Our Spiritual trip to Chennai and surrounding area
We made a short spiritual trip to Chennai. Started early in the morning at 5AM on the 27th from Bangalore. The climate was quite suitable with cool weather. We reached for breakfast at a hotel around 7.30. Restarted our travel and reached Arunachala temple at 11 clock. Rushed to the temple for darshan as they were closing at 12. A good darshan and wanted to go to Bhagwan Ramana Maharshasramam.
Gin Gee Fort
By that time it was closed. We went to Mahabaleshwar. On the way we passed Gingee Venkataramana Temple which is considered very ancient and built by Cholas. Under the ASI the temple is being revived. Without any maintenance and withstood 3 wars, by the old kings and other rulers. They have developed a good lawn and surrounding areas. Huge trees and some old structures are still existing. Some people are sitting and spending time under the trees and inside the old structures. We went inside the temple where one priest and another lady were only present there. They were temple employees I felt. He explained about the history of this war torn temple. It is also called the 1000 pillar temple of Gingee Fort. The revival is undergoing slowly. The important idols are kept under custody at Pondicherry. We could get an idea of its magnanimity even after destruction of many parts. The place looked very calm and quiet. We then proceeded to Mahabalipuram, where we booked for three nights. Being close to Chennai, we preferred this small, clean and middle class hotel. As all of us after the long travel and heat, we rested for a couple of hours. After our early dinner, we took a walk to the beautiful beach. Being a working day, there were not many people around. The cool breeze with the high tide in the moonlight, it was really a pleasure time. Once we cooled down, we came back and took a rest.
Next day our plan was to go to the famous VadaPalani temple, which also is one of the ancient and huge ones. There are very many small ones also around and quite a lot of time spent visiting and enjoying the sceneries around had it been in winter time this could have been wonderful. But walking naked under the burning path was found a bit difficult for us Bangaloreans. Running through the ways and trying shades,
Vadapalani Murugan Temple Chennai
we all managed the heat. It was time to close the temple and we went out for lunch at a nearby hotel. We then went for a bit of shopping in their air conditioned stores to get away from the heat. Our next destination was Valluvar Kottam memorial Park- This historical monument of the great philosopher Poet Thiruvalluvar, who penned the well known Thirukkural 2000 years ago. We were lucky that one of the government servants took us all the way to the top to show the statue very close. I found the maintenance and cleanliness were not up to a good standard for such an important place, where many tourists are visiting from abroad. 
In front of Valluvar Kottam
Next day was allotted to the important visit of one of Prakash’s friends. We started off visiting the only remaining shore temple at Mahabalipuram beach and believed to have been constructed around 750 AD. The place maintained by ASI is found to be excellent with a good garden and security. In spite of most parts being worn out and disintegrated, we can imagine the beauty of the sculptures from it. As the sun was becoming hotter, we could not spend much time, although we intended to. It was understood that June-July are the hottest summer in Chennai and very few tourists dare to visit these places. From here we went to the friend’s house for lunch, who had volunteered for it. A very simple and sumptuous lunch with a very nice sweet dish was served. They wanted to spend more time there, so we decided to visit our friend Karthik and Dr. Jayasree for a quick visit. They were very excited to meet at their new three story building in the heart of the city. We spent time with the kids who came from school. We returned to Mahabalipuram, via Shree Kapaleshwar temple complex. Everywhere the temples open after 4PM and so rush to reach and spend more time there. Very beautiful and ancient temples were full of magnificent art and sculpture work. All are wonderful artisans, who created it with very little modern equipment and facilities. We returned to the hotel and took a rest. Next day morning everyone went to see the sunrise at Mahabalipuram and I took a rest. To me, the sun, moon and stars have no difference in any part of the world. In my life on three continents that is what I have noticed.
After our breakfast, we packed and started to visit temples in Kanchipuram and later some shopping of famous Kanchipuram Silk sarees.
Inside the beautiful Carvings of Kanchipuram Temple
.We visited a few other temples such as Kapaleeswara Temple,Kanchi Kamakshi Temple, Kailash nath Temple and Ekambareswarar temple near thisThen proceeded to the final destination of Tiruttani, the famous Murugan temple.Tiruttani Murugan Temple
on Tiruttani Murugan Temple
On the way we had Kanchipuram kovil idly, bought from Kanchipuram for our lunch. We are so lucky, we reached exactly as the visitors before closing and finished the darshan and all at various temples inside at a fast pace to enable the return journey early. Our friend Jigesh is not only an expert driver, a guide and knows all short routes too. Thus our long cherished ambition of visiting some important temples (Maha kshetrangal) got materialized by the grace of God and the very good care and planning of Prakash and Latha -our friend. May God bless all and give health, wealth and prosperity to all!. It was God’s grace that I could do it for the benefit of all Vayalil family members. Now I suggest all of you cheer up and not worry about silly day to day problems!
Aniyan’s Blog 