keesaragutta 2

Last week we again went to Keesaragutta with my parents by car.We started around 10.30 am.we reached the temple by 11.30 am.It was a pleasant morning,and the drive was wonderful.

keesaragutta

Keesaragutta is a hillock at the village of Keesara in Rangareddy District. It is famous for Ramalingeswara temple and has a lingam installed by Lord Hanuman. It is 40 kms from Begumpet and it is about 15 kms from ECIL X roads. From ECIL X road we can go by share auto or buses.

But if you go by bike really the journey will be wonderful and the road is also good.

We can see a number of Sivalingas all over the hillock. Keesaragutta is easily accessible by road from Hyderabad.

According to legend, Lord Ram was so enchanted with beautiful surrounds of the hill and asked Lord Hanuman to bring a "Sivalinga" from Varanasi.Hanuman was late in arriving with the Siva lingam and as the auspicious hour was nearing, Lord Siva himself appeared before Sri Ram and presented a Sivilingam for installation. Hence the lingam in the temple is called Swayambhu Linga. It is also called Ramalingeswara as lord Sri Ram had installed the lingam.

Hanuman returned with 101 lingams from Varanasi and felt badly that not having his lingam installed. Hence he threw them all over the area. Even today several lingams are found scattered all over the place outside the temple.

He also said that the hillock where the lingam was installed would bear his name kesarigiri i.e., Hanuman, the son of Kesari. Over a period of time, it has become corrupted and now it has been changed to Keesara and the hill as Keesaragutta. It is now an attraction for the Ramalingeswara and Lakshmi- narasimha also.

Temple timings 7a.m to 1p.m and 3p.m to 6p.m

srisailam

It gives me great pleasure to write about my Srisailam trip, which I visited last month with my family. In my office they declared a sudden holiday for Durgastami on Friday So I decided to go to any pilgrimage center. After deep discussion we planned to go to Srisailam which is about 220 KMs from the city of Hyderabad. The temple at Srisailam is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is considered as one of the twelve Jyotirlingas. It is the second JYOTHIRLINGAM in India.Siva is called Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy and goddess is Sri Bhramaramba Devi (one of the 18 sakthi peetas).

Within 1 hr we got ready and packed (for 2 days). My wife, my friend, and I started around 12.00 p.m. and we three took an auto to MG bus stand. To be frank I had been in Hyderabad for the past one and half years this is the first time I am going to MG bus stand.

There we enquired about the bus to Srisailam. They told us to go to 32^nd platform to catch the bus. We went there but one tragedy is that in all the buses, place names are written in Telugu. Seriously except speaking, I don’t know Telugu language. So we were busy in asking about the names (which place its going) to all the drivers who are all coming to that platform. After an hour or so we identified the place to book the tickets. I took some breathe and got ticket for 4’O clock bus. (Ticket is Rs.103). As we started early in the noon we had to wait in the Bus stand for almost 3 hours. We took lunch and had to wait in the rest room. At last we started and reached Srisailam around 11 p.m .We got nice accommodation.(Room rent starts from 200/-.Even Lot of Community rooms are available)

We got up early in the morning and we went for darshan (free darshan). We had beautiful darshan of Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy and goddess Sri Bhramaramba Devi. Mallikarjuna Swamy has Alaya sikharam with the Golden thrisula. Separate gopuram for goddess also (stone pillared temple). We could also see Rajarajeswari, Nava Siva’s, Mirror hall of Mallikarjuna Swamy, Lord Ram who worshiped Siva etc inside the temple.

As per the advice of my father-in-law who already visited this place, we took an auto for sight seeing. (Per head 30 Rs but they will allow nearly 9 or 10 person inside that auto. But we took separate auto. Single auto Rs.150/-only. Beware of excessive auto fares.)

First we went to Sakshi Ganapathi temple (2km). Very small temple dedicated to Lord Ganapathi. The specialty of this temple is that Lord Ganesh will record the visit of each and every devotee and inform to Lord Shiva. We could see a pen in his right hand. That’s why the name of the god is Sakshi(Proof) Ganapathi.

Then we went to Hatakeswaram temple. Lord Mallikarjuna appeared in a potter’s wheel in the shape of golden linga.

Next to this we have Sarada Devi peetam temple.

Then we went to Paladara Panchadara (4 km). Its nearly 150 steps down .The holy streams of Paladara Panchadara signify their origin from the forehead and the 5 aspect (panchamukas) of God Shiva .

Sri Adhisankaracharya penance and glorified Lord Mallikarjuna here. Sri Adhisankaracharya composed Sivanandalahari and Sowndarayalahari at this place.

Next place is Sikhareswaram (8 km). Comparing to all this is the important and fantastic temple. Lord Sri Ram viewed Lord Mallikarjuna from here and freed himself from the sin of Brahma Hatya. The specialty is we have to see Srisailam temple from the head of Nandi.

We got very nice Darshan and moved to Patala Ganga (2km).Then we saw the details about Patala Ganga in a board. There we have Winch and boating .

If anybody wants to go for boating we can go by winch. Otherwise we can go by steps also (nearly 600 steps).

Pilgrims took their bath in Patala Ganga and perform Abhisekam to Lord Mallikarjuna.

We covered all in one day itself. We missed the dam due to Time constraints. We went to our room to take rest.

Around 6 p.m we again went for Darshan. We spent that evening in a temple itself and around 9 p.m came out for dinner.

We had a sudden surprise waiting on the next day morning.That day in the temple they allowed the entire person to enter into Moolasthanam to do abhisekam for Lord Mallikarjuna .we can touch Lord Mallikarjuna swamy and got full blessings of Lord Mallikarjuna.

With that happy note we packed and reached Bus stand around 10.45 a.m which we already reserved the ticket at 11.00 a.m to Hyderabad.

It was a lovely and memorable experience we had in Srisailam.

Om Namashivaya