Sree Balakrishna Swami Temple, Kuzhuppilly

The Sree Balakrishna Swamy Temple, Kuzhuppilly of Goud Saraswat Brahmin (G.S.B.) community is in Kuzhuppilly village, Vypeen Island, Ernakulam district, Kerala, India. The temple in the present form was completed in 1964 A.D.Other deities and Sub-templesThere are sub-temples for Hanuman, Garuda, Ganapathy, Laxmi, Navagraha and Nagaraja.HistoryDuring the exodus of Goud Saraswat Brahmins from Goa in the 16th century, many families settled down in and around Cochin. A prominent person among them (Venkateswara Pai alias Vensu Pai) settled in Kuzhupilly in the land given by the Raja of Cochin. Vensu Pai's son Anatha Pai once on his pilgrimage to Tirupathi, purchased some metal idols and dolls for his kids. There was an idol of Balakrishna among them. The children used them in their play and made pooja to these idols. However, the children started to become sick regularly and used to have many health complaints. The elders considered that, it was due to not keeping the idol in sacred form, and started pooja. But the pooja was neither regular nor as per sastra. The suffering of the children continued and also there were some child deaths in the family. The worried Anantha Pai approached a known Astrologer Sri Adoor Chakrapani for a solution. The astrological prasnam and prediction revealed that a separate temple is to be built for the Balakrishna idol and regular poojas to be conducted. Sri Anantha Pai considered Balakrishna as his child and divided his properties among his children and Balakrishna. A small temple was constructed in the land given to Balakrishna and Prathista done in 1895 AD.