Anantha Padmanabhaswami Temple
Thiruvananthapuram Anantha Padmanabha Swamy Temple Kumbabhishekam.. Anantha Padmanabha Kumbabhishekam Adisesha is the thousand headed serpent and contains great power and energy through the grace of Lord Vishnu, who is also known as Ananda Padmanabha. In Bhagavat Gita, Lord Krishna tells to Arjuna, “That among the serpants, I am the powerful adisesha”. Which means his greatness was told by the Lord himself! He is considered as the supreme manifestation of Lord Vishnu. Through his name, Lord Vishnu is popularly called as “ANANDA PADMANABHASWAMY” and is worshipped widely in Trivandrum, Kerala. Several temples of Ananda Padmanabhaswamy are found all over India.
Kumbabhishekam also known as Consecration ceremony, is a famous ritual held in the temples, once in 12 years, in order to add more spiritual powers to the deities present in the temple, and it is also performed in order to honour, and to pay our great respects to the almighty. During the time of Kumbabhishekam, Holy Water would be fetched from the sacred rivers, and the deities present inside the temple, as well as the Gopura Kalasam would be bathed with the Holy water, since it is believed that the powers of the deities present even at the top of the Temple Gopuram.
The famous Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, recently performed a wondrful Kumbhabhishekam (Grand Consecration) on June 8th, 2025, after a long gap. This excellent divine ceremony includes renovation and repair works like painting, sculpting and beautifying the temple, which houses Lord Vishnu in a reclining posture on the divine serpent bed Anantha.
Anantasayana Moorthy is a form of Lord Vishnu, who is seen in the form of sleeping posture in his divine Serpent bed in the Divine Ocean, Parkadal, in his abode Vaikunta. Though he appears in the form of sleeping posture, but actually he is doing intense meditation for the sake of the universal goodness. This form of Vishnu is being worshipped in the Anandapadmanatha Swamy Temples and in the Srirangam Temple.
“OM SRI ANANTA NARAYANA MOORTHY NAMOSTHUTHE”
WRITTEN BY
R. HARISHANKAR