Worship of Divine Mother

The Parvathi Amman Utsavam Festival which has lasted for 10 days completes its cycle today August 9, 2013 on this day known as Poornam Natchatram. The Vallaikappu (Bangle) ceremony took place this afternoon in the Vallaikappu Mandapam in the Fifth Prakaram of Arunachaleswarar Temple. Later on the Fire Walking ceremony will commence in front of the Amman Temple. To view a schedule of the programme, check my earlier posting at this link here. 

Ladies at Vallaikappu Mandapam, ArunachaleswararTemple

Ladies worshipping Amman at Mandapam

Amman at Vallaikappu Mandapam

Voice of Sri Ramana Maharshi

Many photographs and several videos were taken of Ramana Maharshi during his lifetime but there is no known recording of his voice. I’ve sometimes wondered what his voice would sound like and have noticed that even in narratives of devotees, the timbre and quality of his voice is rarely mentioned. In this regard, the following passage recounted by K.R.K. Murthi, perhaps explains the intentional absence of a recording of the voice of Ramana Maharshi:- 

‘With a view to recording Bhagavan’s voice, some devotees referred to the sound recording machines. Seeing that Bhagavan was favourably disposed towards them, they wanted to pursue the matter further and fix a date for recording the voice. At that moment Bhagavan said, “My real voice is silence. How can you record the same?”’ 

[From:Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Page 324]

Adi Pooram Fire Walking Schedule

Tomorrow, Friday August 9, 2013 around 4.00 p.m. marks the beginning of the Amman Worship by the Ladies at Arunachaleswarar Temple and later that night Fire Walking at Arunachaleswarar Temple in front of the Unnamulai Shrine.

For a full pictorial report of a previous Adi Pooram and Fire Walking at Arunachaleswarar Temple please go to this link here. The report includes the 2009 worship of Amman in Vallaikappu, her worship by the Ladies and preparations by devotees for fire-walking and also photographs of the fire ritual itself.

Fire walking is still a regular event in Tiruvannamalai and other South Indian towns. Usually wood or charcoal is burnt and the smouldering embers laid out onto the ground. Commonly the ceremony is held under the auspices of a Temple, and in the case of Arunachaleswarar Temple the occurrence takes place once year at the time of Adi Pooram. This year the Fire Walking ceremony will take place around 1.00 a.m. early morning of August 10, 2013, in front of the Unnamulaiamman Shrine at Arunachaleswarar Temple, which will be specially kept open for the function.

Many hundreds of devotees will turn up for the ceremony, but the fire walking itself will only be undertaken by devotees of the Divine Mother who have been observing a special sadhana over the previous 30 days (including a fast) in order to prepare themselves for the ‘test of devotion’. Those who participate are ordinary householders and largely non-Brahmins. In some cases devotees are given a mantra to recite during their fire walk.

Preparing Fire for later Fire Walking Ceremony, Unnamulai Shrine

In all Temples, where the fire-walking ceremony is practised, it is a Goddess that is worshipped. In the case of the Arunachaleswarar Temple, it is the Goddess Unnamulai that is duly placated. The actual ceremony will occur on the paved courtyard in front of the Unnamulai Amman Shrine, inside the compound of the Big Temple.

A Tamil legend narrates the story that in Singavaram there is a Temple dedicated to Sri Ranganadha. Here a king named Kandhan, after suffering a defeat, performed a fire walking ceremony in worship of Draupadi (from the Mahabharata). Draupadi, pleased with the worship, appeared before the king and promised that whoever should worship her as he had done would remain unscathed and also obtain whatever they prayed for. From that day onwards the fire-walking festival is observed with great enthusiasm in Tamil Nadu.

Proposed schedule of Adi Pooram and Fire Walking at Arunachaleswarar Temple

Friday August 9, 2013

5.00 a.m. Amman Abhishekam

6.00 a.m. Alangaram

8.00 a.m. Amman from Sannadhi to Vallaikappu Mandapam

4.00 p.m. Amman in Vallaikappu and the worship of Amman by ladies

4.00 p.m. Abhishekam

6.00 p.m. Valaikappu

8.00 p.m. Amman goes around the Temple and returns to Vallaikappu Mandapam

Large Crowds will begin to build up. TEMPLE REMAINS OPEN.

11.00 p.m. Preparations for Fire Walking Ceremony.

Saturday August 10, 2013 Midnight

1.00 a.m. Adi Pooram Fire Walking 

Bamboo Wall Completed

In an earlier posting at this link here, I uploaded photographs of bamboo work going on in my compound. At that time the work around the house had just been completed, and also bamboo and metal sheeting for the first part of the outside wall had been fixed.

The already completed work on side of house

As I have 6 dogs plus the occasional doggie visitor/s to my home, knew that without a metal bamboo sandwich, my fence would last but a few moments, so decided to make a more elaborate dog-proof arrangement in the garden. 

Outside bamboo with inner aluminum sheeting

Below are photographs of the now completed bamboo wall on the outside of my compound. 

The now completed inner bamboo

Dog proof Bamboo-Aluminum sandwich

Now that the work is over, and the bamboo men have left, birds and wildlife have returned to my garden. Below is a White Breasted Kingfisher, a long term resident in our garden, who has happily returned to us and has just had a nice soaking in the birdbath. 

