Women? Good Lord!

Either the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has read my blogpost or better sense has prevailed. A new sense of purpose maybe. Among the many complaints mentioned in my earlier post I am happy to report substantial changes, for the better that I witnessed during my recent visit to the Sabari Hills. The washrooms/restrooms earlier resting on man made lakes and the other attended shortcomings have been renovated. No more water logging. No more running around to fetch water. And clean! Well done TDB.

Plastic! Where art thou? The Sabarimalai and its entire trekking stretch and the Sannidhanam is plastic free now. No polybags, no pet bottles. NO PLASTIC! Kudos! However Dear TDB here are a few suggestions which can make this step even more devotee friendly. While ban on pet bottles is a very welcome step, you must also ensure presence of far more numbers of fresh drinking water kiosks. I for one was left mostly thirsty as I did not carry any water storing unit and had to discard the pet bottle at a garbage bin at the start of the trek at Pampa. You must also encourage the water/water substitute brands to possibly sell their liquids in recyclable glass bottles which will not only ensure conserving the environment around the holy hills but also give people a chance to buy and carry liquids to quench their thirst. Well done TDB for converting a nitpicker into a suggestion maker!

At the starting point of the trek up the Sabarimalai there is a police check point. Not only looking out for pickpockets or unruly devotees but also to check the age certificate of the women devotees who they suspect might be over 10 or under 50 years of age. For those who came in late, the rules at Sabarimalai bar girls/women in the above age bracket from entering the temple premises because of an age old tradition which believes their presence will defile a temple where the resident god, Lord Ayyappan has taken a vow of permanent celibacy. You would also be aware of the recent movements from various quarters to stop what is described as a regressive practice which is not only patriarchal but is also unconstitutional. While the matter is still in the courts and various parties are jockeying to take position for and against any change in this tradition, I for one am all for the rules be amended and the women, all women be allowed to have a darshan of our maker. You may call me gender neutral on this issue. Just as Hindu rituals/practices have either evolved for the better through internal reforms or by the stroke in the law books. If Sati can be abolished, if widow remarriage permitted, if right to property be allowed for the girl child, then why not an innocuous temple entry?

Shani Shingnapur - Trailer for Sabarimalai?

I can already read your mind. “Hinduism under attack! Our rituals and our tradition!” Say the fundamentalists. “Why only us Hindus? Why not the other religions married to the book?” Say the champions of Uniform Civil Code. I will take up your queries, one at a time.

I have already touched upon Sati and other ‘traditions’. For those who are unaware, a visit to Sabarimalai demands a 41 day period of penance which entails celibacy, no vices, black attire, no shaving/hair cutting etc. In short lead a life of a yogi/hermit. That is the tradition. Today however many if not most do not undergo the penance. I have seen people even during the penance indulge in activities not permitted. And one can see many a trekker smoking away to glory. These traditions are expendable of course for it is the men who indulge in it you see. Double standards if there was one and so much for Hinduism under attack. Be a sport. Be true. And let the ladies in. I am sure they are far more pious and serious than most men are!

“Why only us Hindus? Why not the Abrahamic religions? You don’t have guts to touch their religious practices!” Sadly I too have to agree with you here. A combination of ‘why disturb the beehive’ mentality and lopsided lust for 'minority votes’ by a section of our political class has led to a substantial number of our citizen remaining in perennial darkness of regressive practices. Appeasement is what it is called commonly. And it must change. Change soon. This country owes it to some of its most backward and oppressed citizenry in the name of following 7^th Century laws. And I am willing to go the whole way on this point. I have what I think only one question for you. Must I too regress or stagnate or stop evolving for the better just because others don’t? Will you for example stop giving attention to your work or your business or studies because some others in the company or marketplace or classrooms are unwilling to or unable to or are not permitted to? I am sure you will agree with me that you won’t! That is the crux of my argument. I will continue to strive and improve and continue to set a positive example. And will keep doing it for my benefit. And I am sure one day it will rub off on the others. I as in Hindus and others as in those who are still suppressed by the dogma arising out of the pulpit.

MalikapuratthuAmma. Waiting for the wait to end!

There is an interesting sidelight to the Celibate Yogi in Sabarimalai. A lady, much in love with Lord Ayyappan, Malikapuratthu Amma, whose shrine too is one among the many in the Ponnambalam is waiting for the day when the Lord will break his vows. The condition imposed by the Lord to accept her is that he would do so the day when there is not a single ‘debutant’, christened Kanni Swamy, among the devotees who visit the temple! The other legend about Ayyappan is that he is a much married man. He has two wives. Purna and Pushkala. SO! The Lord has not forsaken the womenfolk. It is as good a time as any for men to stop forsaking them too!

