Ananda Sai

Overview

The Ananda Sai Dhyana mandapam is a Vishnu temple that is located in Chennai. The idol here is made of fibre Glass which is not found in other parts of Asia and the world. The uniqueness of the idol is that one can feel the nerves like that of human beings. On regular days prasad is shared among the followers as they are increasing slowly they act according to the immediate needs of the temple.

Legend and Stories

Legend has it that the Sai leela begins from Shri Ramanan, a dedicated Sai devotee. He and his family were firm devotees of Shirdi Sai. He was employed for the Chennai Port Trust. His mother gave him a photo of Sai Baba and recommended him to offer his prayers. In 1997 one fine day his friends were anxious to know about their future and they reached a palm reader to read their horoscope. Mr.Ramanan's horoscope exposed that he would construct a temple in future. He was surprised as he never had any such thought. Next year in 1998, he chanced to visit Enjambakkam Sai temple. Baba in his dream told him to construct a temple for him. After this dream he was freed of samsara bandhan. From June 30th 1998 he stopped wearing slippers. He started thinking about Sai in his manmandir. Then he began to search for a suitable area to build Sai temple. Finally he found that a small piece of land was vacant but there were some litigation in purchasing the same. Meanwhile, one of his friends had built a temple for God Ganesha and he took part in the opening ceremony. There his friend introduced him to Mr. Leo Muthu. Ramanan requested Muthu to support him in solving the complications related to acquisition of land as it was to be used for constructing Sai temple. Mr. Muthu was impressively pleased to hear this. He had acres of land for construction of Sairam College and also had a plan to have a temple. Straightaway he donated 33 acres of land and requested Ramanan to take the charge of handling the activities. Both of them joined hands to serve Sai. In the meantime a Chennai based family living in Dubai for almost 27yrs, Mr. & Mrs. Surya was pulled by Sai to join this partnership. One day Mrs. Surya had a dream and Sai told her to make an entirely different pratima from what is seen in other Sai temples and install it in a village called poonthandalam.

He also wanted her to find someone in that village who had the same thought.She also had a dream of a remote village. She had no clue about poonthandalam village and who creates Sai idol. She on reaching Chennai investigated for this village and on reaching she was happy to see the village which she visualized in her dream and met Ramananji who had settled there recently and had already got the land for Sai temple and looking for Sai pratima.On her way back from Chennai instead of taking the regular route they went through Kanchipuram Kanchi kamakoti matt .They wanted to have a darshan of Kanchi periyavar.Seeing a idol of Kanchi swamiji and sensed that it looks very different and got fascinated. They got the idea of having a similar one for Sai. On searching they got to know about T.P.R. Ganesh and Sai.Thus the outcome was a 6 and half ft.,fibre glass sai. In 2006 on the day of Gokulashtami Sai pratima was given over to Ramananji.

Festivals

1. Sai punyathithi
2. Gurupurnima
3. Sri Rama Navami
4. Temple Anniversary Day

Aarati timings

1. Kakad- 5 a.m.
2. Madhyana – 12 .00
3. Dhoop- sunset
4. Shej – 10 p.m.

Accessibility

The nearest airport is in Chennai. The Tambaram Rail Way Station , Perungulattur Rail Way Station are the very nearby railway stations to Poonthandalam. However Chennai Central Rail Way Station is major railway station 29 KM near to Poonthandalam. By road, devotees can afford to go by autorickshaws -share with few people- duration 30-45 mts.(via-Madha engg. college)plan is approved for getting a bus stop very close to mandir (kunruthur bus stop-sai mandir) waiting for action.

Temple Address

Ananda Sai Temple, Saibaba Nagar,
Poonthandalam, Nandampakkam Post,
Kundrathur (Via), Chennai, Tamilnadu,
India, Pincode - 600069.