Blessing Hand

The below are the idols, Annamalaiyar and Unnamlai, that are carried during processions. The idols in the shrine rooms (sannidhi i.e. sanctum sanctorum) always remain where they are. So it is these representative idols that participate in many festivals and also are carried on circumbulation of the streets around the perimeter of the 25 acre Arunachaleswarar Temple. The last time this happened was on the day of Thiruvoodal, 16th January during Pongal. The story of that occasion is really fascinating and I hope to be posting information about it within the next few days.

The same photograph but in more close up so you can see the beautiful detail of the jewels and dress of the idols.

And in even greater closeup the blessing hand of Arunachaleswarar (Annamalaiyar). Click the photograph to get an even closer view.

Normal Service Resumed!

Recently posted information on how a small number of Tamil language activists decided to change non-Tamil names into Tamil, regardless of tradition, history, common usage, or name recognition. In this respect they decided to jetison the name Arunachala in favour of Annamalai Hill. Well, normal service has been resumed and Wikipedia has the sacred Hill once again listed as Arunachala. You can get more information about this by going to this link on Wikpedia.

Bamboo Roof

Now that summer and the hot season is just about to start, took the precaution of getting my bamboo roofing, redone. A well made bamboo roof will last 2-3 years, at which time the leaves need to be replaced, but the bamboo itself can last up to 5 years before having to be dismantled and rotten pieces of wood discarded. Bamboo work is skilled and experienced artisans (like the bamboo crew chief Prem Mani) can create all sorts of ingenious structures.

A bamboo roof on top of a house will reduce the internal temperature of the home by about 5c degrees - so both ecofriendly and aesthically pleasing. The below is of a bamboo shelter around the sides of my little farmhouse. You can see papayas way up on the tree through the bamboo framework.

A couple of the crew tying the leaves to the bamboo framework.



A nice view of the bamboo structure around the sides of the house. Its really interesting watching the men create the bamboo structures. I've even seen little bamboo houses made with separate little rooms.

And the below is a photograph of the more complicated bamboo roof on top of the house. A big, heavy, complex cover that took several days to complete when I had it made two years ago.

It gets really windy close to the Hill, and often lightweight furniture can get blown right off a roof. But this roof is a solid and immovable. Two years ago someone wagered that if my roof lasted longer than 6 months he would pay me Rs.50 and take me for a lunch at one of our better hotels. Well two years later, I'm waiting for my cash and lunch! The roof did so well that it hasn't in fact been necessary to take down the bamboo, instead we only needed to replace the bamboo leaves.

And from the bamboo covered roof, a view of the prize, Arunachala.

Cow Pongal

Attended a very sweet cow worship over the Pongal Festival. Cow Pongal is always the third day of the January Festival and wherever celebrated in Tamil Nadu, follows much the same format. The whole cow area will be cleaned, cows bathed and their horns painted. Some cows may even get jewellery or trinklets put around their neck. In the below a kolam (auspicious drawing) is being made at the front of the cow shed.

In the below is Lakshmi, who is a young cow belonging to one of the ladies of the family. Already Lakshmi's future has been decided and she will be kept as a pet, no rigours of constant motherhood and commercial milk production. Artificial insemination is commonly used to impregnate cows. In this respect a visit to the Government Veterninary Centre in Tiruvannamalai is an interesting experience as that is where many of the local cows are artifically impregnated.

As to Lakshmi, as she is not a trained animal she definitely must have some kind of regal karma, notice over the next photographs, how she presents herself for her Pongal flower garland. What a diva!

The next photograph is of one of babies of the dairy. Its an interesting experience having a dairy so close to my home because I can reminded first hand of the business of 'milk production'. And I must admit to being guilty of perpetuating the whole dairy cycle, because my dogs and I, do get through alot of milk products. The neighouring dairy is wonderful compared to most, and the cows have a comparatively lucky, peaceful life, however its a constant reminder of just how badly we exploit our little bretherns.

Whatever it is - one thing is for sure the below calf is a 100% knockout - what a darling.

The below is the inside of the little rustic dairy. Happily most of these cows get to spend the days outside in the nice sun and peaceful surrounds.