Purna Pushkala sametha Ayyappa Swamiyeiiii!

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PS: The lady of my house says she will never visit Sabarimalai till she attains the age prescribed by the traditions. It will be a deiva kuttram she says. I too won’t insist. The lady knows what she wants and I leave it at that. I am sure most men will agree with me.

You might find this interesting too. The Bad, The Good, The Best of Sabarimalai

 

Glossary:

Dharshan : Holy glimpse of the Idol of the god/goddess in Hindu temples.

Ponnambalam : Golden Temple

Kanni Swamy : First time visitor/devotee at Sabarimalai.

Deiva Kuttram : Blasphemy

Sannidhanam: Sanctum Sanctorum  

Sati: Practice of a widow joining/forced into the funeral pyres of her husband. Abolished by law during British India days after a sustained campaign against it by Reformist Raja Ram Mohun Roy.

The Flying Bull

The Tourism Department brochures will tell you enough. You must visit the magnificent Nellaippar Temple built by the ancient Pandya Kings and improved, expanded and maintained by every ruler to have Tirunelveli under his wings. The brochures will also advise you to stand under the Kuttrallam Falls post a massage with herbal oils. And of course visit the adjacent Kuttralanathar Temple which like most temples of Tamilnadu are ancient, big and magnificent! What the brochures will possibly not tell you is a must visit place in the vicinity, Sivasailam.

As the name suggests, Sivasailam is yet another temple dedicated to Lord Shiva that dot the landscape in and around the Tirunelveli District of Tamilnadu. Approximately 60 kms away from Tirunelveli, in the Ambasamudram Taluk is the abode of Sivasailanathar and his consort Paramakalyani. Located on the banks of Ghatana Nadhi, a tributary of Thamaraparani River this temple is steeped in myths and legends.

While the primary reason to visit any Sivalayam is to offer prayers to the reigning deity of the temple or sink in the beauty of the marvellous temple, Sivasailam offers a unique but interesting diversion to the routine. The most attractive exhibit in Sivasailam is the not in the sanctum sanctorum but outside it, the vehicle of Lord Shiva, the divine Nandi!

Myths, legends, folklore and a mixture of all these says that once Nandi complained to Lord Shiva that while the Lord and the Goddess along with the million other gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon get the pride of place and attention in all the temples, Nandi despite being the Vaahanam of Shiva is mostly ignored by the devotees. So upset, Nandi asked Shiva to help get some spotlight on him. Shiva having accepted the complaint as one with some merit in it, asked Maya the Architect/Engineer/Sculptor of the Asuras to sculpt a statue of Nandi which would be unmatched in its beauty and the same to be consecrated at Sivasailam. Maya, the story goes, sculpted a statue of such divine beauty, so lifelike, so perfect that the statue came to life and it prepared to get up and fly off to the heavens! Such perfection being too much for mere mortals of the earth to witness and appreciate. Maya, ever alert to such a possibility, promptly threw his instruments on Nandi even as it was getting up and made a thin wound on its back and thereby reducing the Nandi statue from the levels of perfection of the gods. The so dented statue promptly froze into a stone again and adorns the pride of place in the temple.  

Ready to get up and fly away!

Offered without comments!

The 'Dent' of imperfection!

There are many temples in India where one can see statues of Nandi much bigger in size and grander in scale, the ones in Brahadeeshwaran Temple in Thanjavur or the Basavangudi in Bangalore readily comes to mind but I bet if you would ever see a Nandi, more beautiful, almost bordering on perfection anywhere else but Sivasailam!  

Even the 'tail' tells a tale of perfection!

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PS: And while you are in the district don't miss too the Glorious temple in Tenkasi. And Papanaasam. And Sankarankoil. And................! 

Glossary:

Vaahanam : Mount/Vehicle

Asuras: People of the dark and evil in Indian Mythology

Roads, Ruins and Temples!

Temple 1:

It will save you from a lot of boredom and save valuable newsprint should this see the light of the day if I refrain from establishing the ‘atmosphere’ for the story as is the practice. Suffices to say it was only after pressing the ‘book’ button for the tickets up to Mumbai that you realise that the train halts at Pune and you can save about 100 kms of drive and half a day by alighting there instead. Or the friendly Marathi Manoos of Pune have no idea what ‘Very good’ is when they say the road to Shirdi is precisely that. Or the fact that half of India seems to have descended on the temple town the day you are there. Or the fact that after spending the whole night in the queue for attending the Kakada Aarti you are pushed to such a corner in the Samadhi Mandir that watching the rituals on Tata Sky would have been a better option!

