Temple&Holy place features!

Posted by dinesh

Following is about the features of the temple and the holy place-Guruvayoor
This place was predominantly preached by Sankaracharya&so the people
here still have the influence of impersonalism even though they are so
much devoted to the deity here. Sankaracharya personally stayed for 41
days to preach about deity worship in the temple.
The temple is more like a home without much opulence like big towers
& the Lord is seen as a small boy-BalaKrishna to be taken care of
nicely by serving.
The darshan timings are restricted so that the Lord can be fed Bhoga
frequently&also given rest sufficiently. This is one of the richest
temples where 60 elephants are used for temple services. Elephants are
devotees as well. Not just dumb ones. One elephant devotee named
Keshav would not allow any tamer to get on him other than pujari with
deity for procession.Also he will not allow other elephants to take up
the deity procession when he's present. There's a classical dance
performed outside the temple about the Lilas of Krishna every night
which is very unique. Also there's chanting of Maha mantra in the
temple starting with Hare Rama Hare Rama...
There's full prasadam provided in the temple for 100s of devotees
everyday. Other unique thing here is marriages in the temple. As many
as 100 marriages of the local people is very common in the temple for
just one day. Tulabhara seva in which the devotees offer any specific
item like rice or sugar equal in weight to oneself. Non-Hindus are
also attracted to the Lord by this tulabhara seva in which case the
weighing bridge is brought outside the temple for them.
Prasadam is very famous here like other temples. This temple is very
famous only among south Indians&not much talked about in the northern
part of the country.
Narayaneeyam#
This is a literary work by a brahman named Bhattadir(unsure of the
exact name). Unlike Bhagavatam which is in passive voice describing
about the Lord,the verses are directly addressed to the Lord&is sung
in front of the Lord everyday.When composed,the Deity Himself
interfered&corrected the verses. Two instances are noted.
To keep the song Rhymic, the composer instead of using the syllables
Ra-ma used Ra or something but the deity asked him to use the syllable
"te" which means "unto You" signifying that the deity is Lord Rama
Himself.
In another instance when the composer asks the deity,I could not
understand why You have banished mother Sita.why have You done so? For
that the deity replied that It was only Lord Rama and not Himself.
So this shows the Lord is very tricky :)