THRISSUR/GURUVAYUR: Karunakaran who loved and worshipped Lord Krishna for a span of nearly 60 years played a key role in promoting the Sree Krishna temple in Guruyavur.
A regular visitor to the temple on the first day of the Malayalam month instilled a new practice among devotees.
After his marriage with Kalyanikuttiyamma he turned an ardent devotee of Sree Guruvayurappan.
Karunakaran solely believed that Guruvayurappan brought him all the blessings in his stint in political, social and personal arena.
It was with his interest that Guruvayur town was developed into what we see today. The Guruvayur railway station which was built considering the huge number of pilgrims coming to the place, was his brainchild. Sreevalsam, Panchajanyam, new temple buildings and many buildings seen in Guruvayur were developed with the help of Karunakaran. K Karunakaran who laid the foundation stone of the Sreevalsam guest house also inaugurated the building and was a regular guest here and had used room no 1 for many years during his visit to Guruvayur.
In his hey days, Karunakaran used to directly involve in the day-to-day activities of Guruvayur temple. It was during his tenure as Home Minister that a shortage of rice was reported at the temple and he made arrangements at the very moment and brought rice from Andhra Pradesh the very next day. It was also on his effort that national leaders including former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Narasimha Rao and corporates like Ambanis and Tatas visited Guruvayur and became ardent devotees of Sree Guruvayurappan.
The last visit of K Karunakaran to the Lord Krishna temple was on his 92nd birthday.