Triplicane temple

Whenever we talk about Triplicane, what immediately comes to your mind?
Yes, it is Parthasarathy temple.
Few tidbits about the temple:

1. Located close to the Marina beach, this is one of the easily accessible Divya Desams in Chennai
2. Divya desams as you know are those temples on which the 12 aalwaars visited and sang pasurams. Thirumangai Aalwar has composed 10 pasurams on the triplicane temple.
3. Actual name of Triplicane is Thiru Alli Keni (Alli - Lily, Keni - Pond). Once this place was surrounded by Lily pond, so this name.
4. The temple has two entrances, the front entrance is located in Theradi theru (Car Street) and the back entrance is located in T.P. Koil street
5. T.P. Koil street stands for Thulasinga perumal koil street. It is actually Thelliya(Clear, Pure) Singam(lion) which later became Thulasingam. As you come through the back entrance, the first sannadhi you would encounter is thulasinga perumal (Narasimhar), hence the name of the street.
6. Let us now get back to the front entrance of the temple. You see a big pond on the front and the gopuram facing it.
7. As you enter, you notice Magizha maram (a type of tree, not sure of English name), which is the sthala virusham of this temple. Make sure you buy some thulasi flower for the perumal and lotus or other flower to Thaayar.
8. Further in, you would see Kodi maram (Dwajasthambam). It is a usual practice to prostrate before the Dwajasthambam (considered equivalent to prostrating before every sannadhi in the temple).
9. Moving further, near the archana counter, there is a small sannadhi for thumbigai aalwaar (Vinayagar).
10. You could the 10 pasurams on this divya desam inscripted on the wall just after joining the queue. These ten pasurams end with the words "thiruvallikeni kandeney"
11. As you get into the queue, you would see sannadhis of Thirukachchi nambigal, Vedantha Desikar, Udayavar Ramanujar, Manavala Maamunigal, Ramar Pattabishekam, Ranganathar.
12. Now you are near the moolavar sannidhi and you could see the tall, moustache faced perumal with his entire family. Moolavar's name is Venkata Krishnan. Urchavar's name is Parthasarathy.
13. Perumal here is none other than Lord Krishna who accompanied Arjuna in the war against Kauravas. (Partha (Arjun), Sarathy (Charioteer))
14. This is one of the very few (may be only one) temples where Perumal is seen with a moustache.
15. Perumal has Sangam (conch) on one hand and the other hand points to his feet (thiruvadi).
16. Such is the beauty of this perumal, your eyes will not move anywhere as you get close to him. You could recollect the aalwaar's lines "En amuthinai kanda kangal, mattru ondrinai kaana" (Having seen my lord, my eyes will not see anything else)
17. If you notice, the urchavar's face will have lot of spots, which is said to be caused by repeated arrows from Bhishma. Krishna beared the arrows on his face to safeguard Arjuna.
18. As you walk back towards the entrance, you would see the idols of 12 Aalwars, Vaishnava Acharyas, Anjaneyar facing the Ramar sannadhi.
19. Come round the main Undiyal and deposit your Kaanikai
20. Now time to an outer pradakshanam (round). You first will see the Vedavalli Thayar sannadhi.
21. Going further you see the Gajendra Varadhar, Madhurakavi Aalwar, Yoga Narasimhar, Andaal sannadhis and Ranganathar thiruvadi in that order
22. It is believed that worshipping the Narasimhar in Yoga position, will relieve us from any ailment/disease. Normally devotees buy a pack of salt and pepper and deposit in the outer prakaram of narasimhar sannadhi.
23. It is to be noted that always Thayar sannadhi would be located to the left of Perumal sannadhi and Andal sannadhi to the right.
24. Don't forget to look at the many carvings on the pillars and walls.
25. As you walk back towards the main entrance, you notice the madapalli (temple prasadam counter). You get a variety of prasadams here including Puliyotharai, Sakkara pongal, white pongal, laddu, athirasam, mysore pak, murukku, vadai. Mysore pak is my favorite here.
26. Coming outside, get the theertham from Ramar sannadhi near to mandapam.
27. You now completed one full round of the temple, it normally takes an hour to visit all sannadhis and come back (when there is no rush).
28. Temple is normally open from 6am till 12 noon and 4pm to 8pm. There is sufficient car park near the front entrance.
29. After visiting the temple, you could also plan going to the beach as it is very close.
30. On the T.P Koil street entrance, you could see Bharathiyar's memorial just near to temple entrance. This is the house where Bharathiyar stayed during his last part of his life. He is a staunch devotee of this lord and frequently visited the temple.
31. Let us worship Parthasarathy and seek his blessings to lead a life as per the Gita preached by him.

