On
the stretch of Chennai-Tiruvallur High Road, nearby Padi flyover, just opposite
to the ‘Padavattamman Temple’, there
was a narrow land which led us to the ‘Thiruvaleeswarar Temple’ on that sunny
Sunday. Within a few steps, we found a
small piece of vacant land to our right side, in front of the temple.
It
is one of the Shiva Temples in India.
The temple though not so famous, has rich history and has been sung by
famous Tamil Poet ‘Thirunana Sambanthar’. The temple is believed to be about thousand
years old one. Before the entrance there
were devotees all around the temple, wearing yellow colour dhotis. Some of them were digging the land in front
of the temple to prepare it for ‘Theemidhi
Thiruvizha’ which is one of the famous functions, usually as a custom of
dedication to the Hindu Gods. This
function is mostly famous in the southern part of India, especially in
Tamilnadu. The main concept of this
function is that the devotees to walk on the fire and complete the ritual. This literally means to control the mind and
forget the pain. The pain only for the
body and mind which is not permanent and the soul is immortal.
There is a courtyard in front of the temple with corridor. Once you pass the courtyard you can have dharsan of main shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva who is called ‘Thiruvaleeswarar’ here. You can see the idols of ‘Suryan’, ‘Vinayagar’ and ‘Murugan’ on the corridor around the main shrine.
There
is one separate shrine for ‘Guru’, one of the nine planets (Navakragam) which rules one’s life. The planet ‘Guru’ is known as Jupiter in
English is believed to have a greater impact in one’s life especially wealth according
to the Indian Astrology. The temple is visited
by many people mainly because of ‘Guru’.
The temple is one of the ‘parigara
isthalam’ where one can remove the bad things in their life caused by ‘Guru’.
Location: Padi,
Chennai, Tamilnadu, India – About 12 kilometers from Chennai Central Railway
Station
