புன்னாகேஸ்வரர் திருக்கோவில் , நெமிலி

அருள்மிகு விசாலாக்ஷி அம்மன் சமேத அருள்மிகு புன்னாகேஸ்வரர் திருக்கோவில்  அரக்கோணத்திற்கு அருகே 12 கி.மி தொலைவில் நெமிலி கிராமத்தில் அமைந்துள்ளது.  தேவேந்திரனும்,  நாகேஸ்வரனும் வழிபட்ட தலம்.  சுமார் 4.5 ஏக்கர் பரப்பளவில் அமைந்துள்ள இத்திருக்கோவிலின் கும்பாபிஷேகத் திருவிழா 09.12.2013 அன்று நடைபெற உள்ளது.

As a part of our contribution to the on-going renovation work, we had decided to take up the white washing of the compound walls of this temple.  The temple being situated in a very vast area of land with  equally big compound walls, which were ten feet high, it was a challenging task to be completed in a single day.  Since Balalayam has been done in connection with the renovation, the sanctum itself had remained closed and there were no visiting devotees.

We had scheduled 21 July to do this white washing.  Many of our volunteers, had already reached the place on the night of 20.07.2013 itself and were put up in a local Kalyana Mandapam for their overnight stay.  Others reached on the morning of 21.07.2013.  This time our strength was a little short of fifty,  as many of our regulars did not turn up expecting heavy rains that were lashing the area for about a week.

Over a period of the last one year,   our volunteers have acquired a little  expertise and speed in white washing and painting.  At Nemili, the area to be covered was atleast twice that of Manavur temple and the number of volunteers was just half  the size that we had at Manavur.  Still our guys worked  till 05.30pm and completed the job.  For us it was one more day of our life spent in the service of God. 

Before we left the temple, the  sanctum was opened for our benefit.  As balalayam has been done and no poojas were going on inside the temple, the Gurukkal permitted us to enter the sanctum and showed us the  imprint of a five headed serpent on the back of the big Shivalingham. We are  all indeed  blessed and still carrying some poorva janma punyam to have a darshan  this awesome sight of the  serpent covering the main deity from behind.  

Apart from this  indication that the God was worshiped  here by Nageswaran, it is said that Devendra also worshiped here.  A carved panel on the stone ceiling in the temple, depicts Devendra on his Airavatham.  This temple should have also served as a parihara sthalam as indicated by the carvings of lizard, snake, rahu/kethu etc in the ceiling.  But unfortunately, no other details or  record of the past history of the temple are available.  

The Team -- before leaving Nemili 

In the morning, many of our volunteers visited the abode of  Nemili Bala -- The Child Goddess Bala Thripurasundhari and had a darshan.  The authorities of Nemili Bala Peetam informed us that the image of the Goddess here, which is just about the size of a little finger, is the smallest one to be worshipped anywhere in the world.  More details about Nemili Bala Peetam are available here.

How to Reach:  Take a suburban train from Chennai Central to Arakkonam.  From Arakkonam, buses plying through Nemili are available.  The distance is only about 12 km.  One can also take a share auto from Arakkonam.  

Click here to view additional photos of Nemili Uzhavarappani.

Agatheeswarar Thirukkovil, Nungambakkam

Painting the main door of the Praharam

The annual Brahmotsavam festival is  always celebrated at Nungambakkam Agatheeswarar Temple   in a very grand manner.  In connection with this festival which is going to be held for the current year  from July 07 to 19,  2013, our team of volunteers took up the assignment of giving the Temple a festive look  through white-washing and painting.

After returning from Innambur, our coordinator Shri Ramachandran, visited this temple to make a study of the work requirements.  Accordingly, the Hereditary Trustees of the Temple, Shri Kalyana Raghavan & Shri Radhakrishnan made available all the material required much in advance.

