Dear fellow-Malayalis
When all is said and done, I do not agree that terrorist touts and predatory priests infest each and every temple in India, large or small. It depends on one's own self what treatment is given. Together with one of my sons, I have recently made pilgrimmages to Kaashi (Varanasi), Prayaga/Triveni (Allahabad), Rameshwaram, Madurai, and Chennai. No untoward incidents anywhere.
For Kaashi, we had pre-booked on the Internet a place to stay, transport from and to the airport, to and from Prayaga/Triveni. Food, visits to temples, shopping, sight-seeing, was on our own. No language problems, as both of us spoke good English and I was proficient in Sanskrit, which was appreciated by the denizens of the sacred place.
Rejecting offers of help from our hotel, we opted to hire on our own, rowboats for unhurried trips up and down the Ganga River from riverside hotel to Assi Ghat to Varan Bridge and return to hotel, and from the riverbank at Prayaga/Triveni to the Thri-Sangam and back, including dips in the river at various points and collection in large brass kalashams of unpolluted "middle-of-the-river" sacred water for sealing and bringing home. Where the hotel had wanted to charge us IRs 4,000, we paid IRs 600.
Since I am proficient in our pithru-kriya prayogams such as arghyam, tharppanam, shraaddham, anna-daanam, and had diligently brought along all the necessary utensils and materials, we avoided the need for rapacious "pandas" and the need for haggling, queuing and delay. We performed all the requisite rites to our entire satisfaction and at our leisure in both sacred places. We also visited the main shrines such as those of Lord Vishvanaatha-svaami, Annapoorna-devi, Vishaalaakshi-ambikaa, Kaashikaa-puraathi-naatha Kaala-Bhairava, and offered our paada-kaanikaas, prayers and prostrations.
At Thriveni-sangam, in addition to joyfully pouring milk libations to Goddesses Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvathi mid-river at the confluence, we paid our respects to the red-paint-daubed giant sleeping form of Raama-bhaktha Hanumaan, near the Akbhar Fort within which still stands the top third of the ancient Kalpaka-Vriksham, which we reverently circum-ambulated. (The middle is at Kaashi, and the lowest third stands grandly at Gaya near Vishnu-paadam.)
At Rameshwaram we had no difficulty booking a good hotel room near the temple. The crowds were very deferential and well-behaved. No pushing or jostling, or queue-cutting as at Palani and at Guruvayoor. (Luckily, it wasn't "Sabari-malai Ayyappa" season with black-clad unruly, rude and uncontrollable mobs everywhere as when we tried several times to visit the Sri Rangam temple near Trichy previously.)
As at Kaashi and at Prayaaga, I was able to perform all the prescribed pithru-kriyas at my own pace on the seashore beside the temple and near the sangamam respectively. Not far from me at Kaashi, I could see about a dozen or more bearded and tousle-haired elderly men with badges on ribbons round their necks (presumably belonging to some union), catering to seemingly endless crowds of people who came to have rites performed for their loved ones.
The rate, as far as I could make out, was IRs 350 per person and IRs 500 per couple, for just 12 to 15 minutes. Go-maatha pooja was extra: IRs 350 to the owner for five minutes' loan of cow and calf, and another IRs 350 to the "priest". Garlands for the cow and calf, food, banana leaves, archana flowers, sindoor, turmeric powder, shawl, were extras, and had to be brought by the devotees. Of course, attending musicians like gong-beaters, cymbalists, drummers and naadhasvaram-blowers had to be paid separately.
Within the temple itself, the priests swiftly accepted our chombu of Ganga-theertham and poured it on the Ramanaatha-svaami's Shiva-lingam while we watched. We received a generous supply of vibhuthi when we told the priest we were from overseas and wished to take back the prasaadam to our people back home. We also had no difficulty collecting our two-litre-full container of "koti-theertham" from the source within the temple on payment of a small (IRs 20) fee.
