Visiting Sri Paada Srivallabha Temple... ------ Return Lo

Annayya messaged me - Tomorrow is off... I said where shall we go, he said Maktal... Thats it..

Annayya brought bike from his friend Naagaraju for journey.. we decided to go by bike.. Thanks to Naagaraju - it was a nice bike (Honda Shine) - so was the ride..

 We didn't know the actual distance of the place from Hyderabad to Maktal when we started but as we travelled through we realized that its slightly more than what we can actually enjoy.. (nearly 180 KM) ..

The route is -- Hyderabad--> Shamsabad --> Jadcherla (by Banglore Highway - 82KM) --> Mehboobnagar (100KM)--> Marikal--> Maktal(160KM)--> Sri Paada Srivallabha puram(180KM).

We started off from home at 9AM (6AM would have been ideal time to start). We had delicious second breakfast (had pulihora at home - prepared by mom) at DP Dhaba where Dileep Kumar prepared two Alu parota and dal for us. 

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There on our way, we found a nice pond and I asked annayya that we will take a snap - he said "return lo" (in the return journey)

We saw a big mob of sheep and the landscape was absolutely awesome. I asked annayya that we will take a snap there, he said "return lo"

We saw the flowers of "palaasa". I said we will take a snap and also pluck few flowers from it. Annayya said "return lo".

We saw a half damaged rock mountain with only two trees on it. I said we shall take a pic of it. Annayya said "return lo"

This list continued and I said we will have tea at a tea stall who told us the route to Maktal and I myself said this time "return lo"

But when we were actually returning, it was already 6 in the evening and annayya stopped bike near one of the ponds we saw earlier. I said "return lo"..

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We reached Maktal by 12.30 or so... and immediately got (into Teppa) to cross the river Krishna. We all were chanting :"Digambaraa Digambaraa Sri Paada Vallabha Digambaraa" till we reach the Island...
It was a beautiful and peaceful place.. And I thought it was ideal for Tapas..


About Sri Paada Sri vallabha Swami : HE is believed to be the first Human Incarnation of Lord Dattaatreya. Second is Nrusimha Saraswati Swami and third is Swami Samartha.

Govind Deekshitulu had done the research and found the actual details of Sri Paada Sri Vallabha and passed it on to us through his writings. After which, he stayed in the same island and did tapas in a cave which can be seen now also.

Once we were done with our Puja, we started back and had our lunch at  3.30 in the Ashram of Vittal Balaji Swami. We started off by five and managed to reach Hyd by 9.30PM.

The Previous journey I had was more breaks and less driving (180KM in total) while this was a 370KM journey with 8 hour journey time and four hour breaks and darshan time..


Throughout the journey, we had fun provided by Posani Krishna Murali garu. :) Annayya and myself were imitating him for every situation and had fun with his style of dialogues.

When we were in our onward journey, we saw so many beautiful things, but since our first objective was to reach Maktal on time - we postponed everything to the return journey. This also had been a part of the fun we had - "Return Lo" :).

NOTE:

Every day - there will be Nija roopa darshanam (without ornaments) at 5am. We may go and stay the night in island and take that darsham. Accomodation and food are available there.

Lunch in island will be available from 12 to 1.30PM.

Link to Picasa pix : click here