In the below some goats, who don't actually have such a protected life as the dairy cows - as an animal activist from Andhra Pradesh once told me, 'Everytime you see a goat - you see meat on the hoof - they are all for slaughter.'

One of the ladies making last minute preparations for Pongal puja at the cow shed.

A worker at the dairy had prepared a lemon, by incising a cross on the top which is then filled with red kumkum powder and packed with camphor. The camphor will be lit and then waved as jyothi during the puja.

Once the lemon is used, then the same thing happens with a white pumpkin. After the camphor is burned off, the pumpkin will be smashed and broken on the ground to ward of evil and negative vibrations.

The smokey haze in the below, is that of frankincense which has been wafted as a purifying agent all around the cow shed. These little ones are just hanging out together in mutual companionship, wondering at all the madness of the day - well one big plus for all the cows is they had their fill of special treats including LOTS of bananas.

A Quiet Lull

Have not been posting regularly on Arunachala Grace mainly due to lots of work at home. Things finally seem to be settling down and hope to give lots of great 'new' information about whats happening at Arunachala and Tiruvannamalai. In this respect I still have photographs of Deepam to post and lots of fascinating material about Pongal and different Temple Festivities such as "Tiruvoodal" associated with the the fourth day of Pongal. Also nice photos of the cow worship performed at the dairy next to my home. The function of East-West Jazz Fusion entitled 'Ramana Rocks' and held at Ramanashram and 'Arunai Rocks' held at the Hotel Arunai Anantha were a HUGE SUCCESS. I have been promised video footage of parts of the performance, so hope to soon post that on the VideoPod on this Blog. Busy Times. So keep checking back. And HAPPY PONGAL TO YOU ALL.

Folk Arts

"The 20 or so members of Ramu’s troupe have already made their way to the bus that will take them to their performance venue. A shrill announcement on a loudspeaker nearby not so kindly urges him to hurry up. Before he can dig into his lunch, he drops everything, grabs his grand, flowing, bright red costume and hurries on his way.

That’s the life of a travelling folk artist in a nutshell: the needs of your troupe always come ahead of your own, and when the road calls, you have to answer.

Ramu who represents the last generation of a long line of stunt performers from Periyanelaikuzhu in Tiruvannamalai, is currently performing in Chennai. His troupe has travelled all over the country to perform at various events. They had recently been to New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and several towns in Orissa.

The many events his troupe attended last year are a testament to the recent resurgence in patronage for folk art. Folk festivals in cities are becoming more common, and performers attract huge crowds when they perform during temple festivals in villages and towns across the south.

Twenty or thirty years ago, it was much harder for my father and grandfather to get by, but now there are many more opportunities with festivals. Despite growing patronage, many families still want their children to find more stable and settled source of livelihood.

"We love performing, we all do this full time and even make a good living out of it," Ramu says. "But it's a tough life. We spend most of our time on the road, away from home, as we have to go wherever we get the opportunity to perform."

Another factor that keeps the younger generation away is because of better access to education, they can find jobs that offer more security. Both of Ramu’s children are enrolled in local schools, and he believes education is a much better prospect.

"I am proud of the fact that they are both in school," he says. "I did not have that opportunity, so I want them to make a living using their education."

Although a good living wage is available to younger performers, there is no source of income after retirement. Some think that the need is to develop a system in which the Government pays a pension to older, retired folk artists."

[By Ananth Krishnan]

Books

If you haven't yet discovered the link vedicbooks.net at the left hand margin of this Arunachala Grace Blog, do please check it out. The organisation offers thousands of spiritual and newage books at discount prices. The categories include; Ayurveda, Yoga, Cooking, Jyotish, Healing, New Age, Best Sellers and Sale Books. The subjects vary from organic farming and history to Vedic mathematics and environment. As well as offering the books at discount prices, the organisation use book proceeds to fund many of their excellent programmes; which you can read about at their website.

