Our visit to Puthur Shiva temple on first day of Onam

August 21, 2009

Namaste everyone,

I had to post this here because many of the people from this group joined us in

doing the koti nama japam of the mantra Om Namah Shivaya and those who didn't

were very kind enough to send us their blessings.

We have learned so much from this Guruvayoor group, it was only naturaly that we

included the owners, moderators and members of this group while praying at

Puthur Shiva Temple in Perintalmanna recently. May God bless you all for the

great work you do.

We are planning to go to Guruvayoor before returning to the US. It is said the

diety has to allow us, so we are praying Guruvayoorappan will allow us to come

visit him. Here is our report of the trip to Puthur Shiva Temple and Arunachala

Shiva in Tiruvannamalai.

By the grace of Puthur Shiva, we were able to be physically present for the 101

Kodum Dhara at the Puthur Shiva Temple in Perintalmanna on Monday, Aug 17th

morning. For some divine reason, the only air and train tickets we could get

were the ones that allowed us to get to Kerala sooner than we thought we would

be able to. The reason dawned on us later. It was the first day of Onam and a

Monday and Puthur Shiva drew us close to him on this auspicious day. I promise

you we didn't plan it that way. It just happened that way.

We arrived early that morning and went around the Puthur Shiva Temple. We paid

our obeisances to the moolasthana where the temple's energy started/lies. It is

here that once a great sage sat doing the very mantra we are doing - Om Namah

Shivaya - and it is believed that Lord Shiva came, blessed the sage and promised

to stay on at the Puthur Temple in Perintalmanna.We then went around to

Dakshinamurthy, Kirathamurthy and Sankaranarayana murthy, all the upadevatas

Ganesha, Subramanian, Sasthavu and Naga prathista.

As we rounded the corner there was Venugopalamurthy (Lord Krishna), in a

separate temple of his own on the same grounds. I can't tell you how beautifully

sweet Venugopalamurthy looked with sandal wood on his face. Sandalwood is

applied to a diety's body to remove our karma. So on the day we were at the

temple, Lord Krishna removed our karma and that of our group's because we were

praying for each one of you as we went around.

It had been raining very heavily all night but cleared just in time when the

priests started the 101 kodum dhara to the beat of a sole drummer. The kodum

dhara is an elaborate vazhivadu/pujai where a huge pot with a hole is hung on

top of the shiva lingam. 101 pots of sanctified water is poured into this pot.

The hole is blocked with several kusha grass which are removed one at a time

depending on how much water the priests want to fall on the lingam. The water

cools the Shiva Lingam and blesses participants with peace of mind, job

security, good health, and find suitable partners for those who wantto be

married. In short, the Dhara brings Aiswarya or prosperity. It blesses sponsors

so they can lead a peaceful and contented housholdlife free from worries and

troubles.

While the priests were chanting inside the sanctum, the drummer was outside

beating the drum to some rhythm we couldn't fathom. It was very obvious he was

doing it in a call and response fashion to the chanting of the priest inside the

sanctum. The music box was playing Om Namah Shivaya chant making it a really

powerful experience.

We had hoped it would be only us, but because of Onam a large number of people

were there jostling for space with us. Nevertheless, I was able to - in my mind

- read out to Puthur Shiva the names of all those who participated,

approximately how much they had chanted (we admitted to Puthur Shiva that the

totals may not be accurate because we had been travelling in the last month).

We told Puthur Shiva all the personal information that many of you have shared

with us in emails. We implored him to help us all and we think he will because

everything went off beautifully.

While we were talking to Puthur Shiva, we suddenly realised that a bunch of

birds - almost a 100 of them - were chirping loudly and merrily in the trees

around the sanctum. They would do this at high points in the 101 kodum dhara,

then be silent and start once again when the abhishekham that followed started,

fall silent when the abhishekham finished and then start again very merrily when

the naivedyam (food offerings) were being made to Puthur Shiva. The birds

stopped chirping when the temple doors were closed to allow Puthur Shiva to

accept the naivedyam and then started again when the sanctum doors were opened

again and the priest started carrying outthe offerings. It was amazing. You had

to be there to believe something like this could happen.As the morning's pujas

came to an end, the sun came out brightly, just enough to dry the temple grounds

and warm the air a bit. So it became a nice balmy morning. It was a truly

amazing finale to our 101 kodum dhara.

The prasadam was payasam.... really good payasam, which we, in our minds eye,

offered to everyone who did japam with us and all the people who couldn't do

japam with us but who sent us their good wishes.

Before going to Puthur Shiva Temple, we went on a pilgrimage to Tiruvannamalai

and Arunachal Shiva allowed us to do girivalam a few times around him. We think

it was Puthur Shiva's gift to us for doing so much japam. We got major insights

into life's question. Thank you Puthur Shiva.

Guruvayoor appan here we come. Hope you will allow us to visit you.

