Saneeswara Swamy temple, Madapalli, Andhra

Saneeswara Swamy temple, Madapalli in East Godhavari District of Andhra Pradeshwww.youtube.com

Lots of Hindus are superstitious and believe in Astrology and their horoscope cast at the time of  their birth. Depending on the horoscope, one may have bad periods as well as good periods  that are calculated by  Astrologers  based on planet positions that keep changing  from time to time. In most cases, amazingly, such predictions never go wrong. They may not be 100% correct but incidents do happen close to their predictions. Among the planets Sani's (Saturn)  position  has to be taken seriously. Though he is supposedly the lord of Dharma, when the influence of his planet is high, he never fails to  give tough time to the people. But when his period is about to end, he blesses the people with lots of favors to make up for the hardships they've  suffered earlier. Just like taking precautions before hand against viral fever, etc people feel compelled to visit Saneeswaran temple with a view to diluting his bad effects on them.  With intense devotion and bhakti, they do what is called Parikaram - sort of taking preventive measures  to ward off the ill effects. In a way it is a method  of propitiating the god Saneeswara. 

Such rare Saneeswara kshetrams are quite famous and crowded as every family has some kind of insurmountable  problems that can be resolved only through prayers. Prayer is an effective way of  relieving our unexpected  impediments and deadlocks.

Saneeswara Swamy temple, Madapalli in East Godhavari District of Andhra Pradesh is a famous Hindu  temple and is one of the few temples dedicated to lord Saneewwarn (planet Saturn) who is beloved to make people undergo all kinds of hardship when the people are under his influence according to their horoscope; the other famous   Saneeswaran temple  being in Thirunallar near Karikal town, Pondicherry state. Here at Madapalli, the idol of Lord Saneeswaran is a huge one about 7 1/2 feet tall. Invariably in other rare Saneeswaran temples, the idol is a smaller one. Also called Mandeswara Swamy temple, it is located 38 km from Rajamundry and 60 km from Kakinada. This temple is a small one unlike many Hindu temples.

On the eve of Sani Thryodasha or Sanipeyarchi thousands of people throng this temple to have the bad effects of Sani -Sani thosham diluted or removed  so that they can lead a peaceful life. To ward off bad effects, people do what is called Sani Pooja. Black cloth is the favorite of Sani Bhagawan. The pooja is conducted on Saturday. Various relevant  mantras are chanted with faith and devotion when the pooja is being performed.  Widely gingelly oil is used to light the oil lamps in this temple as in  shrines dedicated to Navagraha (nine planets).  As we all know, faith is an important factor in life and  faith moves  even the mountains.  the rigors of rituals  are such that in the Hindu temples  that we  develop faith - faith in god, faith in you and faith in what you are doing. We positively believe  we will succeed in all our endeavors and  God will guide us through.

The legend has it this place was once a dense forest and a hermit / maharishi by the name of  Dadhichi was living here in his Ashram. As the demons - Asuras tortured  the people, he made a supreme sacrifice by way of donating his spinal cord to Lord Indira,King of Devas -celestial to be used as Vajrayudha. Indra used the powerful weapon and killed the Asura  Kartabha. Demon sons of the slain Asura called  Aswadha and Pepalli  sprang up to avenge  the death of their father. They were again terrorizing the people and it was unbearable.
Saneeswara Swamy temple, Madapalli in East Godhavari District of Andhra Pradesh. india-travel-agents.com
Among the sages or Maharishi Agasthiya, whose abode is in the south near Vindhya mountain, assured the panic-stricken people that he would wipe out these evil forces with Sani Baghavan, son of Suraya Baghavan (Sun). Lord Sani did penance  with utter dedication here and got special powers  and sage Agathysa gave him special powers -Tapas sakthi. Saneeswaran at last  killed all these demons  and as a  mark  of his gratitude to lord Shiva,
he  installed  and consecrated a Shiva Linga here. The Shiva linga is called Someswara or Mandeswara. The other deities are Brahmeswara and Nageswara

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