We mostly visit the temples, particularly in south India, early in the mornings during Brahma Muhurtam only as it is highly auspicious. Moreover, I love the early mornings' ambiance in the South Indian temples. The aroma of fresh jasmine flowers, the fragrance of camphor, chandanam and agarbatti and the divine chanting take you to the divine world and you feel yourself spiritually elevated for a while.
The surroundings outside the temples are equally enjoyable in the early hours with mouth-watering aroma of filter coffee and idli-sambar.
Fortunately the previous day, I checked everything about the dresscode for the temple, so it became easy for us i.e. myself, my husband and my daughter to dress accordingly in the early hours. Only Hindus are allowed in the temple and there is a strict dress code that should be followed for entering into the temple. Everyone need to wear traditional Kerala off-white / white costume with golden zari border and not colourful dresses.
Women need to wear sari and blouse, teen girls must wear half-sari / lehenga-choli with chunni compulsory / parikini (pavada)-voni and small girls can wear long skirt (pavada) and blouse i.e. parikini and blouse. And men must wear dhoti and angavastram which is same for all age groups of boys.
This strict dress code in the temple is really appreciable. Because the youth particularly the North Indians are fully inclined towards western outfit in the name of modernity and feel themselves low to wear our traditional costumes. It would be nice if we have such strict dress code for entry into Hindu temples across the country.
For visitors who come to the temple without knowing about the dress code, there are number of shops near the temple selling these costumes at reasonable rates. Some of these shops even provide cloak room facility where we can desposit our mobiles and other stuff which is not allowed inside the temple. My personal experience, people here are very honest and not the cheating types unlike the shopkeepers of other states where they take advantage of the situation and hike the prices for visitors.
The driver dropped us in front of the South Fort and 'Om Namo Narayana', 'Om Namo Bhagawate Vasudevaya', 'Narayana', 'Narayana' - I recited these words spontaneously the moment I found myself standing in front of the Divya Desam.
At the gate there was strict check-up and the security is not allowing those who are not in proper dress code. After stepping inside the temple, there is thorough check-up by police people. I was surprised to see even the police people (both men and women) inside the temple premises are in traditional costume only and not police uniform which reflects the strict adherence to dress code in the temple and that Sree Anantha Padmanabha Swamy is the Supreme rules-maker and not we humans.
On enquiry we came to know that there are only two types of darshans - free darshan and special darshan for Rs.500/-. We walked to the ticket counter - a small old type counter just opposite the entry gate and bought three tickets. Along with the tickets we got small eco-friendly disposable plates with local flowers and two bananas in it for offering to Swamivaru. We had to wait as the darshan will start at 6.30 a.m, after the Nirmalya Darsanam. Let's know a bit about the temple.
About Sree Anantha Padmanabga Swamy Temple
Thiruvananthapurm, the capital of Kerala is a traditional city which derived its name from Sree Anantha Padmanabha Swamy, the main deity of the temple. It is one of the 108 Divya Desams i.e. highly sacred Vishnu temples in India. Divya Desams are the most sacred abodes of Sri Maha Vishnu as per the mention in the works of Tamil Alwars / Azhvars / saints. The temple is located at a place that is considered as one of the seven Parasurama kshetras with its references in the Puranas (Skanda Puranam and Padma Puranam). Parasurama Kshetras are the sacred places located in the coastal belt of Karnataka and Kerala that are associated with Parasurama - the 6th Avataram of Sri Maha Vishnu.The temple stands near the sacred Padma Teertham and is under the care of the Royal family of Travancore who consider themselves as the Dasas i.e. slaves of Sree Anantha Padmanabha Swamy. The main deity which is in Ananta Sayana i.e. reclining Posture on the Adisesha, the divine serpant, facing east and the Arabian Sea on the back. However, the sea is not very close to the temple and not visible from the temple. However, there is sand inside the entire temple premises with ancient rock pillar and sqaure corridor on all the four sides.
After some waiting time in the corridor, the darshan started at 6.30 a.m and the devotees lined up for having a glimpse of Sri Anantha Padmanabha. We walked in the line and after climbing the steps we came to the three narrow doors that were adjacent to one another. It is not spacious in front of the sanctum santorum. We came near the 1st door and were mermised to have the darshan of the feet of Sree Anantha Padmanabha and from the middle door we saw the navel part. Brahma seated on a lotus that emerged from the navel of Sree Padmanabha and in front are the idols of Sreedevi and Bhoodevi. And from the 3rd door we had the darshan of the head of Sree Padmanabha with the hoods of Adisesha as a canopy and his right hand placed on Sivalingam while there is a padmam in the left hand. There are only oil lamps inside the temple and of course there is crowd but disciplined.
As I slowly walked having the darshan of Sri Ananta Padmanabha, tears rolled down my cheeks and I felt emotional. Just for a fraction of a second, I had a glimpse of the divine presence of Sri Maha Vishnu on the Ananta Sayana floating in the Ksheera Sagara in my subconscious mind. A strange feeling which is hard to put in words.
After the darshan of Sree Padmanabha Swamy, following the line we came to a small shrine of Sage Veda Vyasa. And stepping down this shrine we saw devotees crowded at a small golden window where there are two golden idols of two house lizards and touching their head at this window as a gesture of namaskar. We came to know that it is the outer wall of the sanctum sanctorum and the feet of Sree Padmanabha is there behind the closed window. And there is some story in connection with the two house lizards which were devotees of Sree Padmanabha and were granted a boon by Him to stay forever at His feet.
After coming out of the main temple the special darshan devotees were given 'prasadam' in a disposable bag which included a small photo of Sree Anantha Padmanabha and a small tin of special Kerala style payasam which is one bag per ticket. We then stepped into the shrine of Sri Krishna and were amazed to see the beautiful ancient mural painting on the outer walls of the shrine. Mobiles are strictly prohibited inside the temple, so we just clicked those murals in our mind only.
Also Read Raja Ravi Varma's Art Gallery, Trivandrum
From here we moved further where we got hot prasadam which was chakrapongali / sweet pongal. We enjoyed the taste as you know chakrapongali is very tasty in South Indian Vishnu temples.
An interesting thing we noticed is that there are layers of metal diya stands to hold oil lit lamps which was lit up on special festive occassions like Onam, Makara Sankranti etc. These metal stands are specially designed on the outer walls of the main temple. After admiring the architectural grandeur of the temple we came to the gift shop near one of the four gates and bought a couple of things.
I was wondering what is the difference in the posture of Sree Anantha Padmanabha Swamy and Sri Ranganatha Swamy of Srirangam, Tamil Nadu and Srirangapatna, Karnataka as these idols are in reclining posture. After some research I came to know that Sree Anantha Padmanabha reclines on his back facing up while Sri Ranganatha Swamy leans on right side and Sri Lakshmi sitting at His feet.
We were amazed with profundity of Kerala’s spiritual traditions- the more we traveled this god's own land, the more we got to know about them. The entire experience was extremely beautiful and there are certains things that cannot be expressed in words and we cannot explain the experience in words which could be beyond the reach of a logical mind. We could feel His omnipresence and experience some kind of Supreme power, Supreme force and Divine vibes which I cannot express in words but one has to feel it when one visists this temple. Om Namo Narayana! Om Namo Bhagawate Vasudevaya! Narayana Narayana! We feel extremly blessed and grateful to have visited the temple of Sree Anantha Padmanabha Swamy in Thiruvananthapuram. Well, after the divinely experiencely at this world famous temple, we stepped out and headed to our hotel in Kovalam as it was check-out time.
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