Ramanavami special!!

Shri Ugra Narasimha Temple- mulki.

The Idol of Lord Ugra Narasimha was installed by grand guru of Raghavendra Swamiji of Mantralaya Shri Vijayindra Tirtha Swamiji or AJAYYA VIJAYINDRARU of Kumbhakonam mutt (now Rayara mutt, Mantralaya). His holiness was on a secret tour of Hampi which was then destroyed by Bahamani muslim rulers and was very sad to see the devastation of grand Vijayanagara empire which was once the center for education, administration and commerce under the guidance of their guru Shri Vyasarajaru and under leadership of Krishnadevaraya. when they were walking in streets of Hampi a snake interrupted HH’s way and when HH saw through the divine vision it was confirmed that snake wanted to show something and HH followed the path of snake which went inside the barren well. When the seer told their shisya vrinda to get inside the well and search the shishyas found the beautiful vigraha of Shri Ugra Narasimha Swami.

Features of Idol :

The Idol has all features as mentioned by Shri Madhwacharya in Tantrasara. The idol is of Shri Ugra Narasimha, Ugra means fierce and this is very ferocious roopa of Lord among his ten avataras.

This Idol has 8 hands (Astha Bhuja), 3 eyes (trinethra), he is standing on one feet and one feet is folded and Asura Hiranya Kashipu is made laid on it. His two hands has Shanka Chakra, 2 hands are piercing the belly of Hiranya Kashipu through gods nails, 2 hands are holding the intestine of asura in malakaara and other 2 hands are holding Asuras head and legs !!

Just imagine how fierce this avatara would have been when taken by god in reality !!

Story of how it got installed in Mulki or Olalanke
Shri Vijayindraru after founding the idol went ahead with their journey of South and reached a place called Varahapura (where presently you have Shri Bhoovaraha swamy installed by them) in Kerala and installed the deity and continued their journey.

After few days they got sapna sandesha from Narasimha Swamy that he was not getting enough naivedya and high amount of cleaniness ( Strict madi or anwaale) was not followed there and its better if they take him with them and he will guide them his actual destination in future.

Swamiji immediately reached varahapura replaced the idol of Lord Narasimha with Bhoovarahaswamy and took the Ugra narasimha idol with them and went on the west coast as guided by Lord in the dream.

After long travel during marghashira masa they reached a place called padapanambur due to winter season and heavy fog it was too dark and no one could even see the way.

The shisyas told swamiji that they are scared to move ahead and its better they ask the light from the palace belonging to Jains of the place. Swamiji said ” When I have light in my hands why do you need the artificial light” ? but since Shishyas were adament swamiji sent a messenger to the palace when asked for jeevatige ( torch made of Cloth dipped in oil and tied to brass handle on top ) the king abused the shisyas and sent them back. When the seer came to know about the story he again said the same ” I have light in my hands, he will show the way” please remember in famous Narasimha Stuti written by Shri Narayana Panditacharya there is one line at end of every shloka ” daha daha narasimha sayyaviryaa hitamme” meaning ” oh narashimha please fade away my darkness and for sure Shri Vijayindra Tirtharu knew this and I feel they thought the same and started walking. When they reached few steps the palace of Jain King caught fire and the intensity of fire was such that it converted the dark path of swamiji like a fully lit up street of festive city.

Remember only through this light they reached Mulki safely. (Even today the trees in and around that area stand useless as when cut it shows black circle like charcoal and as a penance the family still gives tappu kanike when utsava murthy of lord comes to this place for katte pooja.)

On Marghashira Shukla paksha Poornima Day Shri Vijayindra tirtharu installed this murthy in Mulki and laid down the guidance of Worship to all the vaidiks of temple. One cannot take this murthy outside for utsavas. He can only come out of one dwara or one entrance and shall be placed in second dwara only for Abhisheka along with other dieties.

The Day when he was installed here should be celebrated as Pratistha Poornima every year.

He should be made happy with continuous abhisheka of Milk, Ghee, Curd, Honey, Sugar and Tender Coconut. Even to this date this is followed and due to ever increasing load of Tender coconuts on that day it is decided by temple management that one family can give only 5 tender coconuts to lord for abhisheka.

Mulki Temple:
This Temple i.e, Shri Venkataramana Temple Mulki is under the management of Gowda Saraswath Brahmins (GSB) who have their own lineage of Guru Parampara under three mutts. The Kashimath & Gokarna Mutt follow the dwaitha parampare while the Kaivalya mutt follows Smartha Vaishnava Advaitha Parampare. This Temple is basically guided by the Kashimath Swamiji who is considered as parama guru here and till many years the Pratista Poornima mahotsava took place under their auspicious presence and if Swamiji is not present the management of temple takes anugraha prasada from the Kashimath swamiji and conduct the pratista poornima mahotsava. In order to save the culture and tradition from Portuguese atrocities the GSB’s fled their home town goa and settled in west coast of Karnataka and Kerala.

Out of such families was one family of Soira Bhatta who settled in Mulki, a temple town 30kms away from Mangalore in Mangalore-Udupi Highway. He installed his family diety Shri Vittala and started this temple. Then after many years Shri Vijayindra Tirtharu brought Ugra Narasimha and installed it here. Also remember the parampara of Kashimath was started by Shri Vijayindra Tirtharu who gave shisyatva to Shri Yadavendra Tirtha the first pontiff of Kashimath. Under this Kashimath Parampara came one of the most powerful swamiji Shri Madhavendra Swamiji who brought Shri Bindu Madhava idol the present day Utsava Murthy with them and installed it here. When they installed the Bindu Madhava immediately there started the Deva Darshana, that is a brahmin who gets avesha of Kalabhairava who is believed to be the chief Liuetunant of Bindu Madhava and blesses the devotees by giving the solution to problems. Further after few years there was an attack by Jain rulers on Karkala Shri Venkatramana Temple and to protect the main diety Shrinivasa they packed it in a cloth and came to Mulki and immersed it in the temple pond.

After few days when Karkala people came to take back the idols they did not get it and when people from mulki searched othey were able to trace the idol and now the fight erupted and that night people of Karkala got Sapna Sandesha that Lord Shrinivasa wants to stay in Mulki along with Narasimha and Bindu Madhava as Pattada Devaru and people of Karkala will be blessed by another Diety which will come on the Ox in the Mantapa of Plantain leaf or Chappara from Tirupati and that god will be called as Chappara Shrinivasa. So Mulki is only town which has grand festive mood twice a year once during pratista poornima and other during “Rama Navami” where Brahma Rathotsava takes place and Lord Bindu Madhava takes his seat in the Brahama Ratha.

Why Mulki is called as Volalanke ? :

The Sthala Purana says that Lord Hanuman on his way back carrying the mountain of herbs mistook this beautiful locality for Lanka and started descending. But soon he realised that this is not Lanka and therefore at once ascended and resumed his journey calling this as Volalanke. The word Mulki is actually derived from Moolikapura. Moolika – means medicinal herbs. This place was quite famous for the herbs and roots of medicinal properties prompting people to name it Moolikapura. People say that a few herbs had fallen here in Mulki from the mountain of herbs that Hanuman was carrying and hence the herbs and medicinal plants grew here.