Pongal Shopping

Pongal Festival which lasts over 4 days is rather like the post Christmas Sale in the West. Shops discount their wares and many local folk go on sprees spending their hard earned cash. As is often the case its almost compulsory to purchase new clothes at Festival time. In the below a clown is trying to amuse and entice folk into a garment shop on Thiruvoodal Street.

Most families adorn the front of their homes with kolam (rangoli drawings) each day, but during Pongal, the drawings are more elaborate and usually in colour.

Today I was off shopping for a new coir frontdoor mat, so I headed off to the bazaar.

To begin with I walked past provision stores and vegetable stalls.

Then by some interesting grinding mills. The below shows crushed and powdered turmeric - a necessary stable in all Indian homes as it is used in worship, cooking, as an ayurvedic remedy for cuts and wounds and also as an important beauty accessory for ladies.

The below is of the natural turmeric before processing.

On this day the openair market was really busy with lots of stall holders displaying fresh produce.

The below is off betel nut which is imported from North India.

And tobacco which is grown in Tamil Nadu.

As well as food, there were lots of fancy stores and shops all around the market area.

And vendors selling stacks of leaf plates which will be used for wrapping takeaway food at restaurants.

I stopped and watched a couple of ladies extracting the oil from coconut. Below is the residue; oil-less coconut which is regarded as waste and given to cows and livestock as feed.

In the next photograph the ladies are pouring the extracted oil from the coconuts into big containers. Pure, unprocessed coconut oil.

Next door to the coconut mill - a flour mission. It is here that locals bring their rice to be ground up into powder to be used for a myriad of purposes, including cooking.

And we finish off where we started at the fabric shop with yet another dressed up character joking and trying to entice customers into a fabric shop SALE.

Well it seems to be working all too well as some of the customers are looking back at the dressed-up, joking characters rather than going into the Sale Shop.

Thai Full Moon

For those planning to peform Arunachala giripradakshina during the upcoming Full Moon, it will be interesting to know that the next Full Moon (January 21st) is called ‘Thai Poosam’. The special significance is the star Pushya (Poosam) is considered to be the most auspicious star for spiritual development. Pushya means "nuture" and is in the sign Cancer owned by the Moon, the Mother. The deity associated with Pushya is also Brihaspati, the Guru or teacher and has the property of inspiring spiritual growth.

Vallalar

It is believed that on Thai Poosam in 1874 Swami Ramalingam (popularly known as Vallalar) made his final merger with Light. This Saint who was thought to be able to transform his physical body into a body made of Light, lived and maintained his body of light for 1½ years for all to witness. And then on January 30th 1874 and Full Moon day, he made his final merger with the light complete and physically disappeared from the earth plane. No traces of his body were ever found. As Arunachala is a manifestation of light it is not surprising that several Vallalar Shrines and Centres have been established at Tiruvannamalai in recent years.

Mythology states that it was on Thai Poosam that Goddess Parvati, presented the Shakti Vel, (Divine Spear) to Lord Muruga to defeat the demon Surabhaduman. For many, Thai Poosam is the most powerful day to pray to the Vel and Muruga for destruction of all enemies, diseases and debts. The Vel (spear) is also known as Jyoti, or Light.

You Tube

There is an increasing number of videos about Arunachala and the saints/satsang teachers associated with it available on You Tube, so remember to check it out. In the meantime thought the below chart of 'The Top 10 Gurus of YouTube', rather interesting.

Of the 10 Gurus listed above Paramahansa Nithyananda was born at Tiruvannamalai and both Gangaji and Eckhart Tolle have visited Arunachala Hill. Also a longstanding rumour has it that when Sri Sathya Sai Baba was around 16 years old he also visited the sacred Hill.

Jallikattu Banned

All animal lovers will be happy to learn that the Indian Supreme Court has just banned Jallikattu, the annual bull taming held across Tamil Nadu, as a part of Pongal (the harvest festival) celebrations. The Court on rejecting the Petition of bull owners, stated that the bull taming is too barbaric to continue.

“We cannot continue with such an event if it is barbaric . . . We cannot allow any event involving cruelty towards the animals,” a Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said rejecting a plea by the Tamil Nadu Government.”