 A very wet White Breasted Kingfisher

Kingfisher perched high in the tree overlooking fence

Close-up of bamboo with Frangipani Plant foreground

Frangipani is a very common plant all through the Arunachala area. It thrives on the hot weather of this area and is a beautiful and fragrant plant to have in one’s garden. I recently wrote a narrative in Arunachala Land about this beautiful plant, and also included mythological stories of the Frangipani as below.

“Many stories are associated with this beautiful plant. In “1001 Arabian Nights” there is a story of this plant which involves the tale of two sisters jealous of their younger sibling, check this link for the story.

Another story related to this beautiful plant appears in the Vishnu Purana; it is entitled 'The Seven Princes,' and the story goes thus . . . "click on this link to continue reading. 

Pradosham August 4, 2013

There are a number of posting on Arunachala Grace relating to the significance of the twice monthly Pradosham celebrated at Arunachaleswarar Temple. In these postings there is also information about Nandi who is the mount (vahana) of Lord Siva and also gatekeeper to Siva and Parvarti. 

Stone images of Nandi (the word “Nandi” is believed to be derived from the ancient Tamil “Pandi” meaning bull), generally face the main Siva shrine in all temples dedicated to Lord Siva.

Pradosham, Arunachaleswarar Temple August 4, 2013

Aarti to Nanhi  Flagpost Arunachaleswarar Temple

“In the temple of Shiva, you find Nandi, the bull in front of the deity. The truth is that just as the Lingam is the symbol of the Lord, Nandi (the bull) is the symbol of the Jeeva (individual soul). Therefore just like Nandi, man should turn away from Prakruthi and direct all his attention towards God only. 

There are some more meanings for the symbolism. For instance, it is said that no one should stand between Eeshwara and Nandi. One should have the vision of Eeshwara by looking through the space in between the two ears of Nandi. 

The underlying idea is that through the sadhana of using the ears to listen about Eeshwara alone, the animal nature in the bull becomes transformed into Divinity and because of its merger with Ishwara it is called Nandeeshwara (Bull-God). 

Thus the lesson of the symbolism is that man should also try to merge with God, by following the example of Nandi.” 
[Source: Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. XXV; P. 169] 

Nandi anthropomorphic form c.1820 

There are five major Nandi statues at Arunachaleswarar Temple: they are; Pradosham Nandi, in the Moolastanam, Ratha Vilaku Nandi in the Second Prakaram, Kodi Kampathu Nandi in the Third Prakaram, Chinna Nandi in the fourth prakaram and the Periyar Nandi that stands in front of the Vallala Gopuram in the Fifth Prakaram. 

The below legend of the Churning of the Ocean, which appears in a number of Puranas, symbolises the protection of the Lord to the devotee who surrenders completely to him.

Lord Shiva drinking poison, Nandhi nearby

“When the positive forces, the Devas, and the negative forces, the Asuras, joined together on a rare occasion to churn the ocean with a mountain to obtain the nectar of immortality they utilized Vasuki, the serpent, as the rope. The Devas pulled from one end and the Asuras from the other. Lots of precious herbs and gems were produced during the churning and one of them was Halahala poison which became human karma. 

This "poison" was so dangerous that none of the Devas or Asuras wanted to go near it. It was extremely sticky and coming into contact with this poison, i.e., human karma, would drag the divinity down to the realms of human suffering and ego. As everyone else ran away, Lord Siva, followed by Nandi, came forward to help as he was the only one who could counteract this deadly poison.

 

Siva took the poison into his hand and drank it, the descent of the poison was in turn stopped at His throat, by His divine consort. One of Lord Siva’s name is thus Nilakantha (the blue-throated one). Nandi saw some of the poison spill out of Siva's mouth and immediately drank if off the ground. The Devas and Asuras watching were shocked and wondered aloud what would happen to Nandi. Lord Siva calmed their fears saying, "Nandi has surrendered into me so completely that he has all my powers and my protection".” 

Kuthuvilakku Puja, Arunachaleswarar Temple

In the month of Adi, communal pujas such as the Kuthuvilakku Puja are performed on Tuesdays and Fridays at various Shakti Temples throughout the State. The pujas are performed for the well being of home and family or sometimes for the fulfilment of individual desires, such as a young girl wanting a husband or desiring children in a marriage. 

The most common among all lamps is the Kuthuvilakku. The name is derived from the fact that these lamps were originally spiked into the ground. They are now stand-alone pieces with ornate decorations, but the name has remained through the ages. The lamp has five bowls on the top and there is a trim pedestal fixed firmly on a heavy circular base. 

These lamps are used in common households and are also used on ceremonial platforms. The Kuthuvilakku is usually decorated on the top with structures of the `hamsa` (mythical swan) or with other religious symbols. 

The photographs in this posting, are of the Kuthuvilakku Puja performed yesterday (Friday, 2nd July 2013) in the Mandapam at Arunachaleswarar Temple. To find out more about the different types of lamps used in Tamil Nadu homes and Temples, go to this previous link here.