India is the spiritual capital of the world. Every square foot of this holy land has a religious significance and a wealth of philosophies to make our lives sublime. Despite a series of invasions, no power had been able to make even a small dent in the spiritual hegemony of India. Great scholars and Indologists as Max Mueller had not only acknowledged this fact and wanted the west to follow Vedic philosophy to make their lives more noble and civilized. He had published the Rig Veda in 25 volumes after 25 years deep study and understanding of our Vedas, Upanishads, Ithihasas and Puranas that lead mankind to a closer relationship with the Almighty. The texts help us develop this relationship and show us how religion is a link between Earth and Heaven.

To draw people near to God our ancestors established great temples in all parts of the country – plains, hills, forests, sea shores and even in deserts. While our Maharshis and Acharyas authored the scriptures, our kings and emperors gave them a visual commentary by building temples conforming to the Agama rules combined with aesthetic and architectural beauty drawing mankind to Gods in idol forms, spend a little time in prayers and allocate a few minutes in the midst of our present day mechanical life. Thus they successfully included religion as part of our daily routines. Our indebtedness to the saints and acharyas are endless. They have enabled us to keep ourselves close to our eternal parents.

We have to maintain these temples clean and holy with pujas, festivals etc. We have no kings today to contribute for the same. Temple administrations have to raise revenue for this purpose in the form of some fee for pujas and rituals from the devotees.

Sabarimala is one such famous pilgrim centre in the south in the state of Kerala where the presiding deity Lord Ayyappa grants darshan with His alluring handsomeness to devotees with boons for a peaceful, righteous, healthy and prosperous life and finally salvation.

Dinamalar, a popular Tamil daily of Tamilnadu offers necessary details of such fee and the history of the shrine to Lord Ayyappa devotees to make their pilgrimage purposeful.