Saturday, July 21, 2007

Njaralapuzha Temple

Nowdays almost all the temples in India is getting more politicised and looks more like a commercial place or tourist centre rather than place of worship. Even in Kerala almost all the temples including Sabarimala, Guruvayoor are in controversy. I think God might have left all these place of worship. During one of my recent visit to kerala, I happened to visit a small temple near my house (Uzhavoor, kottayam dist, kerala) which is without any controversy and where one can pray and enjoy the Natural beauty. The temple is located at a place called Vayala and it is around 25 kms from Kottayam city. If you are travelling from Trichur to kottayam on MC Road, this temple comes before you reach kottayam, you need to take a diversion at a place called Kuravalingad.
The temple name is Njaralapuzha. My father is a regular visitor to this temple so this time I too planned to pay a visit. Let me give a brief idea about this temple. Swami Ayyapan is the main deity at this temple. This temple is also called Children's sabarimala. The temple is not run by any management or co-operative, in fact it is managed by the priest of that temple. It is a very small temple. The story behind this temple goes like this......long ago, childrens used to come to this hill with goats and sheeps. One day a few goats went missing and the children were unable to find the goats. So these childrens pluck some creepers (Njarala) and kept them along with some stones and prayed to Swami ayyapan to bring back the goats. The next day the goats were back and from that time onwards the villagers started worshiping this place. The small temple is located on the top of a beautiful hill. When I reached the temple, small childrens were bringing flowers from home and making garlands, a sort of spiritual silence prevailed in the environment. A small child was giving prasadam to the visitors there. My father told that daily there is free lunch offered to everybody in the temple and the lunch is made by the wife of the priest. I could see vegetables being grown near the temple premises. I had a nice darshan of the deity and also felt like spending some time in the middle of the calm and quite natural habitat.


The Entrance door to the temple.
Side view of the temple.


A view from the temple.


A chembaka tree near the temple.


A sarpa kaadu near the temple.


The way to the pond near the temple.

The temple pond.

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