KARTHIGAI DEEPAM
This month is held very holy for the sanatana dharmic followers as like the previous month, Tulam, this month is also held auspicious for taking bath in sacred rivers. It is a month favoured for the worship of Lord Shiva and the Soma vara vritham is performed during the Mondays of the Karthigai month. On this day in the Shiva temples of the south, sahasra sankabhishekam, that is, ablation is performed to the main deity using water filled in a thousand conches. Lord Maha Vishnu is called Narayana that is the one who dwells in waters. He also resides in the conch. The sankabhishekam denotes a confluence of Shiva and Vishnu thathvas from which emanates Hari Hara Putra or Sri Dharma Sastha. It is therefore significant that the month of Krithiga is also the mandala puja time in the Sabhari Sastha temple.
Householders perform the Uma Maheswara vratham on Mondays also known as Soma Vara Vratham to propitiate the Primordial divine couple (Adhi Dhampathi) and pray for prosperity and auspiciousness in their lives. In the north too, abhishekam is performed to the Shiva Lingam in temples by devotees by bringing water from sacred rivers. In some places devotees carry water in pots tied to a stick slung across their shoulders from sacred rivers and they make the journey to the nearest Shiva shrine by walk. The Soma Vara vratham was first observed by the Moon or Soman who when cursed by Dhaksha Prajapathi to wane away into nothingness, propitiated Lord Shiva and earned the position of decorating His matted locks and the boon to grow again.
Yet another event associated with the advent of the month of Karthigai is the starting of the 40 day penance for going to the holy Sabhari hills. Lord Dharma Sastha, an incarnation of Lord Shiva and Vishnu has taken His abode in the holy hills of Sabhari and remains there in His yogic posture blessing the devotees with fulfillment of their desires. As the Lord had taken the vow of celibacy in His incarnation as Manikandan, the son of the king of Pandalam to annihilate the demonness Mahishi, the devotees who visit this shrine which is tucked into the deep forests of the western ghats also observe the vow of celibacy for forty days. The main function in the temple falls on the day of Makara Sankaranthi, when the Lord is believed to awaken from His yogic trance to give darshan to the descendants of the Pandala royal race. The temple which is normally kept open only for a few days during the beginning of the Malayalam month will be kept open starting from the first day of Karthigai for the Mandal kala puja and thereafter for the Makara villakku festival which falls in mid January. The Aiyappa (the name of Sri Dharma Sastha in Sabhari hills) devotees take the vow of celibacy on the first day of Karthigai by wearing the holy Tulasi or Rudraksha mala from a guruswami who had initiated them into the worship of the Lord. They observe austerities and prayers for a period of forty days before they embark on their journey to the sacred hills. They carry on their head a cloth bag containing offerings for the worship of the Lord – a coconut filled with ghee and other materials for performing puja as also materials for their day to day sustenance during the arduous journey. In the olden days pilgrims used to travel through the long route believed to have been taken by Manikantan in his pursuit of the demonness Mahishi covering a distance of about forty miles and reach the temple. Nowadays there is facility to travel up to the Pampa river bank (the same Pampa mentioned in the Ramayana) and the trek up the hill is only five KM. On reaching the temple, the devotees break open the coconut and offer the ghee as abhishekam to the Lord. The Lord is believed to be in the form of Light or Jyoti and manifests Himself on the evening of Makara Sankaranthi as a celestial star on the horizon.
Krithika Pournami is the day on which the supreme Lord manifested Himself as a divine pillar of light before Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu who were having a debate on who was supreme. When the Creator and the Preserver of the Universe could not find the source or end of the Pillar, their pride humbled, they prayed to the Supreme Brahman to reveal Himself which He did as the mountain Arunachala. Another story associated with Arunachala is the story about how Devi Parvathi earned through her intense tapas the left half of the Lord on the Karthika pournima day. She became inseparable from Lord Shiva in His form of Ardha Nareeshwara – Half Male and half Female, in which way the Supreme has manifested itself in all its creation. To mark the occasion, elaborate festivities are conducted in the temple of Arunachaleshwara at the base of the mountain. A huge lamp is lit on the Karthigai Pournami day on the top of the hill which is visible from many miles away. The ritual is also carried out in all the Shiva temples in South as well as in the households. The people light rows of little earthen lamps on the front porch and balconies of their houses like what the northerners do during deepavali. People flock to the temples to have darshan of the Supreme Lord in the form of light and pray for the divine light to permeate their lives. After all, are we not part of the great effulgence and one day would ultimately merge with the same?
