Srikalahasti Temple: The Abode of Lord Shiva in the South

Srikalahasteeswara Swami temple, located on the banks of the river Swarnamukhi, is an ancient Shiva temple in Srikalahasti Town of Chitoor district in Andhra Pradesh. It is also known as 'Dakshina Kailasam' (The abode of Lord Shiva in the South). Om Namah Shivaya. 

Nearest city/airport: Tirupati 35 km

Nearest railway station: Srikalahasti - well connected with Bangluru, Chennai, Secunderabad, etc.

Best Season To Visit : All

Languages : Telugu & English

Temple Timings : 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM

Photography : Not Allowed inside temple premises

The place is easily accessible today, the nearest railway line is 3 km and the Tirupati airport is 32 km away. A number of small and big hotels to suit every budget are available.

This is an old temple of Lord Shiva built around 12th century, famous for vayu linga, one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams, representing the wind. Lord Shiva in his aspect as Vayu is worshiped as Kalahasteeswara. 

The temple appears magnificent with its interior of old times: sculptures, carvings, huge premises, pillars, etc. 

Crowds are usually more during festive times, but otherwise its not a big problem. Managing a sea of devotees every day is indeed a mammoth task. We must thank the temple management, and the workers for this. Darshan tickets are available from Rs 20 onwards from one counter and the prasad can be collected from another counter. 

The Srikalahasti Temple is also believed to be associated with Rahu and Kethu, two of the nine celestial bodies in Indian astrology. People mostly visit here to perform the Kala Sarpa  pooja. The temple routinely conducts Rahu-Kethu Sarpa Dosha Nivarana Pujas, a ritual for which it attracts its thousands of devotees like me from all over the world. It assumes more significance during the holy month of Sravan. There are separate ticket counters for purchasing 'Dosha Puja' tickets. As costly as Rs 5000/-. 

Without this, it is very difficult to perform the puja. You get a bag containing puja items as two types of silver snakes, bitter leaf, two lemons, two types of grains and kumkum with turmeric, along with two pieces of cloth- black and red.

The priest conducts the puja, in batches of 50 or so devotees, explains the rituals and speak in Tamil, Telugu, English & Hindi. The lady servitors assist you properly.

For a 'Darshan' of the Lord Shiva, you spend an hour or more in the serpentine queue of devotees like you. You feel divine when your destiny does give you those precious few seconds in front of the Lord. Srikalahasti temple is simply a great temple. An unusually high sense of positive energy inside its premises. The aura is there to be felt and believed. One wonders how the Chola and Vijayanagara kings managed to build such an epitome of architecture and worship.

During the darshan, I could not hold my tears. Even today, I don't know why I cried. It was a rare emotion, something unique that I can't express in words. Something mysterious. My wife and I say let it stay as it is!

Follow the queue, the crowd will automatically lead you to the exit.

Srikalahasti skyline

Seven Gates of Krishna River Dam Srisailam Opened

Reservoir at Krishna River, Srisailam

Valley at River Krishna

7 of its gates opened

After the release

The legend of river Krishna is amazing. Between its source at Mahabaleswar, Maharashtra in the west and its delta at the Bay of Bengal at Hamasaladeevi, in Andhra Pradesh on the east coast, there are two big dams. Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar. The one at Srisailam is special. You can enjoy boating, generate electricity, or irrigate the fields - as you please. The valley view is breathtaking. This year the monsoon was generous. The floodgates opened and the river found its release in all its glory.

Kurnool, 18.8.18 

Following widespread rains in the catchment areas of Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers in Karnataka, Krishna River regains full glory....

- The water lever at Srisailam reservoir touched a peak of 881 feet

- Full reservoir level of 885 ft. 

- The reservoir now stores 195 tmc ft of water 

- Maximum capacity of 215 tmc ft. 

This has been made possible almost 55 days in advance this year.

Precautionary measure: Ban on travelling by boat

Water inflow into the reservoir was recorded at 3,60,000 cusecs.

Major Irrigation minister Devineni Uma has opened seven crest gates of Srisailam reservoir, releasing 1,22,368 cusecs of water into the downstream Nagarjunasagar. 

The minister said it augers well for the farming community. 

Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have stepped up hydel power generation at Srisailam dam. All their units are functional and together are generating 1,470 MW.

The dam’s safety would be given highest priority as Srisailam was developing structural weakness ever since a ditch was formed in the plunge pool area. The minister said water would be released into all reservoirs, canals, and ayacut without any discrimination.

As per officials, the Nagarjuna Sagar dam had a water level of about 530 feet. The CWC has said that more water would enter Srisailam reservoir.

With this, the Krishna river flowing through Andhra has brought major relief to farmers in the region.

