Sani Prathosham - (18-12-2010)

Yesterday morning sasi called me and asked me to come for Shiva temple in the evening which is in Besant Nagar near to his police station. After I asked him about what is the special he told it is “Sani Prathosham” which is very auspious day in Shiva temple. Since he is wearing “iyappan malai” wanted me to join. Also told, if we pray today our wish will come true. So we went there and saw special abishekam performed for nandhi and lord shiva with all the people chanting manthra’s. After that, went with him for pattinampakkam Iyappan Temple and first time I had Iyappan Dharshan. and, had stomach full of prasadham’s given by the devotees. Meantime, other friends who wearing Iyappan Malai (senthil,rajesh and Dharani) joined with us and had the prasadhams. Then we all went to Anjaneyar Temple and started back home to prepare for Saturday Night Movie Show “ESAN”.

About Sani Prathosham
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Since this is the first time I heard about Sani Prathosham, Just curious to know about it so googled and and found the article in the following link

http://www.eprarthana.com/offers/sanipradosham/sani_pradosham.asp

Once Indra lost his kingdom and found that only if he consumed the Divine Nectar he could rule. So there was a tug of war between the devas and asuras to obtain this nectar. The Devas and Asuras got together to churn the ocean, using Mandramalai & Vaasuki, the snake. As they continued to churn the ocean, Vaasuki the snake began to tire and started spewing its poison. Siva came and consumed all the poison. Thus Siva became blue up to his throat and is also known by the name "Neelakandan" ( neela-blue colour, kandam-throat).

Goddess Parvati rushed and held his neck so that the poison would not spread to the whole of his body. Shiva then became drowsy and selected a village called Surutapalli (near Chennai), where he is seen sleeping on the lap of Parvathi. This is the only temple that houses Lord Shiva in a sleeping position.

Narada, meanwhile, passed on the message and down came the Devas, Brahma, Vishnu and the Saptarishis, to have darshan. They were promptly stopped by Nandi who asked them all to come after some time, as Shiva was resting. All of them waited. Shiva, when he woke up, was filled with extreme happiness and danced ("Ananda Thandavam"). This day, when the Devas, Brahma, Vishnu, Narada and Saptarishis had Shiva darshan was a Krishnapaksha Trayodasi (Stiravaram, Saturday). This is the Mahapradosham day. Pradhosham, generally, is a significant occasion observed with great piety at all Shiva temples.

It is believed that all the Devas & Gods are assembled in the Shiva temples during Pradosham time. Further, the first pradosham was on a Saturday & hence "Sani Pradosham" is even more auspicious.