My Spiritual Journey to Palani, Sri Subhramanya/Muruga temple, TamilNadu.

 I started from Shornur, a railway junction Station ,at the southern part of India, Kerala. Here, I boarded a train to Palghat Junction station. Reached there after almost an one and half hour journey (normal passenger train , and not an express train which can reach within one hour). Then took lunch from the Palghat junction station, boarded another train to Palani hills at Tamil nadu. Away in 2000 starting, this train was a meter guage , small train. Now adays its running in broad guage. Almost took 4 hours of journey to the foothills of Palani. 

The journey was thoroughly enjoyed with the greenery around, the paddy fields, coconut plants filled plains, sunflower fields can also be seen with lot of rivers or ponds nearby. It was almost a cool journey , reached around 6 pm. There we can take Autorikshaw , that is run on motor with three wheels , can occuppy almost 4 people. But, as this vehicle is common in India, I took another vehicle which is rarely seen or used in public transport and that is the horse ride. 

On the back of the horse a cart will be connected and the horse rider rides it with a stick, connected to a rope to guide the horse. On foothills of the temple, I actually searched for rooms ,the room was almost 600 rupees of cost for a single person. There is another option of getting much cheaper room rented by the govt. but when enquired , they told at least 2 people must be there to get one room which is almost 200 or 300 rupees charged. As I am a solo traveler, I could take only pvt hotel room which was 500 plus everywhere where I searched. So I found one hotel close to the foothills, which was almost comfortable with the distance and also good restaurants nearby, and mainly I considered this as I have noticed  the` mosquito net` pasted on to the windows of the room. After wash , I head to the foot hills of the famous Muruga temple. There are two paths for climbing to the temple , one way is to use the walkways and another using a vehicle / tram which charge around 1000 rs. I used the walkway, the footsteps are dark rocks grind  smoothly . Almost it will take half an hour  to climb the steps to the temple. We can take rest along the path , there is drinking water for free as well . This pathway includes the business personals who tries to sell the flowers, garlands, rings , pottu(a decorative dot pasted on to the forehead) , peacock feathers ( peacock is considered as the vehicle of sri Muruga). Reaching the temple, I had taken the free pass route, as there is no enough people to form a long que, otherwise I would have purchased the ticket provided there to avoid the rush.  I got a nice dharsan or vision of Muruga statue inside the temple. I have purchased the famous Prasada, the ARAVANA PAYASAM from the temple, sat there and consumed it. In the mean time , I have got a spectacular veiw of the Palani town beneath , we can see the monkeys running here and there in search of bananas and If we are not keeping it safe, there is enough chance of missing it as the monkey kings will take it and jump away. Once, in the visit to the temple, when I was kid, my hands were made empty by the monkey who snatched the banana from me .I was almost tearful when I saw the poojari, (the person who does the rituals inside the temple) called me and gave me another bunch of bananas making me happy for the timebeing. There the lunch  can be taken for free , as I stood in the line almost 10 to 20 minuites and I remember that was served in the banana leaf. A hand full of rice and sambar (a curry served with rice in South India). After the lunch, I sat there meditating to Muruga. After some time I heard some one praising him and calling him Father. I asked him where he was from, He was from my own state , Kerala. I talked to him , he used to comether every month one time staying for one night and he consider Muruga as the almighty called him Father from his child hood days. We talked about spirituality and alighted the mountain. We parted apart in the foothills and didnt see him later. The next fine morning, I alighted the mountain, had the vision of my diety, Sri Muruga , took aravana prasada for my family members and alighted the mountain. I took the train back to my home town. It was nice and refreshing spiritual journey. I hope all could get a nice dharsana of Sri Muruga. Thank you.