Kailashanathar Temple at Kanchipuram

Last week I had been to Kanchipuram and visited some temples which I had not visited in my earlier visits.

The most interesting one was Kailashanathar temple. This temple complex is under Archaeological Survey of India. It is situated slightly outside the town. The temple opens at 9 A.M like an office. All temples under the control of ASI ( Darasuram temple near Kumbhakonam, Avinashi temple near Erode) have the same timings.

When I saw the temple first, I felt as though the Mahabalipuram temple had been lifted and placed there. The difference is that the entire temple is made of sand stone. So one can see the heavy wear and tear of all sculptures due to the weather. ASI are patching those damages with some lime mortar mixtures. In spite of all, one can never miss the beauty of this Pallava architecture.

There are two Shiva lingams in this temple. The mythological story is that these were worshiped by Lord Vishnu and Muni Naradha. The lingams are unique . They have sixteen faces,each representing one kala and not circular. The lingam with Avudai is made of pure black granite. It is shining without a drop of oil and looks grand. There is a belief that doing parikrama inside the temple is equivalent to doing parkrama of mount Kailash. For doing this, one has to crawl through a small hole in the wall and come out through another hole.

The outer prakaram is full of beautiful sculptures.  People visiting Kanchi should include this temple also.

America on wheels museum,

On our way to Vraj , we visited the America on Wheels museum at Allentown, PA. There is good collection of various cars produced in USA. They are all old and older models, giving us the idea of evolution of automobiles. The oldest model exhibited, had been manufactured in1904!. The head lamps are oil wick lamps made of brass. It was interesting to note that electric car was made in 1917, as the people were not liking petrol cars. There were single seat cars, that look like Go-carting vehicles. The designers of those days had toyed with the idea of strong wooden axles.









Car with wooden axle

Another interesting exhibit is a complete railway station along with a park and buildings. The entire thing is constructed with LEGO bits. This exhibit was displayed by a group of LEGO enthusiasts. The interiors of the building and the rail-coach were full of details.


 

 

 

Temples near New Jersey

Recently I had the opportunity of visiting two temples in the New Jersey area. The first one is Sri Ranganatha temple at Pamona, New York. I got the nice feeling when I had the darshan of Sri Ranganatha Perumal. Inside the temple , I felt as though I was in a Tamilnadu temple. All idols (moola murthis) are of black granite and look very grand.It being the markazhi month, there was chanting of Thiruppavai. Another unique thing in this temple is that there is no ticket for anything, whether it is an archanai or kalyana utsavam. Everything is donation  as one likes (yatha sakti). The temple gives typical prasadams of Venpongal, akkaravatisal and curd rice. There is no cafeteria food, as in most of the N.American temples. Of course you can have more details in their website http://www.ranganatha.org/ .

 

 

 The second one is Srinathji temple at Vraj, Schuylkill Haven, PA. The temple is managed by Pushti Margiya Vaishnav Samaj Of North America. This temple replicates the traditions followed by the temple at Srinathdwara. The idol of Srinathji is small but the temple provides binoculars to the devotees to have a close look of the idol.Again this temple does not have cafeteria but all are provided with Maha Prasad - conventional Gujarati food with puri, shak, bath, kadi and sweet. They entertain second helping. If you are going as a big group ,they want advance information for providing you the Prasad! More details can be had http://vraj.org/ .

 

 

 

Avudaiyar Koil

I went to Avudaiyar koil some months ago and I am sharing the impressions.

 

This temple is unique, as the lingam( Athmanathar) does not have the top portion and only the base (avudai) is there. The lingam at sanctum sanctorum is shown with a metallic cylinder which is hollow, This represents the all prevading Atma , hence the presiding deity is known as Atmanathar.This top cylinder is removed once in a year, when the public can see the formless.

The temple was built by Manickavasakar, who was the minister of  Arimardhana Pandyan.

 

The temple is renowned for its special architecture and sculptures. The temple is famous for its stone canopies, which appears to be made of timber, with its tie-bars and nails. One can see the damage caused by the Englishman , who did not believe that the canopy is carved out of granite. There are two holes caused by the bullets.

