Legend of Guruvayur Temple

There are many ancient temples in Kerala, but Guruvayur Krishna temple stands apart from all the rest with its many legends and myths. The deity itself is unique as it has been carved out from a special stone and it is believed to have done by Lord Vishnu himself. It is in his Majestic form or ‘Vishwarupa’. He presented it to Lord Shiva and n turn he presented it to Lord Brahma. King Manu and his were worshipping Lord Brahma on those days for a child. Being happy with their devotion, Lord Brahma gave the deity to them and asked to worship it with great devotion. They followed his instruction and Lord Vishnu appeared in front of them as he was pleased with their devotion. He told them that he will take birth as their son in their four births and he will bring the deity along with him in all these four births so that they can continue their divine worship in four births.

First, he took birth as Prasnigurbha, who appeared in front of Druva and created the planet Druvaloka for Druva. He is also responsible for giving Brahmacharya or Celibacy to the world. In the next birth, King and Queen took birth as Kashyapa and Aditi. Lord took birth as their son Vaman. In the two successive births, they came to earth as Dasharatha and Kausalya and Vasudeva and Devaki. On both the occasions, Lord took birth as their son, Sri Rama and Sri Krishna respectively. During his incarnation as Krishna, he took the deity to Dwaraka and used to worship it along with his wife Rukmini and his devotee Uddhava.

Days have passed and the time has come for Krishna for ascension to heaven. He asked Uddhava to handover the deity to Brihaspathy, the master of Devas (Demigods) to find out a suitable place and to install it. Unfortunately, Dwaraka has been swallowed by the great deluge before Uddhava can reach Brihaspathy. However, Brihaspathy came to know about the instruction of Krishna, and he, with the help of his devotee Vayu, the god of wind located the floating deity and took it and started searching for an ideal place to keep it. In their journey, they entered present-day Kerala where they met Parasurama, who was on his efforts to bring the same deity to Kerala. He took both Brihaspathy and Vayu to a place that was blessed with greenery and there was a lotus pond too. They felt the presence of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathy too there.

Suddenly Siva and Parvathy appeared in front of them and gave permission for installing the deity there. Both Siva and Parvathy went to the opposite side of the pond which is called as Mammiyoor. Since the deity has been installed by Guru (master in Sanskrit) and Vayu (the god of wind) the place has got the name as Guruvayur means the place of Guru and Vayu in the local language Malayalam.

As Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathy went to Mammiyoor to provide a place for installing this deity, it is believed that the visit of Guruvayur Temple will not be completed without a visit to Mammiyoor Siva Temple. The devotees who are not able to go to Mammiyoor will pray to face the north-west direction where the temple is located.