Kalahasti – Pancha bootha sthalam

Kalahasti is one of the pancha bootha sthalams of lord shiva and famous for its Vayu linga, representing wind. Lord Shiva in his aspect as Vayu (wind) is worshiped as Kalahasteeswara.

This temple is also known as Rahu-Ketu kshetra, as Rahu-Ketu pooja is done here to get rid of doshams of the devotees. This temple is also regarded as Dakshina Kasi. 

 My weekend trip to Kalahasti is a wonderful experience with my nephew Hari and my darling Mom.

We started here on saturday evening and went for shopping and munching some street food with my cousins there. Bangles is one of the best item in the top of  my shopping list. So i purchased as much as i can and we roamed around the streets and reached home with loads of snacks for my aunt family and slept as our stomachs are already filled with enough chats and chai.

 Devotional journey started the very next day. Yes at first we went to the temple for darshan. After darshan we had prasadams sold by the temple as we are very hungry due to fasting since morning. As i have office the next day and my cousin had college we are supposed to leave by evening bus. 

Hence we were left with a short time. So we took two bikes and started to roam again crossing the river Swarnamukhi leaving mom behind with the uncle and my little cousin in the bus stop to book the tickets.

First, my cousin suggested to go a nearby waterfalls which is called as Veyilingala Kona Waterfall. It was really a fantastic experience there. We sat on the rocks with our legs submerged in water. Clicked pictures in that dense forest area and enjoyed the water fall. 

We went to the temple near the falls after clicking photos over there we left to suka brahma ashram another peaceful shrine of lord sai ram neatly maintained with a colourful park around the temple which gives a pleasant ambience to the temple with a cool evening breeze. The hightlight of the temple is a huge shiv lingam constructed on top of the mandap.