[Chaturamnaya] His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Sacchidananda Sivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati - 22

[S Jayanarayanan]

 http://svbf.org/journal/vol8no1/2006_10_swamigal.pdf
 
 
Consecration at Kalady
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The day fixed for the consecration of the
shrines at Kalady was Magha Sukla 12 of Saumya
(February 1910). Some of the influential
gentlemen of Kallidaikurichi, the largest agrahara
in Tirunelveli district, had come with 300 laborers,
who worked day and night to clear the site, to lay
smooth paths and put everything in order.
 
Two shrines, compact, strong and beautiful,
were constructed, facing south, to the north of the
Purna; that for Sharadamba was near the spot
which, according to the local tradition, was the
place where the great master Sankara’s mother was
cremated; and the shrine for Sankara, a little
further to the west.
 
Kalady was a very small village in an
isolated corner of the State of Travancore; and so,
for the accommodation of the thousands of
visitors to the shrine who were expected at the
time of the consecration, 600 temporary lodgings
were put up in rows, with paths in between.
 
The Swami camped at Perumbavur, a village
eight km from Kalady. Here came Ramachandra
Aiyar and Srikantha Sastri to report that the
arrangements were all complete. In the course of
the description, Sastri stated that near the shrine
of Sharadamba, there was an Asoka tree, under
which, it was stated, mother had been cremated;
that people from the surrounding parts used to
circumambulate the tree and make prostrations
and light lamps there at night.
 
When he heard this, the Swami was
ecstatic; his eyes brimmed with tears; his body was
tremulous. After a while, he came to himself and
said that on the first night of his arrival at
Perumbavur, an elderly widow, dressed in white,
appeared before him in a dream and when
questioned she stated that she was living under a
tree at Kalady and with a winning smile added
that she now appeared before him to bid him
welcome to the place.
 
The Swami, not being able to make out
what this meant, was disturbed by the thought
that the vision of a widow in a dream was
generally understood to prognosticate some evil.
Now the description given by the agent made him
see things in the true light. It must be the great
master’s mother who appeared in his dream to
offer him welcome in the great work he had
undertaken at Kalady.
 
The Swami came to Kalady 10 days before
the date fixed for the consecration. The two murtis
of Sharadamba and Sankara, which had been
ordered to be executed by skilful sculptors at
Karaikudi, came in time. A spacious shed was
erected between the two shrines, for the sacrificial
hall where the ceremonies were to be conducted;
ritviks, the priests for officiating at the
ceremonials, were chosen from the learned pandits
of Mysore and the Sringeri matha and they also
came in time.
 
The Swami came to the sacrificial hall a
week before the date of consecration, caused the
ceremony of vow-taking to be performed by the
chosen priests, and left for his quarters after giving
instructions to the priests; the preliminary
ceremonies, including the sanctification of the
murtis, were gone through in regular course, as laid
down in the Sastras; the murtis were installed on
Magha Sukla, 12, the date originally fixed. The
Swami then came to the shrines and by his own
magnetic adorations infused the murtis with the
64 essences which constitute their life.
 
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