Tīrtha Series - 7 : Sri Parthasarathy temple, Chennai
Here is the link to Tirtha Series Master Database
12 January, 2022, Chennai, Tamil, Nadu, India
3-6 pm IST
Very difficult time period in my life, extremely high ancestral pressure (living & deceased) and resentments were going in full swing. Everyday, I run away from my ancestral house to see around the city, because the psychic pressure was so high at that time, that I felt like someone chopping wood within my head with an axe every second.
Whenever things, get too hard, I run to beach. Fresh air, seeing ocean and blue waves, relaxes the mental pressure to some extent. Near the beach there were few temples, so I went to casually check out with my wife. It has been 15 years since I have been to the temple, I have been far away from my home for very long time.
Around 3 pm, I went to Sri Parthasarathy Temple, a Krishna temple near Chennai Beach. A 6th century temple with beautiful Pallava (Southern style Architecture). It is the only or very few temple, where Krishna Idol sports a moustache. On this day, when we went, they removed the moustache as part of temple ritual, we got to see idol without moustache too. Beautiful place!
Here is the picture of the main idol inside the premise (took from banner outside, photography not allowed inside):
5 +1 Main deities are:
Venkata Krishnaswamy, Rukmini, Satyaki, Balarama, Pradyumna and Aniruddha
Some pictures of temple from outside:
Swami Vivekananda visited and wrote letter to temple management back in 1893:
He did mix up Buddha with Krishna. Vivekananda was around in this place at that time.
I next post, I will write on visiting Vivekananda House which is like 1 mile opposite to beach. We walked and went here.