Pillar Twenty One

Artwork by A. Manivelu

Top

  • NORTH FACE:
    Ti Plant

    The Ti plant (Cordyline fruuctosa) is famed in Hawaii. It is used to wrap food and gifts and to enhance any garden. The red tis are planted in the family compound for protection.

  • EAST FACE:
    Lime

    Lime is the most appropriate gift offered a holy man or woman. And, of course, used commonly in Indian cooking.

  • SOUTH FACE:
    Coconuts

    Coconuts are ubiquitous in both India and Hawaii, where they have many uses in the kitchen, the temple and more.

  • WEST FACE:
    Lotus

    The lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is an aquatic plant with showy flowers native to southern Asia and Australia, with large leaves, fragrant pinkish flowers, a broad, rounded, perforated seedpod, and fleshy rhizomes, which are edible. It has many spiritual meanings in Hinduism.

1 of 4

Middle

  • NORTH FACE:
    Top of Guru's Staff

    Nandi, “the joyful,” is a white bull with a black tail. He is the vahana, or mount, of Lord Siva. Nandi is the symbol of the powerful instinctive force tamed by Siva. Here Nandi sits atop the holy danda, the spiritual staff of the head of the Aadheenam.

  • EAST FACE:
    Satguru's Throne

    Simhasana, “lion seat,” is the throne of authority on which the head of an aadheenam sits to receive devotees and visitors.

  • SOUTH FACE:
    Pontiff's Pendant

    Sirobhashana is a rudraksha mala with a golden pendant containing holy relics, worn by the abbot of an aadheenam, around his neck.

  • WEST FACE:
    Satguru's Headdress

    This special rudraksha mala is worn by the satguru on the crown of the head, and by Sivachariyas in the Saiva Siddhanta tradition.

1 of 4

Bottom

  • NORTH FACE:
    Siva Chandrasekara

    Chandrasekhar is a form of God Siva, and literally means “moon crown.

  • EAST FACE:
    Siva Gangajati

    Gangajati is a traditional form of God Siva meaning “He with the river Ganges flowing from His hair.”

1 of 2