Swamy malai. One of the arupadai veedu. Father learns from the child. Many steps.
On the way, we stumbled upon a big temple with no crowds etc. We got down and went inside the gopuram. A dried up pushkarani welcomed us. Then we went inside and saw that the swetha vinayagar temple is closed. No one was seen nearby. We wandered around the temple, when one old man came and told that the priest has gone to ambal temple and would come soon. So we went ahead to see another gopuram inside. We saw that it is Siva Temple. We prayed there and saw the priest. He asked us to pray at ambal temple and come to vinayagar sannidhi. Through another gopuram, we went to Ambal temple. You will be astonished to see the beautiful murals on the walls. The temple had very high walls. I felt that the temple compound was protected with very high walls because during ancient times, there could have been frequent attacks by other kings. At vinayagar temple, the priest a young man chanted archana mantras loudly. When we were returning, we saw some indian tourists are going inside the temple.
Pancha Varneswarar Temple.
The pushkarani was dried. We went up the steps. We told the priest that we came here recommended by Mathaji of Aditi ashram. The priest asked us to wait till abhisekham is over.
The story goes like this. The king in his earlier birth was a spider, who weaved the web to protect the siva lingam and an elephant - a siva bhakta, poured water on the siva lingam destroying the web. The spider got angry and got into the elephant's trunk. The Lord protected the animals, because both were bhakthas. The next generation, the spider became a descendant of the Chola kingdom. He built some templeslike this. He was averse to elephants, he built the temple wth lot of steps so that the elephant will not be able to come into the temples.
I believe that there were frequent threats from neighbouring kingdoms and hence high walls and the temples were built still higher with lot of steps.
This temple is where Lord Siva and consort gave darshan in Kalyanakolam and people come here for delay in marriages and they vouch that within one year of doing pooja here, marriage is sure to take place. The siva linga turns five colours in a day. Morning upto 8.24 lotus red, then red, then golden, then green and in the evening as we think.
Oothukad : My friend told that we must visit this temple. But when we went there, we could see the temple is being renovated. The gate was open and no one was inside. We could not go around. But the grill gate inside was closed, through which we could get a glimpse. Padmaja was singing a song by Oothukad and suddenly, the watchman came and told that the priest is staying nearby and is coming. The priest came, opened the doors. Padmaja again sang a song. By that time some four or five people also came. The story is that the vigraha was divine. The leg was on the Kalika but did not touch as there was a very small gap. The vigraha could not be made by any man because it does not rest or touch the podium. The leg has also marks of bruises. The great poet was Narada himself.
The priest said that he had been to Chennai for donations for Tirupani and Gokulashtami in September and came back only yesterday. There are no brahmins now in this gramam. All have gone to Chennai after selling their ancesteral property. The property of the poet is now demarked though no house exist.
( the songs are world famous and sung by all musicians - but this temple is not taken care of )
Then we went to a nearby temple where Dasarathar prayed to Bhairavar and Muruga gave darshan as Rama with dhanush.
The darshan at Tirunageswar and Uppiliyappan temples were good and we proceeded to Alangudi Guru temple. (on the way we saw the name boards -Semangudi and we remembered our great musician and principal of Swati Tirunal Music College, Trivandrum)
At about 8 pm we went to see Govindapuram. A huge temple of Vittalla built recently. A security stopped our vehicle at the gate and asked to park the vehicle outside. We went up the steps very neat and there two security people told us that we cannot go further inside, though a pravachan was going on there. We were allowed to sit in the hall. We listened to the pravachan though it was not so audible. We waited till 9 pm only to be told that we cannot go inside near the sanctum. We prayed from distance and returned not so happy. We were unable to visit the Gosala also.
The next day we began our return journey. We went to Suriyanar Temple. On the way Padmaja was angry with the driver for taking a wrong way. Though the driver slowed down to ask, she instructed him to go straight and that was a wrong way (just a few yards). I retorted that she misguided and so i did not wait for her in the temple and came back to the car which was not allowed near the temple though fees were taken to park on the road. But after some time she came back only to know that her chappals were kept near the temple. So we again went back and this time we took the full set of archana basket. Ten coconuts and flowers for navagrahas. I was asked to wait at Sani temple inside and Padmaja lighted ghee lamps for all the dieties. Then one coconut was broken and archana was performed by the priest at each deity of navagraha.
