Natural beauty at its very best. A river flowing by gently. Rich, ultra rich greenery all around. Sunlight streaming in adequately and brilliantly. The only man-made sound you hear is the hiss of your own breath. Chirping of birds. Cows munching on hay and grass and looking at you gently and with concern over your fate. Rich, sattvic food available in plenty nearby. Tombs of saints radiating spiritual vibrancy. Lord Ganapathi blessing you silently and keeping an eye on your activities. Lord Hanuman eternally worshipping Lord Ramachandra and Lord Narasimha. Sri Madhwacharya, another form of Lord Mukhyaprana, stamping his authority on every activity.
Wah! It’s a Paradise. It’s Puthige.
Just off Hiriyadka on the Udupi-Shivamogga road, which is getting widened now, lies the moola mutt compound of Sri Upendra Theertha Peetam and it is an ideal place for sadhana. It is just a 20-minute drive from Udupi and you are welcome any time of the year.
Paryaya is near, and the right time to pay a visit. I was there on a Saturday evening. You can call it the Saturday Night Fever. The mood was such. Boys in kachcha playing cricket after a hard day’s schedule of learning Vedas, jyotishya, Agama shastras, pourohitya, Sanskrit sahitya, basics of Vedanta etc.
A group of visitors from Australia including Dheerendra of Melbourne taking a look at the place and getting ready for some homa, pooja to mark an important milestone in life. Teachers retiring for the day. Some boys diving into the Suvarna and coming up in time for evening sandhyavandana.
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Whatever property you inherit is based on your ‘runa’, as the popular saying goes, including pashu, patni, suta, aalaya, and Puthige Swamiji Sri Sugunendra Theertha has got it right. You can spend hours there, sitting on the banks of the Suvarna and chanting mantras and meditating on the majesty of the Lord’s creation.
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Puthige Swamiji has set up a Gurukula there and around 45 boys are making full use of it. Now a beautifully designed building is coming up behind the main building to house the gurukula. The old mutt building with the pooja room and shrines will remain intact. The boys will shift to the new Gurukula once work is over. The new building is a semi-circle structure with many edges in the front. 33 rooms are being built, with every room facing the river.
Around 35 workers from Kerala, West Bengal and elsewhere have been on the job for two years and the building design is traditional and eye-catching. Spectacular, to be precise. The work is going on at a brisk pace, and His Holiness Sri Vidyashreesha Theertha Swamiji of Vyasaraja Mutt is inaugurating the building on December 31 at around 4 p.m.
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All are welcome to the event, and for admitting their sons to the gurukula. Don’t press the panic button, Puthige Swamiji says with a smile, because the Vedas say that whoever believes in shastras and studies shastras and lives by the norms prescribed and ensures his children do the same thing will be protected by it and fed well and taken care of well. There have been umpteen examples, and well, it’s time for you to act.
Govardhan of Soorinje, near Suratkal, is always there to guide you and help you and also inspire you (Dial 97420 59918). The call of the spirit lured him to Sri Sugunendra Theertha Swamiji who taught him shastras and pumped spirituality into him in full measure. He is a Brahmachari and can sing well, even while monitoring the activities of students. To visitors, he explains the power of Kambada Ganapathi at the mutt entrance and of Lord Narasimha in the main shrine.
Around 500 years ago, some master craftsmen erected wooden pillars containing images of Lord Narasimha and Lord Ganapathi. The two pillars came to life, with one Swamiji of the mutt often getting dreams of a lion and an elephant showing off their powers and roaring and trumpeting. Prashne with an astrologer became inevitable and the Swamiji was advised to ‘tame’ and pacify the mighty powers. So Lord Narasimha’s presence was invoked in an idol and moved to the main shrine. Lord Ganapathi welcomes visitors and an idol has been placed with kavacha in a box in front of the pillar. All prayers are answered there and devotees stream in with lots of wishes.
Puthige Swamiji wants people to volunteer for some work or the other at the mutt, be it teaching, administering, corresponding, cooking, or anything else.
by Venkatesh Bhat 