The divine revival – Komatipalli Lakshmi Narayana Temple

Apaara Karunaapoora Paaraavaarayachakrine Srimath Vaishya Pureeshaaya Lakshmi Naathaaya Mangalam

By Shashi Narasimhiah

As we all know, Narayana is the supreme god and Lakshmi the supreme mother of the universe.

Since the olden times, Komatipalli located in the present day Telangana near the town of Warangal is known to be one of the most “learned” villages in the region with the village having given birth to and nurtured a large number of Hindu Vedic scholars following Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya. The village which currently has a population of approximately 8000, is located about 7 km from the rail station of Kesamudram on the main Chennai- Mumbai line approximately 150 km from the metropolis of Hyderabad is also home to a unique Lakshmi Narayana Temple.

Sydney’s very own Sri. Rishikesh Bhattar, who many of us go to for spiritual upliftment as well as for his guidance through the various Hindu rituals is one of those scholars who hails from the village Komatipalli. Sri. Bhattar who spent eight of his formative years in Tirupati studying Pancharatna Aagama at the Veda Pathashaala in the holy temple town of Tirupati was also a priest at the Lord Venkateshwara Temple at Helensburgh near Sydney before becoming a free-lance Hindu priest and a certified marriage celebrant. I have personally known him for a long time and recently had an opportunity to catch up with Sri. Bhattar to discuss the Lakshmi Narayana temple in his native village of Komatipalli. He explained that during the time when he was studying in Tirupati he used to visit Komatipalli to spend his holidays. To him, the temple had become a spiritual refuge like the mother to a child and he developed a sense of oneness, belonging and devotion to the age old temple of Sri. Lakshmi Narayana. A combination of this profound devotion, his deep understanding of Hindu Vedic scriptures, his long standing practice of Hindu Vedic rituals, his ambition and his enterprise gave him the enthusiasm and impetus to initiate and contribute to the upliftment of the temple.

Sri. Bhattar went on to explain that Komatipalli has essentially been an agricultural village with a current population of around 8000. In the olden days it consisted of small huts. The original deity of Sri. Lakshmi Narayana is very unique and known to be over 500 years old and was found about 100 years ago when excavation for a well was in progress. Upon finding the deity, it was placed in a hut and later a small temple was built. But when the founder Sri. Srinivasa Aacharya passed away, the temple came under neglect. However, the temple has survived due to long and selfless devotion of the current priest whose name too is Sri. Srinivasa Aacharya and the only source of income has been the small donations collected by him from the patrons to the temple. After Sri. Bhattar migrated to Australia, he took an interest in the temple of his home town and decided to impart well deserved glory of the temple.

The renovation of the existing temple commenced in 2010 with the blessings of scholars such as H H Sri Sri Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja ChinnaJeeyar Swamiji who requested Agama Vidhwan Sri. Madhuswamy to visit the temple site and provide advice as per Agama tradition. It consists of a new concrete building, a new compound wall for security, repositioning of the main deity as per the Vedic norms, procurement and installation of new idols of various supporting deities such as Dwaarapalaka, Garuda, Hanuman etc. The project also includes a small accommodation for the priest adjacent to the temple and a small guest room for those who visit the place and like to stay there for a while.  Much of the redesigning of the temple has been done by Sri. Bhattar with local support from his relatives such as Sri. Sridhar Bhattar and Sri. Venkata Bhattar, both of whom have dedicated their lives to this noble cause. They both have been providing ongoing assistance in design and supervision and supporting the efforts of the hard working local casual construction labour.

A total of $100,000 is being spent on the temple renovation/reconstruction and another $25,000 towards the priest’s residence and guest room. All of that money has been collected and repatriated from Australia. Sri. Bhattar himself was able to donate a significant amount to this cause by way of his daily savings over a period of 15 years when he used to place a small amount of money on a daily basis from the dakshina he received for his services in and around Sydney. Sri. Bhattar is very grateful for financial support he has received from several people in Australia and he particularly mentioned Dr. Baska and Dr. Meena Baska the current president of SVT, Helensburgh who donated $20,000, Mrs. Laju Bhojwani who inspired friends to donate a total of $11,000 and a large number other devotees who made donations all of which together amounted to a large enough sum to be able to undertake this project.

What happens when the reconstruction is complete? Sri. Bhattarhas already established a trust to manage the ongoing maintenance and management including financial management. Sri. Bhattar has also deposited an initial sum of Rs.8,00,000 in the trust account to pay for the salary of the priest as well as for temple maintenance. Let us all bow down to Sri. Bhattar for his initiative towards preservation and promotion of our cultural values and when we are in India why not visit Komatipalli and take the blessings of Srimannaraya and the universal mother Lakshmi?