Visiting temples was one of the main activity during visit to India. Following are various temples we visited.
- Sanghi Temple: This is a temple on outskirts of Hyderabad with Lord Venkateswara as main deity. This was also a spot of many telugu film scenes. We went there on a day when it rained. The temple is located on a hill is far from noise of the city.
Link to more information about Sanghi temple
- Chilkur Balaji Temple: Also known as Visa Venkateswara Swami, this temple is unique in many ways. This is a very small temple but gets crowded a lot as devotee make perambulations to get their wishes fulfilled. There is no hundi for collecting money in this temple. This temple is also located around 20 kms from city. On visiting this temple, we realized this also was part of telugu movie Anand.
More about Chilkur Temple
- Simhachalam: Visiting this temple was not in our plan. But divine intervention seems to have influenced
mind of my friend to take us to this temple. It was not first time for me, but for my family members it was
first time. Temple was not crowded and we had a nice darshan, performed archana. I am glad that we could make it despite our very short visit to Visakhapatnam.
More about Simhachalam
- Basara: Temple of Goddess Saraswati located around 200 Kms from Hyderabad. This place is on banks of river Godavari. Visiting this temple is a whole day despite starting early in the day. This is famous for taking children to initiate them into education.
More about Basara
- Ainavilli: Temple of Lord Ganesha is located around 65 kms from Rajahmundry. Because of narrow roads, it takes couple of hours to reach there by road. You will cross quite a few villages on the way.
More about Ainavilli
- Padmanabha Swamy Temple: I visited this temple in November 2007 and my experience was etched in memory as I spent some time in the temple listening to chanting of Vishnu Sahasranamam that was reverberating in temple complex. I was not sure whether I will go this time but again Lord has his plans. My friend visiting me from Chennai had plans in mind and we made a trip to temple together. This temple gets quite crowded when it is time to look at the Lord. I am glad that I could make another trip this time also.
More about Padmanabha Swamy Temple
- Sai baba temple, Dislsukhanagar: This temple is located on mainroad in Hyderabad and is quite well maintained. We gained solace by visiting this as we could not visit Shirdi on this trip.
- Vivekanda Rock Memorial: Kanyakumari: I visited this after almost 20 years. I remember visiting when I came on south india tour organized by our school. Having gained a better knowledge of Swami Vivekananda, visiting this now has a different significance. We reached in time to catch last ferry to the rock at 4 PM. This memorial has a meditation hall. Since this rock is not quite far from mainland, I felt it may be worth considering a walkway bridge in addition to ferry service.
