Our Praise be to God Kanthan of Nallur ! Every day - during each pooja at the Nallur Temple, devotees chant this Salutation to God with tears of emotion rolling down their cheeks. During Festival Days when several hundreds of devotees join this simple but emotion-charged salutation to God - and the reverberating salutation unfolds and spreads with rhythmic chanting : Kanthanukku - Arohara, Murukanukku - Arohara, Velanukku - Arohara Appanukku - Arohara, Paalanukku - Arohara, Kumaranukku - Arohara...

It has an electrifying effect on everyone present. Its never-to be-forgotten effect on you, has to be felt, to be believed.

Most Hindus know that according to Hinduism, God has no name, form, or attributes and that God is the 'power' that permeates the entire universe, and as such, is found everywhere - including the core of our being. Hence the courageous claim : 'The human mind is the Sanctum of God, and the human body is the Temple of God !'

Hindus also know that 'religion' can be practiced at different levels, and that Hinduism permits people to give names and forms to God, and to worship God in any way they like. This is confirmed by Saint Maanikkavaasakar of the 8th Century A.C. He says : Let's give a thousand names to the nameless, formless, attribute-less God, and sing and dance in His Praise ! This Principle makes it imperative that Hindus respect all the religions and all forms of Worship of God.

And, we find Hindus sing and dance in Praise of God. This form of deeply devotional, aesthetic worship is found in all its beauty and splendour at the Nallur Temple where devotees sing songs and perform Kavadi dance to the accompaniment of 'Nathaswaram' a powerful wind-instrument and 'Thavil', an equally powerful percussion instrument.

The writer requests the readers to join him on an imaginary visit to the famous Nallur Temple. Friends, now.... please spread the wings of your imagination... and join me.... acting as your temple guide...

It's a Saturday - a normal day, not a festival day. The Pooja is at 10 but we have reached the temple at 9 in the morning. We spend a few minutes watching the beautiful, imposing tower (gopuram) with many small statues. Then we wash our hands and feet using the taps just outside the temple. Now we are at the main entrance to the temple. The men in our group remove their shirts and tie them round their waist. One is tempted to imagine that almost all of them are, at this very moment, silently resolving to do something positive about their 'pot' ! We see the Centre Shrine - about a 100 feet away - with lighted oil lamps. for three or four minutes we close our eyes and worship God. We feel a deep calm inside us.

We walk into the temple. We see about thirty - forty devotees. There is perfect silence in the spotlessly clean temple. We first worship Lord Ganesha whose Shrine is a little away from the Centre Shrine. We do so from a distance as we shall be worshipping him again at pooja time.

We now move towards the centre shrine and stand one behind the other - men on one side, women on the other. We look at the centre shrine and see a shining gold-coloured lance (vel) representing Lord Kanthan. We keep looking at the Vel for a few minutes until we suddenly realize that while we were looking at the vel, our mind had been absolutely still.

Then we proceed towards the other shrines in the temple - spending three or four minutes looking at the beautiful statues, and worshipping in silence. The first one we see is the shrine of Lord Kanthan worshipped as Muthukumaraswamy with his two consorts valli - the adopted daughter of a Hunter family, and Theivayanai - daughter of Indra, the Chief of Devas. While worshipping Valli, one finds oneself wondering, if with a wife from a Hunter family, Lord Skanda wishes to imprint upon the minds of his devotees that caste and class do not matter!

Now we move towards the shrine of Arumukaswamy - Murukan with six heads and twelve shoulders and his two consorts on either side of him. Next is Lord Ganesha's shrine followed by the shrine of Lord Vishnu and Mother Lukshmi.

The next shrine - that of Lord Vairavar is a little away, and on our way to his Shrine, we see a large garden on one side. We see flower plants, and spot a pea-cock and pea-hen walking around. The gate is locked, and nobody is alowed inside except on the last day of the annual festival of the temple.

We observe five devotees seated in deep meditation at the Vairavar Shrine. We worship Lord Vairavar and proceed to the small Shrine for the Sun and the Moon. We find a large Shrine - once again for Murukan and his Consorts, but unlike the other shrines that are kept open, its entrance is covered with a large, beautiful curtain. The curtain will be lifted only at Pooja time.

We then walk a distance across a wide court yard, and worship Boy Mutukan who had run away from home (!) as a result of a minor misunderstanding with father Siva and brother Ganesha over a ripe mango given by fun-loving Sage Narada who had anticipated the misunderstanding and its results !

Now it is 9.52 and we walk up to the shrine of Ganesha. We observe the number of devotees has swelled up to around 200 or a little more. As the Grandfather clock in the temple begins to chime to announce 10' o clock, an air of eager expectancy spreads among the devotees.

With the last stroke of the clock, the majestic, reverberating peal of the Temple bell begins, and the temple priest chanting Mantras in Sanskrit performs the Pooja to Lord Ganesha. With a loud chorus of 'Arohara' the devotees pay obeisance to God. The Pooja takes only about three minutes. The priest and the devotees now rush to the Centre Shrine, and we also follow them.

At the Centre Shrine, the pooja takes about six munutes and when the lighted lamp with five flames (Panchaarathi) is moved thrice in a circle in front of the Vel, the devotees chant : Vettivel Murukanukku - Arohara... We also chant Arohara... and move with the devotees to each of the shrines we went round earlier.

Though each pooja at each shrine lasts only about two or three minutes, and a lot of brisk walking (almost running) is involved in moving to the next shrine, when the last pooja ends, we suddenly realize that a little more than half an hour had passed without our realizing the passage of time, that we had not been part of the physical world as such during that time, that we had been in some kind of a 'serene trance', and - unbelievable, yet true - that our monkey mind had been absolutely still ! This realization brings tears to our eyes.

- Shanmugan