There were brass-goods vendors just outside the temple, from whom we were able to buy good-quality, well-made heavy brass hanging lamps after considerable bargaining. There were also piece-goods merchants, from whom we bought exquisitely-coloured and patterned heavy cotton quilts-cum-blankets at prices much cheaper than at Madurai. Again after heavy bargaining. All these were locally-made, not imported, items. We avoided the stall-holders within the temple along the corridors who charged exhorbitant prices for trinkets and mementos such as rudraksha malais, small lamps and framed pictures. (The very same framed picture selling for IRs 100 at Kaashi was going for IRs 400 here!)
At Madurai again, the crowds were extremely well-behaved. Most were family groups with well-dressed small children. At both the Meenaakshi Amman and the Sundareshwara-swaami sannidhis, we had clear views of the bimbams in the inner sanctums during aaraadhanais, and the priests considerately brought out the deepams for us to touch to our eyes, and distributed kumkumam and vibhuthis.
At Chennai, the story was similar to the one at Madurai. Main difference was that we had hired a private car from Madurai to Rameshwaram and back, but in Chennai we hired an auto-rickshaw. The temple visit was most satisfactory, both at the Kapaaleeshwara-svaami sannidhi and at the Ambika sannidhi.
One probably not irrelevant factor in all these visits was that my accompanying son and I were both dressed in traditional gruhasthan attire, with forehead marks and rudraaksha malais round our necks, and that in Chennai my wife was also dressed as is traditional for married ladies of our community. This seemed to be much appreciated by the crowd of devotees seeking darshanam of the installed deities.
S Narayanaswamy
On Monday, September 26, 2016 8:41 AM, "Narayanaswamy Subramanian s_narayanaswamy@yahoo.com [worldmalayaliclub]" <worldmalayaliclub@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
The Palani devasthaanam office is either closed or unmanned whenever you go there. No one knows when they will open or the staff return to work. Don't depend on their help. Speak to people who have been to Palani recently to avoid pitfalls lurking everywhere in the dreadful place. And keep your wits about you if you really and truly want to go there. Thiruchendur our family found to be a much more congenial place. Murugan is everywhere, after all.
S Narayanaswamy
On Saturday, September 24, 2016 7:59 AM, "devendran p devendran_p2001@yahoo.com [worldmalayaliclub]" <worldmalayaliclub@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Please Contact directly the Devasthanam Office on the foot hill and top before the entrance. You can go up by winch or cradle train or steps or elephant paths. Don't trust any cross brokers or inter persons. Very nice hotels are there and you can approch for ASSITANCE AND GUIDES.
PALANIAPPAN DEVENDRAN
On Friday, 23 September 2016 5:33 AM, "'Jean P. Wizard' jpwizard@yahoo.com [worldmalayaliclub]" <worldmalayaliclub@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
An old Hindu legend says that, there was a time when every man was equal to God.
But man abused his divinity so much that Brahma, the Master of Gods, decided to
withdraw man's divine power and hide it in a place where it will be impossible
for him to find. The big problem: where was the right place to hide it?
Then the young Gods convened a meeting to resolve this problem. They proposed
"to bury the divinity of the human in the earth." But, Brahma answered, "No, that
would not be sufficient, because man will dig and find it."
Then the young Gods answered, "if that is the case, let us sink the divinity of the
human, in the depth of the oceans."
But, Brahma answered again, "No, because sooner or later, man will explore the depth
of the oceans, and one day he will sure find it and bring it to the surface."
Then the young Gods concluded that, "they do not know where to hide human divinity
because there does not seem to be a place on earth or in the ocean, which man could
not reach one day.
Then Brahma said: "We are going to hide the divinity of man in the deepest of himself,
because that is the only place where he will never look."
Since then, the legend concludes; man traveled around the earth, explored,climbed,
dived and dug, in search of divinity, which happens to be within himself !!
WHY GET CHEATED IN THE NAME OF GOD, DEITIES, THIRUPATHI ETC. WHERE THEY TRY TO PINCH
PENNIES USING GOD'S NAME IN VAIN (STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL INSTINCTS).