 

 

 

 

In one of the mandapams, there are sculptures of horsemen, each of them attired in different costumes, including an Arab dress. One should know the story behind the temple to appreciate this feature. Manikavasakar was asked to get high breed horses by the king . But being devotee of Shiva,   he  built the  temple with the money given for the purchase of horses.

               

All the temple festivals are mainly for Manikavasakar and Atmanathar is included. The temple is near Aranthangi, in Pudukottai district of Tamilnadu.

Sadhana chatushya Sampati- Pramanam

All spiritual persons know that to get the Jnanam, one should be a sadhaka. Just wishing to become a Jnani, one cannot get the Jnanam. He should have the requisite qualifications, to be a sadhaka. These qualifications are listed by various Acharyas, which is known as Sadhana chatushtaya sampati. The four qualifications for a sadhaka are 1) viveka 2) Vairagyam 3) shamadi shatka Sampati 4) Mumukshutvam.

These are given very clearly in Tattva Bodha.  What is the base reference (pramanam) in sruti?  These are referred in Brhadaranyaka Upanishad. This Upanishad occurs in Yajur Veda at two places 1) in Kaanva Shaka and 2) in Maadyaandika Shaka. There are small differences in slokas of the Upanishad in the two shakas. The sloka, which refers to the Sadhana chatushtaya sampati, gives only five of the shatka sampati (3^rd qualification). In one shaka it refers to shama, dama, uparati, titiksha, and sraddha. In the other shaka, the reference is made to shama, dama, uparati, titiksha and samadhanam. The acharyas have taken both sraddha and samadhanam and given six sadhanas

Classifications in Sanatana Dharma (Hindu Philosophy) Part 3

Let us see the classifications of the human beings. The entire population has been classified into four groups (varnas) based on their nature of work. They are Brahmana, Kshtriya, Vysya and Shutra. Brahmanas study the scriptures and take care of the religious functions. They pass on their knowledge to their disciples and preserve the tradition. Kshtriyas are the leaders of the society and they offer protection to the community. Vysyas are the backbone of the society’s economy. They engage themselves in producing, buying, transporting and selling of goods. Shutras are the group of people who help all of them in their activities. These classifications were made in order to have a smooth functioning of the society and all groups were considered equal and essential.

The qualities in each individual are classified into three- Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. In simple terms, sattva guna binds a person to knowledge and humble nature, rajas binds one to passion and action and tamas binds to inaction and submissiveness.  All gunas are present in each and every person in varying degrees.  Predominantly, Brahmanas have sattvic guna, Kshtriyas and Vysyas have rajasic guna and Shutras are with tamasic guna. In present day world, A Brahmin by birth may have rajasic nature in helping others  (Kshtriya nature) but he may be doing business (Vysya by profession). Similarly it can be in any combination! In a single day,  for some hours one can be sattvic, after that he can become tamasic, and again his nature may be ruled by rajasic.

Raghurajpur-Centre of Odissi traditional art

Recently I visited Odisha with my friends. We had a memorable trip, thanks to the excellent arrangement done by Odisha tourism.

We were cautioned by my friends that Puri Jagannath temple is infested with pestering pundits. But Odisha tourism had arranged with the head priest of the temple. We (8 members) had no problem in having the darshan of the Lord. We spent more than 20 minutes in the sanctum sanctorum. They also showed us the great kitchen, containing nearly 600 chulas, for the preparation of prasadam. Puri is considered to be the Bhog place for Lord. There is no offering of prasadam by individuals here, but can contribute for the bhog in the temple. We were given lots of Khaja (sweet prasadam) from the temple.

 While going to Bhubaneswar from Puri, we had the opportunity of visiting Raghurajpur, the village that is still preserving the traditional odissi art of palm leaf painting. Our driver took us to the house of master craftsman. He demonstrated to us the art of drawing on palm leaf. He took less than a minute to draw the image of Ganesha.

Then he applied black dye prepared from some leaf. He told that this dye is water- resistant and the picture on the palm leaf can be wiped with wet cloth. There were a number of paintings on palm leaves, which are stitched together and can be folded. He was teaching this art to some students. He also paints on tussar silk cloth and the dyes for this are made from various coloured rocks available in that region. We all purchased few art pieces.

 Anyone visiting Puri, should visit Raghurajpur