The Tiruchendur Murugan Temple sits on the seashore, in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu. The waves crash against the rocks. The salt spray reaches the gopuram. The temple is not on a hill like Palani. It is not in a cave like Thiruchendur? No, it is on the sand. The god here is not … Read more
The Shirdi Sai Baba Temple sits in the small town of Shirdi, in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. The town is dusty. The streets are crowded. The shops sell photos, garlands, and prasad. But the temple is not dusty. The marble floors are clean. The queue moves slowly. The devotees chant. Sai Baba lived here … Read more
The Pavagadh Temple sits on a hill 822 meters above the plains of Gujarat. The climb is steep. The view is wide. The goddess is Kalika, a fierce form of Durga. This is a Shakti Peetha. The right toe of Sati fell here. The temple is not large. The crowd is. On regular days, the … Read more
The Sri Sankarankovil Temple sits in the town of Sankarankovil, in the Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu. The temple is not like other temples. Here, Shiva and Vishnu are not separate. They are one. The deity is Sankaranarayana, the unified form of the two gods. The right half is Shiva, the left half is Vishnu. … Read more
Govardhan Parikrama is not a walk. It is a conversation. The hill is not stone. It is Giriraj Maharaj, the form of Krishna who lifted a mountain on his little finger to protect his people. The path is not dirt. It is the ground that the Lord himself walked on. When you walk around Govardhan, … Read more
Chaitra Navratri is not the loud Navratri of October. That one is Sharad Navratri, celebrated with garba and nights that stretch past midnight. Chaitra Navratri is quieter. It falls in March or April, when the winter chill is gone and the summer heat has not yet arrived. The trees are blooming. The air is fresh. … Read more
The Govind Dev Ji Temple sits inside the City Palace complex in Jaipur, not in a crowded lane like the older temples of the old city. The palace walls surround it. The gardens are neat. The red sandstone glows in the morning light. The temple is not ancient by Indian standards. It was built in … Read more
The Khodiyar Mandir in Rajpara sits on the Bhavnagar Rajkot highway, beside the calm waters of Tataliya Lake. The temple is not old in the sense of the ancient stone temples of Tamil Nadu. But the devotion here is old. The goddess is Maa Khodiyar, a form of Adi Shakti. She is the Kuldevi of … Read more
The Kundrathur Murugan Temple sits on a small hill, about twenty five kilometers from Chennai. The city spreads below, flat and gray. But the hill is green. The climb is short, eighty four steps. The stone is worn smooth by the feet of devotees. The temple is ancient, dating back to the 12th century, to … Read more
The Shree Shyam Baba Mandir in Surat is not an ancient temple. It was inaugurated in 2017, on Basant Panchami. But the devotion here is old. The deity is Shyam Baba, the Kali Yuga form of Barbarik, the grandson of Bhima. The original temple is in Khatu, Rajasthan. For devotees in Gujarat, the distance to … Read more