Ayyappan - Few Questions and Answers

THANKS FOR YOU TO HAVE SHOWN "KARRUPPASWAMI" AS VEDIC DEITY.HOWEVER FOR THE

COMMON FOLK LIKE US MAY LIKE TO HEAR FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT THE PARIVARA DEVATAS OF SRI DHARMA SASTA FROM PERSONS OF EMMINENCE LIKE YOU.THIS IS FOR OUR ENRICHMENT OF KNOWLEDGE OF REALITY.SO KINDLY BE GRACEFUL TO US BY SHOWING THE LIGHT.

THANKING YOU

V.GOPAL

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Busy with the Sastha Preethi preparations I could not post regularly in the blog... Amidst the work, today I some how stole my own time for answering these queries. 

 Iam posting the questions sent by a devotee... 

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The QUESTIONS - followed by my answer

1.IT IS HEARD FROM SOME DEVOTEES THAT THEY TAKE TOBACCO OR WINE IN ANY FORM

FOR OFFERING TO KARRUPPASWAMY AT ERUMELI.IF THE INFORMATION IS WRONG, THEN KINDLY EXCUSE US INDICATE THE TRUTH.

It is a fact that devotees bring these things to Karuppaswamy, not at Erumeli but at Sabarimala itself and also to Achankovil. Even we have a practice of taking tobacco and aval pori(rice flakes) as told by our elders. According to mantra Sasthra tobacco leaf (alone) is prescribed for Karuppan. I dont know where went wrong and when it went wrong... But today we see the procedure is totally diluted and people for their convenience have stooped down to the level of bringing wine, cigar etc etc which is nowhere prescribed.

2.SRI AYYAPPASWAMI IS SAID TO BE IN PENANCE AT SABARIMALA.HIS POOJAS ARE DONE AS PER KALPA SATVICALLY.THEN WHAT ABOUT THE POOJAS FOR HIS PARAIVARA, EACH INDIVIDUALLY COLLECTIVELY?

Lord Ayyappa is in penance is a sankalpa followed in Sabarimala.. But the poojas are very clearly done to him as Lord Sastha. And even the poojas for the parivara devatas are done in Satwick manner only. But the Melshanti differ for each sannidhi and each sannidhi stands as a separate entity. The Melshanti for Ayyappan and Maligapuram sannidhi are from Nambudri family. But the poojas at Karuppaswamy, Kochu Kadutha and Veliya Kadutha are taken care by people from the traditional families

3.WHAT ABOUT THE DAILY POOJAS OF SRIAYYAPASWAMI?

Generally in a temple whenever a pooja vidhi is given, the Golden rule is one should never stop the daily pooja t any cost... But on contrary at Sabarimala the poojas for Ayyappan in prescribed only for a certain time and all other times the temple remains locked.

This is a very big subject and I need to put a separate post on this - which I shall do in near future.

Now I shall give a simple answer- Only Monthly 5 days we do poojas to Ayyappan. The remaining 25 days -celestial beings take care of Him.

4.IT IS HEARD THAT MALIGAIPURAM DEVI'S WAITING FOR JOINING OUR SWAMI IN WEDLOCK, WHEN NO KANNIAIYAPPAN VISITS THE SABARIMALAI MAY NOT BE THE TRUE INTENT.ANY INCREASE IN THE FINITE WORLD IS GOING TO END ONE DAY,LET SWAMY FORGIVES US,BUT THAT IS THE FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH THAT CANNOT BE IGNORED.

IT SEEMS THAT THERE MUST BE SOME OTHER SIGNIFICANCE OF MALIGAIPURAM RESIDING IN SABARIMALAI IN CONTEMPLATION OF OUR LORD.

WE MAY ALSO SEE BHAGAVATHY DEVI’S SANNIDHI BEHIND GURUVAYURAPPA’S.

HENCE I LIKE TO HEAR THE TAVAM FROM YOUR GOODSELF.

This issue has been raised not only by you, but even before... To be somewhat logical, Maligappuram is considered to be Shakti Swarupini of Ayyappa and the wedlock story may be of later origin.

And there are many many years where no one turned up to Sabarimalai - then what to speak about Kanni?

This idea is again made clear by Shri Bala Dhandayudapani Swamigal in his Book Dharma Sathru Pooja Kalpam and also by (Kambankudi) Shri Meenakshi Sundaram Iyer.

In her previous birth She was Leelavathi - wife of Datta as Durga Lakshmi Saraswathi Swarupini - in that case she is like a mother to Ayyappa.

