KANAKA'S WINDOW AND KANIKA'S WINDOW



















“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is
a knowledge of our own ignorance.”

-      Benjamin Franklin
    
My first memories about the revered Udupi Sri Krishna temple roll back to my primary-school days in Mangalore. Udupi, as many may know, is a stone-throw away from Mangalore (Now, Mangaluru). We had a story called ‘Kanakana Kindi’ in our text book. That seemed to be the reason why our school took the school kids to the famed centuries-old shrine in Udupi…yes, on an 'educational picnic'!

Ever since then, I have been fascinated by this legend – ‘Kanakana Kindi’… Translated from Kannada, it means – ‘Kanaka’s Window’.

This is how the legend goes…

Kanakadasa (Dasa, in Kannada, means devotee) was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna, who ceaselessly sang through his tambura (a string instrument) in devotion to Lord Krishna. Once, he had gone on a pilgrimage from his village to Sri Krishna temple, which was hundreds of miles away. But, being a low-caste person, he was not allowed to enter into the shrine. Kanaka did not lose his heart… He settled behind the temple wall and, with his tambura, drowned himself in devotional songs. Lord Krishna, the legend says, was so pleased with Kanaka’s devotion, that He caused an earthquake to create a crack (window) in the wall and turned Himself (idol) from facing East to West… so that His ardent devotee could go back having a physical darshan…

Today, over five centuries later, the Kanaka’s Window – ‘Kanakana Kindi’ – has remained as part of the revered Krishna pilgrimage. Every devotee has to first have a physical darshan of the deity through Kanaka’s Window (the outer window), and then enter the temple to have a darshan through the ‘inner window’. Yes, the true Krishna pilgrimage is incomplete without these two darshans!

As little kids, when our village teachers explained to us the significance of this story, our little heads did understand it a little. But, honestly, I wonder if the message has really sunk in the way it should have!





From last couple of days, I have been getting these ‘insane stories’ about how another singer called Kanika entered a party place in a five-star hotel in Lucknow and ‘infected’ it with the infamous Corona Virus!

Sri Krishna! Sri Krishna!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: www.youtube.com

Video: Spiritual Ecstasy

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