Circa
2019
12th
July 2019: My wife and I visited the holy city of Tiruttani, which has Lord
Murugan’s temple built on a monolith
rock of height 700 feet. From the inscriptions, we understand that the
temple was built between the 9th and 10th century AD
by the Pallava Kings and later renovated by the Cholas.
Lord
Murugan had made his appearance at this place eons before the Pallava
Kings built this temple…It is probably a good idea to understand the definition
of Yuga to appreciate how ancient the events are.
I
am sure all of us are aware that we are presently in the times known as “Kali
Yuga”. All of us may also be aware that Kali Yuga commenced with the departure
of Lord Krishna in 5561 BCE and this marked the end of Dwapara Yuga. According
to the puranic astronomical estimate, the four Yugas have the following
durations.
Satya
Yuga: 1,728,000 equivalent human years
Treta
Yuga: 1,296,000 equivalent human years
Dwapara
Yuga: 864,000 equivalent human years
Kali
Yuga: 432,000 equivalent human years. We are in the ascending cycle of Kali
Yuga with just about 7,580 years gone so far…
Of
the six Padaiveedu’s of Lord Murugan (the other five being Swamimalai, Palani,
Pazhamudiracholai, Thirupparankunram and Thiruchendur), Tiruttani ranks
prominent as the crown jewel of the Lord. He blesses us with mental peace and
happiness in this holy shrine. It is in Tiruttani that Murugan fell in love
with SriValli and took his brother Ganesha’s help to marry her. The story of
Murugan is related in Skanda Purana and as the legend goes, the Devas tortured
by the demon Soorapadman, went to complain to Lord Vishnu and Brahma. They
assigned Kamadeva to awake Lord Shiva from his penance and give birth to
Skanda. As the story goes, from the Lord Shiva’s third eye, six sparks emanate.
It was so hot to handle that Lord Agni was given the responsibility to carry
them forward. However even Agni couldn’t bear the heat and left them in a lake
called Saravana. In the lake the six sparks took the form of six divine
children. Shiva and Parvati requested the six Karthika sisters to take care of
the babies. Since the children were reared by the six Karthika sisters, Murugan
got his name as Karthikeya. Lord Shiva and Parvati came to the lake and Parvati
embraced all the six children together. As a result they got one single body
with six heads. This is the reason why Karthikeya is also called Shanmukha (six
faced Lord). It was mother Parvati who gifted Karthikeya with a divine weapon
called “Vel” who used this weapon to annihilate the demons troubling the Devas.
Pleased with this victory Lord Indra gave Karthikeya his daughter Devasena in
marriage.
In
Treta Yuga, Lord Rama after slaying Ravana worships Lord Shiva at Rameshwaram
who suggests that Rama offer prayers to Lord Subramanya at Tiruttani for peace
of mind and tranquility. In his Srijan talks, Shri Nilesh Oak explains through
the writings and works of “Surya Siddhanta” how he arrived at certain dates in
history about the timing of Mahabharatha and Ramayana. Surya Siddhanta is a very well
respected ancient text on Vedic Astronomy, has 14 chapters and 580 verses. It is
believed to have been related by Surya himself to Mayasura, Father-in-Law of
Ravana. The 27 Nakshatras position has been accurately depicted in the
celestial latitude and longitude. Using the position of these nakshatras as
written in Valmiki’s Ramayan and by comparing it to the nakshatra’s current position
in celestial space, one comes very accurately to the year 12,209 BCE as the
year Ramayan war was fought.
The
above historical data gives rise to the most fundamental question: When did
Subramanya’s father, Shiva arrive…what are the roots of Brahma, Vishnu &
Maheshwara. The story that I have been hearing since the time I have been able
to comprehend, assimilate and remember is best explained in www.quora.com and
the some extracts from this document are as follows:
First,
MahaVishnu appeared in his Sheshnag. He was in yoga nidra for years together.
Soon from his navel a lotus was formed and Brahma took birth. Eons passed and
only Brahma and Vishnu existed in empty space. When Brahma and Vishnu opened
their eyes, they had a glimpse of each other. This Brahma was known as Aadhya
Brahmanaha. Brahma wanted Vishnu to pray upon him as Brahma thought that Vishnu
was born from himself. Both had a heated debate regarding who made the first
appearance. Watching them quarrel Shiva, the eternal cosmic energy makes a
physical appearance by creating an Agni-Sthamb or Jyothir Linga. Our Purana’s talk
about the eternal energy, Sada-Shiva. Sada-Shiva has no form, no attributes and
no gunas. We could hence conclude that Shiva is AaJanmi or the one who has no
birth. The word ‘Shiva’ means literally, Nothingness or Emptiness or “That
which is not”. This has also been explained very eloquently by the present day
Mystic and Guru, Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev in his various talks and conversations on Adi-Yogi.
