Annanur Advani & Ramar Koil

Today is August 5th - the Bhoomi Poojan day of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. This very thought paved way to a flush of memories from the Past - the time when my dad decided to construct Ram Temple (Ramar Koil) at our Nagar in Annanur. An initiative for which he was also fondly referred to as “Annanur Advani”. 🥰😊

The bhoomi pooja for the temple was held in the year 1989. After cruising through many hurdles & almost close to a decade later, the Samprokshanam (Kumbabhishekam), finally happened on 1st February 1998.  Here are some of the photos from Bhoomi Poojan & Samprokshanam. 

Looking back through this journey, I now realize the kind of hardships my dad & his team had overcome to achieve the dream come true moment. I was very young, just in my teens, to have comprehended the full extent back then. Reminiscing now, it just struck me that I too was an active participant in every length of their journey, something that which my Dad always ensured. 

It all started in 1985, when we shifted from Triplicane to our newly constructed house at Annanur - a very under developed area between Avadi & Ambattur, where cultivation was still happening few meters away from our backyard. There were hardly about 10 houses scattered across one kilometer area with absolutely no shops anywhere within a 2km radius. The only place where any kind of human activity happening was the Railway Area comprising of Residential Quarters, Training institute, Hospital, staff Canteen etc which was about 200 mtrs away from our house & close to the station. 

It was a cultural shock for me & my brother who grew up in an ever festive & buzzing Triplicane area. We had decided to move there because my dad was working at OCF, Avadi & traveling from Triplicane to Avadi was taking up large chunk of his family time. 

After moving in, my dad’s persona took a Vishwaroopa change, from being an off-the-radar person to a publicly active man. He took on the mantle as President of the Welfare Association & made it his personal mission to develop our area. That was the time, he was also pondering over the idea of having a Temple in our Sivasakthi Nagar. When a local land broker was facing difficulty in disposing the last bit of a small land owned by him, it sparked an idea in my dad’s head. He formed a Sri Ram Sath Sangh along with seven other residents and got the land registered in the Sangh’s name to construct a Ram Temple. 

Wow.. was it that easy as it sounds??! Wait folks.. it ain’t !! It’s a huge project, requiring hell of a dedication, team work, handling of public funding, utmost integrity, devotion, personal involvement, sacrifice, patience, truck load of PR work, transparency & whatnot!! 

After the initial progress of conducting Bhoomi Poojan & construction of basement with the localites’ donations, the work came to a complete stand still due to paucity of funds. The trustees could not garner sufficient funds to restart the work. I still remember, my dad used all his weekends going from pillar to post trying to muster donations & sponsors for the temple. So did the other actively involved trustees. Many people said it was a wrong decision to have chosen to construct a Ram Temple because unless a temple comes up at Ayodhya, it is not possible for anyone else to construct a temple for HIM. 

Flustered with the non-progress & all these talks, one of the trustees suggested to seek advice from Sri Paramacharya, the Maha Periyava of Kanchi Mutt. Meeting Sri Maha Periyava was a significant moment. While he advised them on many things, one among those was to chant Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam at the temple site for 48 days to remove all the obstacles & hurdles faced. Maha Periyava also suggested to perform Pooja & Bhajans every Saturday to seek blessings from Lord Rama himself to pave the way for progress in the Temple construction. 

As per the advice, we started reciting Vishnu Sahasranamam everyday. I distinctly remember, we didn’t deter even during unrelenting heavy downpours - we chanted unitedly standing with an umbrella. We also started our Saturday Bhajans. The bhajans continued for many many years, even after the temple Kumbabishekam. Initially, the response was humungous, but faded off as the days passed. I started off as a chorus girl & became a lead singer as the response got thinner & thinner. On many such Saturdays, I too wanted to escape but never could I persuade my dad into relenting to this request. Saturdays were when Hindi movies would be telecast on TV & I so badly wanted to watch some of them. After all, I was just a teenager & I had my moments. But my dad was like, how could a petty thing like watching a movie take precedence over God. 😂😂 He wasn’t the yelling or authoritarian type. But he had his own knack - without raising his voice or using a single cuss word ( he has never used such words ) to make you budge. His body language is enough to make you cringe at your own behavior. 