Koorathaalwar Darshan Part 2

Kuresan's wife Andalamma expressed fear about the robbers. Kuresan was puzzled, he asked back "what do we have with us that can be taken away by the robbers?". Andalamma hesistantly pulled out a golden vessel from inside her dress and said that she carried it primarily to relieve Kuresan of thirst on the way. Kuresan explained her wife "Renouncing everything includes this vessel too". Saying so he threw the vessel back into the jungle and proceeded his journey to Tiruchi.

Kuresan became the shisya of Ramanujar once again and helped a lot in writing the famous "Sri Bashyam" book. As Ramanujar's glory was spreading all over the country, so did enemies spread from all circles. Once the Chola king of Chidambaram summoned Ramanujar to appear in court for a scholarly debate with the cruel intention of killing him. Kuresan volunteered to go in place of Ramanujar to the king's court. Chola king being Saivite fanatic wanted Kuresan to sign that Shiva is the only god and nothing higher than him exists. The king threatened that if he fails to do it, his eyes will be pierced with the quill. Kuresan without hesitation grabbed the writing quill and pierced his eyes saving trouble for the king and expressed that instead of meeting a person like you, it is better I live without my eyes.
He lived a long life thereafter serving Ramanujar more vigorously despite his blindness.
His life history is really touching and the affection and respect he showed towards Ramanujar is the greatest example of Acharya Bhakthi. Despite coming from an affluent background, the way he renounced everything to attain the feet of Acharya and ParamAcharya(Perumal) tells us how one should be detached in life to attain eternal glory.
Kuresan is popularly called as Koorathaalwaar. Koorathaalwar temple is located in his birthplace Kooram. Jan 17th 2009 marks the beginning of1000th birth anniversary of this great soul.
We had the luck of visiting the temple on this special occasion get the blessings of Kesava Perumal and Koorathaalwaar. Enjoy the alankaram of Koorathaalwar in the photo, you could easily spot him in temple carvings, he will always be near to Ramanujar and has a beard. Next time when you visit Kanchi, do plan for this temple and enjoy the aaravamudham.

Koorathaalwar Darshan Part 1

Jan 17th 2009 is a very special day for the bhaktas to recollect and cherish the memories of Koorathaalwaar, may be a familiar name to you. If not don't worry, let me give a quick background on this great man and the significance of Jan 17th 2009.
For detailed story of koorathaalwaar, bhaktas can find many reading materials on the internet, especially you can refer to saranagathi.org for a beautiful narration of the life history of the various aalwaars and acharyas.

Kooram is a village near Kanchipuram, birth place of Kuresa. He was born in a rich family, grew up to be a great vishnu devotee and frequently visited Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kanchipuram. During this period, Ramanujar stayed in Kanchi and preached Vaishnavism. Kuresan joined as Shishya to Ramanujar and very soon developed good relationship. This didn't last for long, Ramanuja due to personal reasons had to leave Kanchi and settled in Srirangam. Kuresan felt very lonely but continued to lead usual life in Kooram, that is when one day Namperumal reminded in dream to proceed to Srirangam and join Ramanujar. Kuresan immediately responded and proceeded to Srirangam after leaving all his belongings in Kooram. There is an interesting incident here. Kuresan and his wife traveling past a dense jungle in the night. Let us see what happened in the next post.