While most Indian gods are happy with their share of Mithai and flowers, there is a new age God in Kerala who loves munching on chocolates. Not just any chocolate, this God has a sweet tooth for Munch chocolates!
The god we’re talking about is Balamurugan (which translates to baby Murugan, who is Shiva’s son), of the Chemmoth Sree Subramaniya Swami Temple in Kerala and is called Munch Murugan! There’s a reason why he is offered Nestle’s Munch chocolates by hundreds of people daily and the story behind this goes something like this: It all began when a little boy offered him a Munch nearly 7-8 years ago. The Muslim boy rang the temple bell and fell sick that evening. He kept murmuring Murugan’s name the entire night and his parent brought him to the temple to pray. The priest asked them to get something to offer to the deity and while the parents offered flowers, this kid insisted on offering Munch chocolates. He was miraculously cured the other day. Ever since that episode, the God is called ‘Munch Murugan’.
Now devotees, especially children who have their exams, offer Munch to pay their respects! Check out how people line up to offer Munch chocolates to the God:
They don’t stop at just offering Munch to the God. Munch is given to all the devotees as a part of the prasad during different poojas that happen on a daily basis. Recently, devotees have also started performing MunchPara to impress the God and keep him happy. And as if all this wasn’t chocolaty enough, check out how they decorate him with chocolates:
We don’t know about you but we’re pretty sure Munch Murugan is worshiped at the Nestle office on a daily basis. Given the kind of profits they’re making because of him it makes sense, right?
