Shree Ayyappa Bhakta Sangham, Marol was founded by a handful ardent devotees, then residing at Blossom Cooperative Housing Society, Marol in the year 1974. A few men gathered at the residence of Late Gopinatha Menon to attend a pooja coinciding with the mandala pooja celebrations at Sabarimala, and this idea of forming an organisation was mooted by Menon. Everybody agreed to it spontaneously and decided to keep their base at Menon’s own flat 4/7 Blossom CHS. Shree Ayyappa Bhakta Sangham got registered as a charitable trust in the year 1978 with this address and continued till we bought our own premises at Panchavati CHS, in Marol Maroshi Road, in the year 2007.

We remember our founders K. Gopinatha Menon, G.S. Jayaraman, A. Gangadharan, R.S. Warrier, T.R. Unnikrishnan, K.K.B. Menon, Ramachandran, K.E. Warrier, and G.K. Menon, with great reverence and acknowledge their contributions towards providing a strong base for the organisation. Though the pooja involving more devotees from within Blossom were started from 1974 itself, those were low key affairs. It was in the year 1978, the pooja celebrations were scaled up to include cultural programs. The first day they had local dance programs and the second day a grand classical music program by K.J. Yesudas. From then on year after year we used to have cultural programs of very high standards, in addition to conducting pooja rituals exactly like it is conducted in Kerala keeping the highest tradition under the eminent priest Late O.M.N. Nampoodirippad. Almost 25 years O.M.N, as we used to call him fondly, continued as main priest for our Pooja. 

The popularity of our Pooja gradually got spread widely and more and more people started coming forward to partake in the pooja. After 18 years of its existence, in the year 1992 the Sangham decided to broaden its base with a membership drive and after enrolling more members the activities of pooja were also scaled up further. A few years later the original bye law was also amended with changes required to meet up the challenges of advancing times. The managing committee had only 9 members before and post the amendment it has now 15 members with a President as a friend guide and philosopher, representing the General Body of members. 

The cultural programs that were part of our Pooja festivals, became so popular in and around Marol with Stalwarts like K.J. Yesudas coming twice to perform at our stage. The great music directors duo Jaya Vijayan, Brhamanandan, the then child prodigy Sankaran Nampoodiri, P. Unnikrishnan, Perumbavur Ravindranath, Madhu Balakrishnan, the Mandolin stalwart U. Rajesh, Rajalakshmi. Roopa Revathi, T.S. Radhakrishnaji, Sumesh Ayiroor, Abhijit Kollam and many others performed at our stage during the annual pooja festivals. We also had Major set Kadhakali organised thrice over, the Yakshgana once, Ottamthullal twice, Chakyarkoothu once, and of course classical dances by local talents from Marol under the training of Geetha Vijayshankar and Radha Chandran and off late Kanthi Shyam. We have also presented dance Ballets Shree Ayyappan, Unniarcha, Aromalunni, and Karna Sapadham, choreographed by Geetha Vijayshankar and Music scored by S.K. Venugopal. Kalamandalam Gopalakrishnan’s group from Dombivli performed a Ballet at our stage, as also the group led by Udyogamandal Vikraman and Smt.Jayasree Nair from Chembur. Singers from Mumbai P.V. Vijayakumar of Ragalaya and Preethi Warrier and many others have also performed at our stage during these past 50 years.

The pooja rituals followed at our make shift temple during the 3-day festivals is typically in line with the same rituals followed at Sabarimala and other major temples of Kerala. Ganapathy Homam, Usha pooja, Ucha Pooja, Deeparadhana and the athazha pooja are all performed meticulously keeping with the traditions. A ‘Kedavilakku’ with ghee stays lit throughout all these three days till the ‘Udwahanam’ is performed by the main priest after Maha Deeparadhana. We are happy that devotees from even far off places enthusiastically participate in the pooja and become recipients of Swamy Ayyappa’s blessings. Recitation of ‘Narayaneeyam’, and ‘Vilakku Pooja’(Recital of Lalitha Sahasranamam) by lady-devotees, the recitation of ‘Hari nama Keerthanam’ and Hanuman Chalisa by the young kids , the Bhajan sessions by our very own bhajan group drawn from members family are all high lights of our pooja festival. The ambience at the make shift temple and surroundings are so divine that we feel the presence of ‘Bhagavan’ all throughout the festivities. There are many experiences narrated by devotees which makes you believe that the rituals if conducted with complete devotion would make u see the manifestation of God in real time.

A noteworthy feature of the celebrations is the annadanam (Sastha Preethi) held, with a spirt of devotion at the nearby Marol Education Academy’s High School on the third day of the pooja. Over1500 people from the area partake in the ‘Annadanam’. We also provide annadanam at the pooja venue during all 3 days of pooja for all devotees who come to attend the pooja rituals and festivities.

Another major highlight of the celebration is the procession with decorated chariot of Ayyappa Swamy accompanied by ‘thalappoli’ by young girls and women accompanied by panchavadyam performed by professional artists from Kerala. The procession commencing from the Ganesh Temple at Vijaya Nagar passes through Panchavati, Bhavani Nagar and Lok Sarita CHS, culminating at Blossom society pooja venue which concludes with ‘Mahadeeparadhana’ followed by distribution of ‘Mahaprasadam’. From last year (2024), honouring sentiments expressed at the AGM by senior members, we started a new practice of starting a procession simultaneously from Lok Sarita CHS in Military Road accompanied by Thalppoli and Shingari Melam to come to blossom society gate, through Vasant Oasis and merge with the main procession, rather than taking the main procession crossing over blossom Pooja venue. This change was very well accepted by the devotees and was found hugely successful, with record participation of devotees in Thalappoli as well as the Maha Deeparadhana.

Ever since we purchased our premises in the year 2007, we have been conducting bhajans every 1st Saturday of malaylam month performed by our own members. A beautiful make shift temple was made at our premises in the year 2018 and it is there that we do our bhajan programs these days. We were in the look out of buying a piece of land to construct a permanent aboard for Swamy Ayyappa in Marol, but our efforts could not yield results as there are hardly any land available in Marol with clear title. Most of the vacant lands around are reserved lands for either schools or recreation grounds. However, we are talking to influential people in the socio-political field to see if not a grand temple ,we get a space to construct a community hall cum meditation centre cum convention centre in Marol for believers of Sanatana Dharma.