It is 11.58 pm. The temple head priests rushes in with an axe and key in his hands to open the doors of the temple. He has to hurry and open the doors of the temple exactly in two minutes.The axe he carries is precisely for the purpose, to hack open the doors of the temple within the two minutes if the keys fails to unlock it in that limited duration. You may ask what is the hurry? Because the god is very hungry!
Thiruvarpu temple in Kottayam district of Kerala is a 2000 year old unique temple dedicated to Lord Krishna . However, locals believe the main idol is much older and originally belonged to Pandavas. The temple is unique because it remains open for 23.58 hours of the day for 365 days to feed its hungry god. The temple is closed precisely for two minutes from 11.58 to 12 am. And then the priest has to rush to open the door to feed the god. ( Apparently, this custom has changed and now the temple is closed in the afternoon for two hours)
Why is the god so hungry?
It is believed that the idol in the temple is that aspect of Krishna who has just returned home after killing Kamsa and is exhausted and hungry. So the god needs to be fed immediately and often. The rituals associated with the hungry god is also very unusual. After giving a ceremonial bath to the god, head of the idol is dried first and naivedyam* is offered to the god, and only then his body is dried. It is said this is the only temple in India when as many as 10 Naivedyam pujas are offered to the deity. According to the legend, the idol originally belonged to the Pandavas and was worshiped by them while they were living in exile in the jungles of Kerala. It is believed that the idol was given to the Pandavas by Lord Krishna himself so that he would be always with them.
Soon after the Pandavas completed the duration of their exile and were getting ready to leave, the locals pleaded with them to leave the idol in their care, and the Pandavas obliged. Unfortunately the impoverished locals were unable to meet the demands of the daily upkeep of the temple and were unable to properly take care of the deity. The troubled priest prayed to Krishna to give him a solution to the problem. That night Lord Krishna appeared to him in a dream and told him to place the idol in a varpu** vessel and to let it float out across a nearby lake.
The priest tearfully followed the instructions and sent the idol across the lake in a varppu vessel. The vessel carrying the idol floated away and vanished from his view. When it reached the far end of the lake a large ripple or a sudden shower of rain filled the varppu and it sank carrying the idol to the bottom of the lake. There it remained submerged and undetected for 2000 years. Eventually it was discovered by a long distance traveler ‘Vilya Mangalam Swamiyar’ sailing by boat. When he was disembarking from his boat his boatmen noticed a glimmer under the water and they dove into the lake following Swamiyar’s guidance and brought up the submerged object. They were amazed to see the idol of Krishna resting inside a varpu vessel. The idol was soon installed in a new temple, where it stands today. As the idol was discovered resting in a varppu vessel, the temple came to be called ‘Thiru Varpu’ (sacred/great vessel) and eventually the village also came to be known as (Thiruvarpu).
The first offering to the deity after installation was raw mangoes and coconut. Even today raw mangoes and coconut are given as naivedyam. No devotee is allowed to leave the temple premise feeling hungry… as the priest calls out loudly “ is there any one here who is hungry?”. It is believed that once you eat naivedyam from this temple you will never go hungry again.
Another peculiarity of this shrine is, it does not close its doors at the time of an eclipse. According to the general Hindu belief, the duration of an eclipse is considered to be a very inauspicious time, and all Hindu temples across the subcontinent remain shut during this cosmic event. The exception to this custom is the Thiruvarpu shrine. Here the shrine remains open even during the eclipse. There is a lore that explains why it is so. Long ago Thiruvarpu temple doors were also closed during an eclipse like other Hindu temples in the country. Next day when the priests opened the doors, they found the waist band on the idol had slipped down. Adi Shankaracharya who happened to be visiting the temple at that moment explained to the temple priests that it was because Krishna did not get his meal while the temple door was shut. Now he is hungry and his waist band has come loose. From then on, the temple authorities stopped closing the doors of the shrine even during eclipse. They know their god is very hungry, and he has to be fed whether it is eclipse or not.
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*Ceremonial food offered to deity after a ritual of aarti. This puja is called as naivedya Puja
** a traditional bronze cooking vessel used in Kerala to cook naivedyam
Story collected by : Baiju Parthan
Told by the people of Thiruvarapu
Location: Kerala
Image copyright : Vidya Kamat
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