Padmanabha Swamy temple.... Among the few temples I will never forget.. (That list includes lesser known temples such as Quarters Pulaiyar Koil, Rathna Girishwarar, NIT Trichy Pulaiyar Koil etc)
Anyway, the temple has suddenly loomed to a different kind of glory in the last few months after they discovered the treasure vaults... I might say that people who are truly religious will not care about money. But then, if one looks at religion closely enough, one would realize that "truly religious" is a vastly misleading term.
Anyway, back to the point. I will never forget it because I will always remember how when we were in Trivandrum, they found out that the idol in this temple was made of gold. Yes. Solid gold.(Also because I must have done this tourist guide business of showing the temple and the clock they have on the temple museum to anyone and everyone who visited us during that time!)
It is like, you keep going to this temple every other month and you have seen an idol made of normal black stone. Then suddenly one week you hear all of it was actually gold. And you go and see the same moorthi in gold. It is awesome like that.
I personally don't like gold all that much, but this was an exception. The gold thing was just too good. If I were a king and I was into temples, I would have wanted God to look like that. Grand. Awe-inspiring. Godly. (Oh no, I am punning again!)
Anyway, there was also the story about how they found that the idol was gold. And how they left the face untouched, so the face still looks like stone. I will leave that part of the story for later.. Or maybe I will let you wonder about the mystery of it all... :)
