Suhotra Maharaja part 2

Suhotra Maharaj was a very jolly person, and he always liked to joke and play fun around. That made often the atmosphere inside the temples more happier and more exiting, and his classes were very deep and scientific. He was famous for his "Stay high for ever" Kirtans (Music), one of the most wild happenings inside the templeroom while dancing!
He was a great scholar on different subjects like Vedanta and western philosophy and wrote 4 Books in english language.

Suhotra Maharaj news from Mayapur

Actually i was planning to report from india with all the places we have visited, but Lord Narasimha had some other plans here.

On evening 8th april 2007 HH Suhotra Maharaj has left the world in Mayapur Dham. He was only 57 years old and considered by many friends and wellwishers as a Avadhuta* and rare Genius on this earth. He was my personal wellwisher (and spiritual master as well) for more then 15 years.
He joined the spiritual Movement Iskcon (also Hare Krsna Movement) 1971, and became a travelling preacher. 1982 he took the Sannyas Order (Monk) and became one of the spiritual leader of the Krishna society in europe. 1989 he accepted disciples, and conntinued to initiate up to year of 2004. Due to the heavy task of carriyng the movement forward and his huge responibility of leadership etc. he felt not anymore to take that burden, and had withdrawn of the responsibility of being part of the official Leaders inside Iskcon. Despite of this he continued with his spiritual practise and took shelter in the holy Dham of Navadvip, Bengal-India. He started there a Srimad Bhagavatam Vaibhava Discourse inside the Gurukula (School for young students) and worked on a new development to give teaching on spiritual subject matter only. He was planning to write a book on Srimad Bhagavatam and emerged him self in his last days fully in it. When we were in Mayapur midst of March i missed his assosiation, as he was not available for me. I feel remorse to missed Him so close, but i think there was a reason why. Maybe my ego was to puffed up. I beg to lower my self in front of all of you, to become a better person and serve the great Vaishnavas without offense and egoism!

other stories from Tirukkalikundram part 2

Inside the main Shiva temple in Tirukkalikundram one finds a Parvathi shrine, what is very unique. The deity is made of astagandha (8 different herbs) and only 6 other shrines in india have such a deity. The worship is very delicate as the priest has to take very much care with the handling of this deity. Abhisheka is done only once of the Birth star of Parvathi, and the Tirtha (remnands) are considered to cure any disease.

So Tirukkalikundram is very interesting to visit, even the two birds are not coming anymore. Turn in and absorb the aniquity of this place... Jaya Narasimha (picture is made from one pillar of the Vedagiri Temple)

other stories from Tirukkalikundram

In this small City of Tirukkalikundram we have also a very ancient lake, by the name of shanku Tirtha. It said that Markandeya Rishi did penance here and got blessed by Lord Vishnu to recieve a very precious Conch for his worship here from this tank.
Every 12 years from that time onwards another Conch appear on the surface. The priest will get a certain dream on what place he can find this conch, as the lake is huge.
Inside the Shiva Parvathi Temple one can see for 4 rupies the last 5 conches with their dates written on them when they have found them. The rest of hundred of conch's are well preserved inside one big safe, and only once in a year they will open this and show all the conch's to the public.

only a picture on the wall is left of this miracle

other facts part3

the english autorities were trying to lift the feil of superstition in india about the mystery of different places like Pushkara, Puri or even Tirukkalikundram. Their where investigating and trying with telescopes to measure the birds by distance, but these two birds appeared mystically out of nowhere. I my self saw it when i was there 1992. There could not make any conclusion and left with no answers. That was in the 30 last century. And these two birds continue dispite of the false information the english was trying to spread. They came up to the year 1998 and left the world confused behind. Nobody had a answer why they have stopped to come, but most probably because of their time have ended on this earth.

other facts part2

In the ancient biography of the north indian saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu it decribes his visit to this temple and mentioned the name as "Pakshi tirtha" (holy place of sacred Birds"). This Book was written in the 16th century.