After her birth as Mahishi - Ayyappa gives her Shaapa Vimochanam and Ayyappan is given her new life  - now Ayyappan may be considered having the status of a father

So She is Shakti Swarupini installed there who is a chief deity there for blessing the devotees of Ayyappa.

5.HOW THE POOJAI OF MALIGAIPURAM IS PERFOMED?AS AN AVARANA DEVATA OR SRICHANI DEVI OR SRILALITA?

What I've learnt is - She is considered to be Bhuvaneshwari most of the times and during Bhagawati Seva etc, Lalita Sahasranamam is used... But we dont find any room to consider her as an Avarana devata.

6.MANYTIMES PEOPLE PERFORM POOJAI AT AIYAPPA BHAJANS IN

VARIOUS WAYS.SOMETIMES 3 LAMPS KEPT AS PRADHANA DEITIES, OR 6 LAMPS OR ONE LAMPS.THOUGH PHOTOS ARE KEPT,THE AVAHANA IS DONE IN LAMPS ONLY.THE NORMAL AGREEABLE PROCEDURE MAY PLEASE BE STATED.

Actually the Avahana of the Lord along with his parivaras are done in Jyotir Mandalam -which is signified by these lamps. The number of lamps and the devatas who are invited vary from place to place. This is the actual procedure for Sastha Preethi... But people also follow this for Ayyappan puja also. 

In general the Central Lamp is for Sastha and the Left lamp is for Ganapaty. The right side may be Murugan or Devi at some places. We follow the traditional style of installing Guru and Bhoothanathar in separate lamps along with Sastha, Ganapaty and other deities. We may also have Karuppan, Ganapaty, Sastha, Yakshi and Boothanathar in 5 different lamps and have one Sakshi deepam. At some places instead of Karuppan Chellapillai may be installed. 

This reminds me of a funny(?!) incident - 

But at Bombay I saw one Sastha Preethi(???) where Guruvayoorappan, Sivan were kept along with Sastha Vilakku.... And the best part is - they removed all the lamps before the Bhajan started - for the sake of switching on the fans in the room. ( I literally felt like dashing my head)

For a very long time we are planning for a simple guide-book for conducting Sastha preethi ; for some reason its getting delayed. Swami should give His "Grant" to complete and release it. 

The Ever compassionate Lord

Few days ago... I was contemplating on my great grandfather and was browsing his old photographs at sabarimalai... The Pankuni uthram festival of 60s, 70s and 80s.... As my usual practice I took some of these to show it to a devotee close to my heart, who "celebrates our Lord" - and with whom I share most of my ideas...

Each photograph conveyed a story... we were really thrilled to see the Sabarimalai of yester years... Everything so orderly, so calm and peaceful those days.... Especially when we saw a the photo - Thatha Standing all alone in the Padhinettam padi, (http://shanmatha.blogspot.com/2011/01/padhinettam-padi.html) we were reminded of the unruly rush that we had during Jothi... and we all had a craving desire whether we could "get back" that Sabarimalai....

"Whether is it possible to have such a sabarimalai hereafter?" 

- we asked the question and we ourselves gave the answer - "NO".. "the golden days are gone"... 

But we never expected "Bhakta Paripala" was hearing us and was smiling at us...

Very soon we planned for our Sabarimala trip. The utsavam had just begun and to our utter surprise the crowd was almost nil at Pampa. We were excited... and went ahead and everything was almost magically done. When we reached Pathinettampadi to our pleasant surprise - it was totally free..  We were enjoying the very sight of the Ashtadasha Peetam... Satya Dharma swaroopam was all alone - waiting for us.... The best part is - we had an opportunity to take similar photograph in front of the holy steps - just like my great grand father...  

Though there is no one to stop us... How long will we stand there? And finally we decided to move... - After all how can the intense yearning of the heart be contained?  Our Lord is waiting for us....

We rushed to our beloved Lord...  Ayyappan looked as fresh as a newly blossomed Lotus! 

One of my favorite quote is - "We leave sannidhanam to come back"... Now, needless to say our darshan was near perfect. We spent almost 4-5 hours with our Lord with no one to stop us or pull us.

To cut a long story short I felt that the Lord himself held our hands, took us to Sannidhanam and brought us back - just because we desired for a peaceful dharshanam like the olden days. We didn't even prayed - we just expressed our desire amongst us- and he made it a reality.... 

Even a very small -true desire of us is heard by Him... 

After returning from the Yatra - I got a messgae from Him....

In one of my old articles Ive written : - "This once unlettered boy, whom He took under his benign and protective care, as a fond father would do, and made him what he is today" - these words are proved 200% true once again.. Not only as a fond father  but more than a compassionate mother he is taking care of me.... 

