Posts from Arunachala-live

Goddess Shakti is the manifestation of Energy. It is believed that Shakti is the power and energy with which the Universe is created, preserved, destroyed and recreated (by the trinity of  Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). Shakti is worshipped in several forms. As Rajarajeswari or Kamakshi, she is the Universal mother. As Uma or Parvati, she is the gentle consort of Shiva. As Meenakshi – she is the queen of Shiva. As Durga, she rides the tiger, and bears weapons. In the angry and terrifying form of Kali, she destroys and devours all forms of evil. As Kali, she is also the personification of time, her dark form being symbolic of the unknowable future.

The Shakti of the Impersonal Absolute is referred to as Durga in the Narayana Upanishad and is qualified as being worthy of worship for the acquisition of material gain in this world and spiritual advancement in the next. She is both the Energy which is life itself and the Source into whose depths all living things return. At the time of Kali Yuga, or cosmic dissolution, it is believed that the physically manifested universe will once again withdraw itself into the formless depths of the Goddess, until a new gestation period commences and the cyclic rhythm of creation is once again set into motion.

On the outer Girivalam path, right opposite the Nityananda ashram, there is a relatively new shrine dedicated to Goddess Rajarajeswari, a most powerful form of Shakthi. This temple, albeit new, is drawing huge crowds of devotees almost everyday. Pujas to the Divine mother are performed elaborately every day and on New Moon nights the chantings and rituals go well up till 2 o clock at night. A beautiful Sri Chakra Mehru resting on the back of a silver tortoise is a special feature. The deity of the Goddess is in a standing posture and covered with a silver kavasam. Prasad is prepared daily and distributed to all the devotees after the evening puja ritual. According to the priest, the reason for locating the shrine for the Goddess at this spot is because, from this point there is no view of the Karthigai Deepam flame and hence the Shakthi power is supposed to be greater here! Hmmm…

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As the name itself signifies, Tiruvoodal is the quarrel between Lord  Shiva and Goddess Parvathi and it is celebrated particularly in Tiruvannamalai during the month of January, the 2nd day after Pongal. In fact there is a whole street close to the temple called ‘Tiruvoodal street’ where the main part of the festival, the quarrel itself, is enacted.

The Divine quarrel revolves around the time when one day Parvathi playfully closes the eyes of her august husband, Lord Shiva, with her hands. Utter chaos ensues. The whole universe is plunged in darkness and what was just a moment of play to Parvathi causes countless years of darkness and misery on the universe. Lord Shiva, enraged by this act of folly, punishes Parvathi which sends Her to Kanchipuram to do Tapas where She receives the assurance that after she kills the buffalo-demon Mahishasura on the slopes of Arunachala, She would subsequently regain the favour of her Lord and be united with Him in the left half of His body (Ardhanaariswara) and this is what is realised on the day of Karthigai Deepam.

It would seem that the Tiruvoodal festival is celebrated in Tiruvannamalai in order to commemorate the time when Shiva and Parvathi were in discordance. Nevertheless,  it finishes with the divine union and brings them both back together in harmony. On the first day, there are three processions of the deities starting from the big temple and going on the four streets around the temple. The Utsava Murthis are Sri Mula Nayakar (Shiva in the form of Somaskanda), Tani Ambal (the independent goddess) and Sundaramurthi Nayanar (one of the main tamil saivaite saints).

The most interesting part of the festival takes place in the evening on Tiruvoodal street. During this part, the quarrel between Shiva and His consort, Parvathi, is enacted in public on the streets and witnessed by a large gathering of devotees who are assembled there eagerly to watch the divine drama. The God and the Goddess are brought on palanquins from opposite ends of the street and then borne down to face each other. The narrative of the quarrel is chanted by an Oduvar (temple singer) in tamil lyrics. After this ensues a dramatic dancing procession. Six times the God and the Goddess are borne down at a great speed and then meet in the centre and have their quarrel. This is played out by the palanquin bearrers jumping and shaking the palanquin up and down, which makes it appear as if the deity inside is jumping up and down in a fit of rage. The temple musicians play their drums in fitting accompaniment, adding to the frenzied rantings of the gods as they are shouting at each other. After each quarrel-dance, the deities change sides and each goes off in the opposite direction from which he or she came initially. The crowds of devotees are hysterical with excitement and after each dance-quarrel, the tension mounts and so do the loud cries of fervor and devotion which increase in volume and fury.

The next day, Shiva is up at dawn and leaves on Giripradakshina during which he makes a halt at the Vedarpari mandapam where his jewels are supposedly stolen and later on he also grants salvation to his ardent devotee Kannappa. This is the reason for the Kannappa temple on that location. Shiva also grants darshan to another of his devotees the great rishi ‘Bhringi’ during this trip.  Shiva eventually completes his giri pradakshina and returns to the temple in the afternoon where he enters, dancing the dance of the Swan (Hamsa Natanam). The bearers of the palanquins have a special technique to execute this dance and it causes a type of swaying, continuous oscillation of the deity without losing balance, quite a fascinating sight!

Now a ritual takes place in the southern area of the temple which covers directly the sanctum sanctorum. Sundaramurthi Nayanar first goes to warn the Goddess about the return of Shiva. Of course, She, being curious, leaves Her door open so that She can have a glimpse of the dancing arrival of Her Lord. On seeing this spectacle, however, She is so dazzled by her Lord’s beauty and splendour as He arrives majestically doing His swan-dance, that She submits to Him and wishes to be re-united. Thus the reconciliation and reunion of the gods take place and to synchronise this, both the deities are brought together and placed on the same pedestal and the priests perform an Arathi puja waving and encircling one flame around both of the deities to signify the restoration of harmony.