The
Agni-Sthamb told both Vishnu and Brahma that whoever finds the end of this Agni-Sthamb,
he would be the Supreme God. Brahma went upwards and Vishnu
downwards. But after going for yojanas upon yojanas, Vishnu realizes that this Sthamb
is infinite and decides to head back to the starting point. Brahma on the other
hand decides to take the help of Ketaki flower he had spotted on his journey
upward. Brahma returns to the starting point with the Ketaki flower and tells
that he had reached the top of the Jyothira Linga and found the Ketaki flower
on top, which he presented as a proof. Vishnu was truthful and likened the Agni-Sthamb
to knowledge…saying it is infinite with no beginning or end. Irritated by the
lie of Brahma, the energy cursed Brahma that, “nobody will pray upon you, although
you are its creator”. The energy also cursed Ketaki flower that, “nobody will use
you for any ritual”.
Saddened,
but having realized and accepted his mistake, Brahma requests the energy –
Sada-Shiva to make an appearance in a human figure as his son, as the universe
needed his pillar of knowledge.
Eons
later and as mentioned in the Bhagawat Geeta, Brahma continued in his creation
and brought forth four brahmachari’s. He requested these brahmachari’s to
assist Brahma in his creations, but they refused. Brahma became intensely angry
and his face turned blue. At this moment a small human like creature takes
birth from his brain making Brahma remember the boon given by the Energy that
he would appear in a human form. Soon a god with three eyes takes birth. He is none
other than Rudhra Shiva – an incarnation of Sada-Shiva or supreme energy and
knowledge.
The
puranic association of Linga is the infinite pillar of Agni (Agni-Sthamb) and not the misleading
tantric interpretation of phallus as a symbol of Shivalinga.
Above
explanations taken from various sources was to make an attempt at helping us
understand how ancient these events are and come to terms with it. At this
point, it would be interesting to know a bit about MahaVishnu’s Dashavtara. Th
first five namely, Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha and Vamana took place in
“Satya Yuga”. Rama Avatara took place in Treta Yuga – we are familiar with the
Ramayana war that took place during these times as written by Valmiki Rishi as
an eye witness account. Krishna Avatara took place in Dwapara Yuga, details of
which are there in the sacred text “Bhagwat Geeta”.
Quite
naturally it would be correct to assume that both Ganesha and Subramanya made
their appearance in Satya Yuga. While there have been conflicting statements
about who is the elder of the two brothers, I would like to go with the
mainstream majority that Ganesh is the elder one. Many shlokas attest to him as
“Skandapurvaja”, which means elder to Skanda.
Satya
Yuga translates to 2 million years before our present day and times. I am
referring to Lord Shiva’s suggestion to Sri Rama that he pray to Lord Murugan
at Tiruttani for peace and tranquility on his return to Ayodhya after killing
Ravana. Presumably Murugan was here before the life and times of Sri Rama,
hence the assumption that Lord Subramanya was present in Satya Yuga. The
timelines can be either frightening or unnerving…for us lesser mortals, three
generation itself is difficult to comprehend; imagine looking back into time of
such gigantic proportions?
Being
a Friday, we were told that the crowd would thin down in the afternoon hours.
It had taken us 5 hours to reach by road from Bangalore. We had a sumptuous
lunch at GRT Residency, an upmarket hotel and restaurant on the Tiruttani –
Chennai highway and promptly reached the temple at 2:45 PM. While there are 365
steps to the hilltop temple, we drove up to a particular point and took the
last 50 steps up on foot. Our hotel’s housekeeping staff member was correct when
she had told that the crowd would be thin by 3 PM and so it was…we were so
happy that we made the trip inside the temple twice. The main sanctum has Lord
Murugan in his normal standing posture with his “Vel” and his two concerts
SriValli and DevSena on either side in separate enclosures. There is another
temple within this complex dedicated for Goddess Durga.
Haro
Hara!!
