For
the tourists of north India or eastern India , it takes about 2 / 3
days by train, to reach Kanyakumari if gone directly which may be considered as the last point of the country though geographically this
can be disputed. Station is not far from the spots. By air, one can go to Tiruvantipuram. From there, kanyakumari is about 2 hours journey (80 km approx )
days by train, to reach Kanyakumari if gone directly which may be considered as the last point of the country though geographically this
can be disputed. Station is not far from the spots. By air, one can go to Tiruvantipuram. From there, kanyakumari is about 2 hours journey (80 km approx )
From
Nagercoil (famous for snake temple)
Kanyakumari is easily reachable ,-- it
is about only 10 / 12 km.There
are two rocks in the ocean, about 500 meters from the mainland. On one, the
Vivekanand Rock Memorial is built. Visiting time - From morning 8 am to 4 pm –
continuous water transport service is available from shore to Rock and vice
versa.
The
rock memorial was not built easily. Swami Vevekananda, after wandering nearly
the whole country reached Kanyakumari in December 1892. On reaching Rock, started
meditation for enlightenment. After three days of meditation, he attained the
enlightenment on the Rock, and got the massage for doing work for the upliftment
of the people and to do work for Bharat Mata. As it is said he reached the rock
by swimming from the land to Rock.
It
is that beautiful place where three oceans are running side by side- Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and Bay of
Bengal. . Some time water of the three oceans are so beautifully demarked
or separated that it seems Mata Kanyakumari has drawn pencil line for the
three guide linning their path.
The
Rock Memorial could not be built so easily. Swami Vivekanada came here in 1892,
December. On the birth centenary year of Swami Vivekanada, in 1962, a local
committee was formed to build a memorial on the Rock and to link it with the
main land by a foot bridge. Many problems and hurdles came up immediately. It
was not easy to take possession of the Rock. The then State government was not
willing to give the possession to that committee. It was due to dispute between
two communities and to put a tablet was permitted which did not satisfied the
locals. Ramakrishna Mission – had also the same idea to build a memorial there.
To fight back the situation an All INDIA committee was formed keeping Shri Eknath
Ranade as Organising Secretary. It was then handled in a very professional
manner. The other one than the state govt. was union minister for cultural
affair who created obstruction to allot the Rock to that committee. The
minister was from Bengal and Shri Eknath Ranade initiated a campaign in Bengal about
his negative approach on the issue. Immediately the minister’s stand got
reversed, and Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, was approached
for his involvment to sanction the project.
Thus
, when the possession problem was overcome , the technical problem to set up such a big monument on that Rock, like the strength of the Rock,
the logistic problems of getting the stones, slabs and other huge items including
, water and power , availability of skill person there, lastly the greatest
problem of such project ie., finance. Shri Eknath Ranade involved the whole
country and the ROCK MEMORIAL is there.
It
is a rarest example of combination of man management, fund management and engineering
management and these have created much interest among the tourist that how all
these were managed 40 years ago when the place was not even interesting to the
locals. About 320 MPs, the Prime
minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Shri Lal Bahadur Sastri, Dr. Radhakrishnan were
got involved in it. The contribution of State Govt. were 35 lacs and the
spending were one crore thirty five lacs, about forty years ago. One rupee
slips were another mode of collection which distributed to the length and breadth
of the country and the contribution of the people, participation of the people
was so great that any hurdle was not a hurdle.
Ultimately
it was inaugurated and dedicated to country in 1970. The statue was sculpted by
by shri Sonawadekar. The memorial
consists of two main structures, the Vivekananda Mandapam and the Shripada
Mandapam. Vivekanand Kendra was set up thereafter for spreading the teaching of
Swamiji. And inaugurated on 7 January 1972 (the 108th birth anniversary of
Swami Vivekananda by the Hindu calendar).
It
is believed that - on this rock that Goddess Kumari performed austerity.
KANYAKUMARI TEMPLE
Kanyakumari
Temple is on the main land. And also by the side of three ocean( Arabian sea,
Bay of Bengal & Indian ocean ). It is situated very close to railway station
and the Ghat. For going to Vivekananda
Rock, lanch ghat is just a few minuites walking from kanyakumari mandir.
As
directed by Guru Shree Ramakrishna Paramahamsa , Swami Vivekananda came here for
getting the blessing of goddess Kanyakumari, known as the goddess
of sanyasis , in December 1892 . The Devi is popularly known as ‘Bhagavathy’ or
‘Durga’. Shree Bhagavathy or Devi Kanyakumari
is in the form of an adolescent girl child. The goddess, as believed, removes the rigidity of our
mind. The mythological stories said --
An asura ( Bana) got the blessing of
Lord Brahma, that he can only be killed by
an adolescent virgin girl. He then started playing havoc and thrown Indra out of his throne. Then Bhagavaty, as an adolescent girl manifested to eliminate the asura. She was in
love with Lord Shiva. Sage Narada ,
played the trick to stop the marriage
with Lord Shiva on the day of marriage and Devi kept on waiting
. Ultimately she got angry and decided to
remain as Sanyasin.
This
is one of the four temples created by Sage Parasuram.
The
mantra for worship is --- Amme Narayanaa! Devi Narayanaa! Lakshmi
Narayanaa! Bhadre Narayanaa.
NAGARAJA TEMPLE
AT NAGERCOIL
From
kanyakumari to Nagercoil , can be reached by Bus, by train ,
or by car rental. The distance is about 20 km. The original name of
the place was KOTTAR which is still
there but 5km away from that place. The name of the area is in the name of
Nagaraja mandir.
The blood oozed out from the bunch of a paddy crop , when a woman was cutting it. The woman discussed the matter with the locals. Naturally people gathered there and found a Nagaraja idol. They built a structure there and one day The King came there to offer puja , who was suffering from diseases which was cured after offering puja there. King then converted it to a big temple. Besides Nagaraja , the images of Jain Thirthankaras, Mahavira, Parswanatha are also curved on the pillar of the temple. The temple shows a beautiful combination of Hinduism, ,Jainism, and Buddhism.
There is a big pond . A durga mandir is there. A five headed naga is there.Devotees pray there for the relief from adverse aspects of serpent planet. The mandir surface is of wet sand. It is said that the colour of sand surface changes with the journey of sun. When the journey of sun is southward , colour of sand is black, and when northward – it is white.
It is also said that there is no effect of the medium through which snakes (nagas) move. We are also moving through different phases of family affaire, environment, life etc. so it teaches us that we also shall remain unaffected with our surroundings. This is also a communication of the mandir.
The visiting timings --- 4-00 am to 11.30 am. From 5-00 pm to 8.30 pm.
There are many hotels at the sea bank and also on the road of Kanyakumari – Nagacoil. Depending on the fecilities , position of the hotel and other amenities-- room rent varies from Rs. 1000/- to Rs. 4500/-. It also depends on the rush of tourists at that particular time. Other small hotels at a cheaper rates are also available. Foodings of is not a problem at Kanyakumari. More or less all types of food is available.
These places deserves atleast a visit from travelling souls like you & me.
Author/Traveler : Dipankar Roy
0 comments:
Post a Comment