Its all gods way of planning.
In Kerala there is a temple called Keraladityapuram, near Malliyoor in Kottayam district and there it is only for Sun God. We visited there when I had Sun dasa.
From there we proceeded to Vaitheeswaran Temple. Though there were places in between, we kept it aside for next visit because of shortage of time.
At vaitheeswaran Kovil, the mood was undone by a quarrel for the parking fees. We were just gdtting down and we were asked to pay 25 rupees. The car is being parked on the road and i was told that fees were collected from devotees for coming in a car, whether they park it or not.
We got good darshan of Lord and Ambal and also Muruga. The temple was crowded. A marriage was going on inside the temple premises and eating was also going on.
We did not wait long. We started to Chidambaram (Our driver told that in Sirkazhi there was no temple and it was famous only because of the great singer Sirkazhi govindarajan - I like his sinnam siru pen pole). We entered Chidambaram temple only to be announced that it is closed and will reopen at 4.30 pm. ( we missed by five minutes as we were talking to a priest on a phone given by Ramakrishnan. Ramakrishnan's father was from Chidambaram and his father's name itself was Chidambara Iyer). Then the priest took us home and gave a sumptous meals and also gave their side room for resting. Padmaja sang sabapatiku samanam veru daivam ... My camera captured a 60 year old photo of the deekshitar when he was a child alongwith his father. In the evening, the youngest son took us to the temple and the darshan was superb. Lord Nataraja is still fresh before my eyes. Chidambaram temple is unique. It is aakasa tatwa. The golden roof had 21600 plates with 72000 golden nails denoting that a human being breathes 21600 times in the blood passes through 72000 nadis. The nine kumbhas are nava dwaras in a body and five steps of silver denotes pancha indriyam.
Then straight back through Puducerry and East Coast Road.
We thanked all Gods.
On the way, we stumbled upon a big temple with no crowds etc. We got down and went inside the gopuram. A dried up pushkarani welcomed us. Then we went inside and saw that the swetha vinayagar temple is closed. No one was seen nearby. We wandered around the temple, when one old man came and told that the priest has gone to ambal temple and would come soon. So we went ahead to see another gopuram inside. We saw that it is Siva Temple. We prayed there and saw the priest. He asked us to pray at ambal temple and come to vinayagar sannidhi. Through another gopuram, we went to Ambal temple. You will be astonished to see the beautiful murals on the walls. The temple had very high walls. I felt that the temple compound was protected with very high walls because during ancient times, there could have been frequent attacks by other kings. At vinayagar temple, the priest a young man chanted archana mantras loudly. When we were returning, we saw some indian tourists are going inside the temple.
Pancha Varneswarar Temple.
The pushkarani was dried. We went up the steps. We told the priest that we came here recommended by Mathaji of Aditi ashram. The priest asked us to wait till abhisekham is over.
The story goes like this. The king in his earlier birth was a spider, who weaved the web to protect the siva lingam and an elephant - a siva bhakta, poured water on the siva lingam destroying the web. The spider got angry and got into the elephant's trunk. The Lord protected the animals, because both were bhakthas. The next generation, the spider became a descendant of the Chola kingdom. He built some templeslike this. He was averse to elephants, he built the temple wth lot of steps so that the elephant will not be able to come into the temples.
I believe that there were frequent threats from neighbouring kingdoms and hence high walls and the temples were built still higher with lot of steps.
This temple is where Lord Siva and consort gave darshan in Kalyanakolam and people come here for delay in marriages and they vouch that within one year of doing pooja here, marriage is sure to take place. The siva linga turns five colours in a day. Morning upto 8.24 lotus red, then red, then golden, then green and in the evening as we think.
