Srisailam – Arrival. Journey Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
In Divya Kalanjali, Hyderabad, we had a day of rest. We meditated and exchanged with the group and prepared for the journey to Srisailam. Vasishta had arranged for a taxi driver, Raju. He would stay for the 4 days of the journey with us. In Srisailam, another Raju (Kailasa Raju), a member of the WTT group Divya Kalanjali, would be our guide – he was already in Srisailam for a 9 days retreat. Vasishta told us the tour would take about 5 hours and gave us some warnings for the tour.
Srisailam would be the close of our pilgrimage to places of Lord Dattatreya:
In the Sripada Srivallabha Charitamrutam book, there are a number of references to the importance of this place. Sripada mentions that his grandfather, Sri Bapanarya, had earlier channelled the energy of the Sun and a group of other stars with a special ritual into the Shiva linga at the main temple in Srisailam called Sri Saila Mallikarjuna lingam and made it a powerful deity in that area. (chap. 3)
He further says that after retracing his incarnation as Sripada Srivallabha, he will be born as Sri Narasimha Saraswati and afterwards will remain for 300 years in deep Samadhi in the Kadali Vana (literally, forest of plantain trees; a cave located in the interior of a dense forest called Nallamala at the foot of the hill of Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh). After that, would live in Prajnapura (Akkalkot) with the name of Swami Samarth.
And when he relinquishes that body, he would transfer His life force to a banyan tree and merge his divine soul in the Mallikarjuna Shiva linga at Srisailam. (chap. 10)
From Hyderabad we drove through areas which looked familiar to me – I later came to know that it was the same way to the December Call celebration 2000 with Master Kumar, where I participated with my family on my first journey to India in the context of WTT. Along the way, there were often huge strange rock formations with small rocks lying on big rocks in very spectacular ways, like play building blocks of giants.
Memories of the group journey with brother Navaneetam to Srisailam in 2007 came up (I hadn’t experienced much but spend most of the time in bed with vomiting, being now careful not to have the same experience again….)
Later, we entered the area of the Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve (Amrabad Tiger Reserve) surrounding Srisailam, driving a longer way through the forests.
Short before Srisailam, our taxi stopped at the parking of Sri Sakshi Ganapathi Swamy Temple where Raju joined our group. He was our guide for the next days in Srisailam. We felt like meeting an old friend – he is a very nice and knowledgeable person with profound knowledge not only about the area.. We quickly made friends. It felt like meeting an old comrade.
He first took us into the Ganesha temple, explaining that the form of Ganesha is worshipped as taking note of all and everything who comes. It was a special beginning of our visit to Srisailam.
Then we went to the Srisaila Sikhara Dharsanam, a temple at a viewpoint towards Srisailam
The temple town is located in a hilly area where in the surrounding valleys a series of dams has created huge lakes of the Krishna River. The lake below Srisailam is called Patala Ganga, the Ganges of the underworlds.
Raju brought us to an ashram of the tradition of Sivananda Murthi (1928 – 2015), who was a friend of Master Kumar and he came a number of times to group lives of WTT in Visakhapatnam, where I had seen him. The ashram is a very pure place with only least commercial aspects. There were a few ashram members taking care of the pilgrims. We were only asked at the end to pay a nominal sum for the stay. The food was offered with free donations. The meals were pure, the members were very kind and attentive. And we were given simple, clear rooms, clean rooms.
We had our morning prayers early morning in a prayer hall where the ashramites and other guests assembled later. In the hall there, there were about 38 black Shiva lingams and yonis surrounding a huge clear rock crystal lingam. A beautiful and calm meditation ambiance.
In the hall, there was also an image of the founder of this spiritual lineage who had lives for over 1000 years, from 3100 – 20044 BCE.
Raju stayed in another ashram, the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham of the Shankaracharya movement near the Srisailam main temple. He later took us there showing that an underground brooklet is running under the central Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy temple, other little temples and the Peetham – only few people are perceiving this.
The taxi driver Raju (“Raju Taxi”) stayed at our disposal the whole time, picking us up and bringing us to the places we visited. He formed a soft and helpful part of the travel group.
