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Continued from http://allyouwannaknow.net/blog/2009/06/12/trip-to-madura…shwaram-part-4trip-to-madurai-rameshwaram-part-4/   

We reached hotel Tamilnadu. We had already made bookings here through someone whom Sangu knew. We could take 2 rooms or one 5 Bed room.

We went for the 5 bed room…..1K bucks….not very impressive…..but not bad also. 

We just freshened up and proceeded towards the temple. We had to enquire the formalities for the 22 well bath the next day…….

The temple was very close. We went to the temple…..had quite a quick darshan and came out. Dinner was at Arthi hotel on the road in front of the temple.

We actually wanted to eat in one of the dharmshalas….but somehow…we dint… 

Daddy said he wanted to relax…so he went back to the room…

We all went to the shops….. I bought some shelled mirrors for my friends at office…

We got some bananas and walked back to the room. On the way we saw a bunch of calves….they looked hungry….they came to us trying to eat the bananas…we felt so bad for them….so Prashanth ran back and bought a special pack of bananas for the calves and cows….it was a very nice feeling to see them all gulp down the bananas. 

We were then back in the room to catch some sleep as we had to get up at 3:30AM next morning…..yes….U R right…mummy always has a jam packed agenda:) 

Before we get up….let me ive a glimpse of the importance of Rameshwaram itself….

when Rama and Sita returned to the mainland after killing Ravana, Rama wanted to perform penance for his sin in killing Ravana who was a Brahmin, by virtue of birth to a rishi. To get rid of the sin of killing a Brahman, Rama wanted to install a lingam and perform the due prayers. He asked Hanuman to bring a suitable lingam for the purpose.

Hanuman went to Kailas to bring a lingam, and returned carrying two of them. Meanwhile, it was getting late, and on the advice of elders, Sita made a lingam out of the sand, and Rama performed the appropriate prayers before Hanuman returned. When Hanuman returned at last, he was furious to see the lingam already consecrated. Rama told Hanuman that he could still take out the sand Lingam and keep the lingam that he had got. 

Hanuman had become a little egoistic by now. He said “I could bring the whole Sanjeevini mountain.This sand lingam is very small and easy for me to remove” and tried in vain to pull it out. He even used his strongets part…his tail…but could not remove the sand lingam from its place. 

This taught him a lesson to be humble and that a lingam created by Sita was not just any sand lingam.

 At last, Rama pacified him, and decreed that the lingam brought by Hanuman be worshipped to first. This is the Visweswara lingam, and is placed just outside the main sanctum of Ramanathar. The second lingam was installed in a sanctum to Anjaneya (Hanuman) at the entrance of the temple. Traditionally, one first has darshan of Viwanathar, then Ramanathar, and finally, Hanumat-lingam at the exit.  

We were all up next morning by 3:30 to 4:00. Agenda did not involve bath. So we had to brush , freshen up and walk to the temple. 

5:00 to 6:00 AM was the spatika linga poojai. This is supposed to be very auspicious. We dint have to take bath for this as the spatika lingam is considered as the atma lingam….that is, the should within you. It is basically made of glass crystal.

Batches of people would be called in and a 2 minutes poojai would be conducted by doing a milk abhishekam for the lingam at this time in the morning.

This lingam is said to have been kept here by Vibhishana and is supposed to be one of the 12 jyothirlingams.

The spatika linga poojai ticket costed us 50Rs per head. 

After this was the time for bath in the sea and the 22 wells. There is a common ticket of 15Rs for this. In this ticket everyone needs to go near the well and when the water is poured, you must make sure you manage to sprinkle yourself with the water. 

If you want a more personalized service…..there are people who will pour water specially for you….but then there is a cost attached:)…

The bargaining started at Rs 300 per person I guess…then finally I think we paid him 200 per head… 

This guy told us to first go to the sea….have a dip……we took sometime in the sea water…next we walked behind him back to the temple dripping wet…

There he took us from one holy well to the other for 19 wells (3 wells were closed and no one could get the water from there).

He poured one bucket of water each for us at each well. 

We had our bag of clothes to change which Prashanth was holding high up above his head when the water was being poured…..since he had gone through this a few years back…he knew what was to come and so we dint have a problem that the clothes would get wet.

We also kept passing on the bags to one of us who had finished the watering… 

That was the end of the water pouring man…we paid him 

After this we changed there itself…..something that I really dint prefer.

You have to change because darshan with wet clothes is not allowed in the temple 

After this was the Darshan. It was a nice Darshan….someone had an abhishekam going on…so we who went in the queue got to see it. 

Then we went through the temple, got some prasadam etc and came out. We saw the Hanuman and the Shiva lingam there.

After coming out Sangu wanted to buy a lotus for God. So she went back to the Hanuman shrine and came. 

Next was complimentary breakfast at the hotel which was a sad buffet….. 

We headed to next agenda items……all around Rameshwaram

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