Chandramouleshwar's Temple in Unkal, Hubli

Legends are always fascinating. Are they true or just made up to sound interesting is not the question that will be answered now. Also it does not matter.
I happened to read one such legend about Amarshilpi JAKANACHARYA. He was a flawless architect dwelt during Chalukya's period.
The legend says he left his family consisting of a wife and an unborn child in search of his calling.
He went on to become the greatest architects of all the time. In the later part of his life he encountered his son, who identified a flaw in his design. Jakanacharya had to lose his right hand in the bet to his son. Well the legend says many more interesting things like this and it is indeed fascinating to read.

The reason why I happened to hear about him was because I recently visited one of a great work of architecture near my home at UNKAL (Yes u read it right, it is in UNKAL!!),thanks to my colleague Pranesh.It is the Chandramouleshwar's temple in UNKAL. It is said to be built in 10th century by Chalukya's. The temple is beautifully built with exquisitely carved stones. The exterior of the temple has stone carvings of many Gods and Goddesses including Dancing Lord Ganesh, Lord Narsimha, Lord Vishnu etc. There are two sanctums in the temple. One of the sanctum has Chaturmukh Shiva Lingu in it- Face of Shiva is carved in Lingu in the four directions. I guess this is pretty unique. In another sanctum, a bigger Shiva Lingu has been installed. The sanctums also have four doors in respective directions.

One has to visit the temple to inhale the fragnance of beauty of the architecture. A person sitting there, probably the priest of that place, mentioned that this temple was built by the great Jakanacharya himself. I could not confirm that. He said there are three temples nearby- one in Annigeri, another in Kundagol and this one in Unkal, which were built by Jakanacharya and his associates in one single night!! Woof!! As I said earlier lets not get into the actuality of this legend. The priest also showed us 3 small openings at the top of the main door. These three openings are just visible from the inner sanctum if we see at the level of Shiva Lingu in the sanctum. He said only on the day of Chandramaan Ugadi rays of Sun fall on the Chaturmukh Shiva Lingu. If so, that's serious astronomy and geometrical knoweledge. I was amazed by the skills of the architect. I just kept staring at the Nruptunga Hill which was looking awesome from the temple door. Deep inside my mind I was still appreciating the architect.

Legends are enigmatic with some kind of truth and some kind of myth in them. Nevertheless, they tell some story of past which will be spell-bounding and knowledgeable.
Hublites should visit this temple at least once.

Finding your Calling

            I believe that we live for a reason. A reason defined, designed, designated by the GOD or any eternal force or by ourselves. It is happening to me, might have happened to many of us that we spend years to find that "reason". To say more fashionably, we will be in search for our "calling".

          GOD or the Universe helps us in finding our calling in one or the other way. It is our duty to catch the signals or the so called "omens". A person is always being guided by these omens. One who catches them and proceeds with them, leads a successful life.

         As I understand it, there is always an exchange of energy between us and the Universe. When we think something positive we emanate positive energy to the Universe. And as the law says the Universe responds back by giving out the energy in the same form around us.

        Hence, as long as we stay positive the Universe helps us, through the omens, to find our calling - no matter what stage of life we are in. I guess the one who dies unsatisfied never caught the omens or never got enough of them.

        I believe, as long as you stay positive about your calling or for that matter anything, the Universe will help you get it as soon as possible.

The Bee- Bites

              That was quite a bright morning, everything was going as per schedule. I was a trainee at my office then. We were relishing the morning tea break, almost everybody had returned to the class except five of us. Four of five, including me, were busy playing Chinese checkers, the fifth guy was polishing his carom skills on the board. There was some kind of repair work going on over the terrace just besides the cafeteria. As we were fully involved in the game of checkers, the carom guy said." Bees are coming"!!

               We all turned to witness bees increasing their count in the cafeteria. I was quite obviously baffled at the sight. I did not understand the seriousness of the issue instantly. I and another colleague of mine, jumped the walls of cafeteria assuming that bees will not follow us out. Initially I felt the situation hilarious. I ran hard. I under-estimated the speed of bees. They were following me and my colleague. At the begining I felt only few bees were behind me and I thought I could hit them out. I turned to get a sight of my colleague, I was dumbstruck seeing the number of bees around his face. The number was seriously more, I understood the seriousness of this attack.

             My other two intelligent colleagues did not run as we did, instead they stayed back and took shelter. Also, we both had attracted the angry bunch of bees. The bees, racing with me, had started to sting me wherever they felt like stinging. I could smell the honey when those were around me. That was nasty smell and made me half sick:(

             I was still running as hard as I can, making constant manoeuvers to dodge bees. I was looking for the shelter. My eyes fell on a tarpaulin, I waved over my head to get rid of the bees and quickly went inside the tarpaulin to get shelter. I covered my face with hanky and got rid of bees that were still stinging my body peacefully!! I shouted for my colleague to come under the tarpaulin. He was dangerously stung by them. More than 40 % of what they had stung me.He came inside the tarpaulin but could not elude the bees. After some time, he jumped out of tarpaulin and took shelter in washroom nearby. By that time the angry bees had calmed a bit and their number had abated. I was unaware of any of this. I started shouting for help, calling out my colleagues name.
No reply came back. I stayed back with my mind going blank.

                After some time I shouted again for help. Luckily, I heard reply. They were telling me to enter back into cafeteria from one of the ends. I was so blank at that time, that I could not figure out, in which corner of the cafeteria I was sitting. Also I was dreaded by the bees and I was not ready to leave my safe haven. After some time, I gathered courage to jump back into the cafeteria. By that time the bees had completely gone. I was escorted down with thick blanket around me. The nightmare was finally over!!

                The bees had stung me on head, arm, fingers, face. My finger had got numb! My colleagues took care that I and my another colleague got immediate medical attention. The poison took toll on both of us. We were feeling weak and numb for couple of days.

                Its almost one year from that incident now, when I look back I realise series of mistakes I did on that day-

-I under-estimated the power of bees especially the speed.
-I made a terrible mistake of running, instead of ducking down.
-I realised the importance of unity in hard way!!

I learnt lesson of life time and I hope u too.

Shri Satya Sai Baba

April 24th – the date- has always been the day of celebrations, happiness as it is the birthday of God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar and God of Kannada film industry- Dr. Rajkumar, but 24th April will no longer be the same from the year 2011. 24/4/2011 – the day- took the smiles from millions of people across the world. This is the day when the God-man Shri Satya Sai Baba passed away.

The grief, all over the world with His demise, shows the immense belief and respect people had on this great soul. Puttaparthi, AP became the center of attention as many dignitaries around India and the entire globe flocked here to pay homage to Shri Satya Sai Baba.

In the current situation wherein most of the God-men are self proclaimed or non-trustable, Baba had millions of devotees across the world. The devotees ranged from politicians to sportspersons like Sachin, Gavaskar to pop singers like Ricky Martin.

Controversies have had share in the life of Baba, let us not worry whether the controversies were true or false. Rather, now they do not really matter. What stands out in His work throughout His life is the sheer dedication towards helping the needy. He gave free medical treatment to the needy, He provided free education to many many students. He helped the poor in many places in various ways. The controversies will be buried with His body but His aid to thousands of people, path of wisdom shown to many more in society will be remembered for a long long time to come.

Probably, we can take a few moments of our life to salute this person, who enlightened so many people who sought solace His shelter. Let us take some time out- Shri Satya Sai Baba- may Your soul Rest IN Peace.