“Jallikattu is wild bull taming which takes place in Tamil Nadu as a part of Pongal festivities. Albeit sounding similar to the Spanish bull fights, in Jallikattu, the bull is not killed and the matadors do not use any weapons as in the case of the former. But in recent years, the owners are reported to have resorted to punching their bulls, rubbing lemon juice in the bulls’ eyes and injecting them with chilli powder in an effort to rile them up. This has come under a lot of flak from the animal rights activists who had sought a ban on the sport.

The term Jallikattu comes from the term ‘Salli’ kassu (coins) and Kattu (meaning a package) tied to the horns of the bulls as the prize money. Eventually, this term got changed to Jallikattu during the colonial period. Jallikattu, essentially held on the eve of Mattu Pongal, one of the four days of Pongal celebrations, is also known as Manju Virattu, meaning chasing the bull. According to legend, in olden days women chose the successful matadors as their husbands.

In Jallikattu, an agitated bull is set to run in an open space, where several people, empty handed, try to tame it by controlling its horns. The winner gets a prize, which is generally tied to the horns of the bull. But now, the rules have slightly changed so that all that the contestants do is to try to hang onto to the bull past a 30-foot marker. Prizes are awarded to the contestants who can hold onto the bull from the entrance of the pen to the marker. If the bull shakes them off, the prize goes to the bull’s owner.

The largest and bloodiest Jallikattu competitions are held in the villages of Palamedu and Alanganallur in Madurai, where as many as 600 bulls, 600 participants and 10,000 spectators collide in a day-long festival of machismo, blood and mayhem. The other locations that are famous for the sport are Tiruvapur in Pudukottai, Thammammpatti in Salem and Sravayal near Karaikudi.

In 2007, for the first time, both the bulls and the matadors of the famed Alanganallur Jallikattu were subjected to breathalyser test to ensure that they had not consumed alcohol. For, it had become a general custom for the contestants (along with a few bulls) to become inebriated on arrack before entering the ring. This had resulted in serious injuries and even death, including that of a 14-year-old boy, which drew much flak from the media, lawmakers and activists. This had prompted the animal rights activists to seek a ban on the sport, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court.”

[from Sify.com]

Mantra-Jam Sextet Concerts

Here at Tiruvannamalai over Pongal there will be 2 Concerts by

THE MANTRA-JAM SEXTET
Composed of
Vocals: J Jayaraman [ashram]
Slide Guitar: pt. Prakash Sontakke [Bangalore][www.prakashsontakke.com]
Electric Guitar: Bruce Lee Mani [Bangalore] [of www.ThermalAndAQuarter.com]
Electric Bass: Rzhude [Bangalore] [Thermal and a Quarter]
Jazz & Carnatic Percussion: Kartik Mani [Karnataka College of Percussion]
Tabla: Adarsh [Bangalore]

Concert-1 RAMANA ROCKS

An Unbroken East-West fusion-jam of
(i) mantras and
(ii) excerpts from Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi's Hymns to Arunachala [Monday chanting]
and Hymns to Ramana [Saturday chanting] and Hymns from Sankara [Friday chanting]
in Tamil and Sanskrit

on PONGAL DAY - Jan 15th, 2008
at The New Hall
Sri Ramanasramam
606603
Time: 8.15 to 9.15PM

***************************************************************

Concert-2
ARUNAI ROCKS

An unbroken unrehearsed East-West fusion-jam of
Vedic Mantras & Bhajans, and chants from various native traditions

on MAATTU PONGAL DAY - Jan 16th, 2008
at the
Open-air Amphitheatre
Hotel Arunai Anantha
NH-66, Tiruvannamalai
Time: 8.15pm onwards

Concert-2 ARUNAI ROCKS

Musician-ensemble
As above with:
special invitees including:
Kumar Ambayiram: didgeridoo
Uphaar: flute
and others...

