Chennai: At busy Ranganathan Street, T Nagar, is located a quiet place of worship called Shri Reddiapatti Swamigal Temple.
“Shri Reddiapatti Swamigal was a Tamil saint born in 1856 in a small village called Reddiapatti in Thoothukudi district and, hence, got this name. He is believed to be the incarnation of Lord Paripoorna Vinayagar and is commonly referred to as ‘Gurunadhar’ by his devotees,” said S P Moorthy, trustee of the temple.
He elaborated that “Right from childhood, Gurunadhar was concerned about the sufferings of the poor and needy and tried to help them in all possible ways. He meditated for 12 long years in Kutralam, seeking a new path for humans to attain enlightenment and was able to get the darshan of Lord Vinayagar. With the powers bestowed by Vinayagar and under His command, Gurunadhar created ‘Arulsattam’, a divine code of conduct, consisting of 16 principles leading to enlightenment”.
He continued to add “One who follows Arulsattam strictly would be blessed with poverty-free life and prosperity, peaceful life without disease, and relief from the cycle of birth without renouncing worldly pleasures.”
TEMPLE STRUCTURE
One intriguing aspect of the temple is the way it has been built. To reach the temple doors, one should go through a small lane of shops on Ranganathan Street and upon entering, there is a big meditation hall with a book stall on the right and utsavamurthys on the left.
First is a shrine for Shri Paripoorna Vinayagar after that there are shrines
for Shrilashri Arul Sakthi Annai, who was a disciple of Shri Reddiapatti Swamigal, a small shrine for Mambalam Swamigal & Thai.
At the centre, there is a shrine for Shri Reddiapatti Swamigal. But the main temple is located on the first floor. Upon entering the first floor, one can see that the entire shrine of Reddiapatti Swamigal is built on granite in the form of a chariot and there is a bigger shrine for Paripoorna Vinayagar, Annai and Mambalam Swamigal.
There is also an arutkodi (flag) situated at the farther end of the building.
“Actually, the temple was constructed at the place where Shri Mambalam
Swamigal lived. First, we installed the Ganesha idol and worshipped it, since there were a lot of shops around. In 1992, we were asked to build a temple by Shri Gurunadhar himself and some of the shops around vacated on their own. All the design was based on what Gurunadhar wished. So we have the meditation hall on the ground floor and temple on the first floor. The temple consecration was done in 2011 and 2013,” he said.
SPECIALITY
“We have devotees all over the world and the speciality of the
temple is the Guru Kadaksha Solution Box. One can write whatever
complications or conundrums they have in their life in an available
form and drop it in the box. Within a short period, all genuine requests would definitely get resolved by the grace of Gurunadhar,” Moorthy said.
Special poojas include Guru puja, Jayanthi vizha, utsavam during the
month of Aadi every year. Besides, on Sundays, devotees perform sahasranama archanai for the swamigal at the temple or at home in different parts of Tamilnadu and Karnataka, and once-a-year kodi
archanai – one crore archanai – is also performed.
The temple is open every day from 6 am to 12 noon and 4 pm to 9 pm.
For more details contact Moorthy at 94449 02133.