God Who Drinks Jaggery Water Panakala Narasimha

‘There are more things in Heaven and earth’, said Shakespeare.

There are instances where Science fails to reason it out but instead of admitting it says it is a natural phenomenon.

Some brand of Atheists say they do not believe in God but Nature.

What is it they call Nature?

Stones,Rivers,Tress, Forests or The Ocean?

It is better to believe and looks more rational to believe in an Entity than believing in Tress or Forests per se.

Let me leave these Geniuses to their Intelligence.

Many, in fact my son calls me superstitious, but some times I come across things which I can not explain

I have narrated some of these in my posts under Paranormal.

Though I am not a religious person in the strictest t sense of the term, I believe in Reality as es-pounded by Adi Shankaracharya and I am an Advaitin by conviction, with little time for Temples and Gods.

I do visit temples and in fact blogged about them.

The reason is that it gives me pleasure to visit these places whenever I feel like and I do not Pray but enjoy the visit.

I have posted on this.

Now to the issue at hand.

Of around six thousand posts I have written I have not written a single post about Anjaneya,Hanumanji

This morning I recollected an incidence on Hanuman and posted an article ‘Hanuman Sheds tears of Joy’

Then out of the blue I wanted to write on Sundara Kandam Parayan.

I did.

Usually I do not watch Television in the afternoons.

Today I just switched on the TV, a Tamil Channel which was set earlier by some one at my Home.

The screen opened with the Giant Image of Anjaneya baring his chest to reveal Lord Ram.

It was the Producer’s Logo for His Film in Tamil!

When I went for my usual nap, as is my habit, I hunted for any book or magazine.

I came across a Tamil Magazine of June 2006(Gnana Aalayam), which featured my article.

As I skipped through it , I came across a brief outline of Panakalu Narasimha temple, where The God Narasimha drinks Panaka, Jaggery water Daily.

I want to share this with my readers.

Here it is.

“It is said that here, god is self-existent. In the temple, there will be no statue of the god, but there is only mouth, widely opened to 15 cms. The mouth is covered by metal face of the god. The temple will be opened till afternoon only, with the belief that devatas will perform pujas in the night. The God takes jaggery water as offering by a conch. The Jaggery water is actually poured into the mouth of the Lord, a gargling sound is clearly audible as if the Lord is actually drinking it and the sound becomes shriller and shriller as and when the Lord is drinking. The sound will come to a stop after sometime and the balance of the jaggery water is thrown out. This phenomenon happens not once in a day but is a recurring feature during the course of the day as and when devotees offer panakam (jaggery water). It will be interesting to note that even a single ant is not traceable near the Lord nor around the temple in spite of the offering of so much jaggery water. As the offering of the panakam to the Lord is peculiar, the Lord here is called panakala Narasimhaswamy. There is a legend about the offering of the panakam (jaggery water) to the Lord. It is said that the hill was once a volcano. Sugar or jaggery water, it is said, neutralizes sulphur compounds found in a volcano and prevents a volcanic eruption.
Behind the temple there is the temple of Sri Lakshmi, to the west of which there is a natural cave. It is believed that it will lead to Undavalli caves on the banks of the Krishna river and the sages used to go to take bath in Krishna River. Now, the cave is very dark and the way could not be seen. We can reach the temple through steps-way on foot and also by road-way. The steps to the temple were constructed by Sri Channapragada Balarama Dasu in 1890. In 2004, ghat road had been constructed through which the pilgrims can reach the temple easily. ”

 

How to Reach Mangalagiri.

Mangalagiri (Telugu: మంగళగిరి) is a town, and a mandal of Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, India. Mangalagiri is a part of Vijayawada urban agglomeration. It is situated on the Vijayawada-Guntur road, 8 miles (13 km) to the south-east of Vijayawada and 13 miles (21 km) to the north-east of Guntur City.

About:

Mangalagiri means The Auspicious Hill. This place is one of the 8 important Mahakshetrams (sacred places) in India. The eight places where Lord Vishnu manifested himself are (1) Sri Rangam (2) Srimushnam (3) Naimisam (4) Pushkaram (5) Salagamadri (6) Thothadri (7) Narayanasramam (8) Venkatadri.Thotadri is the present Mangalagiri. Lakshmi Devi has done tapas on this hill. That’s why it got this name (The auspicious hill). There are three Narasimha Swamy temples in Mangalagiri. One is Panakala Narasimha Swamy on the hill. Another one is Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy at the foot of the temple. Third one is Gandala Narasimha Swamy at the top of the hill.

This shape of the hill looks like an elephant. From all the directions, the hill appears in the elephant shape only. There is an interesting legend to show as to how the mountain came into existence. Pariyatra, an ancient king had a son Hrasva Srungi visited all holy and sacred places to regain normal bodily stature and finally visited this holy place of Mangalagiri and stayed for three years performing penance. All the Devathas (Gods) advised him to stay at Mangalagiri and continue to do penance in praise of Lord Vishnu. The father of Hrasva Srungi came with his retinue to take back his son to his kingdom. But Hrasva Srungi took the shape of an elephant to become the abode of Lord Vishnu who is locally known as Panakala Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy.

 

For more details.

http://mangalagiri.net/temple/temple.html#hill

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