ALL INDIA PADAYATRA VISITS GURUVAYUR, KERALA

By Acarya Dasa

The Lord of Guruvayur

We arrived in Guruvayur (also written as Guruvayoor or Gurupavanapuri) on June 24^th. This municipal town located in the Thrissur district of Kerala is home to the ‘Guruvayur Sree Krishna’ temple. The temple has the fourth largest number of devotees, visiting per day, in all of India. It is also referred to as the Dwarka of South India and as “Bhooloka Vaikuntam” meaning ‘the holy abode of Vishnu on Earth’. Guruvayurappan comes from the words ‘Guru’ referring to Brihaspati, the Guru of the Devas (demigods); ‘Vayur’ which refers to ‘Vayu’ the God of the wind  and; ‘Appan’ meaning father or Lord in the Malayalam language. Since the deity is said to have been installed by Guru and Vayu the deity was named ‘Guruvayurappan’ – ‘the Lord of Guruvayur’.

It is believed that the deity of Guruvayurappan was once worshipped by Vasudeva and Devaki, Lord Krishna’s parents, and represents the Maha Vishnu form as revealed to them when Krishna appeared. The deity was also later worshipped by Krishna Himself. Carved from ‘Patala Anjanam’ stone or black bismuth and in a standing pose the deity is a four-armed form of Vishnu carrying the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana Chakra, the mace Kaumodaki, the lotus and adorned with a divine Tulsi garland. The deity faces east and is four feet tall. Despite the size of the deity devotees consider Him to be little Krishna. He is worshipped according to pooja regulations stipulated by Adi Sankaracharya and later formally recorded in the Tantras by Chennas Narayanan Namboodiri (born in 1427).

The Chennas Namboodiris are the hereditary Tantris of the Guruvayur temple. The temple/pooja routines are strictly followed without any compromise. The Tantri is available full-time at the Temple to ensure everything is followed correctly. The Melsanti or Chief Priest enters the Sri Kovil (sanctum sanctorum) of the temple at 2:30 AM and does not drink even a glass of water up to the completion of noon poojas at 12:30 PM.

Rainy days and Gurukul friends

We stayed in Guruvayur for four days, a day longer than we initially planned due to the heavy rains. There is also a Gurukul in the town where students learn Sanskrit and study saṅgīta (music). We were fortunate to have all arrangements for prasādam and accommodation for Vedavyas Priya Maharaj, who has been joining us on pāda-yātrā, taken care of by Mohajwala Mataji, a disciple of Jayapataka Maharaj. The ISKCON Temple president in this area kindly gave the rest of our party a nice place to stay too. He also invited us to the temple and asked all the congregation devotees to join us on saṅkīrtana and to help us arrange programs. We performed saṅkīrtana and distributed books in the city every day with many of the congregation devotees coming along. When we were in the Gurukul area the students joined us, dancing and singing and afterwards Vedavyas Priya Maharaj, would give a nice class.

The rainy season has started and it makes life a little difficult on pāda-yātrā. There are a few devotees who have developed foot infections because of constantly walking in water. The bulls are also uncomfortable because they have nowhere dry to rest and sometimes they have to stand all night long, wet. We continue to walk on our holy journey despite all the difficulties, taking pleasure in pleasing Guru and Gauranga. Besides, the Lord always sends us help in some way or other.

Jai Nitai Gaurasundar ki! Jai!

Book distribution Score of All India Padayatra for June 2017

Grand total: 7708 books

Gurukul students dancing during the kirtana

The Guruvayur railway station

The Guruvayur Temple elephant

The Guruvayur Temple

Guruvayur City entrance

Acarya Dasa with the padayatra bulls