PRADHOSHA PUNITHA PAYANAM

PRADHOSHA PUNITHA PAYANAM

When you wish to do something good, you must immediately begin it before a negative thought supersedes it, and only thus all good things have been done, good thoughts have defeated their counterparts, and all goodmen have worked so and taught this simple secret.

It was planned to visit Thalachangadu Dhakshinapureeswarar temple  and the Brahmapureeswarar temple at Adhi Kadavur Mayanam (one of the famous five mayanam temples of Siva bakthas)  on the 6^th May, Pradosham day, News had been published at our request by the ever-ready- for- your-help editor SRI T.R.JAWAHAR in  all the talks and times of Chennai. On 3^rd May 09, on seeing the news many responded offering to participate. On 3^rd night itself we fixed a comfortable deluxe bus and shortlisted out of 72, only 54 probable participants, to full capacity of the bus. On 4^th they all reconfirmed and  we fixed accommodation for all at Thaila Kalyana mandapam at Vaitheeswaran koil.  Mr. Gopalakrishnan, of Mayiladuthurai,  deserves all our appreciation and grateful thanks for having fixed this for us at short notice.  He also arranged at our request, food for the night of 5^th May and breakfast on 6^th May. 

One of the  tour members, Mr. Jabalpur Nagaraja Sarma, a wellknown tamil writer on Hindu Religion, Narmada River origin, Sakthi sthalangal and worship. North Indian temples and the relevant details for devotees.  He is now 83 and was requested to give a lecture on Hindu temple worship, his experience with Maha Periyaval, and Sakthi worship.  His lecture lasted for about an hour,  was very interesting and  informative.

  

Mr Srinivasan, 87 belied his age and was the most energetic, enthusiastic and enlightened everyone with his rich experience with Kanchi Mutt. I was worried about any problems we might face in taking this old  gentleman with us particularly during this  hot summer tour but he was the most fittest individual of the tour guiding the rest everywhere!

We had two boarding points for all the 54, the first at Nanganallur in front of Thirumal Marugan temple where we performed the pooja before commencing the pilgrimage and  the next and final boarding point was at Valasaravakkam where Dr R.Subramaniam collected and kept ready the remaining persons.

Our first visit was to Singaperumal Koil, Pataladri, of Ugra Narasimhar temple ( a divya desam) whereafter we visited Madhuranthakam Erikatha Ramar temple, famous for the legendary story of Rama and Lakshmana having stood guard the wholenight and saved the village from the fury of the swollen adjacent lake which would otherwise have swallowed the  villages around. The English local Collector was the eyewitness for this miraculous event. He built the temple for the goddess in this temple.  Saint Ramanuja was initiated to Vaishnavite rituals in this temple and where it was performed is now a sannidhi for worship.

We next proceeded to Pondicherry, around noon and had dharshan of Manakkulavinayagar.  Bharathi sang his Vinayaka songs as a devotee of this Ganesha when he was an exile in  this erstwhile French territory.

It was almost 2.30 pm in the afternoon when we were at Chidambaram.  Luckily we found a lady willing to accommodate us (imagine 54 barging into a small house!) She however was large hearted to keep  the hall and veranda open for us  to sit and take the food brought by us.  We profusely thanked her, cleaned the house and left for Sirgazhi Sattanathar temple.

Before reaching our destination, ie., Vaitheeswaran koil, we bifurcated about 2 km towards  Thirupunkur, to visit the famous Sivalokanadhar temple where Nandanar was obliged by Nandhi at  His command by shifting himself to the right so that Nandanar could have the Lord’s dharshan. This temple needs renovation and attention of all bakthas so that posterity can also have the fortune of visiting such ancient temples in good condition.  The temple was viewed in total darkness due to power cut. Nandanar  would have also seen the temple like us as there was no electricity in his days, is nt it?

