Dear latha and others,
I have forgot to mention a couple of things in the post. The statue of Sri Bhagavan behind the Ramaneswara Mahalingam has
been gold plated since the stone idol cannot withstand the seasonal variations. The gold plate would protect the stone idol
for a long number of years.
Secondly, the last day of my stay, (Friday) was a punarvasu star day. So there were elaborate pujas after abhishekam and
alankaram. The lingam was as usual covered with golden casket. Even otherwise on the other days, it is covered with a
silver casket for the reasons already mentioned above. On that day, more than 500 devotees had food with sweet pongal,
vada and the usual courses of sambar, rasam and buttermilk.
On Friday since we had to start immediately after lunch, we could not listen to Ribhu Gita, and book reading.
In all it was a pleasant trip with a lot of good memories. I purchased Tirusoolapuri (Tiruchuzhi) Mahatmyam and also
the recently published English translation of the entire Ulladu Narpadu, which was serialized in Mountain Path, for
the past five years.
Arunachala Siva.