Special prayers in TN for Vikram's successful moon landing

Seeking the divine blessings of the Moon God Chandran for the successful landing of India's moon lander Vikram, special prayers will be held at the Chandranaar Temple in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district, an official said.

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

He said a special pooja was held for the success of Chandrayaan-1 mission before the rocket lifted off in 2008.

"We did not 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 the prayers to the Moon God. Hence prior to the Chandrayaan-2 launch on July 22, special prayers, `abhishekam' and `annadhanama' were conducted," Kannan said.

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 the negative planetary influence on them.

According to Kannan, around 500 devotees come to the Chandranaar Temple daily while on Monday the number will be about 5,000.

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