Wish You All a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2009.
This is my first post on this new year and I wanted to post on what I was doing on New Year day. On the new year day, we have been roaming around temples in and around Thanjavur. It was a divine experience for me and I thought of sharing it with everyone.
Here are my Trip Details:
On 31st Dec 2008 we got the Rockfort express to Thanjavur, the land of temples.
After Breakfast we started in a tempo traveller to Thittai, a small village where we have a temple for Lord Guru. This is a special temple for Guru which is called a Guru Sthalam.
Next we visited a very ancient temple called Palaivana Nathar. Here the saint Gnanasambadhar have sung a poetry for this temple. In general we call these kinda temples as "Padal Petra Thalam" which means a temple which has a poetry on itself sung by any of the Four renowned saints of the Saiva religion who belong to the 7th to 9th century. They are Appar, Sundarar, Sambandar and Manikkavasagar.
After that we went to Thirunageswaram, I think many of you would be aware of this temple. Those who have to any pooja for Raagu will be surely visiting this temple for sure. I am visiting this for the first time and I really the admired to see such big temple.
Then we went to Thirukadaiyur, as a regular visit. A small story behind this. Once upon a time, there lived a Maharishi Mirigandu. Maharshi Mirigandu and his wife Maruthuvathi were very upset as they did not have a child.
The Lord, in recognition of the penance of the Rishi granted the Child boon. He asked the sage whether he wanted a child full of wisdom, austere character with a short life of 16 years or one with a long life but with no wisdom.
The sage preferred the former. The boy was born and named Markandeya. When he was 16 he learnt about the boon and began to visit the Siva temples and finally came to Thirukadayur. It was the 100th Siva temple he was visiting. That was his last day.
He saw Yama (Kalan, Lord of Dearth) coming to take his life. Markandeya embraced the Shivalinga (The God’s Idol in the temple). When Yama spread his death rope, it also covered the shivalinga. Angered by Yama’s act, Lord Siva kicked him , held him under his foot , making him inactive. With Yama being rendered inactive, no death occurred on earth increasing the burden of Mother earth. Mother earth rushed to Lord Siva and requested him to forgive Yama’s act and release him. At her request, the Lord restored Yama back to life.
Also it is believed that Lord Siva blessed Markendeya with the boon of being ever 16. ( How nice right!!). Since Markendeya had lost his parents and was all alone, he decided to share this boon with the other people on earth. He recited 16 slogas and it is believed that any body who recites these slogas with full devotion will live longer.
The reason why people celebrate Sasthiaptha Purthi in Thirukadayur – As Death was conquered at Thirukadaiyur, the Lord in Thirukadaiyur had been named as ‘Kala Samhara Moorthi ‘ ( Kala – Death, Samhara – Conquering, Moorthi – Lord)/ Mritunga jaya murthy (Mritya – Death, Jayam – Victory). It is believed that by praying Kala Samhara Moorthi one can conquer death.
So its very special to visit this ‘Kala Samhara Moorthi ‘ for getting a long life. There ends the story of my new year day.
See you all in many posts in the upcoming year.
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