When Lord Krishna left the planet 5,000 years ago, Brihaspati, the guru of the devas, went to Dwaraka to find a Deity of Krishna once worshiped by Maha-Vishnu Himself. Maha-Vishnu had handed the Deity over to Brahma, who gave it to the Sutapas, who gave it to Kashyapa, who gave it to Vasudeva, who gave it to Krishna. Krishna had directed Uddhava to tell Brihaspati to take the Deity (which Krishna said he would find floating on the water of devastation that inundated Dwaraka) and install it in a proper place, for all the people to worship in Kali-yuga. Brihaspati lifted the Deity out of the water with the help of Vayu, the wind god, and they traveled to South India in search of a suitable place to install the Deity. There they saw Lord Shiva and Parvati taking their baths in a beautiful kunda.Under the waters. Lord Shiva was worshiping Maha-Vishnu. Lord Shiva had once come up from the waters and imparted to the Pracetas the Rudra-gita, or song of Shiva, in praise of Maha-Vishnu. The Pracetas remained at Rudra-kunda for 10,000 years worshiping Maha-Vishnu, and the Lord eventually appeared to them and granted their wish for a virtuous son.
Lord Shiva invited Brihaspati and Vayu to install the Deity there. The Kunda is known as Rudra-kunda because Lord Shiva bathed there, and he renamed the place Guruvayur, after gurus Brihaspati and Vayu. Then Shiva left the place for Mammiyur. In memory of this, worshipers at Guruvayur also worship Mammiyur Shiva.
The Deity at Guruvayur is made from a rare pathalanjana-shila from Vaikuntha.
Padmanabha Sarovara in Thiruvananthapuram is named after the temple Deity, Lord Ananta-Padmanabha Swamy—Vishnu reclining on Ananta-Shesha. Lord Balarama, Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda and Sri Ramanujacarya visited this place.
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