Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Trichy Trip: 2. Prasanna Venkatachalapathy Temple, Gunaseelam

Date: 31st Dec 2015

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Muthusamy, Vijayalakshmi and Harsh

Entry Fee: General entry Rs 2 and Special Entry Rs 5. Camera Rs 20

After a nice drive from bengaluru we reached Gunaseelam. Our first visit was to the Prasaanna Venkatachalapathy temple. Located very close to the main road its not hard to find the temple. There were very few people when we reached the temple. We took special ticket and went inside. General and special tickets are nothing but 2 separate lines. They let the general ticket holders first and next turn was for special ticket. There is not much difference. The line was anyway inside the main temple complex and one gets a good darshan while waiting for their turn. The temple is believed to cure the mentally challenged people. The temple also has a rehabilitation center for the mentally challenged. The story of the temple is depicted on the walls and is an interesting one.

The Gunaseela Rishi was learning Vedas from his master Thalpiya maharishi. Gunaseela rishi once went to Thirupathi and worshiped the lord there and asked the lord to come to his ashram. The lord asked him to go back and do penance and then he will appear. Gunaseelar got the blessings of his master and started doing penance standing in fire. Fearing the intensity of the penance Lord Indiran tried to distract gunaseelar but was unsuccessful. They went to Lord Bramha and asked about the penance  and he clarified them that gunaseelar wants lord vishu to come to his ashram. Finally lord Vishnu comes to gunaseelar ashram with sreedevi and boodhevi and give blessings to him. Lord Vishnu also agrees to stay in ashram as per gunaseelar request. Gunaseelar did pooja for the lord everyday. One day Thalpiya maharishi asks gunaseelar to come for a pooja so gunaseelar appoints one of his disciple to continue the daily pooja to the lord. He was scared of the animals in the forest and the darkness and runs away without doing pooja. The deity of lord Vishnu gets covered by ant hill. One day bunch of people milked their cow near the anthill and left it there to take rest. When they got up they found the vessels empty. They were surprised and checked with an elderly person who said lord venkateshwara is here and tell your king. They informed the king about the whole story and he went to visit the place. A bhramin asked the king to pour milk on the ant hill and dissolve it. The king did the same with milk and Lord Prasanna Venkatesha perumal showered his blessings here. The king also built a small shrine as per the lords request.

Some pics from the temple.

Facade of the temple.

Harsh posing with the lion.

Shree vignasasarya temple. We found in almost all places these additional shrines were closed.

Vishnu in Varaha form.


Glass room. Again closed. Not sure what was inside.

Temple mandapam.

Temple bell.

One of the beautiful temple to visit on the way to Trichy. The story and belief surrounding the temple are very interesting.

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