Ettumanoor

Ettumanur is 30km from Kottayam station - Shiva kshetram.
Karasuran worshipped lord shiva at Chidambaram and lord shiva gave him 3 lingams. He carried the 2 lingams in his left & right and held the other below in his chin (Kazhuthu - tamil)
The lingam in his right hand was kept in Vaikkom - the lingam in between his chin n neck in Kaduthuruthi - and the other one in Ettumanoor.
Vaikkom, Kaduthuruthi and Ettumanoor all lie in a stratight line - Kaduthuruthi is middle - from kaduthuruthi vaikkom and ettumanoor is at 15kms. (So its Karasuran - Aaasura prathistai).
When shiva gave him the three lingams he asked sage patanjali to follow karasuran-karasuran after the prathistai gave the puja to sage patanjali - its believed that sage patanjali worshipped all the three lingams in same day starting from vaikkom, next kaduthuruthi and ettumanoor.If we have darshan of all the three temples on same day its auspicious.
In Ettumanoor, lord shiva is in fierce form (Aghoram). This temple came into existence before shakthi worship was introduced. There is no sannadhi for Goddess Parvathy. Behind ettumanoor-appan sannadhi there is a door which is locked and assumed to be lord parvathy(Aitheegam) - a vilakku is lit here. This door is not opened.
The srikovil is huge circular in shape, the namaskara mandapam is very huge with 16 pillars. All the pujas during festivals and auspicious days are done here. In this namaskaram mandapam 2 nandhis are there - one nandhi made off panchaloham and other of stone.
The thanthri for this temple are the same as in sabarimalai (Currently Sri Kandaru Maheshvararu, Sri Kandaru Mohanaru and Sri Kandaru Rajeevaru).
This temple is famous for Ezhara pon aana (seven n half elephants) - all made of gold.There are nor Keezhshanthi in this temple, here we have Moosad-moothathu (the early or elderly). They were given the temple administration by sage parasuramar. The thidambu during seeveli(sribali) is carried by them only. They cannot enter the garbagraham or touch the moolasthanam vigraham.
The Srikovil is facing west - there is a itheegam that lord here is in fierce form - aghoramurthy. During the datchayagam, lord shiva was not invited and denied the aavir bagam.Goddess parvathy went to datcha yagam inspite of lord shiva's advice and there by she was insulted by datchan (her father). So she fell in the homa-agni. Lord shiva became fierce - he destroyed the yaga-salai and danced with parvathys body - there by his aghora mugham was shown/seen. The rishis feared and consulted and informed Lord Mahavishnu, Lord Mahavishnu used his Sudharshana chakram and cut goddess parvathy's body into pieces. (one such part of her body - abdomen area fell in Chenganur - where the goddess has periods).
Lord shiva was pacified by Mahavishnu - here and hence he is worshipped here as Aghoramurthy here.
There is a shrine for Lord Dakshinamurthy in the srikovil itself - here he is in linga roopam. There is a sannadhi for Lord Ganapathy inside the srikovil, its on the right hand side of lord dakshinamurthy sannadhi. His darshan can be had when we circumblate the srikovil.
There are two entrances to the srikovil, one main entrance and one in south - through lord dakshinamurthy's side. The main entrance will be crowded during darshan time,hence thanthri's, melshanthi & moosad use the side entrance to enter main deity.
In the namaskara mandapam there is carving goddess parvathy as yakshi/durga. Also there is a sannadhi for iyyappan in the pragaram near the go-mukhi.
There is another separate small temple on the north-west corner for lord krishna(guruvayurappan).

The main worship for people when they come here is - offering oil to valiya villaku (periya vilakku - big lamp). The soot (vilakku kari) in this lamp when applied on ones forehead drives away all evils from him/her. Also applying on eyes with bakthi removes all eye ailments.
Besides the above, there are vazhipadus(pujai's) specific to the temple in the noticeboards.
Mahasivarathri is celebrated with much pomp & piousness.
The main utsavam for this temple is in the month of Maasi.

