Last year, during Arudra day in Chidambaram, one of my clients had gone for darshan. Upon seeing the huge crowd, he had asked an aged Dikshitar why they couldn’t allow cars inside for easy darshan given the long distance from the main entrance to the inner shrine.
The Dikshitar had gotten angry and had walked away saying that during the last century, cars had been allowed inside that shrine only twice. Once, for His Excellency R. Venkataraman after he was sworn in as President of India, and again for Pandit Sethuraman of Madras who had come to offer special prayers for Loka Kshema.
Surprised, my client met me with the “Kunjithapatham” special Prasad from the temple and asked me how they had...
