Weekend Darshan - 2

I like to visit temples during the weekends and that too early in the morning. That is the time, when I am absolutely relaxed and the temples are calm. Especially, I love the ambience that prevails there, which gives me peace of mind.

I have coupled my passion for driving long distances, with my liking to visit temples during weekends and the result is the weekend darshan posts that you might have seen here.

Last week, myself and Srivatsan (my friend since college days) visited the Sthala Sayana Perumal temple in Mahabalipuram. The sthalapuranam states that once Pundareeka maharishi had collected lots of flowers from a pond and tried to reach Vaikundam to decorate Lord Vishnu. But he found the ocean in between and started draining the water inorder to cross it.

Lord Vishnu, disguised as an old man approached him for food and promised to drain the ocean in return. So the rishi rushed back to get food for the old man. When he returned Lord gave him darshan in "Kidantha kolam" with flowers decorated all over him.

The Pallavas built the temple in 9th century along the coast and later during the 14th century, Parangusan shifted the temple to the centre of the town fearing the temple might be eroded by the sea. How thoughtful of him?



The Main Entrance



This structure of stone is found opposite to the main entrance


Here are some of the pictures of Nitya Kalyana Perumal Temple of Thiruvidanthai.










We stopped at the Tiger Caves near Mahabalipuram on our way back




Gorgeous view of the sea along ECR




And this is my faithful Fiero which took us to all these places and in that process reached the milestone of 20,000kms. Assuming I had averaged 50kmph all along, I had spent 400 hours with my bike. Awesome.