Today I accompanied some out-of-town friends on a tour of favoured Arunachala Temples. As the day is full moon and some special pujas were scheduled for early morning at Arunachaleswarar Temple, that is where we started our Temple tour. To begin with, it is really essential, when visiting this Temple, to buy delicious eatable prasadam to take home and share with one's friends.
The below photograph is the flagpost of the Arunachaleswarar Temple which plays such an important role during the Deepam festival.
The Temple is like a little city as there is always so much going on. Its a wonderful place to spend time in. Here one of the Temple cows from the Goshala who has just participated in a puja inside the Compound, is being fed herbs and grasses by devotees. In the background some ladies looking on and also, behind a pillar, the outline of Ruku, the Temple cow elephant.
Time for Ruku's morning bath. I followed her and the mahout on their way to the Goshala for her morning ablutions. The Goshala is where Ruku sleeps and has her home; nice that she has lots of company with the cows and calves.
And here is one of the young calves also living at the Goshala. The Temple keep their own cows for the milk which is daily needed for various Temple pujas.
A view of Arunachala from inside the Temple. The photograph is taken from infront of the Unnamulai Shrine.
Just wandering around from one part of the Temple to another. The Temple compound is huge and although situated right inside the small, bustling town of Tiruvannamalai, is absolutely silent of traffic and outside noise.
So our time at Arunachaleswarar Temple is over (for the moment) and we now continue our tour of favourite Arunachala Temples and Shrines. We first visit Sri Seshadri Swamigal Ashram in Ramana Nagar and after visiting the samadhi of the great saint, sit outside in front of a magnficent statue of Dakshinamurti with Arunachala in the background.
The below photograph is a more detailed one of the statue of Dakshinamurti.
In more detail the enigmatic and disarmingly sweet smile of the Goddess.
A happy and well blessed morning visiting at some of the wonderful and inspirational Arunachala Temples.
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