I thanked him for being "my life" and granting us the opportunity to serve him. For the yeomen service rendered by my ancestors, the ever merciful Lord is  keeping up his promise generations after generations.

In answer to this he gave His same benign smile..

... 

My Grand father - My first Guru

 -a tribute to Kalpathy Shri.CV.Srinivasa Iyer (Chaami Anna)

This year, March 19 is Pankuni Uthram, which reminded me of my Great Grand Father and Iam posting this article as a tribute to this noble soul.. (this is an article which I wrote for my next book "Nothing But Ayyappan" )

A small request.... I have a desire to write his Life history in detail... so any reader who have had the acquaintance with Shri. CV.Srinivasa Iyer / CV Krishna Iyer and  have any small piece of information / photographs or anything to share.. please write to me(aravindsastha@gmail.com) or call me (09994641801)

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My Grand father - My first Guru 

-a tribute to Kalpathy Shri.CV.Srinivasa Iyer (Chaami Anna)

In the holy land of Bharat it is said that during every century, there would be atleast a single Jivan muktha born to accomplish a divine mission and to re-establish a divine faith.

True to this saying this Mahaan, Shri CV Srinivasa Iyer was born to re establish the supremacy of Lord Ayyappa, at a time when - the divine will wanted to spread the glory of Ayyappa Bhatki.

As per the wishes of Lord Ayyappa, during the right juncture- at his middle age - he was particularly attracted to the Sabarimala Yatra, because of his younger brother Shri.CV.Krishna Iyer, who was undertaking the yatra for years.

He reached the Sannidhanam for the first time - thereafter the spiritual progress of Chaami Anna was on the fast track and he

came into contact with great people and the truth of the vedantas were getting clearer to him..

Though he was a gruhastha, he was living a saint’s life working very hard for the spiritual upliftment of the ordinary souls. As a Guruswamy he took several hundreds of devotees to Sabarimala. True to the “Ayyappa thathwaam” - his clan of disciples comprised of lay men to Vedhic scholars. Many veteran Guruswamys we see today were his disciples. He was fondly known as “Chaami Anna” with respect and love from his sishyas.

For several decades for some reasons, the Pankuni Uthra Puja was not being done at the Sabarimala Ayyappan temple. Though it was an auspicious day for Sastha, the temple was not even opened on that particular day. As per the divine directions, Chaami Anna took the initative and this puja commenced to be done by him. A spectacular Lakhsharchana and Vedhic homams to Lord Sastha on the Pankuni Uthram day was performed judiciously and magnificently at Sabarimala for years by him. The puja grew in popularity and at one point of time his party included nearly 500 devotees and 70-80 Vedhic Scholars, 6-7 special busses and fleet of Cars and Lorries to carry the necessary items for the magnificent ritual. The festival attained the new heights with Purusha Sooktha Homam, Rudrabishekam and even to Maha Rudram and Athi Rudram.

He was not only an ardent and sincere devotee – but was a realized and elevated soul. Many have had the opportunity of getting his blessings and have come up in their life. I have heard from many of his associates that all what he says is the total Satyam and no one dared to defy his instructions. A simple namaskaram would bring forth from him an abundance of blessings and love and one could feel the depth and warmth of the same.

He was an embodiment of devotion and compassion and nobody would return empty handed after seeing him. Even today whenever I go for pujas or lectures anywhere in India, I would definitely see atlesat 2 or 3 disciples of Chaami Anna. Many many stalwarts and seniors exclaim that they have had the privilege of meeting him, eating saddhi(food) along with him, and getting prasadam from him.

The pilgrimage to the Sabarimalai is very symbolic of the journey of the individual ‘atma’ and it’s joining with the ‘Paramatma’ During the Pankuni Uthram festival of 1989, Chaami Anna, made a very significant remark that, he will cease to live beyond the Pankuni Uthram festival that year and it was an intuition from his side and that Lord Ayyappa wanted it that way. Events, have proved that he attained Lord Ayyappa’s world during the same date and in doing so, left all of us, his devotees orphans to be guided by his spirit of selflessness and love and compassion to all.

My tryst with a phenomenon called “Ayyappa” started right from the day I took birth in this earth- because of my Great grand father Shri CV Srinivasa Iyer. (Chaami Anna) whom I consider my first Guru to Sastha.

I was a small boy when he ceased his earthly connections, but even at that early age I had the rare privilege of getting blessings directly from him. And I am very sure that he is blessing all of us even today and this perhaps, is the guiding force and the inner drive which is operating us till date.