Special prayers held for Vikram’s successful landing

Chennai, Sep 6 (IANS) Seeking the Moon God Chandran's blessings for the successful landing of India's moon lander Vikram, special prayers were held at the Chandranaar Temple in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district, said a temple official.

"We had a special 'abhishekam' and 'archana' today (Friday) evening, seeking the divine blessings of Chandran," said V. Kannan, Manager at the Sri Kailasanathan Temple or the Chandranaar Temple.

A special pooja was also organised for the success of Chandrayaan-1 before the rocket lifted off in 2008, he said.

"We didn't offer any special prayers before July 15 when Chandrayaan-2 was first planned to be launched. Owing to some technical problem, the launch was postponed," Kannan said.

"We thought the technical snag may be due to the non-offering of prayers to the Moon God. Hence, prior to the Chandrayaan-2 launch on July 22, special prayers, 'abhishekam' and 'annadhanama' were conducted," Kannan said.

He said the special prayers were their contribution for India going forward in its scientific programme.

While the presiding deity at the temple is Soma (Moon), the main deity is Lord Shiva.

The Chandranaar Temple is one of the Navagraha temples, all located near Kumbakonam, and devotees pray at these temples to get rid of negative planetary influence on them.

According to Kannan, around 500 devotees come to the Chandranaar Temple daily and on Mondays the number goes up to 5,000.

The nine Navagraha temples are: Suryanaar (Sun), Chandranaar (Moon), Angaragan (Mars), Budhan (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter), Sukran (Venus), Shani (Saturn), Rahu and Ketu.