My Recent Visit to Madurai.....Meenakshi Temple
I am blogging after a real long time......hope you all will read this...We had been to Madurai Meenakshi Temple, where my daughter was to dance, an opportunity provided by "The Mylapore Trio", who had kept a massive golu in the temple. This is the third year the "Trio" are into this very beautiful task and I have had the opportunity to visit the first and the present one. This year the theme was "Sarvam Bhakthi" and they had conceptualized the theme very well. The amount of thinking and visualization cannot be put in words. The Thematic Golu started with the four Yugas "the krutha yugam", where in they had kept, Brahma Logam, the next step consisted of the Devalogam and the third step consisted of the first six avatars of "Lord Vishnu" with the reference stories for each avatar. The next Chamber consisted of the epic "Ramayana", with reference to the Bhakthi prevailing all over Ramayana, with Bharata portraying his loyalty and love to Lord Rama, Sabari and her devotion, Guhan and his devotion, Jadayu, Hanuman, Lakshman, Vibeeshanan, Sita and many such wonderful stories...which were all under the head "Treta Yugam". The next chamber was "Dwapara Yugam" portraying the Bhakthi towards Lord Krishna from Dwaraka and Mahabaratham, showing the Gopis, Kalinga Narthanam, Govardhana Giri lifting by Lord Krishna, Yasodha's motherly devotion, Arjuna's unshakable trust in the lord, the Viswaroopa Dharshan of Lord to Arjuna, Bheeshma's premai and many such wonderful episodes. The next chamber was "Kaliyuga Bhakthi where in various types of prayers that are being performed such as doing satyanarayana poojai, theemidhithal, alagu sarthal were all kept.. Then followed the Saiva Bhakthi depicting various wonderful stories from the Periya Puranam, depicting Nandanar and Poosalar Nayanar, the story of Manickavasagar, and Naraiku Moksham. The Chamber that followed was Vainava Bhakthi, depicting various Vaishnava saints who devoted themselves to the Lord, where in Sant Tukharam, Meera and Andal were all kept with relevant back ground... The Next Chamber was "Velliyambalam" depicting the Raja's Prayer to Lord Shiva to change his leg as otherwise it would cause a lot of pain to the Lord, as he was always dancing with the left leg lifted placing the right on the ground...Here alone (Madurai) you would see lord Nataraja lifting his "right leg at the request of the king". Then followed the various other forms of Bhakthi, wherein they had depicted, the marriage of Lord Muruga with Valli and Deivayanai, the various forms of Mother Goddess and the prayers and poojas performed....The next one to follow was the very beautiful "Panchapadi Oonjal" where they had kept five stages of Oonjal seva to Lord Sundareswara and Meenakshi...
The spectacular ones are yet to come...The first in the spectacular chamber the depiction of "Kailayam" ...With a beautiful blue backdrop depicting the Ocean, in the abode was seated the "Lord Shiva with Parvati his consort alongwith the Boothaganas, Devas, Rishis and Nandi...which really made us feel as though we were there in Kailasm itself..
The Last but neverthless the least was the depiction of the 108 Thandavas of the Lord, Cosmic Dancer Nataraja...The Chamber itself was designed like a Lingam, and in the front a big Lingam was placed alongwith the various lingams as in Tiruvannamalai and at the back the 108 Thandavas was placed in five platforms, the lowermost depicting "Prithvi" or "Earth" the first of Pancha Bootha. In the Centre was "Ekambaranathar and Kamakshi of Kancheepuram" decked with thandavas on either side. The next row depicted the "Appu" or "Water" with "Jambugeswara and Akilandeswari of Thiruvanaikoil", the third row depicted "VAyu" or "Wind" with "Kalatheeswara and Gnanambika of Kalahasthi", the fourth row was dedicated to the element "Agni" or "Fire" with "Arunachalleswara and Abithakuchalambal of Tiruvanamalai", and the fifth row was dedicated to the fifth element "Agasa" or "Space" depicting the dance of the Cosmic Dancer, "Lord Nataraja and Sivagamasundari" of Chidambaram. All the rows with the Pancha Bootha Lord in the centre was adorned on either side by the vigrahas of the "108 Thandavas"...
It was a blissful experience, and to add up to all these we had a very very special and divine Dharshan of the Lord Sundareswara, Mother Meenakshi and the most wonderful, adorable "Mukuruni Vinayagar"....the sculptures of the temple, you need volumes to explain them...
It was a very wonderful, memorable, blissful and spiritual feel, which would remain very close to my heart ....
