FAMILY & GROUP 23 DAYS PILGRIMAGE TOUR TO TAMIL NADU - 2009 - PART 4

Part Four....Continuation of our Journey....

A very disturbing night for us as discussion of the mis-behaviour of the rude lady was still the highlights of the topic even to the night...must say it was a very tiring and exhausting day both mentally and physically as we hit the bed and think of our next day .......


09th December 2009 - 05th day of Pilgrimage

It was a fine morning...woke up and headed for breakfast....and boarded on the bus at about 8.00 AM and was headed to (13) Vaithiswaran Temple. After about an hour journey we arrived at the temple..bus parked by the roadside and we walked to the temple entrance along side of houses. We arrived at a long corridor and in front of us was a huge water tank/pond with a small shrine in the middle of water pond, we turn left and proceeded through the corridor and stopped to take some pictures..

Picture taken in the corridor with the pond shrine in the background.

After a short walk we arrived at the entrance of the inner temple..where all of us washed our feet first before we entered into the temple. After entering into the temple we were told to purchase some prayers items such as salt and black pepper. We did some rituals with the items purchased and then proceeded with our prayers. What is famous in this temple those days was ..the reading of "olai" (written leaves) of one's fate in life. In those days the accuracy of reading was almost to 90% however nowadays the accuracy of the readings are merely 40%. We skipped the reading and proceeded back to the bus after a short break by the water pond. 

                                                                                               Having a break by the Water Pond.

After a nice short break, we then proceeded to our next temple. We are now en-route to visit all the nine Navagraha temples. The first one we are going to is the (14) Buthan Temple in Thiruvenkadu. We arrived there approximately 10.20 AM. It was not too hot but we could feel the sun hitting hard on us. From the front this temple looked like a small temple..but upon entering through the first gopuram..temple looked pretty big. 

Entrance of the Buthan Temple.

Leaving our sandals at the tea stall by the temple, we entered the temple with a nice warm feeling. As you enter..the first thing you will see is a big pond of water to your left side and in front of you will be a small vinayagar temple. We prayed to vinayagar before proceeding to the right side of temple to go to the main temple site. The day we arrived, seems there was a small festival that was taking place so the place was quite crowded with people. 

                                                                                       Upon Entering the Entrance Gopuram -  Wife & Son.

The place was crowded as we made our way through and eventually arrived at the temple. It was not a big temple but a small yet powerful. I then began to explain to my group what is the purpose of visiting this temple and why did we choose this temple first of the nine Navagraha temples.

First is what are Lord Buthans Powers : He is someone who we pray for a healthy life. Free and pure mind and soul are very important for all of us to go through our daily life. We live in a world which is full of temptations and sin and also full of goodness and devotion. 

Second - Why Him : For one to choose the right path..one should have a right frame of mind and a healthy mind,body and soul. Healthiness leads to Wealthiness. He is also the protector of Knowledge & Education . First we need to be educated of what is important to us in life and secondly we need the knowledge to know how to protect what we have learned and earned. 

After a good darshan of the Lord, we headed back to the bus, walking in the sun now right up on our head. Along the walk way back to the bus, again we saw women walking towards us begging for money. We avoided them as we did not want to create a beggars stampede as we now know that..if we start to give to one person we will then have to give to all...

                                                                                 Walking back to Bus - temple is on the background.

We got on our bus and our next stop was not very far away indeed..we arrived about 11.20 AM to Keezperumpallam. We arrived at (15) Naganathaswamy Temple. This temple is for the Kedhu Planet (Tail of the Snake). Again the moment, we got down from the bus, we were rushed by children begging for money. Our guide manage to kind of chased them off for the moment...as we gathered in front of the temple where there was a shed. The were a few shops under the shed and at the entrance of this small temple. 

We gathered as our guide went to get us the special entrance tickets, we went in and prayer to the lord for blessing from all our bad times - may we have strong will to and positive mind to go through whatever negative elements in our life. 

As we about to board back into our bus, once again a group of small children emerged from no where and began their own ritual of begging. We got back on our bus as fast as we could to avoid further mental disturbance. 

                                                             Moments before we board the bus - background is the temples gopuram.

As we board on the bus, we realised that we could go to another temple before we went for lunch and that is if we could reach there on time before the temple closes. 

We were now heading to (16) Abirami Amman Temple. As we arrived, we quickly walked towards the temple as fast as we could and we gathered around the cloak room to store our sandals and slippers as our guide was getting the entrance tickets, as we moved towards the entrance, we realised that the front door of the temple is about to close and as the temple began to rang..we make haste into the temple as not want to be left out.

                                                                                   Abirami Amman Temple Entrance.

                         

Just as all of us enter into the inner temple, we heard the big wooden door shut behind us.We felt so lucky that we managed to arrive and enter the temple just in time for the afternoon "arathanai" last prayer before the temple is closed for the afternoon.

First we went to the Lord Sivan sanadhi to get his blessings. Here he is known as Makandayan.After a good darshan we went of to Amma's sanadhi which i was waiting for indeed....i mean no disrespect for Sivan but my heart is always filled with AMMA and will always be... 

Seeing Amma being shown the arathi..i felt a nice warm peaceful vibration which means only one thing that amma was around and she is blessing us..and probably she is one who made us come here on time and enter the temple seconds before the door closes behind us..as it is no joke for our group to just breeze through the door without any commotion as we had small children with us whom could have delayed us from moving fast. So i guess it is very true to say that " What AMMA wants..she GETS!" she wants us to see her..so she make us to see her.. 