Oothukad : My friend told that we must visit this temple. But when we went there, we could see the temple is being renovated. The gate was open and no one was inside. We could not go around. But the grill gate inside was closed, through which we could get a glimpse. Padmaja was singing a song by Oothukad and suddenly, the watchman came and told that the priest is staying nearby and is coming. The priest came, opened the doors. Padmaja again sang a song. By that time some four or five people also came. The story is that the vigraha was divine. The leg was on the Kalika but did not touch as there was a very small gap. The vigraha could not be made by any man because it does not rest or touch the podium. The leg has also marks of bruises. The great poet was Narada himself.
The priest said that he had been to Chennai for donations for Tirupani and Gokulashtami in September and came back only yesterday. There are no brahmins now in this gramam. All have gone to Chennai after selling their ancesteral property. The property of the poet is now demarked though no house exist.
( the songs are world famous and sung by all musicians - but this temple is not taken care of )
Then we went to a nearby temple where Dasarathar prayed to Bhairavar and Muruga gave darshan as Rama with dhanush.
The darshan at Tirunageswar and Uppiliyappan temples were good and we proceeded to Alangudi Guru temple. (on the way we saw the name boards -Semangudi and we remembered our great musician and principal of Swati Tirunal Music College, Trivandrum)
At about 8 pm we went to see Govindapuram. A huge temple of Vittalla built recently. A security stopped our vehicle at the gate and asked to park the vehicle outside. We went up the steps very neat and there two security people told us that we cannot go further inside, though a pravachan was going on there. We were allowed to sit in the hall. We listened to the pravachan though it was not so audible. We waited till 9 pm only to be told that we cannot go inside near the sanctum. We prayed from distance and returned not so happy. We were unable to visit the Gosala also.
The next day we began our return journey. We went to Suriyanar Temple. On the way Padmaja was angry with the driver for taking a wrong way. Though the driver slowed down to ask, she instructed him to go straight and that was a wrong way (just a few yards). I retorted that she misguided and so i did not wait for her in the temple and came back to the car which was not allowed near the temple though fees were taken to park on the road. But after some time she came back only to know that her chappals were kept near the temple. So we again went back and this time we took the full set of archana basket. Ten coconuts and flowers for navagrahas. I was asked to wait at Sani temple inside and Padmaja lighted ghee lamps for all the dieties. Then one coconut was broken and archana was performed by the priest at each deity of navagraha.
Its all gods way of planning.
In Kerala there is a temple called Keraladityapuram, near Malliyoor in Kottayam district and there it is only for Sun God. We visited there when I had Sun dasa.
From there we proceeded to Vaitheeswaran Temple. Though there were places in between, we kept it aside for next visit because of shortage of time.
At vaitheeswaran Kovil, the mood was undone by a quarrel for the parking fees. We were just gdtting down and we were asked to pay 25 rupees. The car is being parked on the road and i was told that fees were collected from devotees for coming in a car, whether they park it or not.
We got good darshan of Lord and Ambal and also Muruga. The temple was crowded. A marriage was going on inside the temple premises and eating was also going on.
We did not wait long. We started to Chidambaram (Our driver told that in Sirkazhi there was no temple and it was famous only because of the great singer Sirkazhi govindarajan - I like his sinnam siru pen pole). We entered Chidambaram temple only to be announced that it is closed and will reopen at 4.30 pm. ( we missed by five minutes as we were talking to a priest on a phone given by Ramakrishnan. Ramakrishnan's father was from Chidambaram and his father's name itself was Chidambara Iyer). Then the priest took us home and gave a sumptous meals and also gave their side room for resting. Padmaja sang sabapatiku samanam veru daivam ... My camera captured a 60 year old photo of the deekshitar when he was a child alongwith his father. In the evening, the youngest son took us to the temple and the darshan was superb. Lord Nataraja is still fresh before my eyes. Chidambaram temple is unique. It is aakasa tatwa. The golden roof had 21600 plates with 72000 golden nails denoting that a human being breathes 21600 times in the blood passes through 72000 nadis. The nine kumbhas are nava dwaras in a body and five steps of silver denotes pancha indriyam.
Then straight back through Puducerry and East Coast Road.
We thanked all Gods.
