“We worship the three-eyed Lord Shiva who nourishes and spreads fragrance in our lives. May He free us from the shackles of sorrow, change and death effortlessly, like the fall of a ripe cucumber from its stem!! ”
These are the verses that sprang to my mind when my mom and I decided to go to Marundeeswarar temple. She specifically wanted to collect the sacred ash from there and then proceed to Pamban Swami ashram near by collect sacred ash from there and mix the two portions to create an elixir for all ailments!! What a DIY project!
I read in a book that death at Kasi, birth at Tiruvarur, sight of Chidambaram and the thought of Tiruvannamalai confers Moksha to a devotee. Similarly, the mere sight and thought of the Tiruvanmiyur temple leads one from darkness to light.Lord Shiva revealed the healing properties of herbs to sage Agastya here hence he got the name Marundeeswara. The lingam here is a self manifested one and not sculpted by anybody. It has a white hue to it because the deity Kamadhenu or the divine cow anointed the lingam here with milk. Hence the presiding deity here is also known as Palvannanathar. The Vanni(Prosopis cineraria) is the temple tree here. Its flowers are said to safeguard a pregnancy! The consort has a separate shrine here and she is called Tripurasundari. What a magnificent & hoary temple it turned out to be.We entered the temple through the east coast entrance.