With regards,

LK

August 23, 2009

Thank you, Lakshmikanthamji for sharing this pilgrimage to the Puthur Siva temple.That was a unique expeirence. Thank you. i will relate this to Manju who participated in the nama japam.

prayers,

Sreedevi Menon

Om Namo narayanaya

--- On Thu, 8/20/09, laksmikantam <no_reply > wrote:

laksmikantam <no_reply >[Guruvayur] Our visit to Puthur Shiva temple on first day of Onamguruvayur Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 10:43 PM

Namaste everyone,I had to post this here because many of the people from this group joined us in doing the koti nama japam of the mantra Om Namah Shivaya and those who didn't were very kind enough to send us their blessings.We have learned so much from this Guruvayoor group, it was only naturaly that we included the owners, moderators and members of this group while praying at Puthur Shiva Temple in Perintalmanna recently. May God bless you all for the great work you do.We are planning to go to Guruvayoor before returning to the US. It is said the diety has to allow us, so we are praying Guruvayoorappan will allow us to come visit him. Here is our report of the trip to Puthur Shiva Temple and Arunachala Shiva in Tiruvannamalai.By the grace of Puthur Shiva, we were able to be physically present for the 101 Kodum Dhara at the Puthur Shiva Temple in Perintalmanna on Monday, Aug 17th morning. For some divine reason, the

only air and train tickets we could get were the ones that allowed us to get to Kerala sooner than we thought we would be able to. The reason dawned on us later. It was the first day of Onam and a Monday and Puthur Shiva drew us close to him on this auspicious day. I promise you we didn't plan it that way. It just happened that way.We arrived early that morning and went around the Puthur Shiva Temple. We paid our obeisances to the moolasthana where the temple's energy started/lies. It is here that once a great sage sat doing the very mantra we are doing - Om Namah Shivaya - and it is believed that Lord Shiva came, blessed the sage and promised to stay on at the Puthur Temple in Perintalmanna. We then went around to Dakshinamurthy, Kirathamurthy and Sankaranarayana murthy, all the upadevatas Ganesha, Subramanian, Sasthavu and Naga prathista.As we rounded the corner there was Venugopalamurthy (Lord Krishna), in a separate temple of his own

on the same grounds. I can't tell you how beautifully sweet Venugopalamurthy looked with sandal wood on his face. Sandalwood is applied to a diety's body to remove our karma. So on the day we were at the temple, Lord Krishna removed our karma and that of our group's because we were praying for each one of you as we went around.It had been raining very heavily all night but cleared just in time when the priests started the 101 kodum dhara to the beat of a sole drummer. The kodum dhara is an elaborate vazhivadu/pujai where a huge pot with a hole is hung on top of the shiva lingam. 101 pots of sanctified water is poured into this pot. The hole is blocked with several kusha grass which are removed one at a time depending on how much water the priests want to fall on the lingam. The water cools the Shiva Lingam and blesses participants with peace of mind, job security, good health, and find suitable partners for those who wantto be married. In short,

the Dhara brings Aiswarya or prosperity. It blesses sponsors so they can lead a peaceful and contented housholdlife free from worries and troubles.While the priests were chanting inside the sanctum, the drummer was outside beating the drum to some rhythm we couldn't fathom. It was very obvious he was doing it in a call and response fashion to the chanting of the priest inside the sanctum. The music box was playing Om Namah Shivaya chant making it a really powerful experience.We had hoped it would be only us, but because of Onam a large number of people were there jostling for space with us. Nevertheless, I was able to - in my mind - read out to Puthur Shiva the names of all those who participated, approximately how much they had chanted (we admitted to Puthur Shiva that the totals may not be accurate because we had been travelling in the last month).We told Puthur Shiva all the personal information that many of you have shared

with us in emails. We implored him to help us all and we think he will because everything went off beautifully.While we were talking to Puthur Shiva, we suddenly realised that a bunch of birds - almost a 100 of them - were chirping loudly and merrily in the trees around the sanctum. They would do this at high points in the 101 kodum dhara, then be silent and start once again when the abhishekham that followed started, fall silent when the abhishekham finished and then start again very merrily when the naivedyam (food offerings) were being made to Puthur Shiva. The birds stopped chirping when the temple doors were closed to allow Puthur Shiva to accept the naivedyam and then started again when the sanctum doors were opened again and the priest started carrying outthe offerings. It was amazing. You had to be there to believe something like this could happen.As the morning's pujas came to an end, the sun came out brightly, just enough to dry the

temple grounds and warm the air a bit. So it became a nice balmy morning. It was a truly amazing finale to our 101 kodum dhara.The prasadam was payasam.... really good payasam, which we, in our minds eye, offered to everyone who did japam with us and all the people who couldn't do japam with us but who sent us their good wishes.Before going to Puthur Shiva Temple, we went on a pilgrimage to Tiruvannamalai and Arunachal Shiva allowed us to do girivalam a few times around him. We think it was Puthur Shiva's gift to us for doing so much japam. We got major insights into life's question. Thank you Puthur Shiva. Guruvayoor appan here we come. Hope you will allow us to visit you.With regards,LK