other facts for the antiquity of the ancient story on Tirukkalikundram

So when you have come down from the Hill, there are also 3 very interesting spots in th e templetown to visit. First one is the main Shiva Parvathi Temple, very artistically built, lot of super structure and master pieces of carvings on walls, pillars and domes. But that is here not our main point why we have to visit this temple. It has another proof that this two birds are not a fake hokus pokus story.
There is a granit pillar next to the sanctum sanctorum (the main shrine of Lord Shiva) were one finds a carving most trilling! It shows the two birds sitting on a hillrock (representing Vedagiri Mountain) and next to them the great king of chola dynasty Narasimha Varma I. The temple was built by him in the 7th century, and the survey of india has declared this pillar accurate and from the same time as the building of the temple. It belongs also the the very inner core of temple structure and there is no way that this pillar is later invented to proof* the history of the birds. So that means the birds are coming allready from the time of 7th century.

a close up of the carvings from the peaks of these two birds

part3

After these two birds has taken the temple food from the priest they flew below the temple structure into a cave and cleaned their peaks... well even up today you can find many many holes carved into the granite by these two birds. Just imagine you take a bone like material (from where the peaks normally are made) and start to rubb them on the granite until you will have holes in the same size you will find inside these cave... i tell you it will take you plenty of hundreds of years, may even thousands who knows. See the picture and proof of your self..

Tirukkalikkunram and Vedagiriswara part 2

Well one could say thats a old fairy tale story, but i have some proof of the antiquity of this place connected close to these two birds here in the next few minutes.
First on top of the mountain where they was feed, is a very old inscription with grantha script and it describes the event of feeding the two birds and it comes from the 5th century. (see picture)

the story of the two birds

It is said that two rishis had been quarreled over the supremacy of Lord Shiva or Shakti (Parvati). When Lord Shiva appeared to them, and told them that both are needed to maintain this world, they did not accept it. Then he became angry and cursed them to become vultures. They understood their mistakes and asked for forgiveness. Lord Shiva blessed them to live for 5000 years and while in a vulture body visit different holy places to worship once in a day and get purified. So they came every day first to varanasi in the morning to take their bath, then go to Rameswaram worship the Ramalingam there, on midday to Vedagiri in Tirukkalikkunram to take their food and in Cidambaram to take rest in the evening. I my self have seen them 1992 while feed by priests, and they looked very ordinary, and i was not very satisfied with that vision, may it be do to the indian style of presenting their way of this story, and i thought it is just a bluff for uneducated people from the village. But i have been so much wrong. Later i have learned trough different persons that this place is indeed a very mystic place. My many thanks goes to HH Narasimha Maharaja who has guided me in this, and i dedicate Him this article. All credits will go to Him only, and all mistakes you may find are done by my self. Please read further to continue...

a closer pic of the temple on top of the veda giri mountain

Tirukkalikkunram and Vedagiriswara part 2

Vedagiri is the name of the great Mountain, were a ancient Temple is on top of it. Nowadays there is a Shiva temple but it is said in ancient times, this place was a Vishnu Temple with the name Vedagiriswara. The Mountain is clearly divided into 4 places representing the 4 Vedas as well.

Tirukkalikkunram and Vedagiriswara

Tirukkalikunram is a very ancient place near Mahabalipuram, and it is full of mystic places and temples. It has one of the oldest proof that there is existing something more between the sun and earth, than what be see and believe.
At least for more then 2000 years two rishis (saints) in the form of two birds has come every day on top of the mountain here in this temple city, to be fed with the Temple Mahaprasadam by the priests. Detail story in the next blog! (pic is made from top of the vedagiri mountain)
It takes only 1 hour drive from mahabalipuram, and it is sure a pleasure to visit.

