My wife Rekha had planned this surprise trip to Guruvayur on Onam festival day. Hence we started from Bangalore cantonment railway station on 11 Sept 2008 at 9.30 pm. We took Kanniyakumari Express and reached Thrissur next day morning around 8.30 am.

Thrissur was raining continuously and Kerala is also known for uncertain rains. We had to take shelter in near by shop, once we came out of railway station. The people of Thrissur thought that we might have come here to celebrate the Onam festival, because so many people working or staying out of Kerala comes back to Kerala or their home town to celebrate Onam. By seeing our baggage, native people wished us “Happy Onam”; we also wished them back and started to walk towards bus stop. Bus stop was near one small shop, run by some Mallu Muslim ladies. We went on asking shop ladies if the bus passed by was Guruvayur bus, as the boards were written in Malayalam only. But few bus boards were in both Malayalam and English languages. We got Guruvayur bus within 10 to 15 minutes time. From the railway station to Guruvayur temple it is 19 kms. While traveling to Guruvayur we saw every house was decorated with Pookalam (Flower decoration or Rangoli pattern in flowers).

With the help of my wife’s friend, advance booking was done in Poornima lodge near Guruvayur temple. We reached the lodge by 10 am, got freshened up and went to Darshan. It’s tradition of Guruvayur temple that we men should wear only white dhoti and remove the shirts when we enter temple. As I was not used wearing dhoti, I took help of one of the hotel staff to make me wear dhoti. Yes, since then I know to tie dhoti on my own. It was very nice to see both men and women in their traditional dresses, around the Guruvayuar temple.

Now we were so shocked for a while, looking at the longest queue, which took two and half hours to have Darshan of Lord Sri Krishna. Many foreigners were disappointed as they were not allowed to enter temple. There is a rule that Non Hindu’s are not allowed inside the temple. The temple atmosphere was too good. Usually cell phones and camera are not allowed inside the temple. Most of the famous temples restrict people taking pictures of GOD. But they made an arrangement to keep them in safe deposits on rent basis. They also had very tight security arrangements for the temple. By the time we came out of the temple we were feeling very hungry. We knew about Onam Sadya which is nothing but meal served on Onam festival day. This is very famous because this meal consists of verity dishes, made from all types of vegetables.

But we were not so fortunate to have the Onam Sadya. All the restaurants were running short of food due to festival over crowd. So we had palpayasam which we had bought in the temple itself. This is one of the prasadam in the temple.

Our lodge was half a meter distance from temple and we wanted to make use of this and planned to visit temple again. We came back to room and rested for a while and again at 4.00pm we went out to see temple. We had light tiffin in the evening at Dwaraka Udupi restaurant. There was one more queue apart from the main queue to temple, a small queue and also at different entrance. When I enquired they said to go inside the temple but not allowed to see the Lord Sri Krishna, as we were allowed to round to be in the outer circle of main temple area. We had one more glimpse of the temple and spent some time there and came out at 7.30pm, did some shopping, finished dinner and went to bed.

As my wife’s friend had told us about Nirmalyam Pooja between 3.00 to 3.30 am, Which is early morning pooja and darshan of Lord Sri Krishna. We got up and had bath, left to temple at 2.30am. Stunned to see the whole city being awake and similar long queue, this was longer than previous days. We finished the final darshan of Lord Sri Guruvayuarappan and came out 5.30am. While we were taking round inside the temple, we saw a broad stating that who ever comes to Guruvayur temple should also visit to the Mammiyur temple.

This temple is of Lord Shiva and Parvathi. This is just 1km from the Sri Krishna temple. Then we asked some ladies how to reach the temple, they guided us to the temple. In the early morning freezing cold we walked to Mammiyur temple. It was just 10 min walk from the temple we reached there and had the darshan of Lord Shiva and Godess Parvathi at Mammiyur. Then it was right time for breakfast, we had nice south Indian breakfast from Sri Krishna Bhavan, a veg restaurant.

We were done with our spiritual trip and felt the aura of Lord Sri Krishna and we left to Munnar which was planned earlier. Our ancient old Indian temples have something unique in them and feel great visiting them. Now I’ll say my usual dialogue: at least once in life time we should visit Lord Sri Krishna temple at Guruvayur. I am very fortunate to visit this temple. One should also visit kerala on Onam day to see the Pookalam and traditional dress of the kerala white sarees with gold or other colored borders for women and white dhotis for men.

Enne marakkaruthu. Appoll, sherinaal kaanaam.

