Tag Venkateswara

Family Deity Personal Deity

Vedas do not advocate Temple Worship or Collective/Public Worship.

It does not mention Temples at all.

Yet Hinduism has many Gods and Temples.

For an explanation please read my post God has Name and Form, Yes and No, as entering this topic will take us away from the present post.

Every family, by custom, has a Family Deity குல தெய்வம்

Any auspicious function should be preceded by a Pooja first to this Deity.

It is mandatory to visit the Temple of the Deity, at least once a year.

Customs vary with regard to the Poojas being performed for the Deity.

Some times it happens(which should not), the children are not informed of the Family Deity by the Elders.

As a Result. the generation remains ignorant of the Deity.

In such cases, one can ask Family elders who are still alive.

If this attempt fails, check the names of your ancestors on your Father's( for men only) side., for minimum three generations.

The family custom is to name the first child of the Family after the Family Deity.

If the Family Deity is a Female, and the eldest of the Family is a Male, check if a female name is given for a male , as in Kamakshi (and for Female the reverse).

And that will be your Family Deity.

The most common name will be your Family Deity.

Otherwise continue The present Deity( of which you are unsure) and if a Saivaite have Subramanya as an additional Family Deity and if a Vaishnavaite, have Lord Balaji of Tirupati.

Faith Is What Faith Does Traveler’s Memoirs

The experience was still better.

This time I had thought of visiting Tirukkadayur(Thirukkakkdavur is the correct pronunciation) and a vow I had to complete for the natural delivery for my Daughter in law(she delivered a baby girl seven months back) at Thayumanavar temple at Tiruchi.

Excepting these two I had absolutely no plans.

I ended up with visiting 20 temples in five days with no Private transport, traveling by only by Public transport.

And the Temples were chosen for me by the others!

At Mayiladuthurai, This job was handled by my friend's(friend since college days since 1967) wife and at Tiruchirapalli by my friend's daughter who is Computer Professional aged 25!

Believe me not only the visits were better, smoother and the Darshan, the best in my life.

For these people who had done this without any anticipation, six letters of the word Thanks is not enough.

Thank you Ms. Abhayamba Sekaran and Sindhu.

May Goddess Abhirami Bless you.

This trip also reinforced my belief, which I have expressed often , that the present generation of youngsters, obsessed with worldly things and Gadgets are more informed , more helpful and more Religious without pretenses.

To conclude I can only say that Faith is what Faith does.

Note. I will be posting some articles on the Temples I visited with some unique information and Photos.