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ECR Chennai - a Spiritual Trial

Pachai mamalai pol meni pavalavai kamala chenkan
Achuta mararere ayar tham kozhute ennum.
Echsuvai thavira yan poi indiralogam alum
Achsuvai perinum vendean arangama nagarulanea.

The East Coast Road in Chennai in known for the numerous resorts, hotels and other locations of entertainment. How about we take a spiritual trial on the same road for a change? This is what we did this weekend on a half day journey.


Our first destination was Thiruvidanthai - around 30 kms from the city. The Nithyakalyana Perumal temple is an ancient one. Being near Mahabalipuram area its obvious builders were the Pallavas. Being a weekend there was a big queue of devotees till the entrance near the gopuram. Due to renovation on account of kumbabishen scheduled in near future we were allowed to workship only the urchaver instead of the moolavar. Perumal provided darshan in full floweral alangaram. Coming out after the darshan strong aroma of tamaraind rice pulled us towards the prasadham counter. Within 40 minutes we moved out of Thiruvidanthai.

Next stop was for breakfast. From Thiruvidanthai we can take a right to Kovalam or left takes us back towards the city. We chose the left and the first restaurant for food stop. The newly opened restaurant provided limited options but good food to kick start the day.

The drive went on till Mayajaal. Then we took the immediate right to the other part of the road to get into reddykuppam road. This leads to the Puri Jagannath temple right at the end. This is a miniature of the original temple in Orissa. Marble staircase takes us to the main deities - Jagannath, Subadra and Balabadra. While worshipping the deities one cannot help wondering at the painting in the ceiling, depicting Vishnu/Krishna. The other sannadhis below are that of Kasi Vishwanath, Kanchi Vinayaka, Buddha, Devi Vimala and Navagrahas in a linear arrangement. The cool marbles and breeze create an amazing atmosphere inside the temple.


Driving in the ECR towards Thiruvanmiyur we crossed the Sholinganallur junction to immediately see the arches of Hare Rama and Hare Krishna. This enroutes to the ISKON temple. This is the Krishna Consciousness society's temple in Chennai city. The temple stands in its glorious white on a morning sky when seen from its ample parking space.



The main hall is illuminated by white light and cool winds providing the darshan of Lork Krishna and Radha with Lords Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra to the right and Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda both to the left. Near the exit all devotees flavor the prasadams before going out of the wonderful location.

Continuing on the same direction we took right again near the food village to get into Saipuram. A small path ushers you towards Shri Sai Baba temple. Sai Baba gives darshan in a huge centre sannadhi while he is surrounded by almost all deities including - Shivalingam and Parvati, Durgadevi, Lord Hanuman facing Lord Rama, Sita, Laxman, Behind them is Maha Vishnu facing Nava Grahas. By the side of Navagrahasa are Lord Krishna & Radha and finally Lord Subramanya with his consorts Valli and Devyani. Vinayaka, Shiva and Parvati, Durgadevi, Hanuman along with Rama, Sita and Laxman, Maha Vishnu, Navagrahas, Lord Krishna & Radha and Lord Subramanya at last along with Valli and Deivanai.  There is huge prayer hall and the temple also houses a small break out area.

With this we had to end out half a day trip owing to the scorching heat that has caught up with Chennai since this week. Once can also add Marudeeswarar temple at Thiruvanmiyur to the fag end of the trip, we were late to catch up.

Pilgrimage alone on ECR? possible! :)
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Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Comments

Unknown said…
Thanks for sharing the excellent information about ECR Chennai. As you said ECR is known for resorts and hotels. There are many budget Hotels in ECR Chennai. Most of the tourist stay in the hotels and visit all the tourist attractions in ECR.
8 February 2018 at 19:01
Kare said…
Thank you for stopping by with your comments
24 February 2018 at 18:46
rahulkavin said…
Sai Baba has always believed that education is an effective tool for transformation.

madhusudan naidu facebook
4 December 2018 at 11:52
Balaji said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
5 October 2019 at 11:14
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