Then you visit the Sri Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga Temple, situated on Shri Shaila Mountain by the banks of the Patal Ganga, Krishna River. Om Namah Shivaya. The place is not easily accessible even today, the nearest railway line is 100 km away. Dense forests, wide species of flora and fauna, hills and mountains - everything that a Nature lover asks for. Then you begin to wonder how such a huge Dravidian style temple with lofty towers and sprawling courtyards was built in the middle of such a valley sometime in the 14th century. No wonder, it is regarded as one of the finest examples of Vijayanagar architecture. It is also known as Kailash of the South, and is one of the greatest Shaivaite shrines in India.

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Can renewables provide the relief ?

• What must be done to get some relief from costly electric power?
• What will it take to swap the roles of normal electric supply and renewables while fulfilling the energy needs?
• What should be done so that in at least 3 years time, renewables account for over 80 per cent of our energy consumption?
• What prevents us making a cleansing world of renewables?
• Do we always need to depend on the government to make true progress in renewable energy, while gradually replacing fossil fuels?
• Wouldn't it be great if we had an in-situ all-inclusive initiative, closer to the actual usage location, where our ideas would have a better chance of being realized practically?

Let us view some out-of-the-box ideas and study these questions.

All studies conclude that conventional electricity tariffs are unusually high, and that to handle the problem of high electric power costs, the concerned user must exponentially increase the generation of alternative means of energy or renewables.

It is also an accepted fact that renewables cannot fully replace conventional sources as the bulwark of the energy system- at least not in the immediate future.

A local from-the-bottom-up renewable energy strategy to complement the efforts of our central and state governments.

Such examples encourage decision makers involved in their energy needs to break out of the conventional straitjacket and to think in a different way about the future of the energy needs.

So here's a proposal. As an example.

This is a from-the-bottom-up comprehensive strategy. It's the "Renewable Energy" idea.

In a typical educational institution's site premises, there is considerable potential for renewable energy set up especially in solar. It can further be complimented by incorporating other real and potential forms like wind, hydel and geothermal.

Let a small area be spared from the institution's premises to install, develop and implement an energy system based for harnessing a range of renewable energy sources. Utilising such an area would serve as a strategy to apply human and financial resources on the most promising areas in an optimization process. It would be similar to setting up of an in-house power plant which is decentralized and begins only with locally available resources. The size of each such unit would be specific to a given area's real and potential energy sources. It would depend on the magnitude of energy sources, practical administrative considerations and distances that affect costs.

This approach allows even the most remotely located renewable energy sources, which sound like science fiction today to become a reality tomorrow. Thanks to technological progress.

The resulting energy matrix from this idea is :

Rows - all conceivable energy sources

Columns - specific points in time starting from the present and progressing at intervals of, for example, five years, which represent planning goals.

Cells - percentages of total energy consumption for each row category at a specific time.

The advantages: It serves as a basis for focusing and concentrating efforts and resources in the most likely areas to optimize the use of human and financial resources. It could serve as pilot projects that would help in making the best use of resources. Such an initiative is a force multiplier that can help the country move up the value chain, making Indian industry globally competitive.

These solutions may appear academic but who knows it might trigger a thought process that would lead finally to a better future.

The world has seen at regular intervals individuals whose dreams flouted rational acceptance but whose efforts brought significant visible changes in our lives. These people didn't allow traditional thought process to restrict their imagination.

Is there any organization which provides internship along with assistance in research projects to PG students in the field of renewable energy?

The biggest organisation is You. Yourself.

There is no such organisati1on in the country which does R&D on renewables. Internship is thus ruled out.

Government offices which claim so, can not be any more than packets of red tapism. The essence of any R&D is Sacrifice. Can you expect such a virtue from any government office? Can you expect a government official to renounce materialism from his life style? Will he like to undergo the struggles like you have been seeing?

Just speak to any head of various such institutions with offers like, “Sir, I want to buy any commercially viable technical know-how which you have R&Ded so far. I will set up an industry based on it and pay you the due royalty. I will even employ any of your researcher. Any of your retired or senior people are also welcome in my advisory board."

9 out of 10 such Directors will cut a sorry figure.

Please don't spend any time, money or your energy in search of anything like this. Instead, spend those resources on your own thing.

If you demo your renewable thing, you have done your job. Nobody is asking your certificate. The thing must work, be commercially viable. That thing is your certificate, your identity. That's all.

If that happens, tables are turned. All those government offices will start following you. You will command respect in industry. You get what you have been wanting. Such is the feature of the nature of renewable energy activity. You don't need to show any paper or paperwork. Only action. Results only matter.

How will that happen? Its a different story. You need counselling, to assess your stengths, weaknesses, tastes, etc.

Your idea, your thoughts, your initiatives will be indeed be considered as the seeds. You get your credit.

Do it yourself. Never rely on any institution.