the journey continues…

One of my mom’s favorite temples is Yantrodharaka Hanumanta temple in Hampi. Here you can see the statue of Lord Hanumaan inside Yantra.Hence the name is Yantrodharaka.There is an interesting story behind this temple.

Sri Vyasathirtha [Vyasarayaru] , a great scholar, used to meditate everyday on the banks of River Tungabhadra.One day, while he was meditating an image of Lord Hanuman kept coming to his mind. This happened only at that particular spot and nowhere else. So next time, he drew that image of Hanumaan on a nearby rock. To his surprise, a monkey came to life from the rock and jumped out of the rock and his drawing disappeared. This happened 12 times. Every time a monkey would come alive,jump out and his drawing would disappear. Finally he drew a Yantra around the picture so that the monkey will not go out of the rock. He bound the Lord Hanumaan inside the Yantra.Here the Lord Hanumaan is in sitting position inside the Yantra.This is probably the only temple of Lord Hanuman in a sitting position which is generally in a flying or blessing position.
The temple is considered to be very sacred and it is also special as Shri Vishwesha Teertha Swamiji of Udupi Pejavar mutt given SanyasaDeeksha here.
Apart from this there is Purandaradasara Mantapa,Sugreev’s Cave and Nava Vrindavana about them I would be writing shortly with photos.
I have shared the Yantrodharaka Anjaneya Stotra here http://bit.ly/cq7l9h which is in Kannada.
Also I have found the English Translation of that in net.
Picture Courtesy : http://www.hampionline.com/

We moved to California 2 weeks back.Weather is very good here as it is summer, little bit chilled in the evenings.For 2 weeks we stayed in a hotel then found a apartment in a place called Santa Clara.
Here they lease the apartments for 6 months to 1 year.A decent apartment would costs around 1100-1500$,
but depends on the area you choose and the facilities such as pools,laundry rooms etc. Before moving to any apartment make sure that they have a new carpet and a good storage in the kitchen as well as in bedroom.
After finalizing the house, we bought basic kitchen utensils, beds and furnitures in Walmart.Walmart is a huge shoping mall which has everything to set up a house.You can also find some common shopping malls here such as Target,Kohl’s etc.Wallmart is comparatively cheaper than all these.
I was surprised to see many Indian shops here.There are many Indian Grocery Shops here such as
India cash and carry,India Bazar,Bharat Bazar etc where you will get all the indian food items.They also sell Idly cooker,Pressure cooker,Indian mixies,Wet grinders.You can also find Indian Beauty Parlous near by these shops.
So after setting the house we need to get a internet connection,phone and tv.Phone we opted for Vonage which gives unlimited calls to 60 Countries [ including India ] for 20$/month.Internet and tv channels come together in Comcast which offers a high speed internet as well basic television channels. You need to buy a modem and router on your own.
You can also subscribe all Indian Regional channels and watch you favorite programs.Some of the good sites are watchindia.tv,idesitv.com etc.
Other things you need to do is applying for a SSN Card [Social Security Number] as soon as possible.
Without SSN you can not get driving license here!!Even if you want a buy a cellphone or opening account in the bank they expect you to hold SSN.
I liked the parks here which are green and maintained well.Wide roads and driving is very easy here compared to our cities.Everyday sunset is around 8pm so after coming from office also you have extra 2 hours which I found very good.There are many Indian communities,as well as kannada koota,kannada library etc.Somehow the whole bay area seems like a mini India for me.Most of my Indian friends who are staying here have no plans of coming back to India.All of them had come for jobs.Initially they thought they would stay for 2-3 years,now they are planning to settle here. Everyone says life is good, comfortable here than India!!
I was not surprised by this as most of the Indians wants to stay in a country which is not India .But the bad part is they would never want to give a thought on how to make India as good as other countries.
As I am lost in my thoughts,mom rings and asks me did u have breakfast properly?
I have started missing mom,my place and my country.

Perur Temple which is dedicated to Lord Shiva is one among the popular Shiva Temples in Coimbatore and sorrounding regions.Here lord shiva is worshipped as “Patteeswarar” and his consort Pravati as “Panchanayaki’”.
This ancient temple has shiva lingam which is believed to be ‘Swayambu Lingam’ (self emerged).

The sanctum sanctorum which is in the form of Shiva Lingam was built by a Madurai ruler,Karikala Cholan in 17th century.After cholas,Vijayanagar rulers and Hoysalas have given architectural contributions to this temple.
You can see a mix of hoysala style ( similar to belur) and chola style ( similar to Madurai Temples) architectures in the temple.
The main attraction of the temple is “Kanaka Sabha” or the golden hall which has a beautiful statute of Lord Nataraja. The pillars of the hall have beautifully carved out sculptures highlighting the Dravidian architecture.
Apart from Shiva and Parvati,there are other deities such as Murugan,Ganapati,Dakshina Moorthy and Navagraha in the temple.

River Noyyal flows beside the temple which is called as “Kanchi Manadhi” by locals.Temple has a very calm and nice atmosphere which really gives you peace of mind.I never miss a visit to this temple when ever I go to Coimbatore.