13th
July 2019: On our onward journey we had travelled via Walajapet and Sholinghur
and hence had decided to visit the hilltop shrine of Yoga Narasimha at
Sholinghur on the return leg. We were both a bit apprehensive if we would be
able to climb the 1,305 steps to the hill top. It was a see-saw battle going on
in our minds till we reached Sholinghur. But having come this far, we decided that
we must genuinely make an attempt before conceding defeat. We gave respect to our age and creaky bone joints
and made a very slow but determined ascent. We took our time and thankfully the weather was
quite pleasant – it had rained the previous night and the sun took his time to
show himself from behind the clouds. Although it was pretty humid and muggy we braved it out and took
an hour and fifteen minutes to reach the top. 705 feet from the mean sea level…throughout
the climb what occupied my mind was the effort that would have gone in building
this temple. Climbing barefoot on the steep slopes would certainly have been
risky and fraught with unknown dangers. The steps have only come recently. If
only Engineers and Craftsmen from the earlier generations had left a detailed
construction manual…it would have been so wonderful to know the secrets of
their lifting and building techniques. Our imagination is limited by what we
see around us in the present day – tower cranes. If only they had left a few
sketches of their construction toolkit…we would perhaps have worshiped them as
well and not just the Gods!
Yoga
Narasimha Swamy is Lord Vishnu’s avatar and appeared in Satya Yuga. The main
deity out here is in a yogic posture and just adjacent to main sanctum is
another smaller one with his concert Goddess Amrithavalli. This temple was
built during the reign of Vijayanagara dynasty. Swamy Doddachariar was the main
person involved in the development of Sholinghur temple. The temple was later
rennovated in year 1588 CE by the Swamy’s ardent devotees. Adjacent to this
705 feet high hill is a smaller one of 200 feet and the main deity is Yoga Anjaneya
Swamy. It is believed that Lord Anjaneya Swamy’s eyes point toward the feet of
Lord Narasimha Swamy residing atop the 705 feet hill.
Narasimha
is a significant iconic symbol of creative resistance, hope against odds,
victory over persecution, and destruction of evil. He is the destructor of not
only external evil but also one’s own inner evil of body, speech and mind.
Narasimha
avatar of Lord Vishnu is associated with the slaying of Hiranyakashipu, Father
of Bhakta Prahalada. The demon king Hiranyakashipu undertook many years of
austere penance to gain special powers with the sole intention of avenging his
brother’s death in the hands of Lord Varaha – Vishnu’s earlier avatar. Pleased
with his penance, Brahma offered him the boon he wished: “I shall not die
within any residence or outside residence, during the daytime or at night, nor
on the ground or in the sky, neither by any weapon nor a human being or animal,
neither by any entity living or non-living nor by any demi-god or demon and not
by any great snake from the lower planets. Boon being granted, Hiranyakashipu
started persecuting all those who were devotees of Lord Vishnu, including his
own son Prahalada whom he tried killing a number of time, but was saved by the
Lord himself through his mystical powers. Once provoked by his demonic father
if Lord was present in a pillar, Prahalada said “Yes”. Hearing this
Hiranyakashipu with one blow destroyed the pillar, not knowing that Lord Vishnu
would emanate from the pillar in the form of Narasimha. To kill Hiranyakashipu
and not upset the boon granted by Lord Brahma, Vishnu took this form of part
human and part animal. He came upon the Demon in twilight, neither day, nor
night, on the threshold of the courtyard, neither inside the house nor outside
the house, and put the demon on his thigh neither earth nor space and using his
sharp fingernails, neither animate nor inanimate as a weapon tore the middle
and killed the demon.
Sholinghur
temple is famous for Narasimha in a yogic posture denoting peace. It is
believed that the Lord gave mukthi to Prahalada in this Yogic form.
Walking
down the 1,305 steps was an ordeal. Climbing up appeared like a cake-walk! In
life too, climbing up is thrilling filled with expectations in the imaginative
mind. But, climbing down? It can be disappointing with the mind not willing to
step down from an exalted position. Climbing down the steps was a totally
different game altogether. The legs get wobbly and begin to tremble
uncontrollably making one wonder if a free fall is in the offing. However, God
has own strange ways to keep us entertained. The population of monkeys and
goats and the bonhomie between these two showed us the friendlier side of
coexistence. We were given correct advice that we mustn’t carry food, water or
temple offerings on our way up. The monkey’s merrily snatch whatever you carry
in search of food and water.
The
temple prasadam offered post darshan was out of this world. We had Sakkare
Pongal and Puliogare in the tiny space where it is distributed, because coming
out with it was an open invitation to the monkeys to snatch…it was this
prasadam that helped us descend the 1,305 steps, one step at a time and without a freefall!
I
was a bit worried about my wobbly legs...would it affect our 4 hour drive back
home? Thankfully it didn’t and after a brief halt at an exotic wayside highway restaurant,
Alankar where we had an amazing lunch, our next stop was home sweet home.
Om
Namo Narayanaya!!