Mahabalipuram

Dear Readers we will make a short schedule of our tour and starting with mahabalipuram! it is a very ancient city which was used as a port to have buisness and cultural exchange with other countries like Cambodia, Java, Thailand and even Vietnam. Named after the great King Bali (see the mystic history of King Bali in the Puranas) who started to built this great port, it became known as Mahabalipuram ("the city of the great King Bali") from the time of 4th century BC.
As most of the city was drown later into the sea, many temples reside next the seashore, and they became known as "seashoretemples". Also the ancient style to carve them out from granite rocks with so much care and devotion, left a fantastic legacy of knowledge on vastu and architecture for all us behind. In and around Mahabalipuram are still schools found who teach this great knowledge, and if you interested into deep study of Vastu, everyone can go there and learn all angas of vastu (category groups in architecture, geometry and rituals). It needs at least a 2 year course, but normally the study takes 12 years to complete. Even one doiesnt have this time to study all this, just by going here and seeing this ancient temples and carvings in old rock temples around mahabalipuram is so much pleasing. Also there are hundreds of workers who do a everyday carving on the beach roads along the shore, some are professionals and some are just artists. One can see the different in carving by observing the details and comparing them with the ancient style. Anyhow its all a nice expierence to see and meet with these people, talk to them, understand their way of life and may get skinned for if one is not careful. But still that is all done with a smile on the lips. Love you!

india tour spring 2007

we (annapurna and me) have toured india from south up to north, some of the important pilgrimage places. Of course there are thousands of sacred places, shrines and pilgrimages in whole of india, we covered only the sides i knew about. Most probably we will do a more adventure trip end of this year by covering places we have NOT visited over the last 15 years. Anyhow it was still a adventure, and we have seen a lot. Meet with saints and common people from all background, it made us more aware of the tiny existence of all of us. Seeing India with so many facettes of different extreme lifestyles - from the richest to the poor - we appreciated the open mind of all these people to allow us to look into their home, way of living and sometime into their heart. We wish to stay in that spirit even living in some other corner of this world.
Haribol!

very rare picture of Vyagra (tiger) Guha (cave) Narasimha deity

this picture is made in a very distant area of karnataka. It is somewhere in the mountains near shimoga, close to udupi. It shows a full animal deity with few aspects of a Tiger, therefore it is named as Vyagra - Tiger cave. The priest is a very old person, and there is not even a lamp inside. but the flash of my camera was engough to get a nice pic of it.

Salagrama silas of Sri Vidyabhushana part4

This one Laxmi Narasimha Salagrama is a very old one, and was presented by the present Jeeyar of the Pejawar Mutt to Sri Vidyabhushana. It is Laxmi Narasimha carved on a Salagrama sila, on the back side one can see a beautiful Sudarshana. See the details on this Vigraha, and the smiling face of Lord Narasimha. Normally it is not in practise to carve out of Salagrama any Murthy, because Sri Salagrama Sila is a direct manifestation (Svayambhu = self manifest of the Supreme Lord) of Para Vasudeva, Sri Vaikuntha, and it is commonly accepted as he is found inside the riverbed of Gandaki, Nepal.
But in rare cases (like this ancient deity) such Forms are lovely worshipped. We have plenty of such examples like Udupi Krsna, Guruvayoor Krsna, Bhuvaraha of sri Mushnam, Badri Narayana and others were carved out of Salagram sila by rishis or demigods. So who knows from where this deity comes from. Enjoy it!

Salagrama silas of Sri Vidyabhushana part3

two wonderful salagram silas, Sudarshana silas...

other silas from Sri Vidyabhushana

This sila has 3 chakras in front, Matsya Sila

Salagrama silas of Sri Vidyabhushana

I made few shots from the rare collection of my friend and famous singer sri Vidyabhushana of his personal Salagrama Silas in his possession. Most of them were given by different friends and supporters, so see and enjoy them. The first one is a Ugra Narasimha Sila, and see the red lines near his mouth.. uaaaahhhh

Funny big size Fossil or Sudarshana Chakra?

