| The
Aalayas of Andhra Pradesh |
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| Temples
Of India |
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SRIKALAHASTI |
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he grew up, he developed great devotion to the Lord Siva and was
offering worship to the Vayulinga in a characteristic way-offering
bits of meat every day only after testing by biting each one to find
out its eat-worthiness. Moreover, he was making abhishekam to the
Lord with the Swarnamukhi water brought in his mouth, and pouring it
over the Linga. He continued this for years, though the local sages
and priests, who witnessed it kept mum, fearing the untoward that
might come, if they chastised him. It is only after this routine
worship, he was breaking his fast; it so happened that he could not
come across any animal one day during his hunting; so nothing
reached his hungry stomach. He was tired and perturbed too. All on a
sudden there was heavy down pour then adding another nail into his
coffin, as it were. He shut then his mouth so tight that he did not
allow a drop to enter his mouth even by chance. And lo! his thirst,
fatigue etc. vanished unknown to him, as if the magic. He at once
ran to the river for bath, and after bathing brought water in his
mouth for abhishekam. Just then the sages also came for Pradosha
puja - evening prayer. With a view to demonstrating the superiority
of Kannappa's pure devotion, the Lord in a flash created a havoc of
falling of walls and ceiling. The sages ran in panic, but not
Kannappa. He at once embraced the Sivalinga, and spread his body
over it in such a way that nothing would happen to it, even if the
entire roof fall, but he would alone receive the wounds or damage
due to failing of debris. When he came out unscathed, the sages
praising highly equated him with a bhakta non-parell. On returning
of calm after storm, he praised the Lord and continued his routine
for a quarter century unhindred. Before liberating him, the Lord
wanted to put him to further test.
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