The sage of Kanchi Maha Periyaval has brought out the significance of the Krithigai deepam in one of his discourses. The Supreme Being can be worshipped in many forms and images according to our dharma shastras. Divinity can be invoked in images of stone or other material or in water kept in pots or in the form of light in lamps. The two manifestations of the Supreme are Shiva and Vishnu or Hari and Haran. Hari is invoked in a lighted lamp as Damodara with His consort Maha Lakshmi and Hara is worshipped as Tripuranthaka with Uma devi. Damodara is the form of Sriman Narayana whose navel region is adorned by a rope. In His avatar as Lord Krishna, the Supreme Being allowed Himself to be bound by a rope around His waist by His mother Yashoda and tethered to a mortar. The mischievous child dragged the heavy mortar around and got the same entangled in the cleft between two Maruda trees and when he pulled hard, the trees came down with a terrible crash liberating the two sons of Kubera from their curse. The Lord allowed Himself to be bound a second time in His avatar, this time by Sahadeva the youngest of the Pandavas who bound the Lord not using rope, but using his love for the Lord. Damodara is invoked along with Mahalakshmi in a lamp and puja is offered to Him on the night of Karthigai.
The Lord Tripurantaka is an aspect of Lord Shiva who with His mere laughter destroyed the three Asuras and their cities. The three demon brothers had got a boon that they will rule the three worlds in their respective cities which will keep floating in space and their end could come only at a time when the three cities come together and burnt by Lord Shiva. They were confident that this would never happen as their trajectories were different. Elaborate arrangements were made by the Devas for this event to happen to escape the torment of the demons and they also made the weapons of war for Lord Shiva to kill the demons. The bow was made from the Meru mountain, with the Serpant king Vasuki becoming the bow string, the arrow shaft was Lord Brahma and Lord Maha Vishnu the arrow head. A big chariot was designed by the divine carpenter Vishwakarma and the devas requested Lord Shiva to mount the chariot and kill the demon using the divine weapons fashioned by them. No sooner than the Lord stepped on the chariot, its axle was broken by Lord Ganapathi because the first worship was not offered to Him by the devas in designing the chariot. Lord Shiva stood on the chariot and seeing all the paraphernalia laughed out aloud. At the very moment the three cities of the demons came together by divine will and the fire that emanated from Lord Shiva’s laughter burnt the cities and the demons. Lord Shiva as Tripurantaka is the embodiment of Fire and to cool Him, the devas performed sahasra sankabhishekam in the month of Krithgai. The Lord is invoked with devi Uma in a lamp and worshipped in the night of Krithika Pournami.
The tradition of lighting lamps in the houses and on top of the temple spires (gopurams) has a deeper significance according to Paramacharya. Lighting of the lamps is done with a prayer for the well being of not only ourselves, but all creation starting from a mere bug and covering all beings including trees, shrubs and grass. The relevant mantra states that by seeing the light lit in the houses and on the temple spires all the Lord's creation rejoice and are rid of their accumulated vasanas. When we light the lamps in our houses this Karthigai let us pray for the welfare of all creatures, vegetation and of course fellow human beings.
Devi in Her form of Mahishasura Mardhini performed austerities in Arunachala and got relieved of the dhosha of killing Mahishasura. Arunachala has been the home of many a saint and jeevan mukta. Even in the present times many sidha purushas walk amidst ordinary people in this divya kshetram. In the words of sage Ramana Maharshi, Arunachala is like the heart in the human body and attracts pious people from afar as it had done to him. Saint Seshadri swami is another mahan who lived in Arunachala for forty years playing in its streets and blessed indeed were those who could have his darshan. Circumambulating this holy hill which is considered to be the form of Lord Shiva Himself will bring both material and spiritual gains. The route around the hill is 11 Kms, eleven being a significant number in the worship of Lord Shiva (Sri Rudram has eleven anuvakas, There are eleven Rudras, etc.). Dotted along its periphery are eleven shrines, eight of them dedicated to the ashta dik palakas and the remaining three dedicated to Soorya, Adhi Arunachala at the back of the hill and the main Arunachaleshwarar temple in the eastern direction. From the southern face is visible a peak shaped like Nandikeswara, the divine mount of Lord Shiva. The northern face offers an excellent view of five shikaras which look like the five faces of the Lord. While the southern and western sides are full of greenery and cool like the Devi while the northern and eastern sides are barren and burn like fire. The original temple is supposed to have been situated on the western side of the mountain – the Adhi Arunachala temple and in later years the temple on the eastern side gained prominence.
Pournami or the full moon day is significant in the worship of Devi whose countenance is always equated with the cool and shining face of the moon. On this day or rather night, the sun and the moon will be on either side of the earth and hence their gravitational pull on the earth would be more balanced rather than on the new moon day (Amavashya) when both the sun and the moon are aligned together vis-à-vis the earth and their pull will be combined and stronger. When there is equilibrium, then there is no action and hence the Pournami day signifies the Statue (Sthanu) like Shiva. The interplay of both Shiva and Shakti is to be worshipped as Ardha Nareeshwara on the Krithiga pournami day and in the night, they are to be worshipped in the form of Light or Jyothi, the light of blessings and compassion ad infinitum (Arut perum jyothi thani perum karunai). It is only through the blessings of the Lord that one can even think of Him and it is again His unlimited compassion that draws us to Him. Having taken birth in this karma bhoomi, we should not let go of this opportunity to capture the divine light in our hearts during this month which is auspicious for worshipping the two forms of the Supreme manifestation as Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu, especially on the full moon day.
OM TAT SAT
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