A LOOK AT KASHI VISHWANATHAR TEMPLE, THENPURAMKUNDRAM,MADURAI

This temple is situated in the opposite side of the thirupuramkundram Hill (Madurai,Tamil Nadu,India)in accordance with the famous thirupuramkundram Murugan temple. This "Kashi Viswanathar Temple" is situated in the top of the hill. It has 600 steps to be covered. There is no rope car facility present and one is required to walk. The steps have been laid out in a well-planned manner and the area is clean and safe.

The air is enchanting, the scenery is green, with such magnificent rocks, the trip makes a well laid trekking cum spiritual trip. This temple,which is not widely known to the public is a very special place in the history and holds greater importance than the Thirupuramkundram Murugan Temple, for the fact that, once a year the "vel" (weapon of Lord Muruga) is brought to this temple top to get recharged.

The temple, in the main shrine has Lord Shiva. It is said that Macchamuni who is responsible for creation of this temple, left all his powers attained to the lord, so as to make the idol a very powerful one. This place hold a vital importance as we can see, the sakti is also present in the same shrine, unlike in other temples they are present in different shrines. The Lord Shiva is in the form of Linga. The person who visit this shrine gets the same benefit as of visiting the Kashi.

The Vinayakar in the temple is also a very powerful person. The unmarried girls, who wants to get married and those who are facing obstacles, come and cleanse them in the river and later offer prayers and their bangles to the Lord. It is said that, the girls will soon get married happily.

The Lord Murugan or Lord Karthikeya is placed in the separate shrine and holds an important place. This is the actual place where the siddhas have made penance and prayers. One such very important Siddhar is the "Machamuni Siddhar". An interesting Legend says that, Machamuni was the child brought up by Pinnakeesar. He is also Pinakeesar's disciple. There is a story that once Lord Siva was preaching Uma Devi. Uma Devi had slept when Lord Siva was preaching her. However, a fish was listening to the lecture. Later on that fish was transformed into Siddhar Machamuni by Lord Siva.

Machamuni is an ardent devotee of Lord Siva, he followed all the rituals in his worship. A demon, out of jealousy, tricked him and the muni had to discontinue his worship. The muni accrued some 'dosha' because of this. Using it as an excuse, the demon enslaved the muni. With the grace of Lord Karthikeya, the suffering muni god freedom, after a long time. He rejoined his group of siddhas, and later become an expert in all kinds of siddha techniques. He sat in samadhi, next to cold water falls / lakes or catchment areas, not minding extremely cold draughts. He enjoyed feeding the fishes. He was in samadhi for a prolonged period sitting next to the lake in Tiruparangkundram. With his blessings one can get the ability to fight evil forces. Can become an expert in the controlling of the six chakras in the body. And also one can save himself from the adverse effects of Navagrahas.

Due to this reason, we can see a wonderful lake, in which there are many Big Gigantic Fish and myth holds that one such fish is Machamuni himself. All the devotees feed these fish, and at times one of the fish will climb up and inquire our wish, that is our mere luck!

Across the narrow lake, there exists, idols of various deities carved in the stone of the hill making it a rock cut engravings. These idols were worshiped by Machamuni Siddhar himself. The prayers maid at this point will be surely addressed. Out of all the stone engravings, the Shiv Linga is given utmost importance.

There are lot of monkeys all over the place and in case the monkey snatches the food particle, out of its own will, then it is said that it has taken all the worries out of the devotee. One is required to safeguard the hand phones and other expensive items by keeping it inside their bags for there is fear of being snatched away by those lovely hanumans...For the same reason I am not able to provide the pictures of the interior of the temple. Nevertheless I will try it next time. Enjoy the trip and more to come in future issues!