On Wednesday, September 21, 2016 7:45 PM, "Narayanaswamy Subramanian s_narayanaswamy@yahoo.com [worldmalayaliclub]" <worldmalayaliclub@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Dear fellow-Malayalis
Srimathi Kaliammah G C Pallikondan's traumatic experience at the Palani temple is about par for that place.
Readers might be interested in the vicissitudes encountered by me and family during my last visit to renowned Palani Subrahmanya-svaami hill temple for paal-kudam abhishegam some years ago:-
Immediately after the marriage in Chennai of my my second son (my family is settled overseas), my new daughter-in-law, my son, a very elderly and highly-respected relative settled in Thiruppoor), and I, set out by hired car from Thiruchirappalli for a long-planned pilgrimmage to the unique hill-top Aaru-padai Veedu of Sri Palani-Aandavar Dhandayutha-paani Bala-cubramanya-swaami, and to fulfil solemn vows taken earlier.
We arrived at the Adivaaram in good time, engaged what all of us innocently believed was a (saffron-clad) trustworthy agent of the temple, to assemble all the requisite items for pooja/archanai/abhishegam, including in particular a very large kalasham filled with fresh pure cows' milk. (We specified no dilutants or pollutants.)
Since we had spent overnight at a good hotel, we were dressed in appropriate new yagnopaveetham, navarathna pavithram, pancha-gaccham, utthareeya-vasthram, lalaada-alangaaram of vibhoothi, rudraksha-maalai, kosava-podavai, and so on, and were all bare-footed.
The "agent" duly appeared with the supplies, including vibhoothi packets, chandanam packets, powdered incense packets, etc. plus a very large kudam of white liquid which we were assured was fresh pure cows milk, squeezed out only an hour or so before from contented cows.
We paid all dues at the ticket office, including fees for archana and abhishegam tickets, and slowly mounted the hill on foot. The crowd was immense -- men, women, children, male and female, the very old, the lame and the armless, the half-blind, the deaf, the sick and groaning, the coughers and sneezers, the complainants, the sooth-sayers, representatives of every slice of society. Including jeans-and-t-shirt clad youngsters shouting to one another how to disrupt and "jump" the queues.
By the time we inched up the bare sunbaked redhot granite steps, we were hopping from foot to foot. I took out my utthareeyam to bind the aged feet of the "Maama" our guide, my son did so for his bride. We moved up at a snail's pace. Syndicated touts were everywhere, intimidating us to offer poojas at tiny shrines we had never heard of before, bringing thirunooru, or flowers, or talismans, and demanding payment. And abusing us loudly when we refused.
To cut short a long story, when we reached the summit and were about to enter the temple proper, a couple of youths demanded an "admission fee". I refused, and produced the tickets which showed that we had already made all requisite payments to the officials. The thugs tried to snatch the tickets, and I had nimbly to evade their tricks. We forced our way in.
On reaching the innermost sanctum, a shock awaited us. No Brahmins were to be seen anywhere. There was only a black (Parayan?) youth in there, wearing no poonal but just a dirty mundu double-folded up to his waist. "Kondaange, ootharen!" he shouted. Seeing no one else around, I handed over the heavy full kalasam carrying which on my head I had laboriously toiled up the hill on bare feet (which by now felt cooked like appalaam). He yanked it suddenly from my hands, tilted it over a short iron spear stuck into the floor in front of the bimbam of Bala-subrahmanya-swaami, and with a quarter of the contents still left, handed it back, demanding "Noothi-irupathu roopai kodunge!"
This was pure extortion. In order not to create a scene, I asked my daughter-in-law to pass over to me a Rs 20 note, which I extended to him. He rejected it out of hand. "Aimbathi-oru roopaya kodunge, illatti undiyalil podunge" was his last offer. We turned away and I put the RS 20 note into the undial outside the shrine. Immediately, the Parayan boy came rushing up, "Appadiyaanaal enkitte kodunge, paravaa-illai." We ignored him.