Our team members started assembling from 7.30am onwards and within one hour the number of volunteers swelled to more than 70.  Our work mainly  involved painting and white washing the walls of the main praharam and also the  Sannadhis of  Adhikara Nandhi,  Vinayagar, Balasubramaniar, Durga-Lakshmi-Saraswathi,  Kasi Viswanathar, Annapurneswari, Bairavar, Navagrahams,  besides the Yagasalai and the madapalli.

The painting of grill gates at the entrance and white washing  the entire stretch of wall from the main road to the temple Rajagopuram  was also done.

The usual cleaning of  the inner praharam using water jet was also done.  Besides, lady volunteers cleaned the Pooja Vessels and the Thiruvasi of various Sannadhis to give them a bright look.  By 6 pm we packed up for the day.

On Completion

Shri Madanagopal, Executive Officer of the Temple, was very appreciative of our efforts.  He interacted with all the volunteers  and  gave us quite a  few valuable tips and suggestions for our future uzhavarappani work.  He also duly invited  all of us for the Brahmotsavam function

Mayil Anna with the Temple Gurukkal,Trustees and a few of our volunteers

This time we had a very  popular personality, who visited us during our work, remained with us for about an hour and encouraged us throughout.  He is none other than Shri Mayilsamy, who is well known to the Tamils as a comedy actor.  But not many know that he is very pious and an ardent devotee of Lord Arunachaleswara.  We have seen him involving himself in Annadhanam activities at Thiruvannamalai on all Pournami days.  When we had gone to Thiruvannamalai for the Chitra Pournami festival(Refer our earlier post Chitra Pournami) we had befriended him.  At that time we invited him to visit us during one of our programmes to  have a first hand idea of our field work and  he readily dropped in despite his busy schedule.

We have been regulars at this temple for the last four years.  But this year we were very much pained to see the near-dry condition of the temple tank, which contained very  little water that too only in small puddles. No doubt, the scorching heat in Chennai is continuing for more than a month after the end of Agni Nakshatram and this temple tank, which has been serving as a recharge point for the  wells in the surrounding localities has taken its toll.  We only pray that Varuna Baghawan fills up this tank at least to a reasonable level within the next 10 days so that all the dry patches vanish, when the festivities begin.

A section of our volunteers

Click Here  to see additional photos

Innambur Uzhavarappani

Temple Priest explaining the Salient Feature of the Temple

When we had planned the uzhavarappani, we were a bit apprehensive for quite a few reasons: ---.  The distance involved being too long most of our time may be spent in travelling.  Not many may turn up because of this.  The area that needed to be white washed / painted was in the region of more than 50000 sq. ft. and we were really worried if we could do it.   With all such doubts, we started our preparations in the month of May.  But, we were really surprised by the   overwhelming  response of our volunteers.  

More than 100 people had volunteered and we had to arrange two buses.  We left Chennai on the evening of 15th and reached Swamimalai around 11.30pm.  After resting for the night in a Kalyana Mandapam, we left by 7.00 am 16.06.2013 and proceeded to Innambur, which is at a distance of about 4 km.   The Kumbabishegam event, as mentioned in our previous post, now stands postponed to the month of August 2013.

Our major work here was only white washing of the inner and outer walls.  The temple contains two praharams.  The  inner praharam walls have a height of more than 18 feet and the outer compound walls are slightly less high.  Initially it appeared as a daunting task.  But all the participants including women and children vied with each other in  taking up the work.  For white washing the higher reaches of these walls, our guys tied a make-shift scaffolding and the brave at heart climbed them without any hesitation to paint the top portion.

 The walls of the Sugandha Kundalambal Amman Sannadhi in the second praharam, were of a lesser height and most of the painting here was done by the women volunteers.

Besides painting the walls, we also painted the grill gates, windows and collapsible gates with aluminium paint.  The sponge-brush method we learnt earlier at Thiruvaiyaru from Shri Venkatesh  came in handy to complete the same at a fast pace.  Besides the usual cleaning of Sannadhis were also done.

