The only ancient temple where Lord Nataraja is the presiding deity is located in Chidambaram and the unique feature of that temple is the famous “Chidambara rahasyam” (Cosmic secret) that is written in the Bilwa leaves kept in the sanctum sanctorum.
Nobody knows the details of the inscriptions.
By the directive of Kanchi Mahaswami Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal, a replica of this temple was built in Satara in Maharashtra called “Uttara Chidambaram”.
Great care was taken to ensure that every bit of it looks similar to the original and then came the most important step. How to replicate the Chidamabara rahasyam? After all, nobody knows the details! Except of course, the all-knowing Almighty!
Mahaswami came to the rescue. He dictated the entire rahasyam to a Panditji who wrote it on the Bilwa leaves and the moment the job was done, Mahaswami said “ May you forget the Rahasyam right now!” and lo! The Pandit forgot the whole thing.
Clearly, it is God who gives us remembrance and removes it too.
Story of Satara Temple
Post Emergency, Paramapoojya Shri Chandrashekharendra Saraswati of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, popularly known as the Mahaswamigal, set out on his last padyatra of South India. After his stay at Kalavai, Hubli, Belgaum and other places, the Mahaswamigal came to the holy place of Ugar in December 1979. Paramapoojya Shri Narayanand and Saraswati of Ugar was specially attending to the Mahaswamigal.
From Ugar, the next year, in June 1980, the Mahaswamigal came to Satara, situated at the holy confluence of Krishna and Venna rivers. At Satara, once the capital of Shivaji Maharaj's empire, he stayed on for eleven months at the famed Shankara Mutt of Vedic tradition till April 1981. To seek the blessings of the saintly Mahaswamigal, there was a stream of devotees. One among them was a humble, religious and philanthropic personality of Satara. He was Late Shri K. Shamrao D. Shanbhag popularly known to everybody as "Shamanna".
Once, Shamanna placed a small bagful of money with great devotion in front of the Mahaswamigal as offering, but the latter did not accept it. Shamanna, obviously felt very disturbed. He began to wonder whether he should have packed more money. And he executed that thinking in action the next day. The Mahaswamigal was pleasantly amused at Shamanna's increased offering of money. He asked Shamanna not to bother with monetary offerings to him, because he was not in the habit of accepting money. Instead, he probed Shamanna about his desire. Shamanna confessed that for long he had been cherishing a dream of constructing a temple of Radha-Krishna and for that he sought the blessings from the Mahaswamigal. As if on hue, the saintly sage immediately suggested to Shamanna to build, instead,a temple of Nataraja, the destroyer of evil forces and protector of ardent devotees. However, before making up his mind, the Mahaswamigal advised Shamanna to visit the one and only Chidambaram Temple in Tamilnadu, with three generations of his family.
Shri Uttara Chidambaram Nataraja Mandir Trust, Immediately after returning from the visit to the Chidambaram temple, an awe struck Shamanna came to see the Mahaswamigal. The sprawling span of that temple was still before his eyes, and the worry of the construction of a Nataraja temple in a smaller size was making him restless. However, the Mahaswamigal through his blessings strengthened the belief of Shamanna and steered him to commence the work by making a Sankalpa. And once Shamanna made his firm resolution(Sankalpa),a Trust,under the administration of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, was formed.
The first big problem before the Trust was selecting the site and land for the temple. Shamanna himself solved it and donated a plot of land of 2 ½ hector, which belonged to him, as the site for the temple. The Mahaswamigal accepted the donation of the land and on 19 October 1980 performed the Bhoomipooja.
By 1981, many pious devotees of the Mahaswamigal, from far & wide, joined Shamanna to accomplish the construction of the Nataraja Mandir. The Western Main Gopuram which is the entrance to the temple came to be called 'Maharashtra-Gopuram' because the Government of Maharashtra financed it. The Northern Raja Gopuram, also known as ‘Andhra–Gopuram’, was financed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The Eastern Gopuram, financed by the Government of Karnataka is called 'Karnataka-Gopuram'. The Southern Gopuram by the Tamilnadu Government is 'Tamilnadu Gopuram'. The Kerala Government provided seasoned wood of high quality for the entire Temple including 'Dhvaja-Sthambha’ (the flag-mast).
