HOMENEW2

*Guruvayur temple – 1*
Guruvayur, a small town, about 28 km from Thrissur and 80 km from Cochin, is known as Bhuloka Vaikunta because of the legendary Krishna temple. The deity is unique as it is in the majestic ‘Vishwarupa form as revealed by baby Krishna to his parents Vasudeva and Devaki. Known as Guruvayoorappan,the deity is in the standing pose with the form of chaturbahu (four handed) Vishnu, carrying the Panchajanya (shanku or conch), the Sudarshana Chakra (chakra or disc), the Koumodaki (gada or mace) and padma (lotus), but the sankalpam (concept) is that of the infant form of Lord Krishna.
It is believed that the idol of Guruvayurappan was worshipped by Vasudeva and Devaki, the parents of Krishna, and represents the full manifestation of Vishnu, and later was worshipped by Krishna, an Avatar of Vishnu Himself .
*The Legend*
One would expect that the story of the idol would begin with Lord Krishna, but its antiquity goes further back, since it is believed to have been sculpted by Lord Vishnu himself. The legend is told in detail in the section ‘Gurupavanapura Mahatmyam’ from Narada Purana.
King Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna and the son of Abhimanyu, died of a bite by the poisonous snake Takshaka, due to a curse which fell upon him. King Janamejaya, his son, wanted to avenge his father’s death by killing all the snakes, including Takshaka : for that, he performed a fierce ‘Sarpaahuti Yajna’ (Snake sacrifice) in which thousands of innocent snakes died in the yajna fire, but Takshaka could not be killed because he had consumed amrutam. Due to this act, Janamejaya was affected by leprosy due to the curse of snakes. He tried numerous ways to cure his disease, but none of them worked. At a time when he had lost his hope of survival, sage Atreya came to visit him and advised him to worship Lord Maha Vishnu in Guruvayur. He then described the glory of the temple as follows:
Long ago, in the beginning of Padma Kalpa, when Lord Brahma was launching his work of creation, Lord Mahavishnu appeared before him. When the Creator told that he and his creations want ‘mukthi’ without the bondage of ‘karma’, Lord Vishnu made an idol of himself and presented it to his friend. Lord Brahma worshipped the idol with deep devotion for a long time, and in Varaha Kalpa, he gifted it to a sage named Sutapas and his wife Prsni, who were meditating upon Lord Vishnu for begetting a child. Sutapas and Prashni continued their prayers after getting the idol, and finally the Lord appeared before them. When they expressed their wish, which was that they want a son just like the Lord, He told them that He would himself be born as their son in three successive births, and in all the three births, they could worship his idol made by Himself.
Accordingly, in Satya Yuga, the Lord took birth as Prsnigarbha, the son of Sutapas and Prsni. In that birth,He prophesied the importance of brahmacharya and gave darshan to His devotee Dhruva, to whom he made a special universe called ‘Dhruvaloka’. When Sutapas and Prsni were reborn as Kashyapa and Aditi, the Lord took birth as their son Vamana in Treta Yuga. Finally, when they were reborn as Vasudeva and Devaki, in Dvapara Yuga, the Lord took birth as their eighth son Krishna. In all the three births, they had the fortune to worship the holy idol of Lord Vishnu made by the Lord himself.
In the Krishna Avathara, after coming back from his studies, Lord Krishna took the idol worshipped by his parents to Dwaraka, His new abode. He built a temple for the idol here, and daily worshipped the idol despite being an avathara of Lord Vishnu. Finally,when Dvapara Yuga came to an end, it was time for the Lord to return to his original abode. Before leaving for Vaikuntha, he called His friend and disciple Uddhava and told him that Dwaraka would be affected by a serious deluge a week later, and the lone non-natural survivor of the flood would be the divine idol worshipped by his parents in three births. He advised him to retrieve the idol and hand it over to Brihaspati, the Guru of Devas who would come at that moment to receive it. : Uddhava was advised to leave for Badrikashram for doing penance for the rest of his lifetime.
*To be continued…*