On descending and reaching the Adivaaram yet again, all of us wanted to sip from the remainder of the milk which had been poured up in the shrine at the top. Guess our shock, when we found that the rascally "agent" had mixed finely-ground RICE POWDER with water. This was what the Parayan boy had poured on the iron spear. What a farce! And enacted right before my own two eyes.
Fellow-bhakthaas. Do not let your blind faith and over-enthusiasm get the better of you. Whether the Brahmins have been allowed back into temples now, I do not know. And do not care. On my last few trips to South India, I have avoided Palani. After all, I have one huge framed Tanjavoor gold and bejewelled painting of the deity, to whom I pray daily. I also have A-4 size framed black on chandanam-paper ink-sketch pictures of the same Palani-Aandavar. I am content with praying in my own house, in my own way, at my own times, to my own deities. And, on sacred occasions like Thaippoosam, Skanda-Shashti, and Panguni-utthiram, preparing my kavadis in my own home, and walking to the temples, accompanied by my immediate family members. No more rascally saffron-clad "agents", no more Parayan boys who have turfed out the Brahmin priests from the shrines.
Remember, it is we Veda-Brahmanas who are qualifed to perform the prathishtai of every single deity in every single shrine in every single temple -- in India as well as outside India. If the sancum sanctorum is polluted by the entrance of a non-dwija, the deity's divinity has decamped. As one Tamil poet said: "Kaduval enraal athu kadavul; chilai enraal athu chilai thaan." Only a crafted stone is left. In Palani, when I last visited, even the vigraham, crafted from Nava-Paashaanam, was just a naked statue in a public museum.
S Narayanaswamy
On Wednesday, September 21, 2016 7:14 AM, "'KALIAMMAH G.C. PALLIKONDAN' kaliammah@yahoo.com [worldmalayaliclub]" <worldmalayaliclub@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Dear Friends,
Greetings.
I am a Malaysian, who visits Tamil Nadu once every year and basically it will be a temple tour only.
Starting from Tirupati for tonsure and Lord Balaji darshan. Followed by Tamil Nadu temple visit.
On the 13/9/2016 - I went to Palani for prayer and my daughter wanted to carry Paal Kudam.
Upon arrival, we went to a shop selling all prayer items by the road side. I told them I need milk for Paal kudam and the guy quickly write down a list containing items like milk, camphor, agarbathi, vibuthi, coconut 2 and 4 bananas - ALL IN FOR Rupees 2145/set
Then I was referred to two ladies that will help me to visit the temple via special entrance ticket.
Uphill I was charged - Rupees 1120/person ( Rs 750 for Milk abishegam + Rs 200 special entrance ticket for 2 pax + Rs 170 for archanai). Palani Temple website called Rs 25 for Milk Abishegam.
Then, the lady asked for Rs 200 as priest payment, which I paid Rs170 due to no small change.
Finally for the ladies, they requested Rs 500 each for being a "GRO" for the whole scam.
I had blister on my foot path due to walking on hot surface in Palani, as such I couldn't walk down the hill, the lady offered to take me via winch without ticket and that cost us Rs 500 (4 pax)
All in we spent Rupees - 8200 ( for 2 Paal Kudam).
Rupees 8200/16 - MYR512.50
Back in Malaysia, I need to spend less than MYR 50 per head to perform the Paal Kudam.
I was very frustrated and angered by the incident. Every trip to Tamil Nadu, we get cheated by
shop owners, drivers and hotel owners. Including double standard treatment.
To drive a Ford Figo the driver charged us Betta - Rupees 500/day. We even bought all 3 meals for the driver through out our journey of 8 days. From Chennai to Tirupathi until Kodaikanal and return back to Chennai - he calculated 2094 KM. We paid Rs 26,000 for the whole trip.
I wrote to Palani admin email regarding this issue. Yet to receive any feedback from them.
ANY ONE HAS ANY COMMENTS THAT CAN MAKE ME FEEL COMFORTABLE AFTEr THIS INCIDENT???
Deeply frustrated.
Thanks
Mrs P. Kaliammah
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Posted by: Narayanaswamy Subramanian <s_narayanaswamy@yahoo.com>
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