Vizag Snippets 4

On the morning of Saturday, the 27 th, we ..(husband, Hyma and Bavagaru)....drove to Devipuram......Nearly 30 to 35 Km from Vizag, on the Anakapalli route....After going through some of the unending suburban localities, the road finally cut away from the main route and ofcource all along the country side was utterly delightful, ....Soon after 15 to 20 minutes of driving on a narrow, dusty, deserted road brought us to a sign- Board which announced DEVIPURAM.....You have to turn right and go through a very thick, silent cashew-nut grove before stopping at the temple..(ashram?) gates.....

A clearing has been made in the middle of a dense cashew-nut grove that was hemmed in by lush green hills, and a neat,lotus shaped, three storied temple stood there....The top most stairs houses the goddess SAHASRAKSHI,--the main deity---and was fashioned like a MERU .....To the onlookers from a distance, it would look like the crowned head of a DEVI....At the ground level, there is another sanctum and an image of the deity directly under the main sanctum upstairs and also receives poojas .... The temple is surrounded by three virtual circles, adorned at specific points by the images of !108 goddesses of the KHDGAMALA STHOTHRAM......Sadly i do not know much about the sthothram......I think the idea is that 108 goddesses surround and stand guard over the Ammavaru....or ...Sri chakram... or may be MANIDWEEPAM...the supposed abode of the DEVI......The names of all the goddesses are written on placards before every one of them, giving us an idea of who they are.....SMRITHYAKARSHINI,...SABDAAKARSHINI<... GANDHAKARSHINI...etc.....
As far as i know.....SRICHAKRAM is an euphemism for our body and the above goddesses are the powers,...or capabilities,...or ...the life forces it possesses....



As the names themselves suggest....Gandhakarshini------attractor of scents

sabdakarshini------attractor of sounds


There are many others and ofcource, as said before i was handicapped by my ignorance of the sthothram to sufficiently understand the intricacies of the temple science....I realized the fact there it self and rued the lack of time we had, even to make to an attempt at it...

The temple has been built by the efforts of one Sri.Dr. Nishtala Prahlada Sasthry garu,---previously a scientist with BA RC, it seems he took a voluntary retirement from it---, who kept having the visions of Devi.....It has been stated that she appeared before him, conversed, and ran after him like a young girl....calling him NANNAGARUUU...-dad-...All the 108 images of the goddesses were stated to have been sculpted just as he had seen them in his vision....



Interestingly, what makes this temple unique is the reported statement of Sasthry garu, that the place is a KAMAKHYA PEETHAM....He insists that the Devi her self informed him of the fact....That meant that,here at Devipuram, the goddess is not just a mother figure nor the queen of creation,but also is in her most feminine form of a fertile, young wife of the Eeswar....Nubile, erotic, and eager, here, she is determined to continue her infinite union with her lord and teaches us to notice and respect the fact....In fact all the images are that of a scantily clad young woman, ,....but notably with appropriate MUDRAS....And...the big board at the precincts of the temple advises the visitors to appreciate the fact that this universe has been created out of the grand union of Siva- Parvathi, and one should not be ashamed or feel prudish about it but must learn to view it as unenbarassedly as we worship a siva-lingam.....Sceptics might take this otherwise....Certainly it would be embarrassing for an Indian woman to watch the images in company of strange men....(On second thoughts...it might be quite easy if you can watch our movies).....Psychiatrists might have their own theories about it....Moralists might take their own line....Whatever might be, i guess there wont be a dispute on the basic principle of the theory....

Not many people know about Devipuram and it is getting into the news just lately.....That might have been one reason we found it almost devoid of visitors....Few resident young girls,a priest or two and a gentleman..(looked like a volunteer, and a bit too determined to collect some sort of donations from us )...)... were seen occupied with the routine temple management chores.....We took a tour of the whole place and later a priest conducted a small pooja for us....

It may sound flippant but i seriously think that faith ...like love ...can take you at once and unawares....May be it is all in the mind.....I don't know....You are there, beating around, and something, somewhere, attracts you and you are convinced that it is It...The Truth....Might not be very reasonable to others but makes perfect sense to you....May be that is why it is called FAITH....To Hyma it happened as she stood looking at the image of one of the Khadgamala deities....It was of a young mother nursing her baby....Hyma says she inexplicably smelt a sudden pervading scents of milk wafting around....That, and few more experiences convinced her of the presence of Devi to her........I myself had a pleasant experience of offering 108 kaluvapoolu to the deity, which had been a long cherished dream of mine, which never seemed to materialize before ...........

GOD is omni-present....ofcource....Only you tend to get reminded of it at very few places....Devipuram did that to us, though before going there i Was rather sceptical...Frankly i was not too enthusiastic about the Kamakhya concept...Even now i can not say i understand it....For, however liberal and educative it may sound, it Is a double-edged sword and in the hands of unscrupulous could degenerate into some thing sickening, as we all know too well what happened with the tantrik practices of yore....But i could feel a certain TRUTH there that convinced me.....Do not know if others could feel the same too....An instance of this......When i presented the kaluvapoolu, the priest , who was in a hurry said that he would offer them to the deity upstairs as he was going there anyway...I agreed and we returned to Vizag and from there to Hyderabad itself....but all along there was lingering doubt in my mind on whether they reached the Mother.....Just as i entered our gates at Hyderabad and going in, a magazine from Jillellamudi welcomed us from the letter-box and it was like this......



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On the evening of the same day we boarded our bus to Hyderabad.....Yes...I know we have sinned....Sinned abominably by not visiting Araku and Ananthagiri...But sadly we had no time for it, and before that Bavagaru drove us around Vizag....Just like that....to get the feel of the city, i suppose....And it was delightful....

One surprising thing about the city was the great influx of visitors from Orissa and Bengal....This is quite common, Hyma told me....Every year, in October and December, Bengalees and Oriyans visit here in large numbers....Seems they have durga pooja holidays during this time and Vizag is teeming with them in all places.....Kailasagiri , beaches, the C.M.R halls.....Specially the C.M.R halls...as Bengal is a communist state and mall culture still has not stepped in,it seems , they go bonkers over the Chandana and Bommana complexes....The hotels are full, the cabs are full, the shops are full...The funniest point was when a coconut vendor at rushikonda beach welcomed us in Bengali to buy his wares....

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Rushikonda beach was a delight.....Lying on the Bheemlee road,far from the madding crowds,it is shallower and therefore safer than others and waters are purer...Beautiful cottages have been built on the hill slopes and i daresay the view from them would be enchanting....A slow drive along the road ,flanked on one side by the sea and belts of casuarina would be just lovely....

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This is a slightly different coastal city as i have observed.....The weather is drier, less humid than others, though that would be a hasty judgement to make after a visit in winter ...Again there is"'nt too much sand sticking to your feet....perhaps that was because of it being a rocky terrain...almost in the valley of eastern ghats, so to speak....

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