A Visit to the Arulmighu #RatnagiriBalamurugan #Temple in #Vellore, Tamil Nadu #templestories 6

Our visit to the Ratnagiri Balamurugan Temple coincided with a very auspicious day for the worship of Lord Murugan, the Thai Krithigai day. The temple is located around 18 Km from Vellore city on the Vellore-Arcot road, at Thirumanikundram, Kilminnal.  

A beautiful archway welcomes the devotees and one can see the temple tower (Gopuram) from a distance.

The Arulmighu Ratnagiri Murugan Temple

The entrance Arched Gateway

The temple is picturesquely nestled atop a hill called Ratnagiri and a long flight of steps lead to the main sanctum. Many devotees,(especially locals), prefer to climb the steps to have a darshan of their favorite God. However there is also a well maintained roadway leading to the hill top. A spacious parking space ensures that one can park their vehicle safely.

The motorable road leading to the temple

The beauty of the temple tower (gopuram) is enhanced by aesthetically carved sculptures. We entered the temple premises and offered our worship to Lord Vinayaka first. Being Thai Krithigai, there was a heavy rush of devotees, but they were waiting for their chance to have darshan and offer worship in a very orderly queue. It took us more than 45 minutes to reach the sanctum sanctorum. 

The Notice board with the list of pujas and timings

A view of the artistic sculptures on the gopuram

There is a note displaying the various pujas and timings on the way to the sanctum. The main deity is Balamurugan (child Murugan) and the utsava murthi is Shanmugan (Murugan with six heads). The Lord gives darshan to his devotees along with his consorts Devayanai and Valli.  There is a beautiful golden chariot in which the Lord is carried out in procession for circumambulation of the shrine on festival days.

There is a separate exit point from where we come out after darshan and alight a few steps to leave the premises.

The exit point from the sanctum

We were told that the temple was originally a very simple one on top of the hill. It is an ancient temple and there is evidence of its existence prior to the 14^th century as the famous Tamil Saint Arunagirinadhar had mentioned Rathnagiri Murugan in his verses praising the Lord. Devotees of Lord Muruga believe that wherever there is a hill, their Lord will reside on it. Many of the famous Subramanya Swamy temples are on hill tops and Rathnagiri Balamurugan temple is one of them.

It is said that when a devotee went up the hill to worship Lord Muruga, he asked the priest to light camphor for deeparadhana.  The priest said that there was no camphor in the temple. The devotee then asked for at least an incense stick to be lit. But the priest did not have that also. The devotee was really saddened by the dire state of penury at this temple. He fainted. The priest and others tried to bring him to the foothills, by which time he had regained consciousness. He was spiritually awakened and took it upon himself to rebuild the temple to Lord Balamurugan and restore its glory. This significant event took place on 20^th March 1968, and the devotee was called Swami Balamurugan Adimai. The temple in its present grand form has been built by Swami Balamurugan Adimai with the help of the devotees.

The temple is open to devotees for darshan from 6.00 am to 1.00 pm and 4.00 pm to 8.00 pm.

Skanda Shashti is the most important festival, celebrated at the temple for six days. The Krithigai of every month sees large crowds as does the Shashtis and Pournamis. Panguni Uthiram, Navaratri and the enlightenment day of the Swami on 20^th March are also celebrated with great fervor.

 #Ratnagiri #Vellore #Balamurugan #Temple #TamilNadu #SkandaShashti #Krithigai

#Chitra #Pournami and Buddha Purnima / Vesak Festival 7

Chitra Pournami is a very significant day. The Pournami thithi starts at 7.44 PM on 6^th May and ends at 4.14 PM on 7^th May. It is a unique festival dedicated to Chitragupta, the Manasa Putra of Lord Brahma, and is celebrated on the full moon day of the month of April-May (Chitirai Masam in Tamil), believed to be his birthday.  

Chitragupta is said to diligently record and maintain the account of the good and bad actions performed by every human being who is born on this earth. On the completion of a person’s life time, Chitragupta prepares the final report to be presented to Lord Yama. This forms the basis for the God of Death to decide the fate of that particular individual.

People celebrate this festival by taking bath in holy rivers to wash off their sins and offer special pujas and prayers at temples. Interestingly, some of the temples dedicated to worship of Chitragupta are the Chitragupta Temple on Nellukara Street, Kanchipuram, Chitragupta Mahadeva Devalayam in Hyderabad, Chitragupta temple at Kajuraho, and Chitragupta Maharaj Temple at Chitragupta Ghat on the banks of the Gandak river in Hajipur, Bihar.

In the temple at Kanchipuram, the main deity of Shri Chitragupta is depicted in a seated position with a palm leaf in his left hand and a pen in his right hand. The utsava murthy  of the Lord with his wife Karnika Ambal is beautiful.  Priests and devotees offer Sarkarai Pongal and other delicacies without salt as neivedyam for the Lord.

There is another legend associated with this festival pertaining to Lord Indra and his Guru, Brihaspathi. The story goes that they had an argument, after which the Dev Guru refrained from giving advice to Lord Indra.  Bereft of the wisdom and proper advice of his Guru, Lord Indra committed various sins. Later he realized his folly and sincerely repented for his mistakes. Out of sympathy and compassion the Dev Guru resumed his duties and advised Devraj Indra to undertake a pilgrimage on Earth. After a long journey, at a certain place, Devraj Indra sensed that he had been redeemed of his sins. He found a Shivalingam under a Kadamba tree and wanted to offer puja to the Lord in gratitude. He looked around and surprisingly, in a pond nearby, he found a golden lotus. He worshipped the Lord with the golden lotus. The place was the holy city of Madurai and the day was the auspicious Chitra Pournami day. Even today this divine event is commemorated with an Indra Puja on Chitra Pournami day at the Madurai Meenakshi temple.

 Buddha Purnima, known as Vesak, also falls on 7^th May 2020. The day is extremely significant, not only because this was the day when the little prince Siddhartha was born some 2500 years ago, but because he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Gaya and became Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, on the same full moon day. Interestingly he also got Nirvana or salvation in Kushinagar on the same (Purnima) day in the month of Vaisakh. That moment of enlightenment, under the Bodhi tree in Gaya, changed the course of spiritual seeking forever. The four most important places of worship in Buddhism are Lumbini in Nepal, where Buddha was born to the King Shuddhodana (King of Kapilvastu) and Queen Maya Devi, Bodh Gaya in Bihar, where he got enlightenment, Sarnath in Varanasi, where he gave his first sermon to five devotees, and Kushinagar, where at the age of 80, he attained salvation.

On this day, we find monks giving discourses and sermons highlighting the teachings of Gautama Buddha at all these places. Devotees congregate to offer prayers and water to the statue of Buddha placed in water and decorated with flowers, symbolic of a new beginning. A large fair is held at Sarnath and the ancient relics of the Buddha are taken out for public display in a procession. Giving food and clothes to the poor is another important activity undertaken by the devotees. Most of them prefer to wear white clothes, eat vegetarian food and distribute kheer in memory of a woman devotee named Sujata, who had offered Gautama Buddha a bowl of sweet milk porridge on this day.

Apart from India, Buddha Purnima is celebrated with great religious fervour in many other South Asian countries, including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan.

Wishing everyone a #HappyChitraPournami and a #HappyBuddhaPurnima #HappyVesak #Chitragupta #GautamaBuddha #BuddhaPurnima #Vesak #ChitraPournami