Despite some small commotion of noise problem from Master Keshava's mis-behaviour we did manage to get a good and serene darshan indeed. Kudos to AMMA of making this darshan happen for us...or more so for me.

Now leaving this temple..i was totally happy and satisfied...and even though we did not really plan to come to this temple but i was very glad we did indeed. 

         Leaving Amman temple to board the Bus.

Next we were off to lunch and rest...before we proceed to our next temple destination. Our next destination of the was to Thirunallar. We had a quick lunch and then we proceeded to Thirunallar and we arrived there at about 3.45 PM which was early indeed and we had to wait for about 30 odd minutes before we could go into the temple.

The temple we are now going to enter was (17)  Dharbaranyeswarer Swamy Temple ( Saneswarer Temple). Our bus was parked by the side of the sarasawathi water pond and we all got down from the bus and had a nice walk and gathered in front of the temple awaiting for it to open.

                            Saraswathy water pond by the side of the temple.

As soon as it was 4.30 PM we entered into the temple after of course purchasing the special entrance ticket. However since we were the first ones entering into the temple as it opens, there were very little crowd and we had a pretty nice walk into the temple through the wood barricades. 

                                        Awaiting to go inside the temple of Lord Saneswarer.

We had a nice darshan and nice prayers. Prayers in the region of being blessed for any short coming that is due to our way in the near future and also thanks for all the blessing of good tides that he gives after him leaving us of his hold onto our life's and making us humble before GOD. For making us understand that all our plans in our lives is deemed to be scrutinised and re-planned by only GOD.

When coming out of the temple, i felt like a small burden was lifted of my shoulder as it was nice feeling to actually see the lord who has a strong hold onto you, to teach you meaning of fate, teach you meaning of humble in life and meaning that life is not about taking anything for granted...but you can do away with the ones that would pull you down in their negativity thinking of life.

I guess coming to this temple..can put our life perceptive back in order or at least make us think if we are on the right path to GOD.

We got back onto our bus and now we were headed to Thirunageshwaram. We are headed to (18) Nageswaram Temple ( Raghu Temple - Head of Snake ). 

                            Raghu temple on the Background of my wife and son.

We reached this temple at dusk time...sun was already hiding under the horizon..and lights were coming out. First thing everyone did after coming down from the bus was hit the public toilet...although it was not clean but we all had no choice...

We all waited for all to finish their business and gathered by the bus and by then the sun has actually gone down and as we walked towards the hotel..it started to drizzle but it was not cloudy at all....

We continued to the entrance of the temple and we found that they were all preparing for some festival to be held the next day...as we enter into the temple we heard the musicians were practicing and we walked passed by straight for the prayers. 

It is said that..during abishegam....when milk is poured onto the statue of Lord Raghu..as the milk hits the ground it will turn blue in colour..which shows the poison contents on his statue. People come here to pray to him to remove all of the unwanted obstacles they have in life and also pray from all the unforeseen sins they have done in their life. 

                               Front view of the Temple - Decorations for the coming festival.

After coming out of the temple..we then proceeded to the (19) Mugamambigai Temple by the front side of the main temple. Long Corridor leading to this temple and at the entrance there were nice paintings. We had a nice prayers...always nice to pray to Amma and we went around the temple slowly as the sky was dark and we heard fireworks going off for festival tomorrow. It was a very peaceful feeling walking around the temple just by yourself with open dark sky above your head and as it again began to slowly drizzle..we picked up our pace as there were children among us and we dont want them to be sick.

                         Leaving the temple to head back to town - Main temple in the background.

Once out of the Amma's temple we quickly proceeded to the bus as the drizzle began to get faster and we were off to town to have dinner and possibly visit another temple if we have the time. 

Luck was with us, as we arrived in the town of Kumbakonam, it was still early and we decided to squeeze in another temple before we went for dinner. Temple we are now heading to is the (20) Kasiviswanather Temple of Kumbakonam. 

Temple was by the side of a small roundabout area and there was a huge water pond by the side of the temple. Our bus was parked there and as we came down the bus..we heard guys on the loud speaker giving a political speech for a by election that was due to take place soon as that area.  

                                         Entrance of the Kasi Viswanather Temple.

We walked towards the temple and it was a small entrance for a quiet a big and famous temple. We placed our sandals and slippers outside of the big wooded door of the entrance of the temple. We had a nice prayers and even thought we had a long day..we managed to have a nice peaceful prayers and darshan..

      Out of temple and the background is the water pond of the temple.

After coming out of the temple..we slowly made our way back to town by walking...we walked pass by a small market with was selling fruits and vegetables. Traffic was not too bad but we still had to be very careful indeed...as he headed to Hotel Raya to have our dinner. We wanted to have a non vege dinner and as such this hotel was recommended and also this hotel/restraunt was near to where the temple was too.

Nice non vege dinner and we were off back to bus. Careful walk back to bus amidst the small traffic and all of us were poofed and just wanted to go back to hotel and hit the bed. 

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, we crossed the road and entered into the hotel and waited for the lift to go up the room. The next lift came and so we entered into the lift ..however the lift instead of going up..kept going down and door opened at the basement area. As the door was opening..Master Keshava decided to put out his hand to the door and his fingers followed the door and his finger got stuck in the wedge of the door.He let out a big cry as we tried to pull his hands out of the wedge..hitting the close button of the lift did the trick and he was crying non stop due to the pain as all of went to our respective room very tired and exhausted. 

We hoped nothing serious to the small boy and hoped to see him all well the next morning.......

To be continued..folks....