My views

As I had visited Kerala a month back,  I am going to blog about the richest temple in the world, the " Padmanabhaswamy Temple ".  For more details on my Kerala trip, please check the following link  https://rithview.blogspot.com/2018/05/my-journey-to-kerala.html . The Padmanabhaswamy temple situated in Thiruvananthapuram is one of the most visited temples in the world. The principal diety is Padmanabha, a manifestation of Vishnu. The idol is in a reclining posture on the serpent Adishesha. The temple possesses six underground vaults each filled with riches. It is estimated that the value of all assets calculate up to Rupees 1.2 trillion!!  Other shrines in this holy temple include for gods such as: Narasimha, Krishna, Rama, Vishwaksena, Ganapathi, Vyasa and Shasta. I  had visited the temple  along with my mother  around 4 P.M to avoid the crowd. As we were hurrying for a glimpse of P admanabha, I was " Argus Eyed " as I wanted to soak in ev...

In this post, I will be blogging on my visit to the   Venkateswara Temple . The main idol of the   temple is Venkateswara, an avatar of Vishnu.  The temple is situated in the hill town of Tirumala at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. As the temple is 170 kilometres away from my home, we(my father and I) started around 6AM  by road. While driving on the way to Tirupati, we crossed beautiful and historic towns such as Thiruninravur. As I understand Tamil, I understood that there was a legend behind the town through it's name. When I researched on it, I found out that goddess Lakshmi once stood in this town admiring the town's beauty. We soon crossed a town named Thiruthani in the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The town is famous for its Arulmigu Subramanya Swami Temple, one of the six holy abodes of Lord Muruga.  38 kilometres from Tirupati lays the Srikalahasteeswara temple,  one of the five main temples of Shiva. It is one of the Pancha bhootha sth...

In this post, I will be blogging on my visit to the famous and powerful  Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple . The Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple , also  referred to as the Bhuloka Vaikunta (Vishnu's abode on Earth), is dedicated to God, Guruvayurappan. Guruvayurappan is Vishnu, worshiped in his form Krishna. T he idol is in a standing posture and is four - armed, carrying the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana Chakra, the mace Kaumodaki and a lotus with a holy basil garland. The idol represents the majestic form of Vishnu as revealed to Krishna's parents, Vasudeva and Devaki. The idol is made of Black Bismuth.   W e advanced to the temple through the east gate. Dozens of shops were lined across, selling various items centered on Guruvayurappan.  I believe that the Guruvayur Devaswom Board should plan for a better crowd management. Devotees are moved to the sanctum in batches, which is taking lot of time. Once a batch has proceeded towards the s...

In this post, I will be writing on the places I had visited in the town of Guruvayur. To start with, I went to Anakotta (Punnathurkotta) followed by the Mammiyur Mahadeva Temple . Anakotta in Malayalam, translates to "elephant fort" is situated 2 kilometre away from the  famous Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple. In a ten acre plot of coconut groves along with small temple, a dilapidated Punnathurkotta palace, few buildings, it is the abode for 60 to 85 elephants.  The Anakotta premises and the animals are owned and managed by the Guruvayur Devaswom Board.  There is also a small disused temple in the Anakotta. I felt the Anakotta was the perfect place for a elephant to live. It is more like a miniature forest, environment friendly to animals and the elephants have lot to eat and drink. The mahouts know and understand each elephant and are very caring. When we reached there, the elephants were either eating royally, towering over everybody else or were bending low l...

This blog is the first in a trilogy about my trip to Guruvayur, a temple town in the Thrissur district of Kerala.I along with my parents, embarked on my exhilarating journey by reaching the majestic 142 year old  Chennai Central Railway Station(MAS) .We had reached the station early,in fear of getting stuck in the rush hour evening traffic. Being a Friday, t he station was overflowing with people, either bustling around to catch their trains or having a sip of aromatic coffee.  My observation about the Chennai Central is that it is not clean and the railway tracks smelled of urine and excreta. There are trash bins kept at places, but not effectively used by the travelers. I would want the management to put down strict rules so that people don't litter at this important landmark of Chennai. In addition, there are no private food joints as it used to be in the past. This is creating additional difficulty for the travelers. A bit of renovation of the entire building...