A view from Chitramoola
A view on the way
Towards kudajaadri..
At Chitramoola
Near Kudajaadri temple
Sarvajnapeeta
A view from top
Agastyatheertham
Towards Kudajaari
Kaaraghatta..
It was my long cherished dream to visit Kudajaadri, even I visited Kollur more than a couple of time and My “Vidyarambha” was at Kollur Mookambika Temple, But I never got a chance to visit Kudajaadri.After waiting for a long time I got an opportunity to visit Kollur again. This time Vijayettan also accompanied us, Vijayettan was an experienced traveler, and had visited different parts of Himalayas too. He was always became an inspiration to me, he shown me a path by giving a book titled”Thapobhoomi Utharghand” written by Mr. Ramachandran, That book changed me a lot in personally as well as spiritually. Even my thoughts and approach towards life also changed dramatically. That book made me to read more and more books, After my 10th class I stopped reading books, Vijayettan was a photographer too and he shooted some videos of his visit to Valley of flowers, Adi kailash, Sathyapadam, Sathopanth, Gangothri, Tapovan etc. These videos made curiosity in me and I searched for the Books of similar kind and read. Whatever books I read I found the thoughts of Sri Adi shankaracharya, Shankaracharya played an integral part in the Mythology related to Kollur Mookambika temple.
We started our journey from Iritty in the last week of May 2008,one early morning and we managed to reach Mangalore before 2pm and had lunch. We got Mathsyaghanda express from Mangalore to reach Byndoor.From Byndoor the journey was in a local bus, it took 1 hr to reach Kollur Mookambika temple. The Myth behind Kudajaadri was long ago when a demon called Kaumasura obtained a boon from Lord Shiva was reigning pompously, Kudajaadri became the hiding place for all the gods and divine beings who became helpless in his harassment. While the saptarishis were engaged in Prayers and pooja to bring about the end of Demon Kaumasura, Guru sukrachaarya enlightens him about his impending death at the hands of woman. Learning this Kaumasura performs an austere penance to please Lord Shiva. When lord pleased with his prayers, appears before him and ask him to name the boon that he wishes, Vagdevi, the goddess of speech senses that this could lead to a greater devastation and makes him speechless. The dumb Kaumasura then become unable to verbalize his wishes and then onwards he was called as Mookasura.Soon after on the request of Kola Rishi, the goddess creates a mystical power by bringing together the individual powers of all the gods who had assembled. This divine power wages war on Mookasura and brings about his destruction, and there by granting him salvation. The place where Devi killed Mookasura called marana katte.
We reached Kollur by 6 pm. We got a room near by temple and refreshed ourself. We visited Kollur temple. We planned to go to Kudajaadri by Next day early morning.
It was early morning; Vijayettan and me were ready to trek to Kudajaadri. Kudajaadri is 33 Km away from Kollur temple. People can travel till Karaghatta via bus and from there by walk. Jeep services are also available to Kudajaadri.We preferred the journey by walk. It was drizzling outside; we had a hope that the climate will change soon. We waited till 6 am. The rain stopped, We got a pleasant climate for walk.6:30 am there is a Shimoga bus, starting from Kollur.If we could catch that bus by 7:15 am we could start walking. By this plan we came out of hotel. We stood beside the temple to catch bus. Bus was in time and we got it by 6:30 am. We took tickets to Karaghatta.Other than Driver and conductor we were the only passengers.
Around 7:15 am we reached Karaghatta. Karaghatta is a part of forest, No signboard we found there. We saw a small cut road, which lead directly into the forest. I assumed it as the way to Kudajaadri. Vijayettan visited Kudajaadri more than a dozen times; he came in almost all seasons. We saw a huge tree fell down in the path as if it as a bad omen. Due to the rain that showered yesterday night would have caused the falling of tree! I took my camera and taken some photographs. We started walking, the way was covered with fogg, and I felt difficult to walk, it was a new experience for me, I took good effort to walk. We heard different sound of birds, monkeys etc..It had a signaling effect. As if someone signals our arrival in the forest. Whenever we reached each point we heard different sound. Vijayettan said me. There is a shortcut through which we could save 1.5 Km walking. I agreed that and we took diversion, I couldn’t find any way there but I followed Vijayettan.it was a small path through which only one person can walk Both the sides we could see some gigantic trees. Vijayettan warned me about leeches “The blood sucking creatures” Just after hearing that I scanned my legs and chappals; by that time itself five to six leeches occupied their places. By luck I saw them, I took leaches and thrown them. Leaches are more due to the showering. We walked further. But due to lack of light and fogs I couldn’t take any photos. We walked around 1 km now, we reached a place where we got a peculiar kind of smell. Vijayettan said it is the smell of leopards and the place had lot of leopards also. We walked gently and after some time we found an open area where the path gets joined to the road, where we saw a small ground and a school. Not only that I saw a Malayalee hotel!!…Wow…I was in surprise….Now I understood the ability of Malayalee to sustain in any kind of situations. We got into the hotel and ordered Puttu with kadla curry and Tea…One of the favorite dishes of Malayalee. He served it hot. We enquired him about the school, shop owner said that there is a village near by and many students are studying there.
We got one bottle full of salt mixed with water from hotel and we thanked him. The salt water can resist the entry of leaches in the body. I poured salt water on by leg and folded my pants, so that I could find leaches easily. We started walking; there were only one way that leads directly to Kudajaadri.The path were little steep but some how I managed to climb that. After walking some 1.5 Km we saw a grassland and took rest for some time. We saw the hotel from there and it looked like a hut. I took camera from bag but fog covered us. We walked again after some 20 minutes walk we could see Kudajaadri temple like a small spot. I think we may have to walk another 1.5 Kms to reach top. The hill is steeper now. I can’t explain the beauty of nature on that spot. On the last lap I felt more difficult to reach the top. At last with the grace of Lord Mookambika I touched the peek. I heard chanting of sahasranama now…I was speechless at that moment by seeing the beauty of nature.
We saw a small temple and a teashop over there. We washed our legs, which got drenched in dirt. And walked towards temple. I saw a Trishul with which Devi killed Mookasura stood there in silence for a while. After the darsan we moved to hotel and ordered 2 meals. After ordering we went to see Agasthyatheertham where river Sauparnika originated, on the way I saw another temple very near to old temple where Goddess Uma is worshiped. We took some water from Agasthyatheertham and walked towards Ganapathy cave. Where we saw idol of Lord Vighneshwara, and behind the idol there was a tunnel, which lead to Kollur.
After Ganapathy cave we walked towards Sarvajnapeetam where Idol of Sri Sankaracharya worshiped. We walked beside the Sarvajnapeetam and went towards Chitramoola were Sri Sankaracharya did Tapas to please goddess Mookambika.We spent some time in that cave and returned back to tea shop. We had lunch, and we returned back to Karaghatta.While returning back it took less time for us to reach Karaghatta.We reached Karaghatta by 4Pm in evening we waited for bus. By 6 Pm we reached back to Kollur.
We got bus to kannur by evening 8 pm.It was a memorable journey which enlightened my spiritual thoughts.
