Photo from the Loha Guha this morning. Progress keeps being made in erecting this storage facility fot he Iraivan stone.INDIA PILGRIMAGE
CHIDAMBARAM, Center of the Universe
It was my great joy and grace to visit this special temple, the center of the universe, the temple where it is said if the day's puja were forgotten or neglected, that the universe itself would perish, for it is here that Siva issues forth the impulse to start the cosmic heartbeat of the day, much like the brain sends a signal through the nervous system to tell the heart to beat again.
We first watchedabhishekam and puja done to the 7-inch-tall ruby Nataraja, then had close darshan of themain Nataraja, the akasha space and gold bilva leaves. We were given the grandtemple tour by Gurumurthy Dikshitar.
SIVARAM: I had the darshan of the sphatika linga abhisheka and all of usattended the puja together. I saw the Chidambaram rahasya, or secret ofChidambaram, which is all the gold bilva leaves.
I had the opportunity toget my gold trisula blessed. I took a risk, because Kailas Ashram had toldme that if you offer anything at Chidambaram to be blessed, it will not comeback and the priests will say it is the property of Siva. But fortunatelythe trisula was given back to me! We also had a grand tour of the templegrounds given by Gurumurthy Dikshitar. I could not believe we were actuallyin Chidambaram.
We had enough time there to sit down and meditate and sing a bit. Thedikshitars mostly look different from other priests in India. Most of themdo not have big tummies, they look fit. You can see in their eyes they needmoney! Some of us subscribed for the annual archana.According to Ganesha dikshitar, the substance of the temple pillars haschanged with the yugas. First the pillars were made of diamonds and preciousstones, then they changed to gold, then silver and now they are made ofstone.In this temple puja is performed six times a day. Each puja gives adifferent benefit depending on the time of day.
The building is about 70 percent done. TIRUVANNAMALAI
Here is the famous Arunachala hill and large fire elemental Siva temple. Itis here that Sri Ramana Maharishi made his home. The temple has four hugegopurams; a couple are currently totally covered with coconut tree frondswhile they're renovated. The large Siva Lingam has a beautiful five-headednaga kavacham over it. The shakti is strong. Thousands of devotees wererushing through the temple as we visited. A wedding took place in the templeat the same time. We visited Ramana Ashram where there is a beautiful marblemeditation hall with Maharishi's samadhi hall.In the evening on Purnima day we participated in the monthly "Girivallam", afour-hour, 14-kilometer walk around Arunachala hill, accompanied by 600,000devotees (that many are there every month)! Everyone walks quickly on asingle road around the hill; you see a long stream of rushing devotees ofall ages young and old, big and small. It's refreshing to see many teens andlittle kids walking; a display of the religion alive and well.
There arearound ten special Sivalingam shrines that are supposed to be visited duringthe walk around the hill. People start walking during the day and itcontinues all through the night until next morning. The November PurnimaGirivallam walk will be extra big because it is Krittika Dipam when a hugebonfire of ghee is lit on top of the hill. We were told that 1.5 millionpeople will walk around on that night.
Our three seasons are each 4 months long, and today we move from the Jivana Ritau to the Moksha Ritau. It's a time of innerness, reflection and working on Moksha, our Spiritual Liberation, more diligently than the rest of the year.
We all paraded in the liquid sunshine (the tourist bureau assures visitors that this is not rain, but another form of Hawaiian sunshine!) to our 60-foot-tall flagpole. The old season flag was soaking wet and clinging lifelessly to the pole.
Several visitors joined us, including the head priest from the Malibu Temple in Southern California and the Aran Sendan family. Welcome back to the island!
That's Sadhaka Japendranatha on the far right, the Malibu priest next to him and Aran Sendan. The priest used to do puja for and travel with the present head of hte Kamakoti Peedam, Jayendrasaraswati, who sent him to America.
The old orange flag is replaced by the pinker one.
Monks and members enjoy the ritual.
There it goes, to sway in the tropical winds for four months.
Our priest meets earlier in the day with Gurudeva.
He flew all the way to Kauai to spend just this one day at Kauai Aadheenam.
So, what's for lunch? Masala Dosai was served to all who came to the Flag Ceremony.
Year 2000 March Caribbean Innersearch Taking Reservations Now
Don't Delay as the group is limited in size
Gurudeva says,
"Come with me to the Caribbean next March, on the Year 2000 Innersearch. Besides our wonderful study together, we are planning a gala gathering of Hindus in Trinidad for one day."
We will depart from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on March 25th and return to Fort Lauderdale on April 4th and be traveling on Holland America's spectacular, brand new cruise ship, the MS/Volendam.For information contact our wonderful tour agent who will be conducting the Innersearch: Kailash and Indra Dhaksinamurthi of Search Beyond Adventures, Inc. ASAP at
search11@mail.idt.net
Very Important!:
Be sure to include your mailing address and phone number in the body of your message! Kailash will be mailing you information, but if you don't send an address there is nothing he can do.
