Rushi Konda Beach

This is Rushi Konda beach view at Visakhapatnam.We can have plenty of guest houses above on the hill so one can view beautiful sea in front of you and enjoy serene ambiance where you stay.I will post more of it in the days to come.Vizag has recovered from the worst hit of cyclone and all set to draw visitors from all the corners.A.P.Tourism provides here good stay and info about it.The person who was overlooking bay of Bengal is hopefully recognized by you.

A small account of the name of the beach could make you comfortable in many ways.Rushi means sage and konda means hill.Visakha is richly blessed with ecological lush reserves and sky touching hills.Some hills like Totla konda and other hills are recorded as residential complexes of Buddhist monks.

Van of Books

Books have always their own importance, though computers came with providing PDFs and other forms of comforts.Whenever a van of books appear , as a lover of them.. can't remain calm ,We must have to check some of them to our satisfaction.Purchasing would also be done no doubt,however few in number...!This is Navachetana mobile book van located in Hyderabad and it keeps travelling  every small town of Telangana state with carrying loads of books to reach out maximum readers. 

From Organic farm

This day, Received some photographs of organic vegetables and fruits through Whats App from my sister Sasi kala.Kudos to ongoing magic of technology at the instant thought to be delivered within no time.Further elucidation is not required as the organic farming is becoming so popular., with its natural and chemical-free growth process..To be frank, I have to concede that I have never tasted these for obviously simple reasons,due to my meandering food habits.

Nonetheless,hope you could like the sight of  home-grown vegetables and fruits.One must have enthusiasm and patience to take care of  plants anyway.

ABC Wednesday

 
Road leading to Simhachalam temple over there on the mountain.A statue of Hanuman , facing that side as I was clicking it from the bus when moving itself.For more info about the place please read my earlier posts.Some other photos were also presented in addition.

Guide does matter a lot..!

In my recent visit to Simhachalam and other places,felt a real importance of a guide when we were in the city ride vehicle to see interesting places.We were on that fateful day in the A.P.state tourism bus,heading for the destinations as our guide provided in the bus,busy briefing about  the places as they were closing by.The guide was not trained well in disclosing important historic details or other required information.He was not so well spoken even in Telugu and seemed never bothered about it.In our bus there were some families came from other states and they were not told details about the places even they have requested.It's not good in any aspect,visitors must be given priority ,because they have come here all the way  to see something worthy.

Scenic beauty as approaching Simhachalam 

One happiest thing is booking counters of state tourism are satisfactory in dealing with visitors at Vizag.Either at bus stop counter or Railway station counter,giving the people required info.Thanks for that,but guides in the bus allotted must be fluent at least in Hindi along with local language.In our bus, we experienced a guide's negligent info providing facts about things and places.He was no way interested in that job first,that's the real problem in our country.Even I felt it in some Northern states also.Many tourism offices of state governments behave like 9 to 5  jobs.

Anyway,happened to capture some beautiful pictures in the tour.I will keep posting them as often as possible.Here are two of them when our journey in action.Hope you enjoy it.

Simhachalam - A pilgrim place

Simhachalam,a well known hill top temple located in the midst of lush green ambiance.The place has its presiding deity of Varahalakshmi Narasimha swami with the consort of Lakshmi.Simhachalam is 20 km away from Visakhapatnam of Andhra pradesh and well connected by bus from Visakhapatnam.The deity is considered as the incarnation of Vishnu.Interestingly here the temple faces west side instead of east side.The temple is very ancient one with historical anecdotes inscribed on stone walls.Chola king Kulothunga (1098 AD),queen of Eastern Ganga of Kalinga (1137-1156),Narasimhadeva the second (1279-1306) and Sri krishnadevaraya (1516-1519) others visited the place and gave land and jewellery to the devasthanam.

We still can see 252 inscriptions in Telugu and Odiya in the premises of temple.As the temple located on the hill top one would feel cool breeze all the time.Bus stop and car stop places are classified in different locations.Staying facility is also there with number of choultries and other guest houses.Festival seasons witness more visitors and other days are preferable for having a leisure darshan.

A special festival called Chandanotsavam is celebrated here for the deity in the month of may.On that day only full form of deity will be seen without the sandal wood paste cover,remaining all other days not to be seen so due to the age old tradition.Nearest Airport is at Visakhapatnam (20km) and railway station is at Simhachalam (11km).Well connected by bus from Visakhapatnam.

Submitted to Our world tuesday

A Mystic introduced

Here I am going to introduce a mystic called Swami Balananda and his book "Spiritual Enquiry".Now he is no more physically.He happened to get samadhi around 70's.Once I was fortunate to visit the ashram some 25 years back,on the request of a friend.It was then in a dense forest amidst the high rising mountains and water falls.One has to cruise at least some hours to reach there.No modern amenities were there and no flux of disciples or followers were seen.Haunting peacefulness everywhere.the echoes of unknown birds were lulling the heart.A small ashram was there  and we found two persons there on maintenance.One lady was called Repalle talli.Must be around in her sixties.

The place is named by Perantalapalli among Papi kondalu,these are part of Eastern ghats.Now it's in East Godavari district of Andhra pradesh.Then ,in those 25 years back of time,no transport was certain to reach there except one boat in the morning and another boat in the evening.Animals were common to be seen.And colossal mountain ranges.And the gushing sound of Godavari in that eerie silence.Why this swami built his ashram in this dense forest ,if any epidemic engulfs ,any wild animal wants to strike,no doubt the human being should have died there and then without any outside help.

After getting there,A book that was written by Swamiji found by me there and asked the lady to let me purchase that.She accepted.For some years I never opened that book.Unintentionally recently flipped through it,really I was aback to think of his dedication,penances and his chosen path.We can't certainly know what happened to him to go to that dense forest to embark unusual things spiritually.

Swamiji, He elaborated many things in his book in the form of discourses.Surprisingly he never quoted any religious utterances or any prescribed text.All he told was what he came to understand  through his penances.He cited it in his foreword.The topics he discussed were from rebirths,human activities,nature and its role,demons,ghosts,Gods,human consciousness,and many many more.Very interesting.The first print seemed to be in 1963.So it was very old and pages ( 450 plus) almost are loosening its strength.Anyhow I am giving here some glimpses of that one.By the way Swami Balananda did not mention his real name or his whereabouts anywhere in the book,titled Spiritual enquiry .One must admit that Balanandaji's English is impeccable and the subject chosen was a matter of depth to assimilate.