Few months back I visited the Sri Lakshmi Narayani GoldenTemple in Vellore on my way from Tirupathi. It’s located in Sripuram in Thirumalaikkodi village, about 12 km from Vellore, Tamilnadu. It was built by Sri Sakthi Amma, head of the Sri Narayani Peedam.
Sri Narayani Peedam, a private religious charitable organization, built the temple. The temple is dedicated to Goddess Narayani.The whole temple is built of gold and it is estimated to be around 600 crores. One and a half tone of gold has been used to design this temple.
The temple is located in 100 acres site, surrounded by mountains and lush green scenic beauty. The temple, covering 55, 000 sq ft, has intricate carvings and sculptures in gold. Twelve layers of gold foils have been pasted on copper sheets carved with the designs of Gods and fixed on the walls. Except for the pathway, the entire structure has been made of gold and copper. The pathways were constructed in shape of a star and in the centre golden temple is located. One has to walk all the way through the star shaped walkway to see the temple and the goddess Narayani. Throughout the walkway there are quotes from Bhagavad-Gita, bible and Quran and photos of the Sakthi amma. His photos depict the charitable work he has done.
.The temple’s pillars, roof, interior and exterior were very well designed with gold. About 400 goldsmiths and coppersmiths, including craftsmen from Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanam, have completed the architectural marvel in gold in six years. The approximate cost of the temple is Rs 600 crore.Surrounding the temple is a pond where people throw coins, currencies, bangles, debit card etc.
Narayani Amma, the founder of the temple was born in 1976.From his childhood he was more inclined towards spiritual engagements. In 8th May 1992 he saw goddess in white clad, lotus seated, four armed Divine Mother totally filling the skies, signaling that the time was imminent for the declaration of his Divinity. So he went on to build this temple with help of NRI’s. I don’t think that this is a wise idea to waste this much amount of money and gold on temple. Anyway I don’t want to get into it deeply, if get time friends have a visit. Basically this temple is not for a god, it’s for a man called sakthi amma. He resides in the old temple, opposite to this golden temple. To meet him, we have to get permission from the people over there.
It’s about 140 km from Chennai and 200 Km from Bangalore and easy to reach.