Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Temples of God's own country

Courtesy: Sri.PP.Ramachander

Kerala is truly the gift of Gods to India. With his perennial green beauty and it’s very
educated masses who truly believe in cleanliness, it stands out from other states of India.
There are two views on how it got its name. One view is that , it got its name from the
Chera kings who ruled it long time ago and another is that , Keralam simply means
“garden of coconuts”, which it truly is. Kerala is the land between the mighty Western
Ghats and the Arabian Sea, starting from near Trivandrum in the south to slightly north of
Kasargode. No where in Kerala either the sea or the mountain, would be more than 60-70
kilometers. This ribbon of a land is divided into the sandy beach, the hills and valleys and
the mountainous regions.
People professing Hinduism, Islam and Christianity occupy this land. Most of them
are very religions. They all have another religion too-the religion of cleanliness. It would
be extremely difficult to locate a Keralite who does not take bath in the early morning.
Most of the Hindus visit the local temple after bath wearing wet cloths. Except for one or
two temples in the entire Kerala, most of these temples are simple constructions without
much architecture. But any one entering these temples would be instantly transported to
the highly charged spiritual atmosphere there. . Most of these temples are very divine and
have epic stories associated with them. But nothing much about them is known outside
Kerala, except about Guruvayur temple, Sabarimala Temple and Ananthapadmanabha
Swami temple . The agamas   and deity worship is more based on Thanthra sasthra than manthras.
     Though I am a keralite , I myself did not  know much  about the temples in my state  . So I started collecting particulars of different temples  in Kerala. Today  I have completed writing about 100   temples of Kerala.  In a land where thousands of temple are  there, it is a very small number.  These are available   in my blog
I am giving below the index of such temples, I have described. I have classified them as , Bhagawathy temples, Vishnu  Temples, Shiva temples, Sastha temples, Subrhamanya temples  , Ganapathy temples  and others. In the others do read about  the Parabrahma temple of Ochira, possibly the only kind in the world,  where the temple is simply a huge forest  without any deities  and  the worship is done to two banyan trees.
For Index of temples click
1.Translations of 1000 stotras:
http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/
2. Translations of 1000 Carnatic music krithis :
http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/gi.htm
3. Rules and rituals of Brahmins:
http://brahminrituals.blogspot.com/
4. Raja Thatha's Blogs : http://rajathathablog.blogspot.com/
5. Kerala temples:
http://rajathathaskeralatemples.blogspot.com/
6. Village gods of Tamil Nadu :
http://villagegods.blogspot.com/
7. Stories and rhymes for children:
http://rajathathacorner.awardspace.com
8. Stories illustrating Malayalam Proverbs : http://keralam.kairaly.net
9. Translation of Narayaneeyam: http://narayaneeyamtrans.blogspot.com/
10. Vikramadhithya stories:
http://vikramadhithya.blogspot.com/
11. Thunjathu Ezhuthachan's Adhyathma Ramayana :
http://rajathathas.blogspot.in/
12. Valmiki Ramayanam in English http://englishvalmikiramayanam.blogspot.in/
13. Nurani Sastha Preethi songs with translation http://nuranisasthapreethi.blogspot.in/


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