South Indian Tour

Dear friends we would like to present you new tour that we just developed this winter.

It is very special because places we will be visiting are Holy and give different kind of benedictions according to person’s level of advancement.

We invite you personally with the idea of going together to South India, arriving to Chennai (capital of Tamil Nadu state) starting with Tirupati-Tirumala (Andra Pradesh state) and then going to Kanchipuram, Maha Bali Puram on the east coast and Sri Rangam Kshetra (biggest Temple in the world) in the middle of Tamil Nadu state, also if we have time we will visit Auroville village it is very beautiful tourist place.

The best time to go is end of January beginning of February, during this season weather is nice and mellow(not too hot not too cold).

We will be travelling on modern AC buses or jeeps; over all distance is around 650km.

First we go up north from Chennai to Tirupati-Tirumala, and then all the way down to Sri Rangam.

Chennai to Tirupati 150km

Chennai to Sri Rangam 340km

Kanchipuram and Maha Bali Puram are near to Chennai

Auroville village is half way from Chennai to Sri Rangam on the Bay of Bengal, there we can rest and probably take bath in the sea.

Roads in South India are much better than in the north and we hope that our common experience will be pleasant with many stories and mantra chanting on the way.

South Indian cuisine is one of the best in India it is hot and vegetarian with a lot of rice, coconut, idli, dosa, sambar, rasam etc.

We will spend 5 days in Tiripati-Tirumala this place is the abode of Lord Venkateshvara or otherwise named Sri Balaji (Incarnation of Vishnu).

Balaji is 2 meters high and gives benedictions to all the people who visit Him, it is explained that whoever gives donation to the Lord gets 1000 times more back in this very life time. This Temple draws millions of people and therefore considered busiest pilgrim center in the world. It is richest Temple in India. The most striking feature of Balaji’s dress is His diamond crown, which is said to be most precious single ornament in the world. The whole inner site of the Temple is plated with pure gold and silver. It is considered non different from Vaikuntha (spiritual world).

Another interesting Temple is Govindaraja swami Temple, dedicated to elder brother of Lord Balaji. It was constructed in 1130 AD by Saint Ramanujacharia.

Situated about 3 km at the foot of Tirumala Hills Sri Kapileshvara Mandir is the only Temple dedicated to Lord Siva in Tirupati. The sacred and beautiful water fall, Kapila Teertham or Alwar Teertham is located here.

Sri Venkateshvara zoological park is one of the best in India.

About 5 km from Tirupati Temple Sri Padmavati Devi (Goddess Laxmi) Temple is located. It is believed that visit to Tirupati Temple is rewarding only after paying homage to Sri Padmavati Temple. Here Vedic Brahmanas perform fire sacrifice as wedding ceremony for Balaji and Laxmi every day. Many people come to sit on that Yajna after being married. It is also very auspicious to attend this ceremony for those who want to marry in the future.

There are many other interesting places around Tirupati and we will try our best to visit them all. People in South India are very friendly, educated and devoted to their Lord.

We will stay in Chennai (capital of the state) 1 day it is modern city with a lot of Temples, Forts, Churches, beaches and parks.

On the way from Chennai to Maha Bali Puram located few very interesting places, one of them is Muttukadu 30km south of Chennai, it is handicraft village which is build in traditional 19^th century style. Produced here are sculptures, ceramics and glass objects.

Crocodile bank. There are over 5000 crocodiles in this wild life crocodile farm, here you can find the salt water crocodylus porosus,the world largest crocodile, which can grow to over 8m.Also here is the snake farm where snakes are milked to collect venom. This place is 15km north of Mamalapuram.

Then we will move to Kanchipuram one of the India’s seven sacred cities, and Maha Bali Puram with its beautiful shore Temple, and spend there at least 2 days.

Kanchipuram is known as the “Golden City of Temples” It is considered one of the seven main sacred cities of India. It has over one hundred temples now. Kanchipuram is believed to give eternal happiness to one who goes there. Ramanuja lived in Kanhcipuram during his youth, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited here 500 years ago. This place is known to be the best source of high quality hand-woven silk items.

Mamalapuram means “the town of Mamala, the great wrestler.”The previous name was Maha Bali Puram means “the town of great king Bali”, from whom Lord Vamana (Visnu) begged 3 paces of land. The Shore temple is located right next to the sea. Besides the famous Shore temple, there are 14 cave temple, 8 monolithic rathas and number of other smaller rock sculptures. Many of the monuments are floodlit at night. There is dance festival during January-February. Mamalapuram is one of the more visited places by foreign tourists in South India.

From There we will travel to Sri Rangam it is biggest and most beautiful Temple in all South India. 20 thousand priests reside there to offer their service to Ranganath Swami.

The main deity is Lord Ranganath, or Visnu, reclining on Sesa Naga. This temple is the foremost of the 8 self manifested shrines of Lord Visnu (Swayam Vyakta Kshetras). It is also considered the most important of the 108 main Visnu temples (Divya Desams). Sri Ramanuja made Sri Rangam his headquarters. Sri Caitanya, Sri Vallabhaacarya and the Dalai Lama visited this temple. This is largest temple in India it covers 2.5 sq km. After Tirupati this is second most visited Vaisnava temple in South India. Ramanuja sits in the Samadhi in his shrine here and you can see his actual body after more than 800 years.