Apart from our volunteers, Shri Venkatesh had arranged a team of regular painters and a set of compressors. The inner and outer compound  walls were given a white wash by using these spray guns.

By the evening, we finished whatever work that we could complete and had a Darshan of  அருள்மிகு எழுத்தறிநாதர் before we left.  All the remaining incomplete work was finished by the team of Shri Venkatesh.

From Innambur, we proceeded to Thiruppurambiyam and had a darshan of  பிரளயம் காத்த விநாயகர்  and 

சாட்சிநாத ஸ்வாமி.  We came back to Swamimalai and had a darshan of Lord Subramanya.  

Leaving Swamimalai around 10.pm after finishing our dinner, we reached back Chennai in the early morning of 17th June 2013.

Our expenses for this Uzhavarappani has exceeded 2.00 lakhs.  As the temple was not having any funds and no grant came from the Govt, we had decided to bear all  the cost of material used.  But we have to admit that it exceeded our original estimates, especially in view of the massive size of the walls.  However, Lord Shiva has not let us down.  Many philanthropists have helped us through their  donations.  Our sincere thanks to all of them.  Their timely contributions have helped us to a great extent to tide over a major part of our crisis.

To see additional snaps of Innambur Uzhavarappani :     Click Here

இன்னம்பூர் செல்வோம், வாருங்கள்

Innambur Temple Rajagopuram

Present Condition- A portion of the Compound Wall

சுவாமிமலைக்கு அருகில் ஐந்து கிலோமீட்டர் தொலைவில் அமைந்துள்ள பாடல் பெற்ற தலம் இன்னம்பூர்.  அருள்மிகு எழுத்தறிநாதர் (வடமொழியில்  அட்சரபுரீஸ்வரர்), மற்றும் ஐராவதேஸ்வரர் என்று அழைக்கப்படும் மிகப்பெரிய சுயம்புலிங்க திருமேனி.

Highlights of the temple:  The temple is situated in a massive two acres of land, with two praharams.  The Shivalingam and the entrance to the sanctum are massive.  Goddess Nithyakalyani Amman representing the Kalyana Thirukkolam is to the right of Shiva.  Goddess Sugandha Kundalambal Amman is in the outer praharam.  The rays of the Sun fall directly on the Lord on the 13th , 14th & 15th of Tamil month Panguni(March-April).  Agasthiar.org web site mentions that this holy temple is one of the Aaditya Hridayam Shakthi Temples( http://www.agasthiar.org/a/ah.htm).  Devotees bring their children here on Vijayadasami day and pray for their increased mental faculties.

Legend:  

• The Sun God worshiped  Lord Shiva here.  Innan refers to  Sun.  The name  Innan Nambur got corrupted over the centuries and now called as Innambur.  

•  It is here that the God revealed the Tamil grammar to Sage Agasthiyar.  

•  The mythological white elephant Iravatham worshipped the God here and hence the entrance to the sanctum is a huge one to enable its easy entry.  

•  The Lord appeared in human form( as the temple administrator) and submitted the temple's accounts to the king. 

The Kumbabishegam for this temple has been fixed for 26 Jun 2013.(It is possible that due to paucity of funds, it may get delayed).  Our contribution for this Kumbabishegam will be painting and white- washing.  As the place is a bit far away from Chennai, we have decided to arrange buses for our up and down trip at a cost of Rs. 500/- per person.  So far around 90 people have volunteered.  We are leaving Chennai on 15.06.2013 at 03.30pm.  Night stay at Swamimalai has been arranged.  We plan to leave Innambur in the evening of 16.06.2013 after a day's work.

Philanthropists and devotees  who are interested in participating in this renovation may please contact our coordinator  Shri Ramachandran @ +91-9884080543

திருவண்ணாமலை-- சித்ரா பௌர்ணமி தரிசனம்

With The Divine Grace of  Arunachaleswara, ten of our volunteers who are working in Canara Bank had the opportunity of serving at Thiruvannamalai Temple in connection with the Chitra Pournami festival on 25.04.2013.

