Navagraha Yatra Report

After Pranapratishtha ceremony of Datta and Shiva Temple in Dapoli, under the guidance of Shri Raghupathi Sir we – Sudhakar, Mahesh Bhide and Bhatia Uncle - had a great opportunity to visit places below, accompanied by Shri Sir himself.

• Nava Graha Sthalas near Chennai
• Rameshwaram

Nava Graha Sthalas:

Near Chennai, around Kumbakonam city, in the radius of about 65 km, there are nine temples, each temple dedicated to each graha.  They say whoever visits and worships these navagrahas with utmost devotion and sincerity, not only gets relief from all kinds of suffering but also gets speed in the progress towards higher goals of life.

Here is a list of temples and some details about each temple

Graha	Place	Day	Distance from Kumbakonam
Sun	Suriyanarkoil	Sunday	15 Km
Chandran (Moon)	Thingalur	Monday	43 Km
Sevvai (Mangal, Mars)	Vaitheeswaran Koil	Tuesday	51 Km
Budhan (Budha, Mercury)	Thiruvenkadu	Wednesday	52 Km
Guru	Alangudi	Thursday	17 Km
Sukkiran (Shukra, Venus)	Kanchanur	Friday	21 Km
Sani (Shani, Saturn)	Thirunallar	Saturday	56 Km
Raghu (Rahu)	Thirunageswaram	Sunday	5 Km
Kedhu (Ketu)	Keezha Perumpallam	Sunday	55 Km

Some other facts:

• Almost all temples usually open between 6 to 7 am and close between 12.30 to 1 pm and then again open between 4 to 5 pm and then close between 8 to 9 pm
• If started in the morning all nine temples can be visited in two days by car
• It is not recommended to wear casual clothing when visiting these temples. E.g.one should avoid visiting these temples while wearing half pants like bermudas. Ideally one should wear dhoti or Indian dress. In case it is not possible, normal shirt and pant is fine.   

We stayed in a place called Swamimalai, famous for the temple of Lord Murugan, one of the six most sacred places of Lord Murugan, known as Aarupadai veedu in Tamil. 

Rameshwaram :

Of course there is no need to give information about this famous place, but here are some worth mentioning points.

• It is one of 12 Jyotirlingas
• This place is considered equivalent to Kashi Vishweshwar in its importance of pilgrimage. They say whoever visits this temple with utmost devotion gets rid of all sins.
• Usual practice is
• Take darshan of sfatika linga between 5 to 5.30 AM
• In the morning take a dip in the sea and then with wet clothes on the body go around 22 teerthas and take bath in each teertha and finally take darshan of Jyotirlinga
• It is a practice that after taking bath in all thee teerthas one should not take usual daily bath till next day.

In Rameswaram we also saw following two places:

Kodandaramar Temple: Temple dedicated to Lord Shrirama and Mother Sita

Dhanush Kodi: South most tip of India. It is a belief that this is a place from where Sethu was built between Indian and Shri Lanka by vanaras under the supervision of Lord Shrirama.