Thus, the Shri Uttara Chidamabaram Nataraja Mandir is a symbol of larger participation and an inspiring National effort in temple building. The world famous shilpi Shri M. S. Ganapati Sthapathi and his brother Shri M. Mutthayya Sthapathi, at the request of the revered Sage and under his guidance, personally looked into the sculpture work and the construction of the whole temple.
The Kumbhabhisheka ceremony of the temple was accomplished at the holy hands of Peethadhipati of Kanchi Kamakoti, Shri Jayendra Saraswati Swamigal, on 9 June 1985 as per the wish of the Mahaswamigal.
The Nataraja Mandir at Krishnanagar, Satara is considered by many among the followers of the Mahaswamigal as a completion of a long cherished inspiration of the sage. It is said that he was inspired to replicate the Chidambaram during his maiden visit to the Chidambaram Temple in Tamilnadu in 1933. But it took almost five decades for him to translate the inspiration into reality.
The Mandir is called 'Uttara' Chidamaram since it is north of the first Chidambaram at Tamilnadu. In Shri Uttara Chidambaram Nataraja Mandir, Shree Nataraja and His spouse Goddess Shivakamasundari have come to stay for ever. As in Chidambaram, to the right of Shri Nataraja, there stays 'Chidamabara-Rahasya' behind a curtain. Main Mandapa of the temple is supported by 18 pillars, carved beautifully, again as in the older Chidambaram temple. They symbolize 18 Puranas. The remaining 6 pillars are pictured with 6 shastras.
The temple has a rich and unique 108 Karnas of Nataraja, commonly called the nrithya poses of Shiva and Parvati. These Karnas are stone carved and embedded around the Mandapa, or the main temple. The Mahaswamigal personally took a special interest and gave his guidance in evolving each and every one of the unique 108 Karnas or poses.
The Mandapa, where the image of Nataraja and Shivakamasundari are located, is known as Chithsabha. There are 5 steps that connect it with Kanaka-sabha, they are called as Panchakshara steps (i.e. Na-Ma-Shi-Vaa-Ya). Four pillars situated behind the Chithsabha are the symbols of the four Vedas.
Besides, there are temples of Shri Ganesha, Shri Hanuman, Shri Radha-Krishna, Shri Mulanatheshwar, Shri Umadevi, Shri Adi Sankaracharya, Shri Navagraha and Shri Ayyappa. Plus, there is a pair of padukas of the Mahaswamigal.
The Mandir is open to all from 7 am in the morning. It closes at 12 noon and reopens at 3pm. till at 8.30pm normally. During festivals the timings undergo a change to suit the rising popular demand.
Mahaswamigal’s Nataraja Mandir?!
Piecing together the information given by those closely associated with the Mahaswamigal, it clearly emerges that the Shri Uttara Chidambaram Nataraja Mandir at Satara was to a Divine Plan. And the Mahaswamigal executed that ordained plan to the last detail with great patience and total personal involvement, guidance and dedication. Hence, the Mandir is rightly come to be known as the Mahaswamigal’s Shri Uttara Chidambaram Nataraja Mandir. How?
The 20 May 1894-born Mahaswamigal had an abiding devotion to Nataraja since his childhood. But he came closer to the Nataraja Mandir at Chidambaram in Tamilnadu, when his father, Shri Subramanya Shastri, was posted there. The Mahaswamigal was in his early teens then. As his devotion and attachment to Chidambaram grew, the young lad Swaminathan, got his Divine vocation to the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, where he became Shri Chandrashekharendra Saraswati Swamigal and its Peetadhipathi on 13 February 1907.
