அருள்மிகு ஓதீஸ்வரர் திருக்கோவில், மடிப்பாக்கம்.

Madipakkam is a fast developing Suburb of Chennai.  Situated close to Madipakkam Bus Terminus on the busy main road  is the Odheeswarar Temple -- also known as Vedhapureeswarar Temple. The Goddess here is Arulmigu Vedapureeswari

Mavadibagam is the old name of the place .  It is said that when  Kanchi Maha Periyava was passing through this area,   He stopped when he came near the Sthala Viruksham -அரசு, வேம்பு, வில்வ மரம் இணைந்தது--under which the Sivalinga Thirumeni was seated in the open along with Nandhi.   The rest of what should have been a grand  temple was reduced to rubbles due to neglect over the centuries.  The Maha Swamy  told  the local devotees about the importance of this 1000 year old temple and advised them to rebuild the same.

We are informed that with the Divine Blessings of Maha Periyava, when the renovation work commenced, money started flowing in for the project and the work of temple consecration  was completed in  the late '90s.

Shri Jayaprakash, a Senior Manager in Canara Bank and one of the members of the managing committee of this temple had invited us to do the cleaning and white washing work .  Accordingly we had taken up the uzhavarappani  of this temple on 25.08.2013, with a workforce of more than 60 volunteers.

The inner walls of the temple have been beautifully done with oil painting of the images of the various Gods.  Therefore our work was confined to white-washing the ceiling, a tough task indeed, considering its height of 13 feet.  Besides, we had also used the aluminium paint for the ventilator grills and enamel paint for the Swamy Sannadhi.

The huge tree atop the roof of the praharam had to be trimmed to ensure  that its wild growth did not  create any structural weakness on the roofing and also on the gopurams..  A  group of about thirty volunteers were deployed for this purpose.  Braving thorny growths and  overhanging   television cables, they struggled hard for more than four hours to clear the wild growth.

The usual cleaning of pooja items, polishing the Utsava idols and the Kodi maram , cleaning and water-washing  the praharam with  high pressure compressor was also done.

Initially, we though that the temple being a small one, we could finish all the work by 03.30pm.  How wrong we were!  The work was really huge and we could finish only by 07.00pm.

We started a practice of explaining one Song l from a Thirumurai by any one of our members during each Uzhavarapani. It started in Nungambakkam in June 2013. Then Nemili, SEED and now in Odheeswarar Temple too.   Smt Kalyani explained one Thirumandhiram to our volunteers.

After Maha Deeparadhanai at the end of Sayaratchai pooja, we packed off.

Click Here To See Additional Photos

S E E D

Shri A R Palanisamy, a former colleague to many of us,  is the Secretary of SEED-- Society for Educational and  Economic Development-- a voluntary organisation located at Sriperumbudur.  He took voluntary retirement from Canara Bank, where he was working as an officer,  to look after the activities of SEED full-time    SEED is involved in educating the children of Life convicts, terminally ill patients and orphans.  It is a residential school type project, where everything is provided free to the children, with the ultimate aim of securing a decent life to them.   Here the children are imparted both standard education and vocational training.

Though we have always extended our services only in temples all these years,  an exception was made to accommodate the request of  Shri Palanisamy.  Accordingly we landed at SEED premises on the Independence Day (15 Aug 2013).  As usual our guys did cleaning, grill painting, white washing  et al.  

We were joined by Sam & Ann Bryan, a couple from USA. Sam is an aeronautical engineer from Seattle, now on a special assignment with INS Rajali at Arakkonam.  Like us, this couple too decided to spend their holiday differently and decided to visit SEED.  Upon seeing us, their joy knew no bounds and they participated with more  enthusiasm by mingling with us and offering their services.

Before we left, we presented the children  some play materials like, Carrom Board, Chess sets, Volley ball & net, a football, tennikoit rings  and a few tennis balls. We were very much moved by the joy and gratitude in their eyes over this small gesture. 

In the evening, before we packed of, the inmates of SEED presented each of us with a specially made garland prepared by them as part of their vocational activity, which we carried back  with fond memories.

Additional Photos