Sri Rangam

WOW! Srirangam was huge with 7 gopurams or gates in all four directions leading into the inner temple. It is so beautifully painted, which happened just 5 years ago and most of the locals aren't that happy about it, liking instead the white washed stone it had been for hundreds of years. But I thought it really made the carved scenes and statues really pop out and it makes for some amazing video footage for sure. I had the good fortune of being let into the inner sanctum to see the Deity of Vishnu, even though westerners are not allowed, but they will make an exception if you are wearing a saree and have tilak on and tell them you are a "Hare Krishna Hare Rama" devotee and so I paid the 250 rupees ($5) to go through the fast lane while everyone else paying 50 rupees was standing in line for hours! This deity of Vishnu has been in this spot for millions of years and it was only in the 10th century that they began building the huge gopurams of this vast temple complex around Him. The story goes that the brother of the demon King Ravana of Sri Lanka was a devotee of Vishnu and while visiting India, really wanted to have a form of the Lord to worship at his home in Sri Lanka. So the Lord being the well wisher of everyone and knowing the desire of our hearts - self manifested in His form of Sri Ranganatha who is lying on His side on Ananta Sesa - His most immediate expansion as the million hooded King Cobra who holds the planets like mustard seeds on the top of His hoods. So, the only condition was that the devotee was to take him straight away to Sri Lanka and not put Him down, because if he did, he would not be able to lift Him up again. So as he was traveling back to Sri Lanka he saw a river and wanted to cool off and have a bath and the place where he put Sri Ranganatha down is now known as Srirangam in Tiruchirappalli aka Trichy in Tamil Nadu, India and from this spot He will never leave. Check out the short video I made below.....more to come soon....=D

Click here to go to Youtube for full screen version

Mysore

Ahhh Mysore, what a green city, lots of huge, old growth trees along wide streets and even with a population of 1.5 million, Mysore seemed like a village compared to the big cities I had been to on this trip. I stayed at the Indus Valley Ayurvedic Center, which I would highly recommend as I had the best massage treatments so far in India. They were so good mainly because finally there were pads on the hard wooden tables which my bony self was so grateful for and also before each treatment they sang a prayer to Ganesh who paved the way for the healing process to begin. Om Gam Ganapataya Namaha. I had my first 4 hand massage and now how can I go back to just 2 =) and then sat in a steam machine with just my head poking out - it was great!


I also did some sightseeing of local tourist attractions like Tipu Sultan's summer palace and his mausoleum and mosque. He was the de facto ruler of the kingdom of Mysore from 1750 to 1799 and fought four battles against the British, winning two and losing two. The last one was lost due to a traitorous minister of defense who was his cousin and was promised the throne only to later be shot by the British himself. Tipu Sultan died in this final battle and was buried in the mausoleum he had built for his parents. He was allied with the French in his wars with the British and upon their request he built a huge cathedral in the city called St. Joseph's.

Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace

Messenger Pigeon House

Tipu Sultan's Mausoleum and Mosque

St. Joseph's Cathedral

There is also a huge palace that was finished more recently in 1912 and was home to the Wodeyar kings who initially had been part of the Vijayanagara Empire but when it disintegrated in 1565 they became an independent kingdom and remained so until 1799 when the British gained control of that region of India. Mysore palace lights up every Sunday night for 1 hour so I got some great footage of it in the day and then later that night.

Also the market in Mysore is HUGE rows and rows of flowers, fruits and vegetables and kitchenware and I got some great shots.

King of the Veggie Mountain 

My Favorite Part: Scratching the Necks of the Cows

Hampi

The Latest Hampi Video 

Click here for the full screen version on Youtube

Shiva Temple 

Nandi, Shiva's Bull Carrier

The ancient city of Hampi spreads across 26 sq kms and was once the capital of the powerful and widespread Vijayanagara Empire which ruled from 1343 to 1565 A.D.. The ruins are some of the finest examples of medieval Indian architecture and include civil, military and spiritual monuments that really attest to the greatness of this Vijayanagara (City of Victory) Empire. 