Samadhi Mandir, Shirdi

So let me come down to the story right away. After having been a victim of ‘VVIPgiri’ during the Kakada Aarti, self and wife with kids in tow decided to queue up again for darshan in the ‘general’ queue. After spending an hour or so in the line, the queue direction was abruptly changed to the reverse and we found ourselves at the end of the queue. If this was bad what followed was worse. Another hour or so later the same adhoc decision to change the direction of the queue was imposed on us and yet again we ended up in the end of the queue. If you think I spent the next three hours meditating about Saibaba then you have me wrong. After every hour spent on the queue and then jostling among crowd who would have been better off fighting the bulls in a Jallikattu contest and cursing the organizers for their penchant for adhocism, we managed to get near the sanctum sanctorum. As I readied up to catch the glimpse of the deity, out came one more instance of adhocism! Just as I neared the proverbial last mile the security officer turned me and family away, from the general queue to a narrow lane taking me straight to the idol! To a wonderful, peaceful and a long darshan with none between me and Saibaba! Was it destiny that we finally had an unexpectedly great darshan? Or was it divine justice for all the adhocism that we encountered earlier? If it was the latter then I must concede Saibaba would have made a great Twitter troll. Imagine making up with adhocism what was denied to us by adhocism in the first place!

Temple 2:

I once again refrain from wasting your time on creating the ‘atmosphere’ for the story. Suffices to say that if the ‘very good’ roads between Pune and Shirdi were not so ‘very good’, the equally ‘very good’ road between Shirdi and Pandharpur was....well......nonexistant!

Bhu Vaikuntha Pandharpura!

As we alighted from a mini ride in a horse drawn cart at the starting point of the queue for Darshan at the Vitthal/Panduranga Temple, the mind instead of being focused on God was yet again on the adventures of the adhocism that lay ahead. This temple has a unique arrangement called a Pada Darshan wherein every devotee enters the sanctum sanctorum and physically touches the feet of the residing deity. And given the crowd it was quite likely that we would spend the next few years in the queue. As I stood before Vitthala two hours later overwhelmed with devotion, I realised that despite the crowd and the time consuming ritual of touching the feet, the crowd was not only well behaved but the temple authorities had made wonderful arrangements to move the crowd swiftly without appearing to rush either the devotees or themselves! So much so that the multitude in the queue indulged in what Pandharpur is famous for, singing Abhangs and Namasangeertanam! Indeed Bhu Vaikuntha Pandharpura!

Temple (?) 3:

You must indulge me a bit as I lay the ‘atmosphere’ for the story here. Finally I found it. There indeed is a reason for Mumbai to exist. I am sure you will agree with me that you can’t have a city just because Ambanis live in it or Sachin Tendulkar played here or its staple breakfast is Vada Pav! There has to be something more compelling for Mumbai’s existence, and I found it. BY ELEPHANTA! I found it!

A one hour steamer ride on the Arabian Sea takes you to the Elephanta Island also known as the Island of Shiva. The exquisite cave temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, commissioned by the Chalukyan King Pulakesin II around the 7^th Century. Post the mauling the cave temple received in the hands of the Portuguese and subsequently the British, what is left behind still speak volumes of the sheer scale of engineering, the epitome of architecture and art and the unshakable devotion of the Indians of the yore. I will not even try to explain the exquisite carvings based on the various stories of the Shiva Puraan for I know words will fail me. Instead here is a small tour through the Elephanta Cave Temple. Welcome!    

 

Swagatam!

Mahesha - The Trimurthy

Ravana Humbled!

Gangadhara!

The Cosmic Dancer -Nataraja!

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PS: My 10 year old I believe has done a better job of describing the Island of Shiva. Please check out the same here -->  http://bratscorner.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-first-time-i-visited-bombay-i-did.html …

Glossary:

Marathi Manoos : Marathi speaking populace

Kakada Aarti : Early morning Prayers at Shiridi

Samadhi Mandir: Temple where the mortal remains of Saibaba are buried.

Darshan : Sight of the God/Idol

Saibaba:

Jallikattu : Bull fighting sport. Part of Pongal Festival of Tamilnadu

Pada Darshan : Sight of the feet of the Idol

Vitthal/Panduranga:

Abhang/Naamasangeertanam : Devotional Songs dedicated to Lord Vitthala

Bhu Vaikuntha Pandharpur : Heaven on earth, a sobriquet given to Pandharpur

Shiva Puraan : Tales of Lord Shiva