Pancha Devata Yatra

As the pancha bootha sthalam is very important for Shaivites, pancha devata concept is very critical to Shakthas.  Pancha Devatas – (1) Ganapathy (2) Bala (3) Raja Mathangi (4) Majha Varahi (5) Lalitha Parameswari.

This time, we were fortunate enough to do a pancha devata yatra. So, we started off with Kanchi Kamakshi (Lalitha) where Ganapathy is there too – Ganapathy is everywhere! I had a great conversation with Sri Suresh, who is the priest at Kamakshi amman temple. He is also from Guhananda mandali, a good friend of mine. He was talking about getting support on sandhanam and saffron for ambal. I will write another post on that after I have one more call with him.

From there we headed to Madurai to have darshan of Meenakshi, who is Raja Mathangi – beautiful darshan. This Raja Mathangi alankaram is done only at 7.30 PM and we couldn’t see until then.

From Meenakshi Amman Kovil, we traveled to a place called Kodimangalam, which is about 30 mts by car. A Sringeri devotee had built a beautiful Bala Temple. Very small but very beautiful temple where Bala is sitting with a beautiful smile and blessing all. A fantastic place for doing mantra japam. This temple is called as Sitalakshmi temple by the villagers. This is a private temple built by Sri Venkataraman (9841019709) on the direction of Sringeri Acharya. He originally went to acharya to ask His blessings to build a sitalakshmi temple as it is their kiula deivam but was asked to build a Bala temple and name her Sitalakshmi! Veda pundits from Sringeri come during Navarathiri days to do chandi homam etc. Here are some photos of that temple. Pl reach out to Sri Venkatraman if you’re planning for a trip to this temple and he will help you on the logistics.

I got the permission from the priest before taking the photo….

There is another Bala Temple near Kanchipuram in a place called Nemili. Although I have heard about it, I have not been there – might go before I return to US.

From there we came to Thiruvanaikaa to conclude our yatra with Maha Varahi (Akilandeswari) and Jagadguru Sri Periyava who was camping at Sri Matam in TV Kovil.

A detailed post on Sri Periyava’s camp in TV Kovil will follow.

My namaskaram to my guru mandalam and our acharyas – without their blessings, this trip wouldn’t have been possible.