Monday, December 31, 2012

Lord Chithragupthar Temple - Kanchipuram


Shri Chithragupthar Swamy seated in the temple which is located in the centre of Kanchipuram near the bus stand.

Location :

This is the only temple for Lord Chitraguptar and located in Kanchipuram. This is close to 75 KMs from Chennai and will take close to 1.5 - 2 hrs of drive either by car of public transportation. Temple is located very close to bus-stand and any people near the bus-stand can guide us to reach the temple.

Temple has a main deity as Lord Chitraguptar with his wife and poojas and archanas are done to the main deity. Temple also has a urchavar of Lord Chitraguptar with his wife and will used for other poojas

Temple is also mainly referred as Lord Ketu Parikara Sthalam

Address :


Arulmigu Lord Chitraguptar Swamy Temple 
No 74, Nellukara street, 
Kanchipuram - 2, 
Tamil Nadu, 
India



Temple timings:

Temple is open between 7 AM to 12 PM in the morning and 4 PM - 8.30 PM in the evening.



Sthala History :

‘Chith’ means inner conscience. ‘Aptham’ means hidden conscience. Whatever we hold back in our conscience is brought out by Shri Chithragupta and plans the life of a person. Hence the name Chithragutha.

Having to account the sins and goodness of crores of people Lord Yama Dharma felt it difficult doing it all alone so he prayed to God Shiva to give him an assistant. Immediately Lord Shiva instructed Brahma to give an assistant to Lord Yama. Brahma knew that this is possible only by Sun God(Surya Devan).
Chitragupatar was the son of Lord Sun and Beeladevi. He was born with a book in his left hand and a writing nail in the right. Since Chitraguptar was born of a rainbow, people workship with providing multi-color clothes.

Chitraguptar was born during the month of Chithirai. (tamil month)
Chithraguptar performed penance and prayed to Lord Shiva and in turn he received intelligence and all brilliance.
‘Sun God’ sent Chithraguptar to be responsible and help Lord Yama.
Chithraguptar who went along with his wives to Yama’s world is still accounting the goodness and evil activities of mankind from then on.


In 1907 when temple renovation was done under the earth a statue was found that of Chithraguptar with his wife. The period of the statue is not known. That statue is kept in the main sanctum.

Poojas:

There are shops outside temple who are selling the pooja items. Main offerings done here is lighting the 7 lamps with Ghee. This is also done in a special way. We need to place the horse gram on the floor and spread it , above which we need to place the the seven lamps and then light it. The lamps can be placing by facing any of the four directions but all the lamps should face in one direction. The reason for doing is will help to extend the life span and lead a good life.

Special days:

On Chithra Pournami (full moon day of the Chithrai month) special pooja and the marriage celebrations of Chithraguptar takes place and food is sponsored.

Off the nine planets Kethu’s Lord is Chithraguptar. Hence any offering made to Chithraguptar will relieve us from all trial and tribulation of Kethu planet.
The offering comprises of cereals, seven lamps, and multicolour clothes. Added to this an abhisheka is done.
Most importantly there is only one temple for Chithraguptar and that too in Kanchipuram.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Surutapalli - Lord Siva Temple


Surutapalli is a small village very close to oothukottai. Just half a mile from Oothukottai, we can find this temple. This is one of the old temples and it is located just in the Tamilnadu - Andhara border and belongs to Andhra pradesh state.

This is one of the unique temple where we can find Lord Shiva in human form in the moolavar. He is called as "Pallikondeswarar."



Location :
The temple is located in Chennai - Tirupathi border through Oothukottai - Thada route. This is exactly 57 kms away from Chennai and it takes less than a hour and a half to reach this place. We can find ample car parking space inside the temple.



Temple timings are : 
6 AM - 12 PM and then 4 PM to 8 PM in the evenings.

This temple is very famous for Pradoshams.



Sthala History :

As name suggests, Suruta means ' in tired state' and Palli means 'lying down'. This temple was built by Harihara Bhuga king from Vijayanagara dynasty.During the old days , when Devas requested Siva to have a life without death, Lord Siva adviced them to churn the ocean to get amritham (nectar) which will give Devas a life without death. All Devas churned the ocean and during the process, first it came a poison
before nector. When seeing the poison, Lord Siva went and took that to save the entire universe, while doing so, Lord Parvathi went and stopped Siva from swallowing the poison, if Lord Parvathi have not done that, the entire world would have been destroyed. Since the poison was stopped at the throat, Lord siva became drowsy and rested in the lap of Lord Parvathi and selected Srutapalli as the place.



When heard about this, all the Devas, other GODs and Saptharishi's rushed to see Lord Siva.
When Siva got up, he saw everyone and started to dance in happy mood, all the GODs, rishis and devas watched Siva dancing through the horns of Nandhi and hence Pradosham started.This temple is very famous for Pradoshams.



About temple :

While entering the temple, you will be welcomed by a huge size Nandi even before the Gopuram. Though Siva is the main deity, first we need to visit and get the blessings of Lord Maragadambikai. Since Lord Parvathi stopped Siva from drinking the poison, Lord Maragadambikai needs to be visited first. Usually in Siva temples the Goddess will be on the left side, however in this temple Goddess Maragadambikai will be on the right side.

