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The annual 10-day-long festival at the Guruvayur Sreekrishna Temple will conclude on Monday with the ‘aarattu’ ceremony.
The ‘pallivetta’ rituals were held on the temple premises on Sunday with traditional gaiety after the evening ‘ezhunnellippu’. Peruvanam Kuttanmarar led the percussion ensemble which accompanied the ‘ezhunnellippu’.
The ‘Thanka Thidambu’ of the deity was taken out to the town in the evening in a procession called ‘gramapradakshinam’. The elephant Valiya Kesavan carried the ‘Swarna Kolam’ during the ‘gramapradakshinam’ ceremony.
The ‘Sreebhoothabali’ rituals were held following the ‘gramapradakshinam’. Later, the gold idol was kept at the ‘Swarna pazhukka mandapam’ for darsan.
During the ‘pallivetta’ or the royal hunt, which symbolises the Lord hunting the boar and catching it, people dressed as wild boars (‘pannimanushams’) were chased by the deity on an elephant. The ritual further represents the the destruction of evils like desire and anger. Scores of people gathered to witness the rituals. The ‘pallivetta’ came to an end with the completion of nine rounds of procession around the temple. Later, the ‘palliyurakkam’ (Lord’s Sleep) ritual was conducted in the specially-arranged ‘palliyara’ (Lord’s bedchamber) inside the ‘namaskara mandapam’.
On Monday, the Lord will wake up to the cry of a calf at 6 am. A calf will be arranged inside the temple compound and all usual pujas will be held except the Usha puja. Following the pujas, the ‘aarattu’ procession will begin at 6.30 am. The idol of Lord Guruvayurappan will be taken for a holy dip at Rudratheertham, where the replica of the idol will be bathed in turmeric water and tender coconut water. The idol will then be dipped in the pond water, concluding the ‘aarattu’.
Guruvayur Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the Lord Guruvayurappan (four-armed form of the Lord Vishnu), located in the town of Guruvayur in Kerala, India. It is one of the most important places of worship for Hindus in Kerala and is often referred to as Bhuloka Vaikunta (Holy Abode of Vishnu on Earth).[2]
The presiding deity of the Guruvayur Temple is Guruvayurappan (Vishnu, worshipped in the form of his avatar Krishna). The central icon is a four-armed standing Vishnu carrying the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana Chakra, the mace Kaumodaki, and a lotus with a Holy basil garland. This image represents the majestic form of Vishnu as revealed to Krishna's parents Vasudeva and Devaki around the time of Krishna's birth. Worship proceeds according to routines laid down by Adi Shankara and later written formally in the Tantric way, the inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, by Chennas Narayanan Nambudiri (born in 1427). The Chennas Nambudiris are the hereditary tantris (high priest) of the Guruvayur Temple.[3]
The temple is managed by a special Devaswom (Guruvayur Devaswom) under the control of the Government of Kerala. The main festivals of this temple are the 10-day festival in the Malayalam month of Kumbham starting with flag hoisting on Pooyam star,[4] Shri Krishna Janmashtami (Birthday of Lord Krishna) in the month of Chingam,[5] Ekadasi (11th day) in the shukla paksha (bright fortnight) in the month of Vrischikam, popularly called as Guruvayur Ekadasi[6] and Vishu on the first day of the month of Medam, once a harvest festival.[5] The temple's sub-deities are Ganapathi, Ayyappan and Bhagavathi, and there are two sub-temples each, one for Ganapathi and the other for Nagadevata nearby the temple. One of its replica temples is Uttara Guruvayurappan Temple located at Mayur Vihar in Delhi. The temple is dedicated to Shri Krishna, who is worshipped as Guruvayurappan, the deity of the famous Shri Krishna Temple in Guruvayur Town in the state of Kerala. This temple is most revered by the Malayalis and Tamilians in Delhi.
According to legend, Janamejaya conducted a sacrifice to destroy all the snakes of the world including Takshaka, who was the cause of his father Parikshit's death. Hundreds of thousands of snakes fell into the sacrificial fire and were killed, but the sacrifice was stopped by a Brahmin called Astika, before Takshaka was killed.[7]
Since Janamejaya was responsible for the death of millions of snakes, he was afflicted with leprosy. He lost all hope of a cure. One day Sage Atreya (son of Atri) came before Janamejaya and told him to take refuge under the feet of Krishna at Guruvayur. Atreya told him that in the temple at Guruvayur the effulgence of Shri Hari is at its best and Vishnu showers his blessings on all devotees. He immediately rushed there and spent the next ten months worshipping the god of Guruvayur. At the end of ten months, he returned home healthy and took the astrologer to task for making a false prediction. The astrologer told him that he would find the mark of a snakebite on his left leg.He had escaped death only because he was at that time in a temple where Anantha.