SAMUDRAM-THE OCEAN Dear friends, Todaymy topic is the ocean. The ocean is veryvast; I am writing some information which comes to my memory. Sincerely,
GopalaKrishnan 30-11-2021 1. Sethu samudram or Agni theerthamat Rameswaram. Ihad been to Rameswaram in 2004 middle with my wife. Elder brother and his wifejoined with me while starting from Trivandrum. After lengthy pithru sankalpam we were asked to take bath in the seathere. It is called Agni theertham. Near to Ramanathaswamy temple, an Arch to seawith granite steps is provided. We took bath there. Ifat all no pithru kriyas are performed as pariharam many times people are askedto take bath in the sea called Agni theertham. Many take bath in Sethu as part of taking bathin 22 theerthams of Rameswaram temple. Convenientlyholding steps we can get down to last step visible. There may be two or moresteps further and sand bottom of sea. Though sea current is there with tide,still I found the bathing ghat very convenient to take dip without much fear.Sethu samudram (Gulf of Mannar) is inlet to Indian Ocean. Ihad taken bath in Arabian Sea earlier at Varkala AtVarkala I took bath holding the hands of my senior officer, who occasionallyvisited Janardanaswamy temple at Varkala after taking sea bath. 2. Navapashanam Navapashanamis at Devipatnamand can be reached either from Ramnad or from Rameswaram. Here Navagrahas are 9stones and erected in the seashore. Legend is they were erected by Sreerama for worshipbefore the war. I sawafter being there for about an hour in the afternoon, the water level increasedwith time. I was told by evening they would be immersed fully in water and inthe morning they would re-appear maximum visible. Poojafor navagraha is done bythe priest getting down in water through steps. There is anenclosure with handrails and walking path of about 4’ width on the sides. Westood praying holding the handrails. 3. Chemmeen and katal Theseare two Malayalam pictures taken fully on the background of Arabian Sea.Chemeen received Presidents Gold medal for best picture of the year 1965. Thefamous Tamil film of Bharathi raja, “Alaikal oivathillai” is also themed with seaand sea shore people. ElderKeralites may recollect the song” Nagaram, nagaram maha sagaram “in the film“Nagaramae Nandi” screened in 1964. 4. Matha Amritanda mayi ashram Thefirst ashram where Matha Amirthanandamayi mostly available is at Amirtha puri (Vavukkavu)on sea shore near Karunagappalli. I have been to mother many times at Vavukkavuas well as in her ashram at Kaimanam, Trivandrum. 5. Sea shore temples Ihave visited a few temples close to sea. They are- Varkala Janardhana swamy temple, TiruchendurMurugan temple, Kanyakumaritemple and Rameswaram temple. At Chennai Ashta lekshmi temple at Besant nagar is also close to sea. Thetemples of Guruvayur and Mullakkal are also near sea. Ihave not visited Puri or Dwaraka temples which are also sea shore temples. Ihave also not visited Gokarnam temple near sea. 6. Vivekananda rock Thememorial created over the rock in Kanyakumari for Vivekanda is worth mentioning. It is a real wonder. I have performed Dhyanam in the Dhyana mandapam there inmany occasions while working at Nagerkovil. FromKanyakumari to reach the rock, the boat service is operated by Poompukar ShippingCorporation. When the sea is rough the boat is not operated. I am toldVivekananda used to swim across the sea and reached the rock and performedDhyanam!! 7. The Calicut beach Iwas in Calicut as Divisional Engineer for more than two and a half years andthe beach at Calicut was relaxing area in the evenings with colleagues for me .Vasko da gama landed in Kerala through country ship at Kappad near Calicut for trade. Ithink the most visited beach by me is at Calicut. The next two might be Besantnagar beach in Chennai and the Marina beech. Marina beach is one of the most famous lengthy beaches in the world 8. The salt preparation Thesea water is used for preparing salt and I have seen first time at Tutucorinalong sea beach. I have heard Tutucorin town is actually below sea level. Most ofthe famous international and nationals banks have branch in Tutucorin. 9. Roads Parallel to sea. InKerala the road route from Thalassery to Kannur is parallel to sea and similarly from Ambalapuzha to Alleppy.There is a spill way at Thottapalli where sea merges with Vembanad lake in theAlleppy route giving a panoramic view for about a kilometre distance. OldMhabali puram road from Chennai to Pondicherry is also parallel to sea. 10. “Muthukulikka varikala” Tutucorin express has been named as Pearl City expressbecause from Tutucorin Sea pearls were taken plucking pods from by diving down the sea. It is called Muthukliyal. Pearlculture is also made there. Now such bringing is not there at Tutucorin 11. Kadalvazhaikka. The sea fish is sometimes called as sea plantain. I amtold in Bengal Brahmins eat fish. Konkini Brahmins in Kerala also eat fish. 12. Coloumbusand sea travel. To reach India Coloumbus travelled by sea and landedin America instead of India. It was the discovery of America. The British reached India through ships for trade andestablished the Trading Company at Masulipatnam (Andhra Coast) in 1611. 13. Seatravel. In India we have shipping service for carrying peoplefrom Cochin to Laksha dweep islands. Though flights are there, still shipservice is mostly used for cargo and travellers. To Andaman Nicobar Islandsalso shipping service is operated for carrying people. Yester years shipping service was used to carry people to Singapore, Dubai etcfrom India. Now a day flights are operated and shipping service is operated forcargo transfer. Last year during the beginning of covid 19, military ships wereoperated to bring NRIs to India from Dubai. 14. Seabridge at Rameswaram The 2 KM long sea bridges crossing sea from Mandapamto Rameswaram both by road and train are real wonders.Recently the rail bridgewas made broad gauge. Constructing a new railway bridge is under proposal. 15. Varuna I am concluding this posting on sea with mythologicalreference to Varuna the sea God . SageAgasthiar is told as son of sea godVaruna. Lord Krishna got his conch panchajanyam from seakilling sankasur It was when Lord Krishna plunged to sea to get the dead blind sonof Guru Sandipani back from demonSankasur and paid Gurudakshina. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thatha_patty+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/993642317.4564221.1638292460545%40mail.yahoo.com.
