Mahalaxmi Temple, Mumbai

I was done with the Aegon Religare event by 2PM and had enough time till hubby would pick me from Mahalaxmi. Got a chance to roam all for myself, I thought of visiting few of the places near by. Very close to the Bombay Bronx is Mahalaxmi temple, though I had traveled near it many times, it was my first visit to the temple.

Saffron flags flaunting, on the way to the temple.

You need to walk through the narrow market lane, with shops selling flowers, pooja samagri, and idols of god and goddess on either side of the lane. The pooja samagri baskets have beautiful lotus, lotus which is said to be auspicious and favorite flower of Mahalaxmi. There is no proper provision to leave your footwear, but most of the shops entertain you to leave in front of their shops, if you shop with them. Finding no other option, I shopped an idol of goddess at one of the stores and left my shoes with them(sigh). It was drizzling and I somehow manged to reach the temple bare foot, then after there is stilt area as you climb up to the temple. The stairs and whole of the temple was very slippery because of rains. Photography is strictly prohibited, you need to deposit your camera at the locker, while you are allowed to carry the mobile phones, with a strict warning of not clicking. The main temple, has the idols of Goddess Mahalaxmi, Mahakali and Mahasaraswati. All the three idols are decorated with gold and pearl jewelries. There are two separate queues for men and women. Usually both the queues are very long, but since I visited in the afternoon, it was quite short. During festivals, especially Navratri and Diwali, the queue reaches as long as few kilometers. If you just want to have a glimpse of the goddess and don't want to get pooja done, there are windows on either side of the main temple, from where the goddess is visible. There are stairs to get down towards the beach at the back of the temple, there are small shrines dedicated to hindu god and goddess and you get a beautiful view of the sea. Unfortunately photographing here too is prohibited.

Image credit Mahalaxmi Temple official page

The history of the temple dates back to 1761AD. As the story goes, the Hindus immersed the three idols of the Goddesses into the sea near Worli creek to avoid destruction of the idols by the Muslim invaders. Subsequently, during British rule, Lord Horneby decided to connect the two islands, Worli-Malbar Hill creek and the work was entrusted to Shri Ramji Shivji Prabhu. They were not in a position to connect two islands by constructing two ways and could not complete the project on account of seawaves. One night Goddess Mahalaxmi instructed him in a dream to take out all the idols which were in creek of Worli and place them on top of the hillock. Accordingly, team took out all the three idols of goddesses from the Worli creek, then only to be able to continue with the construction work. After completion of the work, Engineer obtained ground on the hillock as a gift from the British ruler to construct the temple.
Travel Info:
Mahalaxmi Temple is at Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. The temple is around 1km from Mahalaxmi railway station.
Timings: 6AM to 10PM