{"id":1710,"date":"2011-07-25T17:38:05","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T12:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arunachala-live.com\/wordpress\/?p=1710"},"modified":"2011-07-25T17:38:05","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T12:08:05","slug":"aadi-velli-in-pachaiyamman-kovil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.arunachala-live.com\/wordpress\/?p=1710","title":{"rendered":"Aadi Velli in Pachaiyamman kovil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Tamil month of Aadi (mid July to mid August) has begun and \"\"<\/a>with it a plethora of religious events related to the Mother Goddess to whom this month is consecrated, have also begun. The Fridays of this month are most auspicious for married women and they perform various rituals and religious customs like fasts and vows for the well-being of their spouses on these Fridays known in Tamil as Aadi Velli.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Pachaiyamman Kovil, home to the Green Goddess, nestles in \"\"<\/a>the heart of the Arunachala foothills and beckons benevolently to women devotees to come and take her abundant blessings. Goddess Pachaiyamman is a form of Shakthi or Parvathi. Legend has it that Parvathi came to Arunachala to perform tapas during puranic times and settled down in this area. In the \"\"<\/a>beautiful energy created by her devoted tapas, everything around turned green including her body and thus She was given the name of Pachaiyamman, the Green Mother. In later days, a shrine was built here to venerate the Green Goddess at this spot. It is here that Bhagavan Ramana resided during the plague epidemic and tigers and leopards used to visit him here and pay their respects to the Divine Incarnate.
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\"\"<\/a>Every Aadi Velli day, women throng to this temple \"\"<\/a>to light lamps to the Goddess and to offer turmeric and vermillon as a homage to her eternal Sumangali<\/em>-hood. The women also burn lamps and offer rice puddings and fruits to the huge guardian deity idols who stand in array and form quite a majestic arena in the outer courtyard of the temple. After \"\"<\/a>nightfall, the deity of the Goddess is installed in a mantapam and decorated beautifully in silk and gold. Then She is \"\"<\/a>worshipped with camphor Aarthi and borne outside and mounted on a chariot which takes a different form each day (elephant, lion, 5 headed serpent, peacock etc). Finally, She goes on procession right upto the outer girivalam path near the town bus stand and Here She stands for a while granting darshan to all passers by.
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