In July 1947 geologist Chuck Newmarch and a small field crew working for the British Columbia Geological Survey were busy mapping coal seams in the shales, siltstones and sandstones exposed above Coal Creek in the Rocky Mountains just east of Fernie in the south-east corner of British Columbia. Fossils are few and far between in these rocks and it was not clear which part of these coal measures is Jurassic and which Cretaceous. So, Newmarch was astonished when, on reaching a massive sandstone bed, he literally stepped into a giant ribbed depression the size of a tractor tire. He was no paleontologist, but when he saw the coiled nature of the depression he realized that he was looking at the imprint of an ammonite, but one of truly heroic proportions. The fossil measured almost 1.5 metres across -- by far, the biggest complete ammonite ever found in Canada.
but guess if that would be found in India there would be a big temple around!

Caturmurthy

Have been in the indian museum in Dahlem/Berlin, with a big collection of ancient Forms and murthies of Hindu/Jaina/buddhism. Fond this one here, Catur Murthi - for the four directions, normally found on the Temple Vimana carved and installed. This is made in red sandstone, of Gupta Tradition (3.-5th century AD) were one finds Sri Narasimha (south direction), Sri Vaikuntanatha (standing Vishnu for west direction), Sri Sri Bhu Varaha (North direction) and Sri Hayagriva (east direction). May it was used on top of a Temple instead of Kalasha (pots representing the Vedas).
Scientist speak normally that Narasimha was not worshipped before Gupta, but one finds clear indications that Narasimha was worshipped much before Gupta and Maurya. As the Rig Veda definds Rudram Ganam (vedic recitation) to be the personification of Lord Narasimha, other references like Manyu sukta clearly shows the worship of Lord Narasimha in vedic times.

Kshirabdhi Puja

End of kartika Masa and end of Caturmasya Vrata puja is done to wake up Lord Vishnu from his yoganidra (sleep of 4 month). Also Tulsi Vivaha with Sri Salagrama is performed on that day.
Coconuts are offered and milk are poured into them, while visualise Lord Vishnu in Kshiradhi (milkocean). See the pics from the puja here in Berlin!

new sila arrived

I got one sila from my friend Padmandabha (passau) after he called me "silaKsora" (stealer of salagrama)... but see how nice he looks... like Laxminarasimha sila, as he is not bigger then a rooseberry in size.
enjoy it!

new arrival

In America i got one new sila from my friend Chaitanya presented, a nice Laxmi Narasimha Saligrama. Here are some pictures from the puja. Two weeks ago i got another sila from my other friend Padmanabha from Passau, also a Narasimha. Now i have 12 saligramas, and 4 Narasimhasilas. Enjoy the tour!

Burning Man

In august we had a funny function in the desert of Nevada/USA. A 6 day puja was going on between the wildest people from around the world. Some desert storm was blowing so strong that on one day we had to be inside the car... the other days we were giving out prasadam, books and kirtan for free to the 35000 people... very interesting show...

what in the last month's happens....

yes time runs and i cannot follow up with some news, but anyway from time to time im doing here some info. First we had great visit by HH Narasimha Maharaja with his disciple HH Madhava Maharaj in the temple of HH Paramadvaiti Maharaja with the name Kurukshetra (Invalidenstr.145)... here some few pics on this...the first one HH Narasimha Maharaja and HH Paramadvaiti Maharaj together in the Yoga class room of the Kurukshetra, then one under the door of liberty (?)in Berlin Mitte with a very special dress code for swamis (Narasimha Maharaj with Madhava Maharaja - please see the cool wood shoes of the jung swami! we have visit together also the Hitler bunker, the exhibitions of ancient zarathustra cults (fire worshipper) and sunk egypt remnants shown to the public. What a great day!

