Thiru Eengoi malai

Thiru Eengoi malai

Thiru Eengoi Malai is yet another temple of Lord Shiva, who is seated on a hill top. After the darshan of Kadambar@ kulithalai in the morning, Ayer Malai Sokkar in the afternoon, we took rest in Gunaseelm in my Uncle's home and it was adhoc plan as we did not plan earlier. I would say it was the wish of the Lord Himself.

As I stated in my earlier post, it is still in practice that people take darshan of Kadambar in the morning, Sokkar of Ayyer malai in the noon and Maragathacheleswarar in the Evening. I was surprised to see that even the pooja happens for these temple in the respective times only. For Sokkar of Ayer malai, we had to wait for the priest who came around 11 am and opened the temple. Like wise the Thirueengoi malai was opened only for the evening darshan.

Thiru Eengoi Malai view from the foothill

The Steps leading to the hill top

Temple:

 The Lord Shiva of this temple is called Maragathachaleswarar and the goddess parvathi is called Maragathambigai.This temple is said be more than 2000 years old. This temple is located near Musiri, Tiruchirappali. All the three temple I mentioned are within 10 km circumference. The Steps of these temple look just like stones simply assembled. They have been painted in red & white. I would say there may be around 400 to 500 steps to the hill top.

The Ambal & Shivan sannadhi Gopurams

The main entrance leading  of the temple

Our trip:

We (Me & my cousins) started from Gunaseelam after a small nap followed by refreshing and a hot tea from my uncle's hotel @ gunaseelam. We left gunaseelam by 4:50 PM. we reached the temple by 5:15 PM. We can have a quick glance of the hill from the main road. There is also Lalithambal Peedam adjacent to the temple which we missed visiting that day.

As soon as we reached the foot of the hill, we parked our car and we could see a Sannidhi of Rishi (supposedly Bogar, correct me if I am wrong). Then starts the steps to climb up the hill. The steps were small unlike the ones in Ayer malai and we could see the hill top, it gave us a small happiness that we would be able to reach the top soon. We carried water with us. Left the slippers in the car.

We halted in between just to feel the breeze and atmosphere. The sight from around 300 steps was nice but it would have been lovely if we had water in the river Kauvery. I really felt sad and something was bothering me since then. I simply closed my eyes and imagined how beautiful it would be if there was water flowing in the river. It will be a feast to the eyes. The sight also had Ayer malai in straight line. The opposite bank had Ayer malai and in this bank of Kauvery is Thiru Engoi malai.

I sincerely prayed Lord Shiva that soon I see water flowing though the river and all green scenery around this place. Now I must not forget mentioning about the 100s of Lorry on the river beds. It looked like toys arranged in a straight line from the hill top. Those were for looting the sand from the River. I mention it as looting because there must be norms for taking sand. Also, why has human race become this greedy that we are ready to fore sake anything(even basic needs) for our Luxury?

The view from half way through the hill top

Water is a basic need, a necessity. Its an elixir of Life. Without water, we all will die. We already have exploited many of the resources. We may leave nothing for the future generations. I request all those who read this blog to save water. Have some social responsibility. We came empty handed in to this world. But we exploit every resource available here and make a mess out of this world before we leave. Remember, we take nothing back... Still, why is that we dance as though everything is ours?
Its all HIS. Thinking deeply, we will definitely get the answers. (I turned Sentimental & of course spiritual)

Getting back to our climb up, we saw few people whom we saw in Ayer malai return back with the prasadam after darshan. Hope they also made the trio darshan on the same day. The Majestic Gopuram invited us and the compound wall was as of those in palaces. entering the sanctum, we gave the fruits for the God and had the darshan of Maragatha Lingeshwarar or the Maragathachaleshwarar. We sang songs in praise of the lord . To left of the God was the goddess Maragathambigai. We also sang songs in praise of the goddess.

I cannot miss mentioning the sannathi of the Tamil God Murugan, who was in the form of Bala Dhandayuthapani as in Pazhani. Still in my eyes, we sang several songs in his praise. Came a round about the temple, got the prasadham, felt the divine bliss and started climbing down the temple. Before we got down, the temple priest got down quickly. As it was dusk, it slowly started becoming dark and there were only few lights that were on the steps down the hill.

Special thanks to the Lord by Whose grace we had a wonderful day!
அவனருளாலே  அவன் தாழ்  வணங்கி !!

A special thanks to my cousins by whose support this trip was possible!

For further details refer:
http://temple.dinamalar.com/en/new_en.php?id=841