All Are Welcome
'free-for-all'

Happy Pongal

Pongal was originally a Festival for the farming community but today it is celebrated by all. It follows the solar calendar and is celebrated on the same days each year. Pongal has astronomical significance: it marks the auspicious beginning of Uttarayana, the Sun's movement northward for a six month period and all important events are scheduled during this 6-month period. Four festivals will be celebrated at Tiruvannamalai (and throughout Tamil Nadu) for four consecutive days during Pongal Festival. 'Bhogi' on January 13th, 'Pongal' on Jan 14th, 'Maattuppongal' on Jan 15th, and 'Thiruvalluvar Day' on Jan 16.

On Bhogi old clothes and materials are thrown away and set on fire, marking the beginning of a new life. The second day, the Pongal day, is celebrated by boiling fresh milk early in the morning and allowing it to boil over the vessel - a tradition that is the literal translation for Pongal. People also prepare savouries and sweets, visit each other's homes, and exchange greetings. The third day, Mattu Pongal, is meant to offer thanks to the cows and buffaloes, as they are used to plough the lands. On the last day, Kanum Pongal, people go out to picnic.

In Hindu Temples; bells, drums, clarinets and conch shells herald the joyous occasion of Pongal. To symbolize a bountiful harvest, rice is cooked in new pots until it boils over. Some of rituals performed in Temples include the preparation of rice, chanting of prayers and offering of; vegetables, sugar cane and spices to the Gods. Devotees then consume the offerings to exonerate themselves of past sins. Pongal signals the end of the traditional farming season, giving farmers a break from their monotonous routine. Farmers also perform puja to some crops, signaling the end of the traditional farming season.

To learn more about Pongal click here.

Swami Nithyananda Birthstar

As is his custom, each year Swami Nithyananda visits his birthplace Tiruvannamalai at the time of his Birth Star, which this year fell on January 2nd.

He travelled with two busloads of devotees to Tiruvannamalai and after evening worship and celebrations at Arunachaleswarar Temple, Swami Nithyananda took his devotees around Arunachala showing them places of significance where he spent his childhood days and had several spiritual experiences. For more photographs of his visit go here.

Nattukotai Chettiars

Recently found an interesting narrative (of which the below is part) about the Nattukotai Chettiars who are the main group of benefactors to support the continual maintenance and development of many major Shrines at Tiruvannamalai. The most important of which is the Arunachaleswarar Temple at the foot of Arunachala.

"The Chettiars (also Chetty, Chetti, Setty, Chitty, Shetty and Shettigar) is a title commonly used by people of south Indian origin in India and abroad. It is usually derived from trading social groups. Nattukottai Chettiars are people of Indian origin, well known for their financial dealings and hospitality. They are Hindus and worship the Shiva and Muruga deities of the Hindu faith. Many of the Nattukotai Chettiars proclaim the fact that they are fervent Shaivites by wearing a rudraksham fruit usually set in gold around their necks. Of late, wealthy Chettiars have spent large sums upon several of the famous Shaivite shrines, notably at Chidambram, Madura and Tiruvannamalai.

The Nattukotai Chettiars hail from a place called Chettinad in south India, an area situated in the southeastern region of Tamil Nadu. Originally, Chettinad was the name given to a group of 96 villages situated in the Devakottah revenue division of Ramnad district and the Pudukottah revenue division of Tiruchirapallai district.

Chettiars belong to a prolific business community which moved out of India to foreign lands like Burma, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam (Saigon) and spread their culture in those lands. They travelled to these countries for the sole purpose of making money. They did a considerable amount of business in trade and money-lending in these countries. Nattukottai Chettiars are basically 'bankers' who lend money at nominal interest. They are considered as the pioneers of modern banking. They are the first to introduce what is called pattru (debit), varavu (credit), selavu (expenditure), laabam (profit), nashtam (loss) — which are all, collectively, known as ivnthogai (trial balance).

Chettiars are noted for their gifts to temples and public charities and have generously contributed to the restoration of famous temples in south India, especially at Madurai. In all important towns of those countries outside India where the Chettiars have settled permanently or for business purposes, they have established their own temples and charitable organisations. The members of the community contribute annually a certain percentage of their profits or the capital invested, for the maintenance of their temples and institutions. They have also spent large sums of money in establishing centers of religious learning, poor houses, hospitals, schools and colleges in India."

[By Khalid Akhter]