My long time plan materialized on Apr 24, 2009. I had the darshan of Subramanya Swami (Senthil Andavar) at Tiruchendur, taking my tally of six adobes (Aru padai veedu) to five, with Tiruthani remaining. I will write a blog about the 6 adobes once I complete Tiruthani too :).
Tiruchendur:
We (I and my parents) started from Trichy by cab on Apr 24, 2009. It was a 6 hour drive (via Viralimalai, Madurai, Aruppukottai and Tuticorin). We got to see the salt lakes in Tuticorin and I kind of liked the place. We reached Tiruchendur at 15:00. Took a room in a hotel just next to the temple. The temple is right on the sea shore (Bay of Bengal).
We arranged for Darshan through the hotel itself. It's normally crowded and apparently it's the second most crowded Subramanya temple (after Palani). The darshan starts with a Ganesha shrine (as usual) followed by the sanctum of lord Subramanya. We had a darshan of Subramanya in Golden armour (Thanga Kavacham). We then went to Pancha Linga shrine (5 lingas), which is next to the sanctum, but one has to pass through a narrow lane next to the Subramanya shrine to reach there. Legend says that, Subramanya afetr killing the demon Surapadman, got "Brahmahathi dosha" (not sure how, Surapadman can't be a Brahmin!!) and He performed puja to this Pancha linga to overcome this. Also, as He is performing puja Himself, no one else perfroms puja here. There is a narrow crevice open to sky and legend has it that Lord Devendra also offers his prayers to Shiva. It's only from this shrine that one can do a pradhakshinam (circumambulation) of the Subramanya Swamy shrine. Utsava murthy (Lord Shanmuga) is also close to the sanctum. One more special shrine is that of Muruga with His anklet as His weapon. As per mythology, Lord Muruga was mocked at by Surapadma for not having a weapon of His own (Vel was provided by Goddess Shakthi), for which Lord Muruga showed His anklet saying this would be sufficient to kill him. Interesting!! There is a Maha Vishnu sannidhi (with a Ranganatha shrine next to it). Next to this shrine, there is a destroyed rock, believed to be the erstwhile Krouncha malai, ruled by Tharakasura (Surapadman's brother). Legend has it that this was proptecting Surapadman's city (VeeraMahendrapuram - which was in the sea) and was destroyed by Lord Subramanya first. Then there is the Kalyana Ganapathi shrine. All these shrines form a Om (ஓம்). We then visited the Valli cave temple, where Valli hid Herself when Lord Ganesha took the form of an elephant and inimidated Her, to help Lord Subramanya during His romance with Valli :). We also had a darshan at 20:00 (Vibhoothi kavacham). We spent a lot of time in the beach and I enjoyed playing in the waves :)
We arranged for Darshan through the hotel itself. It's normally crowded and apparently it's the second most crowded Subramanya temple (after Palani). The darshan starts with a Ganesha shrine (as usual) followed by the sanctum of lord Subramanya. We had a darshan of Subramanya in Golden armour (Thanga Kavacham). We then went to Pancha Linga shrine (5 lingas), which is next to the sanctum, but one has to pass through a narrow lane next to the Subramanya shrine to reach there. Legend says that, Subramanya afetr killing the demon Surapadman, got "Brahmahathi dosha" (not sure how, Surapadman can't be a Brahmin!!) and He performed puja to this Pancha linga to overcome this. Also, as He is performing puja Himself, no one else perfroms puja here. There is a narrow crevice open to sky and legend has it that Lord Devendra also offers his prayers to Shiva. It's only from this shrine that one can do a pradhakshinam (circumambulation) of the Subramanya Swamy shrine. Utsava murthy (Lord Shanmuga) is also close to the sanctum. One more special shrine is that of Muruga with His anklet as His weapon. As per mythology, Lord Muruga was mocked at by Surapadma for not having a weapon of His own (Vel was provided by Goddess Shakthi), for which Lord Muruga showed His anklet saying this would be sufficient to kill him. Interesting!! There is a Maha Vishnu sannidhi (with a Ranganatha shrine next to it). Next to this shrine, there is a destroyed rock, believed to be the erstwhile Krouncha malai, ruled by Tharakasura (Surapadman's brother). Legend has it that this was proptecting Surapadman's city (VeeraMahendrapuram - which was in the sea) and was destroyed by Lord Subramanya first. Then there is the Kalyana Ganapathi shrine. All these shrines form a Om (ஓம்). We then visited the Valli cave temple, where Valli hid Herself when Lord Ganesha took the form of an elephant and inimidated Her, to help Lord Subramanya during His romance with Valli :). We also had a darshan at 20:00 (Vibhoothi kavacham). We spent a lot of time in the beach and I enjoyed playing in the waves :)
Next day early in the morning at 05:00, we were in the temple again and we had the Viswaroopa Darshan at 05:30. The handsome God He is, Viswaroopam was just superb. The temple is open from 05:30 to 20:30 through out.
The God here is very powerful. Adi Shankara has authored Subramanya Bhujangam in this temple on this God, when he was suffering from a severe stomach illness and was cured immediately. Recently, in 2006, when Tsunami hit the entire coastal Tamil Nadu, this was the only place where the sea receded and there was absolutely no damage to the temple and no casualties here, in spite of the close proximity to the sea and many devotees were taking bath in
the sea.
SriVaikuntam:
We left from Tiruchendur at 07:45 to SriVaikuntam, which is just 20 km away on the Tirunelveli main road. There is apparently nava tirupathi temples (9 Vishnu temples) in this area, each ruling to one planet. We just visited SriVaikuntam (which was for lord Surya or Sun God). Swami here is called Kallapiran or Vaikuntanathar. Two Lakshmi shrines - Vaikuntanayaki and Choranatha nayaki. This is the 54th of the 108 Divya desam temples of Lord Vishnu.
Nellaiyappar - Gandhimathi temple - Tirunelveli:
After SriVaikuntam, we reached Nellaiyappar temple in Tirunelveli, a city 50 km from Tiruchendur. Massive temple!! HUGE!! Superb darshan of Nellaiyappar and Gandhimathi amman (She was looking very beautiful). There are around 100 big shrines in this temple and I feel it's enough if you visit this temple once a year and get a darshan of all Hindu Gods at one go :). Interstingly, there was a idol of Ravana!! Also, this was one of the pancha sabhai temples (5 temples one fo each metal - this one is for copper or Thamiram, it is on the banks of "Thamira"barani river).
Madurai:
Finally, we reached Madurai at 14:00. Very bad lunch at College House. Meenakshi amman was as beautiful as ever. We eventually reached Trichy at 21:30 on April 25, 2009.
Good trip and with this my mother had seen all the six adobes of Lord Subramanya. Hope I also do that soon :)
Cheers!!
