Yogapattam and Chinmudra

My sincere thanks to you for sharing lot of information regarding Lord Ayyappa. I have a small query. I am sure you would be able to answer.

1) There is patta tied both feet together of Lord. May I know the purpose/logic/reason for the same.

2) Reasoning for sitting with Mudra position of right hand.

Will be grateful if you can throw some light please.

Regards,

Swami Sharanam.

Ramaswamy

1) The pattam is called Yoga Pattam... You can find a similar yoga pattam with Yoga Narasimmar, Dakshishamoorthy and Yoga Ganapaty... The reason is Bagawan Sastha is a Yogeeshwara by nature... Though His other attributes like Veera, Gambeera etc are established in all other Kshetrams like Achankovil, Aryankavu etc... Bagawan's Yogic attribute is predominant at Sabarimalai becoz its Mahayoga Peetam.

And Bagawan is sitting there doing Tapas... Thats the reason the yoga pattam is tied to his body, coz His pose is called "Harivarasanam" ie Keeping both his legs and back well pressed on the ground, at the same time the spinal cord is straight, (A normal human cannot sit in the posture comfortably) in order to hold the body in this particular yogic posture, the yoga pattam is used. (Most of the temples - other than Sabarimala Sastha is seen in veerasanam and the pattam used to tie one leg with the waist and it is called veerapattam)

2) The mudra on the right hand is Chinmudra. Our Sanathana DHarna uses symbols to nudge us towards remembering our original goal. Chin mudra too indicates this.

Most of us mistake the Mudra to on the knee, but it is on the thigh - close to the heart..  This is the way of connecting the subtle body to the entire cosmos.

The three open fingers denotes, Ahankaram,Maya and Karma - the three binding factors of our life of Samsara;

The index finger stands for the individual atman (YOu - Jeevathma) and the thumb represents the Brahman(Paramatma). The gentle touch of these two fingers indicates the coming together the micro with the macro cosmos.

So chinmudra is eliminating the Ahankara, Maya and Karma; merging the jeevathma into Paramatma;

Chinmudra denotes the ultimate mantra So-Hum, which can be translated as "That-I", meaning the Universe and I are the same. ie Thathwamasi

There are many more interpretations of this Chin Mudra  - ive just explained only one...

Bagawan is in the form of a Guru at Sabarimala doing Tapas - contemplating on self.

The word “Guru” is combination of two words Gu meaning Darkness and Ru meaning Light. So literally, Guru means “The Light that dispels darkness. That Light is Jyothi Swaroopam..

Let us  pray our Guruvin Guru Lord Ayyappa to shower His grace on us to enlighten us and give us the inner refinement