Lord Ayyappa is known as “Hariharasuta” because he is the son of Hari (Vishnu), the saviour and Hara (Shiva), the destroyer. His most common name is “Manikanta” because when the king Rajasekara Pandiya of Pandalam found little Ayyappan in a forest, there was a “mani” (bell) tied around his neck. Lord Ayyappa is also known as Dharma Sastha, as some consider him to be born out of the union between Mohini (an avatar of Vishnu) and Shiva. < The year 1980 witnessed the cult worship of Lord ayyappa being introduced in the UK and the worship was initiated by our holiness Gurusamy P Sreedharan. The Sree Ayyappa Seva Sangam emerged from this momentum, aiming to servedevotees gathering in Lord Ayyappa’s name. His Holiness Swamiji Krishnan Sreedharan, a sannyasi Siddharn hailing from Edava, Kerala, had also conceptualized the idea of building a proper temple anywhere in London to accommodate Ayyappa devotees from all over the UK.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The year 1980 witnessed the worship of\nLord Ayyappa being introduced in the UK, and one of the first to establish this\nwas His Grace Gurusamy Late Kollam P. Sreedharan in the abode of Lord Murugan\nTemple located in Eastham, London. Gurusamy’s aspiration to engage everyone in\ndaily bhajans led to the initiation of the Mandala Thiruvizha, starting on\nBoxing Day, annually observed with support from the Chief Priest of Murugan\nTemple, Siva Sri Kailai R. Naganathasivam. To fund this unprecedented event in\nLondon, contributions were gathered from devotees, uniting local residents in\nworship of Lord Ayyappa.<\/span><\/p>\n The Sree Ayyappa Seva Sangam emerged from\nthis momentum, aiming to serve devotees gathering in Lord Ayyappa’s name. His\nHoliness Swamiji Krishnan Sreedharan, a sannyasi siddhar hailing from Edava,\nKerala, had also conceptualized the idea of building a proper temple anywhere\nin London to accommodate Ayyappa devotees from all over the UK. He had blessed\nhis disciples in the Seva Sangam to carry out this work. Arriving in the UK,\nSwamiji wanted to meet P. Sreedharan Guruswami to Ayyappan community. Upon meeting\nGuruswami, they realised that they were good friends in Swamijis p\u016brv\u0101\u015brama\nearly days in Singapore. He encouraged and blessed P. Sreedharan Guruswami to\nstart regular worship and bhajans for Ayyappan. Monthly pujas commenced at\nKensington Primary School, supported by trustees and devotees. In the late\n1990s and early 2000s, the \u2018Sree Ayyappa Seva Sangam (London)\u2019 experienced a\nlarge volume of devotees, and in order to accommodate them, the Seva Sangam\nardently sought to build a separate temple for Lord Ayyappa near Eastham.\nDespite their hard efforts and lack of amenities, they couldn\u2019t find a building\nnear the place.<\/span><\/p>\n Subsequently, the temple was built in East\nActon with grandeur. Sree Ayyappa manifested into a divine panchaloha vigraha,\nand the temple construct was well-crafted with 18 divine steps. Unfortunately,\ndue to some hassles, the Seva Sangam was left with no option other than to\nvacate the place within a few months, and the deity was moved to an\nashram-temple located in Harrow.<\/span><\/p>\n Due to many obstacles in the path of\ncreating a permanent abode for Ayyappan, His Holiness Swamiji Krishnan\nSreedharan flew from India, even in old age, to give his blessing and guide the\nway. This would be his last visit to the UK. Arriving in the UK in 2007,\nSwamiji met with trustee Late Vijayan. Together, along with Kiri Swami, the\ntrustees, and P. Sreedharan Guruswami, a meeting was organized to discuss the\nfuture of the Sangam. This meeting laid the foundation of the London Ayyappan\nTemple. During this meeting, P. Sreedharan Guruswami entrusted the Sree\nAyyappan Seva Sangam to Swamiji and requested him to establish the temple\nanywhere in London.<\/span><\/p>\n Along with Swamiji and Guruswami, Kiri\nSwami visited many potential properties. However, all of them had various\nissues and were unsuitable for temple purposes. Finally, they came across a\nproperty on Masons Avenue, Harrow, London. This property naturally had 18 steps\nleading up to the first floor of the building, which would later become the\ntemple. Thus, the London Ayyappan Temple was established, with its consecration\n(kumbhabhishekam) performed on the 14th of September 2008. The temple was built\nas a mini replica of Sabarimala, with Ganapati, Shiva, and other deities\nconsecrated as well. On the 22nd of August 2010, two more\nshrines were consecrated along with the replacement of the panchaloha\n(five-metals) Ganapati deity with a permanent granite deity and Sri\nVenketeswara, a form of Vishnu. Utsava murtis in panchaloha for Lord Ayyappa, Lord\nAnjaneya, and Dakshinamurti were consecrated a few days later. There is a spacious and well-ventilated\nauditorium of about 3600 square feet located on the ground floor of the temple,\nnamed after the building’s original name, Brotherhood Hall. It is used for\nconducting spiritual and cultural programmes, marriages, and discourses, as\nwell as local and community programmes. Discourses by eminent speakers on\nreligious and spiritual topics are held regularly. These discourses help in\nspreading the message of universal brotherhood and love among the public. For\nthe benefit of devotees participating in discourses, daily rituals, etc., and\nfor the employees and volunteers, there is a large kitchen and a dining hall on\nthe ground floor of the temple premises.<\/span><\/p>\n The temple attracts a large number of\ndevotees throughout the year. During the Mandalam\/Makaravilakku (November to\nJanuary) season, hundreds of Ayyappa devotees\u2019 throng to the temple for\nDarshana, Maladharanam, and Kettunira with the blessings of the Guruswami, Kiri\nGuruswami, and the temple priests: Sivabalasubramaniam Kurukal, Pushparaja\nKurukal, and recently Venkataramanan Kurukal, among other past priests. The\ntemple is acclaimed as one of the well-maintained ones in Harrow Council,\nLondon. Indeed, it is a Mahakshetra in all respects.<\/span><\/p>\n Suntharampillai\nKirubahar (Kiriji) Founder,\nMember, Patron, Trustee and Gurusamy \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLondon Ayyappan\nTemple<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-34","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londonayyappan.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londonayyappan.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londonayyappan.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londonayyappan.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londonayyappan.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/londonayyappan.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/londonayyappan.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londonayyappan.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}teaching<\/h5>\n
History of Lord London AYYAPPA<\/em><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n