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2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with

Navaratri Experiences-5

Fridays are always auspicious for the Devi, and Fridays during Navaratri are even more special. Normally, when we perform the puja at home, we invite everyone home for Haldi – Kumkum on a Friday, but this year, we were busy visiting others, as we did not have the puja ourselves.


Here is a photograph of the kolu at one of our neighbours’. Samhith went to see it first and told them that they had very few toys, as compared to his grandmother. He also gave them suggestions about what they could do to make it look even better. Of course, his interest in the golu is great, but I don’t know what I am going to do if the chap keeps talking like this!



From Miscellaneous

The decoration in the temple was of CHOTTANIKKARA BHAGAVATHI. The Devi looked beautiful amidst a number of oil lamps, which had been lit to give a wonderful effect.


From Miscellaneous


The Chottanikkara Bhagavathi temple is one of the most important and famous temples of Kerala, and needs no introduction. The Devi here is prayed to as Saraswati in the morning, as Lakshmi at Noon, and as Parvati in the evening. It is believed that goddess Saraswati as Mookambika resides here early in the morning, and hence the first prayer is to Saraswati. Moreover, it is said that the temple to Mookambika at Kollur in Karnataka opens only later in the morning after the prayers here are completed, and she returns to her abode at Kollur.

From Miscellaneous

Well, today, Saturday is going to be a busy day, as I have to visit more people. I hope I shall be able to get more material to write about, especially more photographs…. Until then, Goodbye!!!!

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To my right , the waves rush to the shore, eager to merge with the sand. To my left, the same waves crash against the rocks, their spray diverting my reverie as I ponder over the beauty of nature, and wonder what first brought people here. Was it this beauty that encouraged them to build a temple here, or was it the fresh, sweet spring water flowing from the hill here that made this place special? No matter what the reason, I am glad my auto driver brought me here. We are at the Rama temple in Gokarna, just a few minutes away from the Mahabaleshwara Temple, yet offering so different a perspective.

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