Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Ayyappan Temple in Trichy - The BEST that I've ever seen

Ayyappan Temple in Trichy is one of the BEST temples that I've ever visited. The temple is located about a kilometer from the Central Bus Stand and the visit is worth the time that you spend in traveling to this place. Here are the highlights of the temple:

Also read: Tirupathi Tirumala Visit - May be the last?

  1. This is the ONLY temple that I've seen which doesn't have a Hundi 
  2. Absolutely no noise in the temple, though the temple had nearly 150+ people
  3. Temple is maintained very clean
  4. Very spacious (can accommodate 500+ people)
  5. Place for meditation
  6. Plants all over the temple
  7. Writings all over the temple about the importance of respecting parents/teachers, tips about worshipping God, tips about leading a good life, stories and letters from common man etc.,
  8. Signboards clearly telling the devotees (what can be done & what cannot be done). In fact, one thing which I want to commend about the signboards are the "positivity" in the language. Instead of saying "Don't pluck flowers", the signboard would say "Let us refrain from plucking flowers" or "Let us not disturb the plants" 
  9. No Poojari's doing any archanais or expecting coins on their plates. In fact, in all the temples that I've visited the Poojaris will treat people with partiality. If you put a Rs.10 note on the plate, they'll do additional archanai and give you flowers in addition to vibhoodhi. If you just drop a Rs.1 coin, they'll just give you vibhoodhi alone... but "generously". If you don't drop any coin, they'll give you just a "pinch" of vibhoodhi. 
  10. Free of cost service for taking care of the slippers. They had proper partitions for people to queue up even to leave slippers in the stall.
  11. Volunteers to guide the devotees in a friendly manner
  12. A place where you can get Sandal Woood Paste, Tulsi leaves & Tulsi water

We go to temple to get peace of mind. At least, I go to temples only for that. However, in most of the temples you get a very unpleasant experience - either because of the lack of cleanliness, or excess noice generated by visitors/loud speakers or because of the way in which temple administrators treat devotees. Ayyappan Temple in Trichy is an exception to all of that. The experience that we got in Ayyappan Temple in Trichy is in stark contrast to the experience that we got in Srirangam Temple. If you are in Trichy, definitely visit this temple - I can guarantee that you'll get peace of mind. I wish we have many such temples in our community.

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