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Date: 23 SEPTEMBER 2019
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Post No. 7007
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On 6th September 2019, I visited Sri Skandashramam Temple in Selaiyur, Chennai-73
The temple is situated near busy roads of East Tambaram. But inside the temple one could see a serene atmosphere. When I went there, ladies were reciting slokas in the Bhuvaneshwari shrine. Since photography inside the temple is prohibited, I bought two books and reproduce some pictures here from the books. For some reason Sri Shanthanantha of Pudukkottai installed unusual and huge idols in two or three places in Tamil Nadu. He installed peaceful Bhuvaneswari idol along with the ferocious Ugra Prathyankara Devi and Sri Sarabeswarar. The reason for this, I believe, is to protect Hinduism and India from ‘adharmic’ (anti social, anti religious) forces. Because he used to tell us that he was doing all the Yajnas for the welfare of the society. Since Swamiji Krishna of Ayakkudi (Tenkasi), told us that he had seen him doing Tapas deep inside forest we believed in him completely.
Our family was associated with Sri Santhanantha from his early pubic appearance. When he organised Sahasra Chandi Mahayajnam in Pudukkottai, for the welfare of the world in 1963, my father and News Editor Sri V Santanam gave huge publicity in Dinamani News paper. I and my brother were students at the time and we ran the book shop at Adi Vethi of Sri Meenakshi Sundareswara Temple, Madurai where Sri Anantha Rama Deekshitar was doing Ramayana Upanyasa/discourse to raise funds for the Yajna. If I remember correct it was done for 40 days.
Whenever Sri Santhananda Swamigal visited Madurai, he used to visit my father and had Bikshai at our house. He was very tall and had rolling matted locks. He looked like a Vedic Rishi. His hair used to touch the ground. His cheeks were rosy like a young woman. He had Tejas (divine light, fire and brightness) in his face. I have met so many matted lock swamijis, but I have never seen any one with such Tejas.
In his early days, he took three handful of food only. When my mother cooked all sorts of delicious dishes he just asked her to mix all together and give only three handful of food. When my mother did thi,s tears rolled down her cheeks. When she came out of the kitchen she told us that in spite of her serious , laborious, careful cooking, he just had thee handfuls only. He did mantra Upadesa to us. I met him again when I went to India in 2000 or 2001. Since he was very ill at that time he came out for a minute and accepted my pranams and offerings.
Since I visited Bhuvaneswari temple then, I made it a point to visit Skandashramam Temple in Chennai this time.
Following pictures will show what he established in Pudukkottai and Selaiyur, Chennai.
Full address of Selaiyur Temple
Chennai Om Sri Skandashramam
Kambar street,
Mahalakshmi Nagar,
Selaiyur post
Chennai – 600 073
Tel. 2229 0134, 2229 3388, 9444629570
E mail cossct@rediffmail.com
–subham– lokas samasta sukino bhavanu —
Tamil and Vedas 
R.Nanjappa (@Nanjundasarma)
/ September 23, 2019Swami Santhananda of Sri Bhuvaneswari Peetham, Pudukkottai came into prominence in the late 60s/early 70s when he started organising big Yajnas in different places in Tamil Nad. Though we knew in a general way that these were for general welfare, we did not know the real intent, as revealed here- viz to protect our Dharma from attacks.
In the late 60s he built a temple complex in a village Udayapatti near Salem. It was situated in a very scenic spot among some hills, with a small brook nearby. It was said at the time that the spot was chosen as per guidance received from Lord Skanda in a dream, It was naturally named Skandasramam. It had several unique features. It had a huge vigraha of Mother Goddess, styled Ashta Dasa Bhuja Mahalakshmi- or Skanda Mata. And facing her was a big image of Skanda! There was a big image of Panchamukha Ganapathi and facing it was a Panchamukha Anjaneya. I visited it in 1972 when further construction was going on, other shrines/sannidhis of other Deities were being added. I do not know the present position.
The point that some special deities were installed in these temples , and yajnas were undertaken to ward off dangers to our religion is very important. For the last 1000 years, Hindu religion has been in retreat.Mohammedan invaders destroyed thousands of temples. In the South, the Vigrahas had to be removed and secreted to escape destruction and desecration. But during the British times, Hindu temples came under government control. This position still continues, and Hindu temples are run by atheists/those with mlechcha beliefs and are looted. Their properties are misappropriated/misused. This is another type of desecration. Hindus are helpless.
It occurs to me that there must be some fundamental reason. One may be that temple worship is not the dharma suited for this Yuga. The Bhagavatam says clearly in the 12th Skanda , while describing the features of Kali Yuga that theerthas will lose their sacredness, temple murtis will lose their sanctity, and they would all become centres of commercial activity. This we see happening all around. Secondly, no one seems to have the power to stop these evils.
While outwardly temple going has increased, perhaps due to the rise of the nouveau rich and the consequent desire to show off/tom tom cultivated or imitated piety, the atmosphere around all the big temples has become distinctly commercial or business oriented, and many activities not sanctioned by the Agamas are carried on. REcent fire incident in the Madurai temple is an instance.
We had a system of guardian deities even for big temples- we do not know what has happened to them. Leave alone spiritual power, even occult power seems to be absent in these places. The Mother of SRi Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry had visited a big ancient temple ( identity not disclosed) where she observed that a huge black spider had spread its net in the garbha graha. She identified it with an Asura and said he was reaping the effects of all the worship! We do really need some holy man who could identify the problem and suggest remedial measures. Sri Santhananda built a series of new temples/installed new deities perhaps realising the inner situation in the older temples. Who can say!