It is believed this is also the place in the Ramayana called Kishkindha Kshetra where Lord Ramachandra met the monkey king Sugriva and helped him fight a battle against his enemy Vali. Later when Rama's wife, Sita Devi was captured by the demon Ravana, Sugriva's army helped Lord Rama save Her from the island of Lanka.

Hampi is also said to be the birthplace of Hanuman, the half monkey, half wind god who was Rama's greatest devotee. He helped to build a bridge to Lanka by writing the name of Rama on the boulders that when put into the sea had the ability to float. I am sure many boulders are missing from Hampi, having been used to build this bridge to Sri Lanka. Pampa was the ancient name of the river that runs through Hampi, now called the Tungabhadra and the word Hampi is a later Kannada form of the word Pampa.

Hampi is also one of the bread baskets of India and surrounding the hotel I stayed at there are many rice paddies with beautiful white cranes and kingfisher birds in their midst. The monkeys are still here too, by the thousands….check out the short video of the animals I made below - I don't have a portable mic so the sound isn't that gr8....

Some of Hampi's wildlife with voice over

Govardhan Eco Village

Just wanted to let you know about one of the highlights of the trip for me so far....from Tirupati we flew to Mumbai and boarded a bus that took us 3 hours North to an Eco Village that is run by the ISKCON Mumbai temple. They have just finished the 2nd phase of their building project of nice guest quarters, a conference center and performance theatre and a sugar cane thatched roof yogashala. The buildings are all made out of adobe brick from soil on the land that were sun dried and everything was built with water catchment systems in mind so that during the rainy season they are able to collect much of the water they need for the whole year. The hot water is from solar panels on the roof and they have set up a greywater system throughout the guest quarters. A Ph.D from one of the best Technical colleges in India designed a water purification system on the land where all the water goes to be filtered through various layers of soil, sand and rock and passed onto fruit trees and also back into the loos!  They have a goshala - a cow protection area and they use the cow dung to make methane gas and run their entire kitchen off this fuel source as well as a huge generator to make electricity. The process is so simple its a shame more states in the US are not using this fuel source with so many cows and hogs like in Texas and Iowa, where the pollution is rampant in the soil and waterways due to the excrement of tens of thousands of animals. They also have a huge organic farm and 1000's of fruit trees on the property. It is truly a model for "simple living and high thinking" as Srila Prabhupada promoted and the time for moving back into the country is upon us as city living is becoming more and more congested, polluted and unsustainable. I was only able to get pics of the property and not much video as i thought I would be going back but was unable to at the last minute! So since I have also had a request for more pics, here they are.....

The Guest House

Landscaping phase now begins

Planting Grass

                                                   

Surrounded by Mtns. it's one of the densest bioregions in India

Flower Farm

Grey Water Treatment center with garden on top

Non- Chemical water Treatment

The Goshala

Methane Gas Production Area

 A slurry is made of the cow dung mixed with water and then drained underground to these holding tanks, as it ferments & creates the methane gas, the metal tops which just rest on top rise as the gas builds up and  a hose is connected and then a long metal pipe which carries the methane gas into the stoves in the kitchen located just behind! Wow! The rest of the slurry is then made into a nice fertilizer for the trees and flowers! Whats even more amazing is that there is no bad smell at all in this entire area. Its the methane  that smells and cow dung is considered sacred in India 

Organic Vegetable Garden 

Papaya Tree

 YogaShala

                                          

Conference Center 

 Performance Center

 Me and my new friend Elizabeth from Houston

 Having breakfast on the yogashala floor made with cow dung and straw and water to keep bugs at bay and wow is the design on it nice  - half moon lines 

 Radhanath Swami comes to visit us from Mumbai for half a day 

 Cooks from Govindas Restaurant in Mumbai came and made us the most amazing food. 

This was an outdoor kitchen they set up for some of the food like the breakfast dosas 

Much of the fruits and veggies were from the land and we even got buttermilk from the gosahala. They even made us Italian food one night with the best minestrone I have ever had! 

Breakfast

Joe Leading Kirtan on Harmonium 

and Gauravani on Mridunga

That's all folks................for now;) 

Hare Krishna

Hare Rama