In fact, his great devotion to Chidambaram can be gauged from the fact that the first ever padayatra the Mahaswamigal undertook as the Peetadhipathi was to visit his Nataraja at Chidambaram in 1933.This visit also marked the end of a prolonged draught of visits by Shankaracharayas. In that sense it was a historic visit. Close associates were witness to a hair raising glowing radiance exhibited by the Mahaswamigal after he emerged once from an almost four hour closed door confabulation with the then chief priest of the Chidambaram,Shri Swarna Venkatesh Dikshitar.
Under the above circumstances, it has been a widely held belief among his close associates that the divine inspiration of Shri Shri Chandrashekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal to have another Nataraja mandir elsewhere in addition to Chidambaram Nataraja mandir; started way back in 1933.indeed,
Since then during his padyatra through various places, the Mahaswamigal bore a searching mind to spot a site with significance for the construction of his Nataraja mandir. Perhaps! Or, did he already have Satara in vision but had waited for almost five decades till his last padyatra? Only he could solve this rahasya!
When he set out on his last padayatra, post Emergency, in 1978, he had a mission and the destination was undoubtedly Satara. Because, from Satara, after his longest stay of 11 months (June 1980 to April 1981) in any place that culminated in the Bhoomipooja on 19 October 1980 and thereafter tying up the loose ends of the Mandir plan for another six months almost, he turned back and headed towards Kanchipuram, but only after taking the darshan of Shri Vittal at Pandarapur.
One nagging question has been, why did the Mahaswamigal select Satara? Was it because it is uniquely placed as the last Uttara point of South India as envisaged in the Shilpa Shastra of the Vedas? Or, was it because Satara is where the confluence of the holy rivers Krishna and Venna takes place before they turn eastward as Krishna-Venna? Again, only the saintly sage can solve this rahasya!
Back at Kanchipuram, the Mahaswamigal did not for once lose sight of the Mandir at Satara. He kept himself informed of the goings on. He concentrated on the most demanding requirements of the Mandir as per his scheme of plans. It was his continued involvement that brought the Governments of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to participate in the making of the Mandir. Also, it was he who took the initiative and solved the otherwise impossible “Chidambaram Rahasya,taking into full confidence an expert team from Chidambaram that was vowed to total silence and absolute secrecy. Further, he conceived each and every one of the unique 108 Karnas that have become a hallmark of the Mandir.
To make sure that the Mandir progressed to the Divine vision given to him, he deputed his most trusted disciples to Satara to oversee the day to day happenings. The most notable among them was Shri Kannan, who was involved in the construction from 1980 till the consecration of the Mandir in 1985. Thereafter, the Mahaswamigal deputed one of his youngest disciples Shri Jagadeesh Bhat, who has been entrusted with managing the day to day workings of the completed Mandir and its aaradhanas since 1985.
The strenuous efforts and support of devotees and wellwishers yielded fruits and the first Mahakumbhabhishekam was traditionally and ceremoniously held on 9 June 1985 and the Mandir was declared as Shri Uttara Chidambaram Nataraja Mandir.
Shri Uttara Chidambaram Nataraja Mandir has made a niche in the map of Indian temples. In February 2010, the Mandir has also celebrated its silver jubilee. Notwithstanding the tremendous resource constraints, the Mandir was able to assemble over 200 Vedic Scholars from all over India for 11 days to perform Athi Rudra Yaga and Shatha Chandi Homa to the great delight of Satara for the first time in its history. All thanks to the Mahaswamigal, says Shri Bhat.
For, Ramesh Shanbhag, Bhat and a dedicated team of others involved in managing the Mandir against all odds, the presence of the centurian Mahaswamigal, in spite of his Samadhi on 8 January 1994, is a living reality. "It is his grace that keeps us going", echoes reverently Ramesh Shanbhag, the eldest son of Late Shamanna, the founder trustee of the Mandir. Any wonder that the Mandir is etched in the minds of lakhs of devotees thronging it as the Mahaswamigal's Nataraja Mandir? And thus the vision and mission of Mahaswamigal lives on.
Courtesy: http://natarajasatara.org
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