Tiruchendur trip – Part II

Since we were a little behind schedule, the person through whom Rama had arranged for Shanmugarchanai, rescheduled our slot to 5 pm which gave us ample time to get ready and have refreshments at a tea stall in front of the hotel. We then walked to the temple. The first sight of the sea thrilled us and to add to it, we could see a peacock walking on top of a nearby building!

guys ready for the pooja

We dipped our feet in the sea before entering the temple. It was a blur after that as we had to rush to the sannidhi for Shanmugarchanai. The first stop was at Pillayar sannidhi where Arasappar performed a detailed archanai to Lord Ganesha. Next was archanai to Veerabahu. As Veerabahu signifies friendship, we prayed for the Sabai friendship there! We then had darshan of Lord Subramaniar. Happy with the darshan, I peeped into the sannidhi marked “Jayanthi nathar” only to see the Lord with his consorts Valli and Deivanai but not the Lingams.

Rama explained that we cannot have darshan of the Lingam anymore for many reasons. Next sannidhi was Arumugam with Valli and Devasena. After just a darshan there, Arasappar asked us to sit a little away to wait for our turn for Shanmugarchanai. All of us ladies chanted Skanda shashti kavasam and as we completed the chanting, we were called inside. It felt very good to sit so close to the sanctum and the Lord for about 30-40 minutes through the Shanmugarchanai. Two people sat in front of the Lord and did archanai with first green coloured leaves, second with pink coloured arali flowers and then white coloured champangi flowers as Arasappar and two more people chanted the 1000 names of Lord Muruga. Archanai was completed with 6 arathis to the 6 faces of the Lord and neivedyam of many items like chakkara pongal, thengai saadam, kambu saadam, puli saadam, thayir saadam and payasam!

We then proceeded for archanai at the other sannidhis like Goddess Valli, Goddess Deivanai, Srinivasa perumal, Natarajar, Saneeswarar and Bhairavar. The vadamalai on Bhairavar was also given to us as prasadam. In this temple we were not allowed to take any photographs so we just satisfied ourselves seeing ancient structures all around.

Though it was only 8 pm, all of us were ready for the prasadam as dinner. Sudha and Karthik lovingly served us the dinner in vaazhai elai provided thoughtfully by Arasappar!

people relasing after prasadam for dinner

With temple visits over for the day, the kids were keen on a trip to the beach. I could not resist joining and went to the room to change. Rajni though tired said the sea goddess beckoned to her and joined us. It was a soothing experience to walk in the beach with only a few people around and the waves touching our feet. 

We enjoyed for more than half an hour and decided to call it a day as the next day was to begin very early for Kodi namaskaram at the Tiruchendur temple.

Sunday morning at 3:40 am we assembled in the front of the hotel and Arasappar took us to the temple. The temple was quite crowded for so early in the morning. We went straight to Goddess Valli sannidhi where Thirupalliyezhuchi was happening with about 14-16 people chanting Subramanya Subrabhatham. In the morning quietness, the loud and musical chanting took us to another level and we all sat praying next to the singers. The Lord was brought out of Goddess’s sannidhi and taken around in a palanquin with more chanting. We proceeded for darshan of Lord Subramanyar in the main sanctum. We were zapped by the number of people standing there for darshan. With a lot of pulling, pushing and jumping happening we had the viswaroopa darshan of Murugan and came out for Kodi Namaskaram.

There were about 20 people all around the dwajasthambam doing namasakaram at the end of each stanza of the slokam being recited. We must have done about 13-14 namaskarams. This was followed by slokas on Suryan as it happened to be Sunday and we did another round of 16 namaskarams for Surya Bhagavan. After completing this, Arasappar took us around to all sannidhis such as Valli, Deivanai, Perumal, Natarajar etc and also explained the pictures depicting the miracles associated with the temple. He also went on to describe the various festivals that are celebrated with the biggest being Soora samharam. Though the crowd is unimaginable, I wish I am able to see this event at least once. Hope Murugan grants my wish!

We came out of the temple and the weather was superb as it was just Dawn and a very mild drizzle made it is even more enjoyable.

Arasappar took us to a special place for coffee and though the kids were very tempted to go to the beach again, they were denied the pleasure due to time constraint.

We enjoyed the coffee, went back to the room to pack up and leave for Nava Tirupathi visit.

Rituals like Shanmugarchanai, Kodi Namaskarams were new to most of us but it was a great experience, for which we all thank Sudha, Karthik, Rama and Kalyan.