Also this is the only temple where we will not find any balipeedam before the Goddess. Lord Vinayakar and Lord Murugar will be on the outside of Goddess Maragadambikai

Behind this, we can find Kala Bairavar. On the right side of Valmikeshwarar , we can find Lord Dampathi sametha Dhakshanamurthy. Clearly seen are sages, Patanjali and Vyagrapthar. The Lord, mounted on His bull mount is in a seated posture with one foot on Apasmasura and the other leg folded on a Yoga Pattai and embracing his Consort Gowri on a Rishaba Vahana.
                                                      For the above pic ( Courtesy : Hindu)

We can also find, Valmikeshwar, which is a suyambu lingam. History goes like, after Lord Rama defeated Ravanana and before going to Ayodhya , Lord Rama and Saint Valmiki prayed to Lord Siva who appeared as Suyambu lingam and hence the lingam has been named as Valmikeswarar.



The temple Pallikondeshwarar has been situated on the right side. Lord Siva can seen in a huge reclining position with Goddess parvathi. Also we can see Devas, Lord Brahma, Saptharishis, Vishnu and Indra waiting.



Since it is very close to Chennai, do plan to visit this unique temple and get the blessings

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Kanchipuram - Mrithika Brindavanam of Baghavan Guru Raghavendra Swamy

Couple of days back, I had to visit the temple town Kanchipuram which is close to Chennai.
I visited lot of temples and will start posting them in the blog in next couple of weeks


Before my visit to Kanchipuram, I made sure to check if there is any Mrithika Brindavanam
to our beloved Baghavan Guru Raghavendra Swamy. I found the address in the net and planned
to go there to visit our Mutt.



The Mutt is managed by Sri Uttaradi Mutt and it has Mrithika Brindavanam to our beloved
Guru Baghavan Raghavendra Swamy and Sri Satya poorna Swamy of Uttaradi Mutt.

The address of the Mutt is at 
Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt
Veghavathi Street,
Vishnu Kanchee
Kanchipuram - 603 501

The Mutt is very close to Sri Varadaraja Swamy temple in Vishnu Kanchee. Once you come out
of Varadharaja Swamy temple go towards left side and take 2nd left. In few metres we can
find the Mrithika Brindavanam of Sri Guru Raghavendra Swamy.

In the temple, there is a old Archarya who was very plesent and explained about the temple.
As per Acharya, this Mutt is almost 250 years old. I was not able to gather much details on history, however based on the details shared by Acharya, this is very old temple and currently maintained by "Sri Uttaradi Mutt"

The main sanctum has the Mrithika Brindavanam of our Baghavan Guru Raghavendra Swamy and
Sri Sathya poorna Swamy.

See the below picture. It has Lord Rama on the top, Lord Anajeneya, Lord Prahalada and then
Mrithika brindavanam.


The Mutt is also well maintained and clean. The Mutt also has the large painting of
Panjamukhi Anjeneyar.


At the backside of the Mutt, we have Panchamukhi Anjeneyar Statue,
There is pillar close to Panchamukhi Anjeneyar status and on the three sides of the pillar
we Lord Narashimhar in sitting pose, Lord Krishna in standing pose and Lord Krishna in
dancing pose.



The Mutt also has a Tulasi Madam well maintained.

Whenever you plan to visit Kanchipuram and Vardharaja swamy temple, please plan to visit Mrithika Brindavanam of Guru Baghavan Raghavendra Swamy and get his abundance blessings for this entire janma

[ஸ்ரீ கிருஷ்ணார்ப்பணம் ]

Friday, December 7, 2012

Sri Krishna & Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt - T.Nagar


Today I had the blessings of Baghavan Sri Raghavendra Swamy to visit T.Nagar Mutt.
I had been going around that area several times, but only today I was destined to go to the
T.Nagar Mutt.

I usually visit Triplicane Mutt at T.P.Koil Street.

Though this Mutt is located in prime area, the locality is very peaceful and this Mutt is
very close Mahalingapuram flyover. The exact address iss

Shri Krishna Shri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt(A unit of Pejavar Swami Mutt - UDIPI)

New No.17, Raghavaih Road,
T.Nagar,Chennai-17.
Ph:(044)28156268,28157982



While entering the Mutt, on the right side we can notice Sri Vadirajar Mutt. You can read
my other blog to get more details on Sri Vadiraja Theertharu

Sri Vadiraja Teertharu



While entering Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt, we can see the Mutt Office. Crossing the Mutt
Office we can see Baghavan Guru Raghavendra Swamy brindavanam.

This brindavanam is very special because in moolar area, we can see Lord Sri Krishna and
Sri Lord Anjeneyar Swamy and then Baghavan Sri Raghavendra Swamy.
Picture is attached below.



Usually they do Aarthi around 7.30 PM, and luckily today with Guru's blessing I was able to visit around the same time and had the karuna to see the Aarthi.

While coming round the temple, we can see Madhawa Saint pictures like Sri Puranadasaru ( sishya of Sri Madhavacharyar ), Sri Madhavacharyar and other key Madhawa Saints

There is also a shop located at the entrance of Sri Vadirajar temple where we can get all the books on Sri Baghavan Raghavendra Swamy, Sri Sundarakandam, Sri Vadiraja teertharu etc

If you come across T.nagar plan to visit this mutt.

Below are the picture from Sri Vadiraja Teerthar Mutt which is adjacent to Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt.
In Moolavar , we have Lord Panchamukhi Anjeneyar, Lord Hayagreevar, Sri Bhotharaja and Sri Vadiraja Teerthar.



[ஸ்ரீ கிருஷ்ணார்ப்பணம் ]