Notes of a Sanmar pilgrim
The legend of Ayyappan is one of the most enduring and fascinating in India’s infinite variety of mythology and spiritual lore. Lord Ayyappan, whose steed was a tiger, resides atop Sabarimala, a range of hills in Kerala. Thousands of pilgrims annually take a vow of abstinence and rigorously clean personal habits for a period of 40 days before they undertake the arduous climb to worship at his altar. A Sanmar team of employees led by P U Aravind has been doing the Sabarimala pilgrimage for the past several years. Here, we present a personal account of this year’s trip by Ramkumar Shankar.
One Thursday evening in September, went home around 3 pm, packed and went to the pre-trip puja. At 6, our group left for the railway station by van, stopping at a Ganesh temple on the way. The train left at 7.30 pm. There were 21 of us, almost all from Sanmar (or ex Sanmar). Reached Ernakulam at 6.30 on Friday morning. After a bath, went straight to three Sivan temples – Vaikom, Kaduthuruthy and Ettumanoor; said to be a great thing to see all three on the same day.
The Sabarimala Ayyappan temple.
Our drive to Pamba took around five hours on ghat roads, with amazing scenery all around. Reached Pamba around 4 pm. It was pouring – we took a dip in the freezing cold Pamba river. Packing bare necessities off we went on the climb. First, we broke a coconut at a Ganesh temple before starting the climb.
First stretch of around one hour is a steep climb on rough rocky steps, with sharp stones; after that, it is a 20 to 30 minute walk on sharp stones again! Reached the hill top around 6. Went to our rooms for a quick wash and rushed to the temple for darshan.
Dinner around 9 pm and we reassembled at the rooms. The prasad was neatly packed in separate covers and given to everyone. Around 10 pm, went back to the temple for the Harivarasanam seva. This is the time when the temple is closed and the deity is put to sleep, to the accompaniment of Yesudas’ divine Harivarasanam song. A lovely sight. Crashed out around 11 pm.
Vinayaka Chaturthi
Woken up at 4.00 am, bathed and went to the temple again on Saturday, Vinayaka (Ganesh) Chaturthi day, the elephant god’s birthday. Huge crowd of devotees and the queue was long and winding. Somehow managed a couple of darshans and started on our walk down around 6.30.
The walk down is tougher than the climb up for two reasons. One, we were already tired because of the climb up. Secondly, when you walk down, the entire pressure is on the sole of the foot. The stones in the path make it tougher. Reached Pamba around 8; again broke a coconut each at the Ganesh temple.
Our first stop that day was to be Mannarsala temple, near Harippad, devoted to Nagaraja, the snake god. Since all temples close by noon, we had to go straight there. So no breakfast this day too. Built in a grove, the temple reputedly has 30,000 images of snakegods.
Lunch at Alleppey, and off we went to three temples on the way to Guruvayur. First we reached Kodungallur at 3 pm, an hour before the Devi Bhagavati temple there opened. Had darshan and went next to the Sivan temple at Tiruvanchikulam in Thrissur district, and finally to a wonderful Rama temple in typical Kerala style at Triprayar.
Guruvayur darshan
Reaching Guruvayur around 7.30 pm, checked in at a hotel and immediately left for the temple. Joined long queue there, and had darshan. Stayed back for the nightly Seeveli ritual, when the utsavamurti (deity in procession) is taken around the temple on elephants, a grand sight, with all lamps lit, and elephants bedecked. Hit bed around 11 pm. Next morning, got up around 5 and assembled downstairs by 6. Long, serpentine queues outside the temple waiting for darshan.
A pre-trip puja.
After breakfast left for the Mammiyur Mahadevan temple. Torrential downpour as we got in to the bus and proceeded to the Trichur Vadakanathar temple. Situated in a beautiful ground, it looks like a fort. Next, we went to Kaladi, the birth place of Adi Sankara, a serene, lovely place, and around 11.30, reached the Chotanikara Bhagavati temple, famous for driving out evil spirits etc.
With the pilgrimage over, went to Ernakulam where we had a traditional meal around 1 pm. We chilled out with some ice creams while waiting for the train. We boarded the train at 4.10 pm. Some of us merrily sang away a medley of old film songs from 6 to 7 pm. Dinner followed and we crashed by 9. Reached Chennai around 7.30 the next day.
‘Captain Aravind’
This is a trip that we all look forward to. We visit around 12 to 15 temples in Kerala in three days, impossible individually. The credit for all this goes to PU Aravind and his team – Sankar, Murali, Suresh et al.
Thanks to their great efforts, everything happens with clockwork precision. Food is packed and served, the bus is waiting for us at the station, train tickets are booked well in advance, the schedule drawn up is meticulously followed. Aravind is a tough disciplinarian—we call him Captain. He doesn’t allow us the luxury of leisure during these three days—we are constantly on the move, from train to bus to room to temple.
At the temple, we are told exactly how much time we have for darshan before we get back to the bus. Tough as this is to follow, especially for laggards like me, the discipline helps us stick to our schedule and visit all the temples in our itinerary.
The pilgrims this year
P U Aravind
A R Balaji
R Chandramouli
R Durairaj
R Ganesh
S Hanumanth Rao
V G K Moorthy
D Muralidharan
N Muralidharan
R Muralidharan
M Raman
S Sankaran
Ramkumar Shankar
V Shankar
Raja Srinivasan
Abhishek Subramaniam
V V Subramanian
V Sundar
R Suresh
R V Trivedi
P Vasudevan