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.