It was in the year 2006, a group of Canara Bank employees who had just a few months earlier started doing uzhavarappani in a small way, sat together to discuss ways and methods to strengthen their initiative.  They decide to open a common account and make monthly contributions from their salary to facilitate uzhavarappani activities.  The name of the account was deliberated upon at length and no satisfactory suggestion emerged.  At this point, one of our volunteers Shri Atma Ram suggested: " Today is Chitra Pournami Day.  Let us call ourselves as ANNAMALAIYAR ARAPPANI KUZHU ".  This suggestion was immediatly accepted by everyone present.  Thus Annamalaiyar Arappani Kuzhu came into existence 7 years ago.

Chitra Pournami attracts about 15 to 20 lakh devotees to Holy town of  Thiruvannamalai, next only to the Karthigai Maha Deepam festival in numbers.  The temple authorities had estimated a sale of atleast one lakh special darshan tickets on this day.  Canara Bank - Thiruvannamalai, which is the main banker for the temple accounts,  had gladly accepted the task of handling the sale of these tickets.  As our group has a sizeable presence in Canara Bank and widely known, we were entrusted with handling the sale of tickets.  

Assembling at Koyambedu bus stand, we left on the morning of 24th April itself to avoid the usual rush during the Pournami festivals.  Our group included two lady employees as well.  During our bus journey, Shri Ramachandran, our coordinator, recalled the above incident of 2006 that clinched the name of our group.

We reached Thiruvannamalai by noon.  The Chief Manager of our Thiruvannamalai branch had been kind enough to arrange for our stay and food within the temple complex, another rare opportunity in itself.  We were provided two rooms at the temple guest house and one of them we allotted to the ladies in our team.

After having a Darshan inside the temple, we started handling the ticket sales around 5.00pm, which continued till 10.00pm.   There was not much of a crowd on that day.

On April 25th, we all got up by 3.30 am itself and were ready by 4.30am to handle the counters.  Even at that early hour, there was a steady inflow of pilgrims.  As the day progressed, the number of devotees too increased.  Even to take a special darshan ticket, the pilgrims had to wait in the serpentine queue at least for two hours

We were handling the counters till 5.30pm in the evening, when we were relieved by the officials of Tiruvannamalai branch.  This gave us the opportunity to do a Girivalam on this holy day.  Some of us stayed in the temple premises that night and had a once in a  life-time opportunity of doing mantra japa during the  lunar eclipse at Thiruvannamalai.

A panoramic view of the Gopurams  and the Holy Hill from our place of stay

எதுவும் எங்கள் செயலல்ல. அனைத்தும் உன் திருவருளே !  அருளாளா !! அருணாச்சலா !!!

காசி விஸ்வநாதர் கோவில் , நசரத்பேட்டை

Kasi Viswanathar Temple, Nazarethpet, Poonamalle

Kasi Visalakshi Samedha Kasi Viswanathar temple at Nazarethpet is said to be more than 1000 years old.  The temple was earlier  managed by a family of  Beri Chetty, a trader community of the Arya Vysya Clan,   who had created a  number of endowments for the temple.  Now  the HR &CE board has taken control and have initiated steps for renovating this temple.  Balayalam has already been done and the renovation work has commenced at  snail's pace.

The specialty of this temple is that on the 5th , 6th & 7th of the Tamil month Panguni every  year, the rays of the sun fall on the main deity in the morning hours between 6 am and 7 am. It is considered that Surya Bhagvan is worshiping the presiding deity Lord Kashi Viswanathar on those days.

The Nandhi Bhagavan of this temple delights the devotees with his smiling face.  With his head inclined slightly to the right and a serpent tucked under his frontal left foot he sits majestically facing  the Presiding Deity, in the outer praharam.  On enquiry, we were told that the serpent here represents Karkotaka Mahirishi who got his mukthi here.  It is possible that there may be some connection of Karkotaka Mahirishi to this temple, since, the jeevasamadhi of the Maharishi is located at the  nearby Vaidhyanatha Swamy temple at Poonamalle.  If any  reader of this blog is aware of the history and background of this temple, we request that the same may please be passed on to us.

