Udupi

For one who explains the supreme secret to the devotees

devotional service is guaranteed

and in the end he will come back to Me.

                                                                                      ~Lord Sri Krishna, Bhagavad-gita

If you want to stay busy in the service of the Lord by preaching to and chanting with His devotees, Udupi Krishna will kindly oblige you, no problem.  Udupi, Karnataka in South India is famously known as "The Temple Town."  It is a small city near the shore of the Arabian Sea where Sripada Madhvacarya established the worship of Sri Purushottama Udupi Krishna, who blesses thousands of pilgrims daily with His sweet darshan (vision, or audience).  Besides the famous temple of Udupi Krishna, there are other temples one can visit, like the temple of Lord Balarama, the temple of Yogamaya Devi, and the Hanuman Temple. There are also several Nama-hatta centers in Udupi, and within a few hours' radius from Udupi town, there are ISKCON centers and temples in Manipal, Mangalore, Hebri, Hanja, Shimoga, and Belgaum.

Sri Purushottama Udupi Krishna

If you come to Udupi, I urge you to take darshan of Sri Udupi Krishna.  Udupi Krishna was gifted to Sripada Madhvacarya by a grateful ship captain whose ship was saved from near wreckage by the mystic vision of Madhvacarya, who  guided him safely to shore.  The captain wanted to give Madhvacarya a gift to show his gratitude to the Maharaja for saving his ship from wrecking.  He gave Madhvacarya the option to choose anything off his ship.  Madhvacarya refused to accept anything.  The captain insisted.  So then Madhvacarya said, "All right.  I'll take those two blocks of chandan."  Chandan, which is dried, smooth river-mud, can get very heavy if molded into large blocks.  The blocks of chandan that were gifted to Madhvacarya were so big and heavy that several men were required to carry them.  Instead of depending on the strength of others, though, Madhvacarya shooed everybody aside and carried both the blocks of chandan himself.  He was incredibly strong because he was an incarnation of Pavanadeva, the wind god.  (Consequently, Madhvacarya is known as the brother of both Hanuman and Bhimasena.)  As Madhvacarya walked toward Udupi from the shore of the ocean, one of the blocks of chandan jumped out of his arm's grasp.  The block fell with a crash, and from the shattered block emerged a Deity of Lord Balarama!  Madhvacarya noted that because Lord Baladeva chose to alight there, he figured Baladeva wanted to stay there.  So he built Lord Baladeva a temple right on that very spot.

The other block of chandan housed the charming form of Lord Sri Krishna as a small child in a standing position, holding a butter-churning rod.  Madhvacarya built a beautiful temple in honor of this Deity of Krsna, who has now become famous as Purushottama Udupi Krsna.  As stated above, the town of Udupi has also become famous and is now known as the "temple town" because of this famous Deity of Purushottama Udupi Krishna.

If you haven't already done so, I hope you will travel someday to Udupi and take the darshan of Sri Purushottam Udupi Krishna.  I also hope that when you do visit there, you will plan to stay for a while and encourage the devotees who live there.  Udupi Krishna is very pleased when we preach His message of Bhagavad-gita to His devotees (a diorama of Lord Sri Krishna speaking the Bhagavad-gita to His dear devotee Arjuna is seen at the entrance to the city), and when we engage in the six kinds of loving exchanges with His devotees.

Again, there are hundreds of Vaisnavas--nay, thousands--in and around the little city of Udupi, and they all love to hear about Lord Sri Krishna.  They worship Sri Purushottama Udupi Krsna, the Lord of Madhvacarya and the beloved personal Deity of Srimati Rukmini devi, the Goddess of Fortune Herself.  There are also thousands of souls there who may or may not wear exactly the same kind of tilaka as we ISKCON devotees do, but who are very receptive and eager for knowledge of the Absolute Truth.