My Lord, My Shiv Rathri - Siva Ratri festival celebrations

It was siva rathri yesterday and i had visited the one of the famous lord siva temple ’sree kanteswaram’ in trivandrum. I reached there after visiting jagathy sree krishna swami temple and the thampuran kovil located near edapazhiji junction. I used to visit sree krishna swami temple several times a month. As yesterday was a special day i had gone to the temple. Even though sree krishna swami temple is located in the city limits the temple has got a calm and soothing atmosphere. This persuades me to go there again and again. Antoher temple which has got almost the same atmosphere is parayil kovil or temple located in near thirumala.

I was taking about siva rathri and told about some lord krishna temples. Undoubtedly sree kanteshwarm is one of the famous and most visited temple by devotees of lord shiva in trivandrum. As you know it was shivrathri yesterday and there is no need to tell you about how the temple will be crowded by the people. On reaching the temple at around 11 am in i took a walk around the nalambalam of the temple by chanting the mantra ‘om namah sivaya’. After walking round the temple i reached the place where deveotees can write the mantra ‘om namah sivaya’ in a piece of paper and offered it to god. People were rushing and crowded to collect a piece of paper of themselves. The paper and pen will be provided by the temple officials.

I dont know extactly why this type of ritual is being performed in the temple as part of siva rathri celebrations. Anyway i had written ‘om namah sivaya’ on the paper more than 100 times and given it back to the person who provided me with the paper and pen. On reciving the paper he had put it in transparent box which was almost filled with paper from lots of devotees. I dont know what temple officials are going to these paper once the sivarathri festival is finsished. I am not supposed to think about that. This could be as part of a belief and i do performed the same, as i am a strong believer in god.

After this me and my wife had gone to the other part of the temple to collect the prasadam of pal payasam. We had collected in small vessel which we had bought from home. By that time it was about 12.30 pm in the afternoon and the temple officials had started distributing meals for the devotees. The meals were served both inside the temple and outside. We thought that we would have meals. On reaching the place where the meals are being served we found a big queue for the meals. I thought that it is better not to have meals from the temple as it was very hot in the afternoon and we would have to wait for more than half an hour to get the meal. I thought it is better not to have meals rather than standing under the sun for half an hour. By around 2.30 in the afternoon both of us has reached home. I had a good sleep in the aftertoon as i got very much exhaused
on traveling to these temples.

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