very short darshana of the Swami. If we had had the darshan before 12:00 we would have given the ghee which we had carried with us for the Abhisheka. However the ghee used for Abhisheka given by other Swamis was available in a small container. We took one and mixed it with the ghee we had carried. Then we gave our offerings to the Lord and took the prasadam-Appam and Aravanam. We left to Pampa and took the shortcut this time, which was really a bad decision, as the path was uneven filled with sharp stones and we were all walking bare-footed. Due to this we were very late reaching Pampa, by then biju's friend had announced that "MES road na shashi avara friends, kalla swamigalu bega barabeku, illa andare naavu horetubidutteve(Shashi's friends, i.e sujit and me, who are swamis just for the sake have to come quickly else they will leave). We reached Pampa at 8:30 pm. The cook, Biju and his friend prepared the food in 1 hour's time. The food was really good or might be beacuse we were damn hungry. Then we left for Guruvaayur at 11:00 in the night. We stopped at trisshur to finish our ahemm ahemm .... Reached the temple at 9:00. The queue to darshan was too long, but we got into the garbha-gudi within 1 hour. We were lucky enough to see the lord Vishnu's abhisheka which was his morning bath.
Bought the prasadam, and the famous coconut oil chips & halwa. We had a quick breakfast which was prepared from the rice that was left out after the previous day's dinner and left for Bangalore at 11:00 . We thought we'll visit nanjangoodu on our way, but were delayed as we went in search of a waterfall-Thusharagiri which we couldn't see eventually as the road was blocked. Then we stopped near a water stream, for preparing the food and also getting freshened. Had our food near a police check post. We should have reached bangalore by 4 on the monday morning, so thought we'll give the driver a 2 hours break. Then we again stopped near kengal hanmanthayyana devasthana. It was 7:00 in the morning, me sujit and shashi were all cribbing as we had to go to the office. Then we again stopped near bidadi to have "tatte Idli" (plate Idli) which is a speciality here. We reached the Jalahalli Ayyapa Swami's temple at 11:00, had darshan and removed the mala that we were wearing. Said good bouaaaay to all other swamis and went home with chujit swami. Though the trip was unplanned, it turned out very well. "Swamiyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaiii Sharanam Ayyapa!!!!"