In the meanwhile, during the Navratri evenings, my dad with couple of other trustees used to visit the famous Vaishnavi Temple near Thirumullaivoyal, to distribute pamphlets in the quest of mustering some donations from the rich businessmen & other devotees who flocked the temple for its festivities. 

On one such rainy night, among the many pamphlets he had handed over to scores of devotees, his prayers were answered through a Noble soul. And finally a miracle happened. 

Instead of discarding the pamphlets, a Sindhi businessman from Kilpauk, Shri.Muralidhar Bathija, took time to read through. And it so happens that, that gentleman had a dream in the recent past wherein he was directed by a supreme force to construct a temple for Lord Rama. Now wouldn’t you call this a pure destiny??! Work of a sheer Divinity.  This is just pure gold - How the Lord, connects two like minded people- who actually have no connection & have never ever met each other or even have the immediate probability of meeting each other in normal times, with the sole intention of making the Divine thing happen !!! 

Shri. Bathija wrote us a letter asking my Dad to fix up a meeting at his residence. Upon meeting, he informed about the dream & offered to take up on the entire expense relating to installation of Moolavar - Sita, Hanumant, Lakshmana  sametha Sri Kothanda Rama. Once this came through, all other things started to fall in its place too, like, One of the trustees who had just retired, volunteered to take up the cost relating to Utsava moorthy. The cost for the Garudazhwar was donated by our family. And so on. Thus after decade long efforts, the temple finally came up & it was consecrated on 1st Feb 1998.  

Sri Velukkudi Swamy during one of his programme on Ramanin Mahimai which also was aired on Podhigai TV from 2-4th Aug 2013, made a mention & video coverage of our Temple. In that video, You can also see my dad performing Thirumanjanam to the Lord Rama. 

The video link to this programme : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GreFXeOLe0E&list=UUBOKIc100J2yhRdB333kGxQ%20VT8MOwBsAzUKYg==

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBCeT2dYmi0&list=UUBOKIc100J2yhRdB333kGxQ==

Last year (2019) after 21 years, the temple was renovated & beautified with the help of many well-wishers, friends & donors and the second Kumbabhishekam was held. In the intermittent 21 years, the temple also saw few expansions. what started as a Small temple with the Sannidhi for Kothandaramar & Thumbikkai Azhwar, expanded with an exclusive Sannidhi for Andal-Rangamannar with Garudazhwar & Desikar, an idol of Sri Lakshmi Hyagreevar & Sri Chakrathazhwar added to the Moolavar Ramar Sannidhi, a separate Sannidhi for Lord Subramanya, Navagrahas, a Madappalli & an Office Room. 

The Andal-Rangamannar Sannidhi was constructed by annexing a piece of land from the adjacent plot owned by my family. Our family also donated towards the cost of the idols - Moolavar & Utsavar. One of our colleague & a dear friend, volunteered to take up the construction cost towards the Vimanam of Sri Andal Sannidhi. And yours truly, shared the cost for Sri Hyagreevar along with one another family friend from our Nagar. 

My dad not just invested his time & energy in bringing alive this mission, he completely devoted himself to the service of Lord Rama & our temple after he retired in 2001. The battar we had engaged, had to quit for some reasons and we didn’t get any alternate person as his replacement. So, my dad, a person who had no prior knowledge of the priestal duties, learned the mantras & procedures, and chipped in to be a replacement. And took on this role with utter devotion & completely surrendered himself to serving the Lord. We, in our family, used to tease him that Lord Sita has now become his daughter & he is serving Rama as a father-in-law would. 😂😂

Like Sri Parthasarathy Temple, our Ramar Koil too buzzes with festivities throughout the year because of the presence of various deities. Thirumanjanam & special poojas happening on Punarpoosam, Pooram, Chathurthi, Kirthikkai, Sashti. And the annual festivals, starts off every year with Sri Ramanavami Utsavam & Sita Kalyanam, followed by Thiruvadi Pooram, Pavithrothsavam, Navratri festival, Sashti & Soorasamharam, Margazhi utsavam - Vaikunta Ekadasi & Aandal Thirukalyanam. 

Friends, do take out time to visit our Lord Rama & other deities, when possible. 🙏😊