The Gold Wonder

Have heard about the city of Gold. I saw it LIVE!!

Vellore - SRIPURAM
Let me start right from the entrance of the temple. Good roads which lead you to temple, reasonable food arrangements in the campus, neat surroundings, good arrangements and very high security[This is for the amount of gold there ;-)]. These were my initial impressions of the temple.

After about 220km of journey from Bangalore, tired and hungry we decided to have food in the HUGE hotel(which looks like a choultry) run by the Narayani Peetam itself. Considering the fact we were hungry to eat the gold if we could digest it, we enjoyed the authentic south Indian mini meal. After having nice lunch we decided we wanted to see the temple when the moon smiles at the Gopuram, we headed towards Ratnagiri.

Ratnagiri about 20 km from Sripuram is on a small hill top. Our qualis had to go through 2 Hair pin bends to reach the HILL Top :P. The temple in the outdoors itself looked very huge. The Bala Murugan there seem to invite every devotee with a tiny smile. I was tempted to try shouting my name in the temple looking at the height of the roof(May be I would have heard the echo and Murugan shouting back to keep silent). After the short visit to the Ratnagiri temple we headed towards Sripuram again.

Entered SriPuram with the 100Rupees ticket called as the Divya Darshanam Seva.(they have Dharma Darshanam as well) The security here is very high. Every small bag and plastic cover is scanned. We started walking towards the temple looking at the water fountains on the path way. We could see greenery everywhere. And there I enjoyed the glimpse of the gold Gopuram. I was waiting for more gold to shine at me. Very neatly maintained lawn with nicely sculptured idols of saptarishi's, Lakshmi seemed to increase my expectation of what lies ahead. The star shaped lighting in the lawns seemed to remind me the that the temple by itself is in star shape. Security seems to be there everywhere. Personally I was impressed by a Devi Idol in between the branches of the tree with the focus on that welcoming smile on her face. As I walked in this Star shaped marvel I had no words to describe the intricate work on the Golden Gopuram. With the lights on, I thought the temple had a corona which is just glowing glowing and glowing. I could see the effort of 6 years that went into the construction of this Wonder.
As I got close to the Garbha Gudi I felt like I was getting closer to the Ramanand version's(the famous mythological series of Ramayana on TV) of the Swarga Loka. I could only wish I could see the 3 beautiful women in his court dancing Ramba Urvashi meneke dancing to entertain me. Leaving the fantasies apart, I entered the temple. I had no words, the adjectives I could gather then were GOLD GOLD GOLD!!! I sound like the greedy king who turned everything he touched into gold.

Beautiful, Shining with Glory, Mystical!!!!!!
All the wonderful adjectives for the architecture, design and the effort that has gone into the construction of this marvelous temple.

The Best part is the whole temple seems to be floating on water. Surrounded by water I could see the reflection of the wonder yellow metal in it(thanks to the 100 bucks we paid which allowed us to go in the innermost ring of the temple).
Elephants on pillars welcoming with their trunks raised,
Swans fluttering their wings enjoying the hustle of so many devotees,
Dancers and musicians giving their best performances,
Small gopurams trying to give a tough competition to the huge intricately designed ones,
The Goddess of prosperity smiling in all directions,
All this and more and more of GOLD!!

As I was nearing the entrance of garbha gudi, I realized the goddess who sits amidst all this splendid work must be welcoming every devotee of hers.
I was watching MahaLakshmi with my jaws dropped. I was very sure the Magic mirror would say she is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL and GRACEFUL woman on earth.

I came out with the images of the goddess everywhere.
This is a temple which I was very very impressed with and would recommend everybody to visit at least once even though you have to stand in the long queues.
Its a TRULY WORTH IT experience to be felt.