Bookfare Frankfurt/M. 7.10.2006

On Saturday 7.10. 2006 the doors where open for the frankfurt Bookfare with India as the main Supporter for this year. More then 200 Book Companies from India has come to this event and have presented their new releases on all subjects from this indian subcontinent. My book also has been presented by the Bossworth Company on their table in the german book section. We have invited 5 Tavil and Nadaswaram musicians from the Sri Kamakshi Amman (Parvati Devi)Tempel near Münster to play some auspicious melodies for our new relase. You might remember how loud these instruments can be, so it was quite Punk Rock to let them play in the german hall. Anyway many people liked these special show and we had a good audience. Otherwise the whole Bookfare was a grand success for the organizer (more then 700000 visitors), and the Indian Goverment has given a very good overview / presentation on traditions, history and philosophy in the main hall of the place.

Book Release

A new Book on south indian Music and travel expierence will come out soon, by my self under the Bosworth Company (www.bosworth.de), sorry it will be only in german language right now but maybe it comes also in english soon. It carries more then 100 A4 Pages with a lot of pictures from temples, holy spots and people. Also it contains a 60 minute CD on south indian Raaga Music. If you like to support and bring it out in your language please contact me.

News from the road

Dear friends - have being long time nothing going on here, as i have been in southindia, croatia and North america for the BurningManfestival. So i will make few comments on each trip and you have the chance to see some pics as well from there. Here we start from india, a very special trip for a upanayana Ceremony from my friend Sri Vidyabhushana's son in may. 3 day ceremony finalize with 4 swamys from 4 different Madhva Mathas, like Vitthala krsna Matha, Raghavendra Matha, Akshobhya Tirtha Matha and Kukke Subhramaniya matha. Means all together with 2 very nice Istha Narasimha Murthies worhipped by the matha swamys for centuries (see pictures). Later we went to mysore and Melkote. Unfortunate my Melkote Swamy left the world one year ago, and also Laxmi Tatachariar has moved to sri Rangapatnam. So the place is still as the same, except some very spiritual persons are missing. And thats what is the link...

poland tour part3

driving from berlin to wroclaw takes 4 to 5 hours, depens how long one is stuck in the border. the roads are terrible, but they fixing it now. The town of wroclaw was more then 600 years german country and one can find many remnands on walls and streetnames. the town was built in such a way that it served as a baston, and got the name "Festung" Breslau. It had his main role in the second world war, and it only capitulated when berlin was taken over by the russians. It was sorrounded more then 4 month by the russian army and they had food and weapon production layed under earth. Still many bunkers are proofing this fact. The temple were the seminar was held is 15 km outside of the town and not very easy to find. One devotee was picking me up from some place close to the highway. The temple house is owned and has a very nice and big temple room. There we had the seminars going on.

poland tour part2

and here some more pics on the first impression...

poland tour part1

I was invited to the yearly Nama hatta Festival in Wroclaw to give a seminar on Rituals and worship in ancient scriptures of India from 29.4. - 02.05. 2006. So i set and packed my stuff for this journey, as i felt very much happy to see my friends and the country side again. I have seen poland first time when i was 10 years visiting towns like szcecin(stettin) just before the political turmoil and the oppression by the communist goverment. From that time i have developed a very much interest in this country. In my emmigrant time from east germany in the 80's i have visited Poland once to meet with my friends from the east after 6 years of no personal contact. So poland was always a country who struggled for freedom and justice, when others were living in aparthy and surrender to the oppressors. It was also one of the first country in the communist countries where devotees where allowd to preach and practise devotional Service.
When i came in the 80's to poland it was a poor country and people used to drink alcohol like mad. It looks it was the only thing one could get easy.
From that lot of things have changed, and entering poland by car this time only the roads remembered me on poland... Big billboards advertising socalled happiness or stuff no one needs. All looks like big USA country, and even the people are so into fashion, designs and big cars, rarely one sees this as poland. Big shopping miles with ikea, deichmann, cocacola and other foreign companies killing old articles from poland, what to speak the infrastructure of farmers and self made homeboys and girls. Only if one drives over villages, still one can see natural country side mixed with old houses from the germans or buildings made from precasted concrete communist slabs. Like this i have been surprised with the situation and here some pics to see whats going on...