The temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the four most important temples across India. Sometimes called the Char Dham – Badrinath in the north, Rameswaram in the South, Dwarka in the west, and Puri in the east – these temples mark four corners of our country, and each of these temples has a connection to Adi Shankara. He is said to have travelled to each of them, thus marking a sacred geography of India, long before the country actually existed. Among these 4 temples, 3 are dedicated to Lord Vishnu, while only Rameswaram is dedicated to Lord Shiva, though the lingam there is said to have been installed by Rama. Further, Shankara set up Mutts at 3 of these sites (or very close to these sites, like at Badrinath, where the mutt is at Joshimutt), while the mutt in the south is at Sringeri in Karnataka, quite a distance away from Rameswaram. Coming back to the topic, I have visited Rameswaram most often, Badrinath during my childhood, and Dwaraka a few times, but Puri had stayed out of re...
We look forward to vacations to get away from our routine lives and de-stress, but planning a vacation is quite stressful at times too! First, there comes the ever present question – where to go! In a country like ours, there is so much to see and so much to experience that it is never easy to decide where to go, especially these days when I read so many travel blogs and wish I could visit all the places I read about. And then, there are all the places I have already visited, yet want to visit again….and again…. and again! One such place I have visited umpteen number of times before (actually, I did count the number of visits, and it turns out that this was my 11 th ) is Tirupati. I first went there when I was about 8 or 9, and since then have gone there regularly, but somehow, the place beckons again and again. My last two visits were fleeting ones, where I barely had time to see the Lord, which left me rather unsatisfied. The desire to visit again was growing, and I finally c...