Anjaneya Jyanthi...My visit to Veera Anjaneya Temple @ Kakalur

My Mom, when she woke me up this morning, had a question for me...."do you have anymore leave left?" now this was a loaded question which always made me wary..it could have multiple interpretations but always ended up with my not getting to work that day. So when i inquired what she had in mind, she told me that today was "Anjaneya Jayanthi- birthday of Lord Hanuman" and she wanted the family to visit the Lord Veera Anjaneyar Temple at Kakalur, near Tiuvallur, for as she put it "to pray that I get a good wife". This was usually the clincher for me. But I couldnt help commenting that "will God bring a girl by hand straight to our house? you, as parents should search more diligently, a suitable girl for me and searching on Bharat-Matrimony.com doesnt count" But nobody seems to have heard these mumbled dialogues of mine - so i called up the hospital and having reported the staple "stomach-ache" applied for and got leave for the day
Now i must confess, that I am not really very religious and if at all I worship - I usually make the sign of the cross and pray to "Jesus Christ" courtesy of the 12 years of convent education at a Catholic school. But if it was  going to help me get my dream girl, I was ready to go to any temple and worship any god. But before that I had one small doubt; Wasnt Lord Hanuman a Bachelor god? How could he help me get my girl? My mom launched into a long explanation of Hindu religious scriptures as we got dressed and ready and till the driver came back from his breakfast.The gist of it was, that Lord Hanuman had given his all to join together Lord Rama And his wife Sita who were separated from each other and if i prayed to him he would bring my girl from wherever she was and join her with me for eternity. This made sense and so we set off for Kakalur, near Tiruvallur.

The temple was overcrowded by the time we got there and people were climbing over fences to get a glimpse of the deity. But the temple authorities had closed the main darshan for  Alangaram/Abishekam and we had to wait for an hour or more to get the Darshan.

Meanwhile to keep us occupied the authorities had arranged for some music and dance...the dancers were in a religious frenzy and they were imitating the actions of Hanuman in their dance steps.

Finally, the alangaram got over and the screen was removed and we had a great darshan...I prayed that I would soon meet the girl I would spend the rest of my life with. My prayers said to the lord we came out and waited for the driver to get the car to the entrance of the temple.

So did it end with that? No way. My mom as usual had other plans (comes out of reading all those Bakthi Vikatans/Sakthi Vikatans during her spare times)....Having come all this way, on a Amavasya Saturday, how can we go back without visiting the famous Veeraraghaver Temple at Tiruvallur? Wont Lord Perumal get angry? she asked. It was noon, i was hungry, i had prayed enough- but nothing would convince her. My dad and me knew it was no use arguing with her- so off we went to that next.

Today being a Saturday, there was a heavy crowd at the Perumal Temple too. so we had to wait in line and then finally got to see the Lord. there were two pecliar things i noticed at the temple. One was a ingenious mechanism to join both the bells together so they will ring together during Pooja time and the second was a funny horse sculpture at the entrance below which was a saying from "Brhamamgaru's book"- Brahmamgaru was a Seer who was supposed to have lived atleast a 1000 years before in these parts and who had prophesied in a book of sayings(like Nostradamus)that the end of the world would finally come when waves lapped the Rajagopuram's (the top) of the temple. So does it coincide with the Mayan prophecy? something i have to verify when i get back home.

So after a long and devout day spent worshiping the Gods we headed back home to Chennai and i am now off to the gym to lift a few weights. After all this praying i guess i should compensate by going out partying tonight. But more on that later.