He immediately told me that we had the grace and blessings of Vaalai Thaai. I answered that it was Madurai Meenakshi but added that the Siddhas see all forms of Dewi as Vaalai Thaai. He asked me a question, “Who is the female deity in green and carrying a trident or sulam?”. I knew then that it was not Dyalan for he would come to me and not ask me over. When he opened his eyes he motioned me to approach me. I took a seat directly opposite and across. We waited for him to come out of it which took some time. Towards the end of the recital, we realized that Dyalan was deep into his meditation. I looked for a space to sit and recite the Siddhar Potri. As we left the sannadhi, Bala was garlanded by the priest. We were told to seat directly in front of Muruga and witness the puja.
![ayyappan tamil archanai ayyappan tamil archanai](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9c/d8/82/9cd882544d22c63e794f8a8ec8abd2cf.jpg)
The priest attended to us immediately and we had a wonderful sight of Lord Muruga, Valli and Deivanai. We purchased a special pass and were shown the way to Murugan’s sannadhi by the kind personnel at the counter himself. On arrival I realized that this temple was not large or bustling with devotees as in other Murugan Stalams. I held out my hand to Tamil and Shanga on both my sides and we all in turn held our hands in a circle and began to imbibe the uplifting energy. The energy at this spot was amazing as we kept chanting.
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Bala decided to recite Madurai Sri Meenakshi Amman 108 Potri Archanai and Sri Sivaperumaan 108 Potri Archanai from the booklet that we received a moment ago. We went back to our spot and finished reciting the Siddhar Potri. They spoke about Sundarananthar Vallabha Siddhar sannadhi and another passed us a booklet on Amman 108 Potri. That’s when we had an opportunity to chat with a couple of men. A priest with his entourage and musicians made their way to each sannadhi waving the arathi. Midway we hear percussions sound and thinking that it was a procession we stopped chanting to wait for it to go by. We move some distance away from this sannadhi and sat to recite the Siddhar Potri, having Sundarananthar Vallabha Siddhar in our sight. Their parikaram at Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple, in Madurai was complete.Īs we kept asking around for the Siddha Samadhi, we are pointed to the majestic temple of Sundarananthar Vallabha Siddhar, an avatar of Shiva, we are told. When Bala replied that the counters had yet to open the priest without another word received their offerings, entered the sannadhi, performed the puja and came back with the prasad. Bala tells us that the priest had asked if the girls had purchased the ticket to conduct archanai. He brought us to another spot and stepped aside while the girls waited to do archanai. Before we realized he had brought us right in front of Goddess Meenakshi! After a quick darshan I mentioned to the man that we needed to do archanai. I was surprised to see so much activity within the walls of the temple at such an early hour. I motioned to all the children who were scattered in clusters amidst the growing crowd and hurriedly followed the man trying to keep pace with him as he entered further and further into the moving crowd and against the flow. The man whom I saw a moment ago told me to follow him, “Yennodu Vanga”. Now figuring what next to do, suddenly I felt someone touch my shoulders.
![ayyappan tamil archanai ayyappan tamil archanai](https://a10.gaanacdn.com/images/albums/69/15669/crop_480x480_15669.jpg)
As I was addressing the personnel I saw a man seated at a desk and observing us from a distance. Again I asked another police personnel about the special tickets as we saw that the ticket counters were unmanned.
![ayyappan tamil archanai ayyappan tamil archanai](https://demo.fdocuments.in/img/378x509/reader024/reader/2021010905/568c56a21a28ab4916c75dc9/r-1.jpg)
Soon following the signs to Sundareshwarar’s sannadhi we found ourselves, unknowingly, within the inner temple complex. We asked several people we met too but to no avail. Since we sourced information about Siddha Samadhis through our AVM WhatsApp group as we approaced each town, members informed us that there were 16 numbers of Siddhar samadhi here! So we walked the outer court of the majestic temple checking in on each sannadhi to see if there was a Siddha residing there. On enquiring about the special queue we were told by the police personnel that the counter for the sale of the tickets will only be opened at 6am. It surprised us to see a long queue at that early hour. A large group of Ayyappa baktas came behind us and made their way to queue in line. We were already at Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple grounds by 5am.