Sholingar

Early morning at 5 we left our house for a place called Sholingar which is roughly around 3 hours from our residence in Chennai. My parents who are visiting many Vishnu temples(part of 108 vaishnava temples) have come down to Chennai to visit some of the temples in and around Chennai. Just fun filled relaxed trips.

They visited Ahobilam last week which has 9 temples. In Ahobila, Andhra Pradesh, the nine forms are as follows:

(1) Chhatra-vata-narasimha (seated under a banyan tree)
(2) Yogananda-narasimha (who blessed Lord Brahma)
(3) Karanja-narasimha
(4) Uha-narasimha
(5) Ugra-narasimha
(6) Kroda-narasimha
(7) Malola-narasimha (With Laksmi on His lap)
(8) Jvala-narasimha (an eight armed form rushing out of the pillar)
(9) Pavana-narasimha (who blessed the sage Bharadvaja)

The red sun from the car looked fiery but soothing to the skin, eyes and senses. We were so touched by the nature’s beauty as always. On our way to Sholingar which is on the highway that connects Chennai to Vellore, we saw some old Chola period temples. One huge rock cut temple which was carved in, looked magnificient and classic. It was made by the same artisans who carved the famous Mahabalipuram. Old Pallava Grantha, Yoga Narasimha statue could be found there.

We took a few minutes halt and proceeded towards Sholingar, where there are the twin hills of Yoga Narasimha and Anjaneya (Hanuman). That is the place where the legendry Prahlada’s father: Hiranyaksha was split tore open by Narasimha (the lion-man)who was none other than Lord Vishnu. He appeared in that form as Hiranyaksha had received a boon from Lord Shiva that he should not be killed by any man or animal, neither inside the palace, nor outside his palace; neither in the day nor at the night. With a powerful boon like that, he was defeating all Devas and creating havoc in the world and destroying innocent Rishis, men, women and children. So Lord Vishnu at the request of the Devas, burst out from a pillar as a lion-man(neither man nor animal) in the evening(neither day nor night) and sat on the doorstep of Hiranyaksha’s palace(neither inside nor outside) and tore open his belly, thus not killing him but making him as good as dead. At Ahobilam temples the tourists can still visit the place where the scene occurred (as per the experts) and the water there is Red in color.

Sholingar, is a beautiful and very raw natural place where the so-called development has not yet polluted the calm of the people and nature. There are these 2 hills, the big and small hill. Yoga Narasimhar(Lord Narasimha at peace) resides on the bigger hill and Sri Anjaneya sits in meditation on the smaller hill.The hill looks like a Lion and the another hill looks like a sitting elephant