Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Navaratri 2014 - Day 6

Day 6 went with only a visit to a cousin's place with for thamboolam! I went with my sister Jayashree and we tried to visit the Anantha Padmanabaswamy temple in Adyar with me giving her suggestions that we visit the kutti Mookambika temple on the corner of the street where  Padmanabaswamy temple is located. We walked from our cousin's place with great enthusiasm talking about these temples especially the Mookambika temple, I had noticed on one my earlier visits was very beautifully decorated on an ordinary day! All this was lost as Ranga came to pick us up and it was getting really late in the night.
Here are some photos of the cute decoration at the cousin's place though not a proper Golu







Also we met a friend of our cousin who had an unique golu at her place.
Though we did not get to visit her golu, we came to know that she has uploaded it on youtube
Here is the link for your viewing pleasure   Lotus golu 2014 

Monday, September 29, 2014

Navaratri 2014 - Day 5

A little sickness I thought is going to put a break to my Navaratri blogs, but the Goddess gave me a spurt of energy that I could visit the Kali temple in West Mambalam. She also blessed me with a visit to Angala Parameswari Puthu temple where the archakar suggested I take a snap of the moolavar and post on FB!

Kali Temple
  

This is my second visit to this typical Bengali-style temple. The whole place wore a festive look with people getting ready for Durga puja and Arthi of the day. 


My visit was short and swift as usual due to lack of time. I entered to see the sanctum to my right, Goddess Kali was in the centre with her great devotees Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Sri Sarada Devi on either side! On first look, the Mata looks fierce with her red tongue out, but once you notice her eyes you can see she is full of benevolence! As the archakar was not around, I just took the kumkum and proceeded to circumambulate. 
There were a few stalls selling lac and shell bangles, dolls especially the face of Goddess Kali, saris etc. Right behind the main sanctum are three small sannidhis of Durga, Shiva and Ganesha.





Further down was a huge display of Golu.


 The centre mandap has a Nataraja with a smaller version of the main deity of the temple, Goddess Kali! My two eyes weren't enough for the decoration in front of the mandap. There was a colourful rangoli surrounded by many kalasams and different rangolis in plates, paruppu thengaai, fruits, Tulsi plants and what not.











The display of golu continued further with two huge statues of lady dancers on one side of a padi golu. The first doll that struck my sight was a beautiful pallikonda Sivan, on Ambal's lap!





Next to this padi golu was Meenakshi Sundareswarar wedding with a Pillayar in front. This was also flanked by two statues of women looking very western! The flooring here was treated with plaster of Paris and there was a small board saying Moon's surface. 




This was directly behind the main mandap and in front of this, i.e. on the reverse side of the mandap was a very cute palanquin with a beautiful Goddess in it.




 Next was another padi golu followed by a very cute doll of Krishna with one hand on his hip. 



 and a huge Saraswathi and then Viswaroopa darsanam of Maha Vishnu. 



 It ended with another huge statue of Karumari Amman. 


I came out and once again had darshan of the main deity before leaving the temple


Sri Angala Parameswari Temple




I came across the lane with the pillar mentioning the name of the temple. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the kurukkal suggesting that I take a photo of the main deity when all I asked him was permission to take a picture of the kutti golu which was done with great enthusiasm in such a small place.

Here are the pictures of the kutti golu, Puthu Amman and the beautiful, beautiful Angala Parameswari! A few ladies were reciting Lalitha Sahasranaamam making the atmosphere even more divine!













The kurukkal informed me that sannidhis of Murugan, Iyyappan, Anjaneyar and Navagrahams were on the first floor and I climbed above to have a look. I noticed Murugan with Valli and Deivayanai and Anjaneyar on my right and prayed to them. I could see that the ceiling was built around the neem tree near which the puthu is located below. On the other side were the sannidhis of Iyyappan and Navagraham. I had a very strong inner feeling that I am stepping on top of the Amman in the temple and my legs just would not cross the neem tree. I just prayed to the deities from this side itself and came down. I could feel the presence of the Goddess so well in this temple!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Navaratri 2014 - Day 4

Sunday laziness is the only reason for me not to take an effort to visit a temple :)
I hope the following Golu photos partly compensate for same


The first golu visit today was at my cousin Ranjini's house. She and her two daughters had arranged a thematic golu last year. So I hoped for a similar one this year too. They did not disappoint me atall! They always have the golu in two rooms, one in the hall itself on the sit out in a single row and another in a room in traditional steps. This year the theme in the sit out is around the world in 8 minutes. It depicted the wonders in many parts of the world right from Sydney Opera House to Mayan pyramid. They have painstakingly set up models using 3D puzzles and the results are wonderful. It has obviously taken many days for them to assemble and the end products are lovely!

Here are the wonders they have made!





Sydney Opera house, Great wall of China, Taj Mahal, St.Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Big Ben, London,Colosseum in Rome, Al Burj in Dubai, An Egyptian Pharoh

Leaning tower of Pisa, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Empire state building, White house, Mayan Pyramid and Amazon forest



In the traditional golu also, apart from the padi golu which itself had a doll of Mother Mary and a miniature mosque,along with some lovely dolls of Rangamannar on Andal's lap, Dhanvantri and Satyanarayan puja, there was also a display of fruits wedding (last year was vegetable wedding) which was so cute with apple and orange getting married in the presence of other fruits like strawberry, mango, pineapple etc! There were also displays of a dance set right from poikal kudhirai to dandiya! Another display was that of my nieces toys consisting of various typesof utility vehicles. Of course her favourite God Ganesha was also sitting in different postures on a table on the opposite side. All in all it was a very interesting golu. Kudos to Ranjini and kids!







Fruits wedding

Dance set



Toy vehicles

Ganesha


Next visit was to my friend Mathangi's house which had a very traditional Golu. Here are the photos.

The scenes from Ramayana arranged on one side was very nice. There was also a temple and wedding procession set on the other side


Scenes from Ramayana

Hope to visit a temple tomorrow!