Saturday, December 22, 2012

Kailash Manasarovar Yatra -2012 -2

 Kathmandu

Jal Narayan temple

The beautiful view of Budh Neelkant

View of Jal Narayan at dawn 


Full view of Anantha Sayee

The Lord is in his yoga Nidra  (yogic sleep) on His  thousand hooded snake bed  holding His divine weapons  Conch, discus and mace  in His four arms and is floating in water (milk) ocean. he is decorated with lot of Salagramam. We were blessed with the Nirmalya darshan of the Lord ( ie without any  alangaram) as it was early morning. 




Tribhuvan  International Airport Kathmandu



We landed at the Tribhuvan International  Airport of Kathmandu and completed the immigration formalities  and enjoyed the murals drawn in the airport. most of them  depicted the history of Buddha.  The Garuda statue ( Mount of Lord Vishnu) installed in the premises was beautiful, we found the Garuda panel in all the temples and also in many houses.  The eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism are also found almost in all the houses.  Now Nepal has become a secular state, but  earlier it was a Hindu Nation and it's flag has Sun and Moon. We travelled to Park Village Hotel & Resort which is situated on the outskirts of  Kathmandu. Like any Indian city Kathmandu is also crowded and  traffic is chaotic and slow moving. When we neared the hotel Sundar remembered  that Jal Narayan temple is situated nearby. So we decided that we will first visit Jal Narayan first in the morning though we have not planned for the same. 




The beautiful gate of Airport


 Some members of our group at Airport
(In the background you can see the beautiful  Garuda) 


Next day ( 30-05-12 Wednesday)  early  morning we walked to  Jal Narayan temple. In this temple we have the darshan of Lord Vishnu  sleeping pose  in the thousand hooded snake Adi Sesha in a lake in the open only there is a cloth canopy over Him.  Like any other temple the welcome panel is Garuda panel and  doors are adorned with eight auspicious  articles. On the way to temple there are small niches with  several images of Gods. We enjoyed the beautiful dawn at the temple. The lord is  in yoga nitra and is holding His divine weapons Conch, Discus, Mace and  Lotus flower in his four arms.  The legend of the temple is that a farmer while tilling  his land one day found this statue  the statue disappeared immediately. Later the statue appeared again, this time the statue was installed at the present location.  



 Park Village hotel & Resort


 The hotel &  Jal Narayan temple are  located beautifully
 at the foot of the shivpuri  ranges  on the outskirts of Kathmandu



 Nice Buddha statue at the hotel 

The devotees worship the Lord from His feet and circumambulate the lake in which the Lord is sleeping. There are small shrines for Lord Ganesh and also a open shrine for Lord Pasupathinath. We saw a Rudraksh tree in the temple.  There are many shops shelling out pooja items you can shop for Rudraksh, Saligramam and other items here but be careful. We spent around one hour at the temple. At first the crown was covered with a saffron cloth, later a tiny priest removed the cloth and placed a  dhara vessel ( vessel from which water drips drop by drop)  above the figure of Buddha carved in the crown. Because of this Buddha in the crown the Lord is called Buddha Nilakanta, some say the lord’s neck is blue like Lord Shiva  so He is called so. We were told that only lucky few get to see the Buddha. Thanking the Lord we returned to the hotel .


Ganesh shrine



Garuda panel of Jal Narayan temple



All the houses have doors and balconys having very nice wood carvings, see the sun and moon and the auspicipus flower vase on the door.

 Open Pasupathinath shrine


Vishnu on His mount Garuda
(stone carving)

  Stone statue of Vishnu with four faces
 like Pasupathinath




The devotees worship the Lord from His  holy feet 



Buddha carved on the crown of the Lord 




Holy feet of the Lord



Rudraksh tree.



Our group at Jal Narayan, the giant bell as a background

This day was a day of acclimatization for high altitude  travel. We used this day to visit  the important shrines in Kathmandu.  See some photos of the Jal Narayan temple in this post.


 The Holy yatra continues.....


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