A Saint's Wish.... (Part 2)

Continuation of A Saint's Wish.... (Part 1)

Shammanna expressed his desire to build a temple for Radha Krishna to Maha Periyava. Maha Periyava instead advised him to construct a temple for Lord Nataraja, the cosmic dancer and also instructed Shamanna to go on a pilgrimage to Chidambaram along with his 3 generations. 

Shamanna undertook the journey to Chidambaram as advised by Maha Periyava and was awestruck at the sight of Chidambaram. Isn't it the temple that great saints sang huge praises about? I remember the song composed by Papanasam Sivan, "Kaana vendamo? Iru kannirukkum bodhe, vinnuyar gopuram kaana vendamo?"

(Shouldn't we get a glimpse? When we have sight in both eyes itself, shouldn't we feast on the sight of the temple tower that's as high as the sky?)

The mere size and architectural marvel of Chidambaram Nataraja temple sat as a big burden on Shamanna's mind. "How will I replicate this, even if it is just a scale model"?, was his thought. Maha Periyava comforted him and asked him to start on the work and assured that help will come by itself. 

Where do we construct that temple? Maha Periyava had a ready answer for it. Satara. Satara is the place where Krishna and Venna join. That Sangam is holy. Satara is also the southern most point of North India and the Northern most point of South India. Since there's already Chidambaram in South, a Chidambaram temple at the gateway to the north on the banks of the sangam of these two rivers was perhaps the most appropriate. 

Shamanna donated 2.5 hectares of his own land for building the temple. And the bhoomi puja for the temple was done by the holy hands of his holiness Kanchi Shankaracharya, pujya sri Chandra Shekhara Maha Swamiji himself, on the 19th of October 1980. Almost 50 years since Maha Periyava's visit to Chidambaram where he wished to build one more temple like this. 

The chosen place was Satara. The blessed devotee was Shamanna. Helping him was Shri Jagadeesh Bhat. 

Soon many devotees started coming together to help build the temple. But still it was such a humungous task to build a scale model replica over 2.5 hectares, How did the help come in? It came in various forms.... 

The view of Uttara Chidambaram temple
 from outside the Eastern Gopuram.

The Southern Gopuram was built by the Government of Tamil Nadu, with help coming from the then CM, M. G. Ramachandran. Incidentally, just like in Chidambaram, the southern gopuram remains closed here too. The Northern Gopuram was built by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, with N. T. Rama Rao, the then CM helping build the Raja Gopuram. The eastern and western gopurams were built respectively by the governments of Karnataka (Ramakrishna Hegde, the cm) and Maharashtra (Vasant Dada Patil, the then cm). All the timber used in the temple were supplied by the Government of Kerala (CM K R Narayanan). That includes the majestic Dwajasthambam. 

Now the temple was almost ready for the kumbhabhishekam, but for one thing. How can one replicate the Chidambaram temple without replicating the Rahasya (the cosmic secret) that is engraved on the golden bilva leaves? The Rahasya is a closely guarded secret amongst the Dheekshitars of Chidambaram and there is a testament that states "Kandavar Vindilar, Vindavar Kandilar" (the one who has seen won't say and the one who says hasn't seen).

But Maha Periyava firmly perhaps believed that The Secret can't be shared by word of mouth, but needs to be experienced by the enlightened soul alone. So when the golden Bilva leaves were ready, he called the pandit there and spoke out the secret to him so that he can engrave the same on the bilva leaves. Once the work was completed, the saint merely stated that, "Henceforth, you shall forget this secret". 

Lo behold, the pandit forgot the whole episode! And till this day, hangs the bilwa leaves with the cosmic secret, creating an exact replica of Chidambaram, in Satara, called as Uttara Chidambaram. The Kumbhabhishekam of the temple was done in 1985. And after 5 decades, the wish of a Saint was realised. 

I had a remarkable discussion on the history and the occurances of this temple with Shri Jagadeesh Bhat, who is the administrator of this temple and has been there since the time Maha Periyava camped there for 11 months. Also present in the temple are the holy paduka of Maha Periyava....

A Saint's wish.... (part 1)

A Thirteen year old Swaminathan nurtured a great wish to visit the Nataraja temple of Chidamabaram. His desire grew leaps and bounds even after he was anointed the monastic head of the Kanchi Shankaracharya Mutt as Pujya Sri Chandrashekhara Saraswathi Mahaswamigal, lovingly called by one and all as Maha Periyava.

When Mahaperiyava decided to embark on his first ever Padayatra, it was from Kalavai/ Kanchi to Chidambaram. Chidambaram in 1933 was visited by Maha Periyava and a radiant mahaperiyava emerged from the closed sanctum after 4 hours of closed door closed door confabulations with the then priest, Shri Swarna venkatesha dhikshitar. 

Perhaps it was then, the Maha Periyava decided to have formulated his great, grand wish which is a vision for saivaites all around the globe, the wish that will unfold in this write up, and the wish that made me dash to a place where I didn't know a secret existed, even though I've been there over 10 - 15 times.

Many a secrets in Chidambaram....

But then yes, the one word that always comes to one's mind when the word Chidambaram is uttered is Rahasyam or secret. This secret is incidentally a secret about that cosmic secret! 

The Maha Periyava traversed the length and breadth of the country during his various padayatras. What germinated as a wish during his first padayatra fructified during his last padayatra. Perhaps, was his search for the ideal place that made this great divine play? Or was is the case of perfect end to a perfect start that he had planned right in the beginning? One can never decode such secrets. 

His last Padayatra was in the year 1978 and the destination of Satara, an obscure village in Maharashtra. He chose to stay there for a period of 11 months and there every dot fell in place to be connected to paint a beautiful picture. He unravelled many a secrets in Satara. During his 11 months stay at Satara, in the esteemed Shankara mutt, many a devotees paid their obeisance to Maha Periyava. Amongst them was one Shri Shamrao D Shanbhag, called as Shamanna. Shamanna offered money to the saint on his visit. Maha Periyava mere looked at the money and smiled and asked him to return tomorrow. 

Shamanna was troubled that the saint didn't accept his offerings and thought perhaps it was a low amount and offered him more the next day. The Maha Periyava was amused more and told Shamanna that he doesn't accept money and asked him not to bother offering material things. Instead he probed about the desire Shamanna harboured. Shamanna begged his forgiveness for his earlier action and expressed his desire. 

Shamanna's desire and Maha Periyava's cosmic drama and the rest of the secrets will be unravelled in the concluding part....