There is a separate shrine for Lord Ayyappa near the northern boundary of the temple.  This construction, we were informed, had come up within the last 12 years and it appears to be  a better-maintained one.

When we reached there on the morning of 21.04.2013, there was not a single soul anywhere nearby.  Only the priest's helper was waiting for our arrival. In view of the commencement of renovation, the main temple itself remained locked down.  Hence there was not much of a work for us inside the temple.

There was a wild growth of weeds and shrubs, especially on the northern side of the temple's outer praharam.  Our volunteers actively involved themselves in clearing the same.  Soon, our newly acquired brush cutter was pressed into service and made the job of cutting the unwanted shrubs easier.  Wild growth was also noticed on top of the gopurams and vimanams.  The same were cleared and weed-killer chemical applied over the remaining portion to prevent further growth.

Before returning, we dug two deep holes and planted coconut saplings after clearing the wild bush in that area

To view additional photos on Nazarethpet Uzhavarappani :  Click Here

How to Reach:  Nazarethpet is two kms away from Poonamalle. From Poonamalle, you can get into any MTC bus proceeding to Sriperumpudur side and get down at the next stopping, which is Nazarethpet.  Take a left turn at the bus stop and a walk for five minutes will lead you to the temple.

Acharapakkam Aatcheeswarar Temple

"முப்புரம் எரிசெய்த அச்சிவன் உறை ரதம் 

அச்சது பொடி  செய்த அதிதீரா"

என்று அருணகிரிநாதரால் போற்றி வணங்கப்பட்ட முழுமுதற்கடவுளாம் விநாயகப்பெருமான் வீற்றிருக்கும் தலம்.   அச்சரபாக்கம் /அச்சிறுபாக்கம் என்று அழைக்கப்படும் இந்த கிராமம் சென்னையில் இருந்து சுமார் 100 கி.மீ தொலைவில் உள்ளது.  சென்னை - திண்டிவனம் நெடுஞ்சாலையில் மேல்மருவத்தூரில் இருந்து சுமார் 5 கி. மீ.

For the last four years we have been getting regular invites every year from Acharapakkam to help them in cleaning up the temple for their Chithirai Festival. We take up the assignment with fervent  devotion as this gives us an opportunity to visit and pray at the shrine of அச்சு முறி விநாயகர்.  Our previous blog posts linked herein details A SHORT INFO about the temple and also details of our last visit and work.

This year too,  Shri Parthiban of SBI took care of all the arrangements for our stay and food.  More than thirty of us reached on the night of March 23rd itself, so as to commence our cleaning work in the morning.  An equal number joined us on 24th March.

Bush-cutter being used

Like the previous years, we mainly did the clearing of bushes in the outer praharam that had almost turned into a wild growth.  Shri Natarajan of Thiruvallur had brought in his bush-cutter equipment which made our job a bit easier.  The usual cleaning of inner praharams  and the temple pooja vessels was also done.

Women volunteers cleaning the brass pooja articles

Cleaned Kudams, sombu and lamps

A cleaning touch to the Kodimaram base

Frequent power cut being a regular problem in most of these villages beyond Chennai, we had to properly plan the work of cleaning the inner praharams using our pressure pumps.  By 2.00 pm the work had reached a finishing stage.  After having a Pooja & Darshan inside the temple, we had our lunch and wound up the proceedings.  

In the meantime, we had collected another Rs.17,500/- for Chitrambakkam temple renovation work.  The members of the renovation committee called on us at Acharapakkam temple and the amount was handed over to them.

More photos available at: Acharapakkam-March 2013

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Our next Uzhavarappani is on 21.04.2013, Sunday at Kashi Viswanathar Temple, Nazarethpettai, Poonamalle, Chennai.