South Bangalore, is home of Jayanagar, Banashankari , Basavanagudi and other neighbouring places. This part of Bangalore is still special because it has been somehow able to safeguard its virgin beauty (Pardon me for my extreme poetic (?) expressions). The ever so busy Jayanagar Shopping complex, the ever so quite & clean residential areas, the ever so sophisticated book stores, the ever so authentic simple south Indian dishes from those darshini's , hmm.. not to forget the MTR , the Maharaja of Karanataka's delicacies, the ever so green parks, the ever so huge trees, can anybody beat the place which knows to take care of Lalbagh, uff! not to forget the ever so religious temples. Oh! every corner of Jayanagar has a landmark.
Gubbachchi's flight every week to Jayanagar is something that can never be missed for many reasons. Though the most important reason is to go to the Banashankari temple, which has been part of my routine every Sunday. That's the way I connect to my God. Right now the Govt. of Karnataka has taken up the task of reconstructing the temple, so I will definitely keep you all posted about it.
But I definitely want to introduce you to another set of beautiful twin temples in the area of Banashankari. Devagiri & Dharmagiri. Oh , what a bliss. I guess these twin temples have re- written the manner in which temples are supposed to be. Far from commercialisation , these two temples help their visitors attain instant Nirvana ;)
or at least take them to a new world that they were not aware of.
Take a look ;
Call it the right timing when the picture was taken, it makes you feel that the door is definitely the dwaara (door) of Vaikunta. By the way , this is Devagiri, one of the two that I just mentioned. It is the abode of lord Venkateshwara. The temple is situated in an elevated area, the stairs lead you to a platform where on a typical Sunday evening you will find a bunch of cute oldies uttering series of shlokas, you go further and take another set of stairs to get a view of the lord, let me tell you never have I seen another such beautiful idol of Lord Venkateshwara other than in Tirupathi. The temple is so clean & beautiful, surrounded by equally clean residential area, well swept roads, in fact, the area is so quite as if the residents were told not to disturb the lord. To add to that the well maintained park with flowering plants. There's something in the air, that tells you that this is divine and that you are very close to God.
For those of you who want to experience this feeling, I strongly suggest you pay a visit to see the other side of Life in Bangalore. This temple is located in Banashankari, I promise to give you more details about the location & directions in my next post when I take you to the next of the two temples, Dharmagiri.