We then reached Vaitheeswaran koil,  an Angaraka kshetram (temple of Mars) and we were there on  5/5  evening , a Tuesday and all devotees were very happy to visit the temple prior to resting for the day.   But our happiness was marred by an incident.  One of the members of our bus suddenly complained to me that she lost her 2 chains (about 10 soverigns in all in today’s value  about Rs 1.5 lakhs)  either in the Thirupunkur temple or at Sirgazhi, Sattanathar temple and cried.  I had to take her in an auto rickshaw to Thirupunkur again, which by then had power restored and it was easy to search all over the temple in vain.  Returning back to Sirgazhi to trace the lost chains was not possible due to late hours.  As she was completely depressed and totally lost,  I called her home in Mylapore to break the news politely to enable them swallow it. But I was surprised to learn that the woman had left the chains in the bathroom that morning itself prior to leaving home for joining us!!!!!

 The well earned rest was availed at Thaila kalyana mandapam in Vaitheeswaran koil,  after light food provided for the night as per our prior arrangement through Mr. Gopalakrishnan.

It is relevant to mention here that we had the opportunity of listening to Mr. Jabalpur Nagaraja Sharma, a well known writer of Hindu mythology, religious practices and temple worship, particularly the temples visited by him in the North India.

On 6^th May, the pradosham day, we  stuck to our plans to first proceed to Thiru Indhalur about 3 kms from Mayiladuthurai, and visited the Parimala Ranganathar temple.  Unlike Kerala temples where  daily worship begins from early hours say 4 am,  in this temple we were the first to witness  Go Puja the first ritual before throwing open the temple to devotees, but it was already 7.30 am.  Why so late that too in a divya desam ????

Our next visit was to Lord Mahalingam temple at Thiruvidaimaruthur.  This temple is one of the famous 12 Linga temples for Saivas and is very huge, under the control of Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam.   We  all had the great opportunity of performing an Abishekam at  10 am for the world peace and welfare of all that too on a Pradosham day.  Some of us who can recite Rudram and Chamakam and sukthams joined together and chanted same during abishekam    

As temple hours were over, we proceeded to Mayiladuthurai for our lunch in a decent hotel enroute our journey to Thalachangadu, where at 3 pm  Pradosham abishekam and poojas  to Akilandeswari sametha  Dhakshinapureeswarar  and  scheduled to be held in presence of the local  Pannaiyar, who is the heriditory owner of the temple.  Pannaiyar with his family graced the occasion and was very nice to us.

I must mention here that while fixing the bus for our journey, the operator, Mr. Kumar was so much enthusiastic and appreciative of our action plans and volunteered to donate Rs 1000/-  which he asked me to use for something good for the temple.  I handed this money to the Pannaiyar in presence of Dr R. Subramaniam, the Managing Trustee of Loka Dharma Seva Foundation Trust.  Pannaiyar promised to use this money for renovation of the temple, which is to undergo balalayam shortly before Kumbabishekam next due.

Our next hop was to Adhi kadavur Mayanam, one of the famous 5 mayanam tempes of Hindu Religion. The temple is very huge and  Garudan can be seen hovering above, which is a rare phenomenon here. Pradosham  abishekam was performed here to Vaadamulaiyal sametha Brahmapureswarar.  Though this ancient temple is hardly about  1- 1.5 km from Thirukadayur Kala Samhara murthy and Amritagateswarar  and Abirami   temple many do not know  or visit here.

This is one of the ancient temples built by Rajasimha Pallavan and bears still the stone edicts. 

According to Sri Govindarajan, the Odhuvar here, whose voice is so reverberating while reciting Thevarams explaining the subtle meanings therein, that at best recollection of his,  we are the only or the first group of  54 devotees at anyone time gathered in that temple. 

Our program of temple visits ended with the visit to Chidambaram.  Thanks to Sri Parameswara Dikshithar we were able to have dharshan of  Natarajar and the various abhishekams to the spatikalingam on this holy Pradosham day.

We returned home on 7^th morning after this memorable journey by His Grace.  -  J.K. Sivan – mob 9840279080/jksivan@gmail.com