(Do not forget me. Ok then, see you!)

One of my friend used to visit this temple on very full moon day. I heard about this auspicious place from him and found it very interesting. I started going to Thiruvannamalai with him from Feb 2008 onwards.

Here is my first experience to Thiruvannamalai. Myself and my friend Mr. Rajendra started from Bangalore Bus Station, took pondicherry bus at 1.30 pm. Due to heavy traffic jam in the city we took nearly two & half hours to cross electronics city. Our journey continued and some how being pondicherry bus, police allowed the bus inside the city. Otherwise all the buses have to be stopped outside the city. We got down at 7.30 PM, very close to the temple and went have darshan. This day or the full moon day darshan at Thiruvannamalai is very auspicious and it’s always crowed. There are two darshan queues to enter the temple to see Lord Arunachaleswara. One is free darshan and the other one is Rs 50. So we decided to go in for Rs 50/- ticket darshan . Even this special darshan queue was also big and we finished darshan at 10 pm. We took prasadam and we started Girivanam (Walking round the Hill or round the sacred hill). It is said that we should walk barefoot on the road. Don’t be surprised to see lakhs of pilgrims walking barefoot, some of them are foreigners. Either these foreigners are from some of the Arshrams like Sri Ramana Maharshi etc, or they are on their own exploring India and Indian temples with their Camera in their hands.

Since it was my first visit to Thiruvannamali, I wanted to visit all the 8 Shiva temples in our way, around the hill. First we should light Ghee lamp in front of East Gopuram (tower) and start from there. The eight auspicious Shiva temples are:

1. Indra Lingam – is the first main Shiva temple as you start walking.You will also find so many other temples other than main 8 Shiva temples. You can see the people lighting camphor outside the temples on the way while walking around the hill.

2. Agni Lingam
3. Yamma Lingam
4. ……………………………………………,
5. ……………………………………
6. ……………………………………………
7. kubera Lingam and
8. Eshanya Lingam.

So all the eight temples will be crowded. There is one more temple, around the hill that is Adi Arunachaleswara. It is said that this temple is not among those 8 main Shiva temples, but this is one of the important temple and has some historic significance. For my bad luck this temple was closed during my visit.

People say that this place has a very strong Aura around the temple and the hill. The great spiritual master Sri Ramana Maharshi also lived in this Thiruvannamali. They have very huge Ashram on the Girivanam . One can find lot of foreigners in these ashrams. The people from all race and religion come to Thiruvannamali to do Girivanam (walk around the hill) to get rid of they bad karmas.

While you start walking around the hill, you can see so many eat outs with mouth watering dishes. From simple cucumber, tender coconut to Chinese fried rice or hot spicy soups. Variety of drinks, fruits, south Indian to north Indian food. You feel like having all the variety and almost everything is tastier than we expect. These food stalls come up in the evening in no time and be there till midnight. All these stalls are temporary ones and available only on full moon night around Girivanam path.

It is said that, we will get Good health, women facing miscarriages will over come the problems, financial problems, problematic marriages, sufferings in the family, business problems etc, will be solved when we visit to Thiruvannamali temple on Full moon day.

We finished our Girivanam walk at around 2.30 am next day morning. We were back to main Gopuram where we started after lighting camphor. Finally thanked the Lord for everything and prayed for better life and prospects. As I mentioned earlier, the buses will be parked outside the town and we had to take an Auto to the bus stop. Finally we took bus to Bengalooru and reached Bengalooru at 8.30am.

After my first trip I try my best to visit Thiruvannamalai on every month’s full moon day. In the month of November my wife Rekha accompanied me to Girivanam. It was our 2^nd wedding Anniversary and we both enjoy visiting temples as a memorable day. It was really a memorable day by walking Girivanam with my wife. We had spiritual time visiting temple, had good food around the hill and also walked together nearly for 5 hours as we covered most of the temples. What else one wants on the anniversary day? We felt completeness in our anniversary celebration.

This Thirvannamali town is known for Karthika Deepam which is orgainsed for 10 days between 15 Nov and 15 Dec and marks the close of the Brahmottsavam. Karthika Deepam will be lit on top of the hill at sharp 6pm. The Festival attracts lakhs of people to the Arunachaleshwara temple. This Karthika maasa or month is auspicious for Tamilians. Compared to any other full moon day, the crowd will be more.

One day trip to Thiruvannamalai and darshan of all the Shiva temples are worth the money and strain. Make a trip and walk in the Girivanam at least once in life time.

Happy Journey! Om Arunachaleshwara.