Sri Guruvayoorappan

Sri Guruvayoorappan Temple has been mentioned in the Mahabharata

Lord of Guruvayoor

The word Guruvayoor has special connotations. It is made up of two words “guru” and “vayu”. Guru means preceptor and vayu is wind.

Lord Krishna in Guruvayoor is popularly called Sri Guruvayoorappan. Appan means lord or father , Lord of Guruvayoor.The small idol is made of the stone known as black antimony and is a magnetic stone said to have special medicinal properties. Every morning the Lord is anointed in til oil. He is then sprinkled with a special cleansing powder made of herbs known as “vaka”. This powder is light brown in color and gives an added hue to the idol. Crowds go to the temple at 3 A.M in order to see this charming sight. Then water from the temple, consecrated with mantras is poured over the idol for his ritual bath. This holy water is then eagerly drunk by the devotees since it is said to contain a little of the miraculous properties of the stone of which the idol is made.

The history of the idol goes back to the hoary past to the age of Dwapara when Lord Krishna was alive. His parents were Vasudeva and Devaki. She was the sister of Kamsa, the cruel king of Mathura. They two of them had been great devotees of Lord Vishnu for many ages. After assiduously wooing him for many births, the Lord had manifested himself to them and promised that he would be born as their son for three lives in succession. He promised them liberation at the end of these three births. This was their last birth as Devaki and Vasudeva in the clan of the Yadavas in the city of Mathura and Krishna was born to them as their eighth son. The idol of Lord Vishnu which is found in Guruvayoor is one which had been worshipped by Devaki and Vasudeva and one can easily imagine that it must also have been worshipped by Lord Krishna himself. This is the greatness and glory of this particular idol of Lord Vishnu – that Vishnu himself had done puja to it in his incarnation as Krishna.

At the end of his earthly sojourn, Krishna prophesied to his friend and devotee, Uddhava that the island of Dwaraka, which had been his stronghold, would be swept away by the sea, seven days after he left his mortal body. He instructed him to rescue the precious idol of Vishnu which his parents had worshipped, and hand it over to Brihaspati, the guru of the gods who would come to him. After seven days, the island submerged in the sea as foretold by Lord Krishna. Uddhava went sadly to the seashore and saw the idol bobbing up and down on the waves far out in the sea. He begged the wind god – Vayu to bring it closer to him. The wind wafted it gently to the shore and Uddhava picked it up lovingly and cradled it in his arms. As he was wondering how to contact the guru of the gods, he found that Brihaspati himself was walking towards him. Uddhava told him the whole story of how Lord Krishna had instructed him and Brihaspati who knew everything agreed to take it and install it at some special place. He was sure that he would be given further instructions.

Now Brihaspati asked Vayu, the wind god to transport him through the air so that they could choose a perfect spot for the installation. Carrying the precious idol in his hands, Brihaspati was wafted across the sub-continent of India till they came almost to the sea shore to the spot where the present town of Guruvayoor now stands. Looking down Brihaspati saw a beautiful lake filled with lotuses on the banks of which Shiva and Parvati were dancing. He was charmed by the sight and he requested Vayu to float him down. For some time he stood spell-bound by the dancing couple. When they had finished he prostrated to them and begged Shiva to tell him of a perfect spot to install the idol of Vishnu. Shiva said that this was indeed the ideal place. He told him to build the temple right there at one end of the lake where he and Parvati had been dancing. He magnanimously said that he himself would take up residence at the other end of the lake which was known as Rudrathirta. The temple of Mammiyoor to which Shiva shifted still exists. However during the course of time the lake dried up little by little and now only the temple tank adjoining the Guruvayoor temple remains to tell the tale of this ancient lake. The word Guruvayoor has special connotations. It is made up of two words “guru” and “vayu”. Guru means preceptor and vayu is wind. The idol was installed by Brihaspati, the guru of the gods and Vayu, the god of wind and hence came to be known as Guru-vayoor! The word also has an esoteric meaning. It stands for the body of the human being which is the abode of wind. The five pranas or vital breaths are what sustain the body and make it function properly.

The temple is classified as one of the Mahakshetras or “Great abodes of worship”. There are many such in the holy land of India but few which can claim to have all the ten qualifications of a Mahakshetra.
The signs are:
1. antiquity (the temple is believed to be over five thousand years old.
2. Presence of records, (it has quite a few copper plates and palm leaf scrolls).
3. Origin in a forest (this place was a forest at one time).
4. Proximity to the sea, (it is near the Arabian Sea).
5. Royal connections (the royal family of the Zamorins of Calicut
have been the custodians of this temple from ancient times).
6. Mention in ancient literature (it has been mentioned in the Mahabharata).
7. Grandeur of festivals (the temple has many grand festivals)
8. Situation at an elevation (this is not so but it has a large body of water beside it).
9. Grandeur of sculpture and architecture. (Even though the original temple did not have any great sculptures yet the walls of the inner courtyard has some extraordinary wall paintings made from vegetable dyes, which date to antiquity. The recent construction has plenty of sculptures). The temple now runs a school where this ancient art of wall painting called “chomiru chitram” is taught to young people and reproductions of the originals are made available to devotees. These are the material features which are to be considered in the classification of a Mahakshetra. Of course needless to say the temple should also have special spiritual significance and the presence of numerous devotees who have personally experienced the Lord’s grace.

Construction of the temple

An astrologer told a Pandya King that he was destined to die from a cobra bite on a particular day. He was advised to go and pray before Guruvayurappan. The king spent years in meditation and prayer at the feet of the deity. Suddenly the King realized that the time of his death had passed. He came back to his palace and asked the astrologer why the prediction was wrong. The wise man showed him the mark on his left foot where the cobra had bitten him. Since the king was wholly absorbed in the Lord, Who alone can dispense with fate, he did not feel the sting. In gratitude, the King built the temple at Guruvayur and set apart funds for the daily routine of the temple. Most of the current temple building dates to the 16th and 17th centuries, although rich devotees funded extensions and additions later. The deepastamba (column of lights) was erected in 1836 by a devotee from Thiruvanathapuram. The temple has gopurams in the east and the west. The eastern gopuram has an inscription which refers to the town as "Gurupavanapura". The western gopura was built in 1747

Guruvayoor Temple Timings

THE DAILY POOJAS IN THE TEMPLE

THE TEMPLE OPENS AT 3.00 AM

3.00am to 3.30am Nirmalyam
3.20am to 3.30am
Oilabhishekam, Vakacharthu, Sankhabhishekam

3.30am to 4.15am Malar Nivedyam, Alankaram
4.15am to 4.30am Usha Nivedyam
4.30am to 6.15am Ethirettu pooja followed by Usha pooja
7.15am to 9.00am Seeveli,Palabhishekam,Navakabhishekam, Pantheeradi Nivedyam, and Pooja
11.30am to 12.30pm Ucha pooja (the noon pooja)
TEMPLE WILL BE CLOSED BETWEEN 1.30PM AND 4.30PM AND REOPENS AT 4.30 PM

4.30pm to 5.00pm Seeveli
6.00pm to 6.45pm Deeparadhana
7.30pm to 7.45pm Athazha pooja Nivedyam
7.45pm to 8.15pm Athazha pooja
8.45pm to 9.00pm Athazha seeveli
9.00pm to 9.15pm Thrippuka, Olavayana
9.15pm

The Sreekovil will be closed. On the day of Special Illuminations called "Vilakku" the Thripuka is performed after that. The Sreekovil will be closed after Thripuka. Then the Krishnanattam, a colourful traditional dance-drama on Lord Krishna's life is enacted inside the Temple on specified days.