Matsaya Narayana Temple, Tamilnadu

The Matsaya NarayanaTemple is located about 30km from Chennai, Tamil Nadu at Uthandi on ECR. The land for this seashore  temple was donated to Chinmaya Mission about 25 years ago. This shrine has no walls and is open to sky giving it a serene atmosphere rightly calling it a meditation park. 

The main Idol of Matsya/ Fish Avatar is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, is carved out of a 12 feet granite.108 pillars of 6 feet height with inscriptions from Vishnu Sahasranamam and Ashtothara Sadha Namavali stand all around it. 

There is a small shrine where Puja is performed daily and special pujas during weekends and festivals.

The premises has other deities and a temple exclusively for kids. 

Timing

6.00am to 10.00am & 5.00pm to 8.30pm

According to Hindu belief Lord Vishnu incarnated ten avatars whenever the universe was in turmoil to restore righteous.

Matsya (Fish in Sanskrit) was the first Avatar of Lord Vishnu in Hinduism. The great flood finds mention in the mythology text, where in the Matsya Avatar takes place to save the pious and the first man, Manu and advices him to build a giant boat.

The story, according to the Matsya Purana, goes like this :

Satyavrata, the king of pre-ancient Dravida and a devotee of Vishnu, who later was known as Manu was washing his hands in a river when a little fish swam into his hands and pleaded with him to save its life. He put it in a jar, which it soon outgrew. He then moved it to a tank, a river and then finally the ocean but the fish kept growing bigger. The fish then revealed himself to be Vishnu and told him that a deluge would occur within seven days that would destroy all life. The fish also told Manu that at the end of Kaliyug, the mare who lived at the bottom of the ocean would open her mouth to release a poisonous fire. This very fire will burn the whole universe, Gods, constellations and everything. The seven clouds of doomsday would then flood the earth until everything was a single ocean. Hence, the fish instructed Satyavrata to build an ark to take “all medicinal herbs, all the varieties of seeds, accompanied by the seven saints” along with the serpent Vasuki and other animals. By the time the flood approached, Manu’s ark was complete. As the flood swept over the land, Manu asked Vishnu why mankind had to meet such a deadly fate to which Matsya Vishnu told Manu that he was the only moral man alive and that he would be the father of the future generations of men. Matsya killed Hayagriva and returned the Vedas to Brahma. He then tied himself to Manu’s ark using Vasuki as a rope and protected them from the storm and the floods. When the storms ended and the water subsided, Matsya Vishnu left Manu and the others at the Himalayas, where they could begin human civilization again.