Thatvamasi

Swamye Saranam Aiyyappa - Thatvamasi

The holy abode of Swamy Aiyyappan has been pulled into controversies.After the recent deva prashnam lead by Sri.Unni krishna pannicker (personal astrologer of J Jayalalitha) - has spewn venom..!!!
In kerala temples people are very strict - a man cannot wear shirt and enter temples in Sri Anantha Padmanaba Swamy Temple -Thiruvananthapuram, Guruvayoor, Chotanikarai, Ettumanoor, Vaikkom and so many other... The nambudhris, temple servants are very particular about this.
19 Years back think how strict they would have been --- ???
Great thanthries like (Late) Sri Kandaru Parameshwararu, (Late) Sri Kantaru Neelakantaru, (Late) Sri Late Kantaru Sankararu, (Late) Sri Late Kantaru Krishanaru have been doing pooja as per the "Niyamam and nishtai" (Strict) - Infact (Late) Sri Late Kantaru Sankararu and (Late) Sri Kantaru Neelakantaru has been one of the persons was one among them who did pratishtai of Aiyyappan idol after the kumbabshekam in the early 1950's.
They will be at Srikovil during the time when the nadai is open for darshanam. No female could enter the temple (cannot even cross erimeli or pambai)..!! and this female entered Srikovil...!!!and Sri.Panicker could see it in prashnam...!!!
He says the puja done by the thanthri before the prashnam was started was not thanthric..!!!!

Lord Aiyappa is angry - Yes - he's angry on TDB, Panickker and Secular forces.

The Trivancore Dewasom Board also didn't tell them that there was going to be a deva prashnam to the thantris.

He(Panicker) was the master mind in replacing the vigraham in Pazhani temple and put Sri Kanchi Acharya in jail and conducting kumbabishekams before the prescribed period. I have news from trustable people that during election results were announced in Tamilnadu, he was in kasi - sitting on the banks of ganga and doing japam/pariharam.

I think they(TDB) want to remove the power/authority of the thanthri family.
In the olden days people of certain caste were not allowed inside the temple - had the rule had been implemented such controvorsies will not arise...so thoughtful were our ancestors.
They can stop pilgrims when puja is conducted inside Srikovil or in the mandapam.

In north controversy arouse that amarnath shivalingam was made from factory made ice from Delhi..!!! How illogical - amarnath is in China, didn't they have any icefactory near UP or HP ???
All secular forces have a taste - if u feel itchy it'll be ok if u use kollikattai - once the itching stops u'll know the effect of kollikattai..!!! In this case they have touched holy fire (agni) - he'll cleanse in agni only.

Thatwamasi - Swamiye Saranam Aiyyappa.

A puzzle

A man goes to a bank to encash a cheque with some amonut (eg., X dollars.Y
cents). The absent minded bank teller encashes the cheque in the opposite format(eg.,
Y dollars.X cents) which the man accepts without noticing the amount the
banker had paid him.
In the market after buying a 5 cent newspaper the man realizes that the
amount left with him is the double of the original amount of the cheque.
Find out the original amount of the cheque.
Hint: The Answer is a proper figure. Dont look out for stupid answers.

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cheers...

My Nokia 6681..

February 1st, after long R & D, I brought my Nokia 6681 from Hello World Adayar(Gokul Arcade). As usual Mr.Vikram (Owner/founder) was there and guided me thru the process.
I took a Ivory colored one. The features in the mobile are excellent - Bluetooth, Memory Card Hot Swap - ( u needn't switch off the phone 2 change the memory card as in N6600), most of all that cellphone needn't be used for talking :-), with extended memory cards upto 1Gb, you can take video clips, store/edit movies-songs-files (resume ;-) ) and a whole lot. It has a 1.3 Megapixel camera..!!! U needn't invest extra for a cam..

The handsfree is stereo phonic, the phone can be used as a speaker phone also.
More features are specified in details in www.nokia6681.com in detail..

Few of the draw backs that I found with that as of now is

1. After disconnecting from computer, some log files are created in phone memory, it displays a alert now n then that memory is low...

2. Although we can store more text messages, it displays "memory is full, delete some msgs to receive new msgs" type of alert now n then..

3. If we use 1GB memory card, speed is terribly slow as against N6630 (Yuckk...Shape..!!!).

Otherwise no other draw backs as of now..

Happy tring tring...

P.S.

My sincere advice: Go for Nokia 6681/6630.. The "best price" is 15k/12k with a 64MB card and whole kit in chenai.
In some shops if you buy the memory card (256/512/1GB) they give you free antivirus software and songs of your choice.