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In India, the 15^th of January is the day of the winter solstice (Uttarayanam) and this day is celebrated as the Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu. Pongal is essentially the harvest festival for the farmers but it is also a festival venerating the Sun God.The next day after Pongal is celebrated as the cow festival and all the cattle, both cows and bullocks are honoured on this day. In Tiruvannamalai, the Pongal festival has a special significance because Arunachala is believed to have subdued the Sun’s arrogance at one time. In lieu of this, the Sun God is believed to pay obeisance to Arunachala twice a year on the days of the winter and summer solistices. In the big temple of Arunachaleswara, there is a remarkable procession and abhishekam to commemorate this event, early in the morning of 16^th January.

In the Ramanashram, even from the days of Bhagavan, Pongal has always been celebrated well. Sri Ramana was very fond of the cow Lakshmi and He used to feed sweet pongal to Lakshmi with his own hands on Cow Pongal day. This year, on Cow Pongal day, there were three special events in the Ramanashram. First the Nandi (bull mount of Shiva)  in the Mother’s shrine was decorated in a spectacular way. He was adorned with garlands of vegetables, fruits, sugarcane, grass, flowers. Vadais and other tasty sweetmeats. Then an elaborate Aarathi puja was performed by the priests with devotees looking on in rapt attention. The next event took place at the Samadhi (tomb) of the cow Lakshmi which is located outside in the yard beside the dining hall. A group of devotees assembled here and the statue of Lakshmi was given abhishekam with milk and then a puja was performed with the photo of Bhagavan fondling Lakshmi looking on. The ashram ladies sang many beautiful hymns in praise of Lakshmi describing her devotion to Bhagavan and other touching episodes in her life like how she used to give birth to a calf every year right on Bhagavan’s birthday. Many devotees especially the older ones were moved to tears and all felt the benign presence of Ramana filling our hearts with grace.

The third event happened in the cow shed of the ashram, called ‘Goshalai’. Inside, it was spotlessly clean and beautifully decorated with flower garlands and sugar cane and turmeric plants. In the centre, a lovely white cow (believed to be the descendant of Lakshmi) and her calf and another black cow were decorated and honoured. A puja was performed to them by the ashram priests with the same respect and energy as they would to a deity in the temple. The white cow was fed with sweet pongal from the president’s own hands and seemed to be quite content eating it. It was an enchanting scene and one felt transported to times of yore when cows were treated like godly beings and people were more compassionate and respectful towards them. Let us follow the example of Sri Ramana and recognize and respect the Divine Being in every fellow creature on this earth, as in ourselves.

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Agni is the hindu god of fire and is revered as the acceptor of sacrifices. He thus serves as the envoy from and to the other gods and as well as the envoy from humans to the gods. Because the fires of agni are lit everyday, he is ever rejuvenated and thus remains ever youthful and immortal.

Even though Agni is the god of fire who presides over the earth, he still has a strong foothold in the hindu realm of gods. Along with Vayu and Indra who rule over the air and sky, he is one of the supreme gods in the Rig Veda. Serving as the link between heaven and earth, he plays a primary role in all Homas and Havans (vedic sacrificial worship with fire in order to gain special benefits from the gods).

Among the Ashta lingams, Agni lingam governs the south-eastern direction. The shrine of Agni lingam can be found while walking on the outer girivalam on Seshadri street which is a few metres before Seshadri ashram. There is huge theertham called Agni theertham which can be seen from the Chengam road itself and this usually overflows during the monsoon making the road into a lake.

Today, the Agnilingam shrine presents a derelict appearance and attracts very few devotees on regular days. A sad-faced priest does puja in a subdued manner probably because he has not much audience. The special benefits that Agni lingam worship is believed to confer on devotees are protection from evil and reduction of harmful effects from past karmas.

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Legend has it that even the great Lord Rama came to Arunachala and performed giri pradakshina. Devotees probably know the story of Ramayana. In the Ramayana, Rama goes on war against Ravana in order to save and bring back his wife, Sita, who had been abducted by Ravana and placed in captivity in the Ashokavanam, a garden in Sri Lanka. After a long drawn battle in which Rama is helped by Hanuman and the monkey warriors, they succeed in winning back Sita. However in the process of the battle, Rama commits some sins due to his bad karma like killing Sugreeva from behind and sending Sita away to the forest.

Rama therefore incurred doshas (impurities) and underwent lot of suffering. He then went to Nandi, the divine bull and holy mount of Lord Shiva and asked what should be done in order to expiate his sins and be rid of suffering. Nandi in a thundering voice tells Rama to go to Arunachala, the holy hill, embodiment of Lord Shiva and do tapas there and circumambulate the Hill with devotion and he adds, moreover, that this was the only penance which would expiate all his doshas and purify him again. And thus Rama himself comes to Arunachala and performs giri pradakshina.

Today, as a way of commemorating this momentous event, a shrine has been built on the outer girivalam path just a few metres after the Surya lingam shrine. It presents an enormous sculpture of the feet of Sri Rama and behind is a statue of  Vishnu in the form of Muralidharan. Not to be outdone, there is also a Nandi and five faced Shiva in the same courtyard. In a little room at the back covered with hindu religious images and idols sits an impish faced Swami who has made this shrine and also officiates as the temple priest. Called ‘Kaattu Swami’ he grins broadly at people and assures them that taking darshan of the Holy Feet and then going around the Hill would grant one Moksha (Liberation)…

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