Rameshwaram - 1

Sat, 29 Mar 2014
We are at Rameshwaram - one of the top four holiest places in Hinduism.

11 am
Going to Ramnathswamy temple, after which the place got its name. We are taking an auto that will drop us right beside the ocean. We will take a dip in the ocean and then enter the temple. How cool is that! The ride is about 3.8 kms and we are being charged Rs. 100. That is somewhat higher than the official rates, but what to do. The rules of supply and demand!

We have reached the ocean. The approach (the ghat) is quite dirty, cow dung all over the place, banana skins thrown around. We Indians really should learn to respect our cultural heritage. The water itself, which looked so blue and clear from a few feet away, is dirty. We don't have an option. We take the dip.  Other than the usual stuff that people throw into the ocean, I think this beach also has a lot of seaweed. There's seaweed floating in the water and seaweed getting tangled in my toes. It is freaking me out! On a normal day, I would try going farther into the water to play in the cleaner waves. But it will soon be 1 o'clock, the time when the temple closes. So we just take a quick dip and come out. If not for  the cleanliness issue, the place would have been beautiful. As I said, from a distance the water looks a pretty shade of sparkling blue-green. When the waves make the water recede a little, we can see the pebble floor of the ocean. The breeze promises a cooler evening.

We have booked a panditji to take us around the temple.

From the ocean it is a small stretch of road to the Ramnathswamy temple. We can see the temple rising above the shops. It is a majestic building.

The actual ticket price for entry is Rs. 25. However, the pandit taking us around explains that the pandits' group charges Rs. 110 per person extra. Why? There are 22 Kunds or wells inside the temple. Anyone wishing to see the deity should bathe in the water of all 22 kunds first. There are pandits standing at all the kunds, pulling up water in small buckets that is poured over the visitors' heads. Since it is a lot of physical labor, we do not mind paying them the extra money - Rs. 5 per person per kund.

We leave our chappals outside and cross a really hot stretch of road, hopping first on one foot, then on another. :)

The temple entrance provides blessed relief. There are ladies washing the premises when we enter. Inside, the temple looks freshly scrubbed.

And now the process of 'purification' starts. We visit the 22 kunds, starting with Mahalakshmi Teerth, then on to Savitri, Gayatri, Saraswati Teerths and many more whose names I have forgotten. I see some really old idols on the way. It feels like discovering a treasure, not because I am some hoohastically religious person, but because of the feeling of respect and nostalgia old art evokes. Here is someone's artwork (and it is my general assumption that idols were genuine works of love in the old days) that has survived to the present age when the makers are long dead and gone.

Finally we reach the main deity, Shiva. The darshan is short and we are hurried along. Our panditji does not even bother telling us the story of the temple. Not a loss, we know it anyway.

After Ram had defeated Ravan, they decided to stop here and worship Shiva. Ravan had been a highly learned man, a brahmin in the true sense, and killing such a knowledgeable person was considered a sin in those days. So to atone for this sin, Ram decided to pray to Shiva. Hanuman was sent off to Mount Kailash, where Shiva resides, to bring back a Shivling, so that Ram could conduct the puja. When Hanuman didn't return for a long time, Sita made a Shivling out of sand and Ram performed his puja. When Hanuman came back, he was very upset that Ram didn't wait for him. After all, had he ever let Ram down?!

To mollify him, Ram told him to remove the sand Shivling made by Sita and install his own in its place. However, the mighty Hanuman couldn't budge the sand shivling. I guess that since Sita had created the Shivling with such love and Ram had worshipped it with such devotion, even the modest sand shivling became a real representation of God. The temple of Ramnathswamy serves to remind us of the simple fact that god is not in any special place/thing. To find God we just have to look inside ourselves, and we shall see God in what is essentially just sand!