Guruvayur: Category of Worship

Early in the morning at 3 a.m. there is Nirmalya Darsana, a night dress decoration, which is very auspicious. After Nirmalya Darsana Lord is bathed with sesame seed oil and water which visitors can collect to drink for their salvation. The beautiful singing and music goes on while Lord is bathing. After Lord’s bathing, He is offered with special sweet rice. This sweet rice is special because at first paddy is boiled, dried and husked and then roasted in ghee. Then it is cooked in coconut milk mixed with brown sugar and coconut pieces. After offering it to the Lord, the remnants are sold to the visiting devotees as Prasadam. After the morning worship, there are five other worships of the Lord. During each worship, the deity doors are closed for sometime. The signers and musicians of the temple sing Gita-Govindam prayers of Jayadeva Goswami for the pleasure of the Lord. All the devotees chant “Govinda Govinda, Narayana Narayana, Madhava Madhava, Krsna Krsna, Guruvayurappaaaa Guruvayurappaaaa.” These sounds are so melodious that they enter through the ears and fill the heart with great ecstasy with the hairs standing on end.

In the evening there is a worship with lamps called the Dipa-Aradhana. Lord is seen gorgeously, decorated with flower garments and various ornaments. His face is covered with sandalwood paste, His eyes anointed with mascara, a nice Tilakam on His forehead topped with red kumkum bedecked by a peacock feather on His head. When Lord is seen in such a nicely decorated way, blinking of the eyes are not wanted. At late night an arati is offered with a ghee lamp and camphor circled seven times around His body. At this point, all the seven thousand lamps on the outer wall of the main deity room are lit simultaneously.

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