Thiruvannamalai, Panchabootha Sthalam

Faith Mysticism

-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 18:02

An air of mysticism wraps one unmistakably as one sets his feet in Thiruvannamalai. The place where serenity sings a silent tune imposing itself strongly on all who embarked on a spiritual journey there. A place where religion, rituals and spirituality are available respectively to discerning aspirants.

The Legend

Thiruvannamalai is one of the Panchabootha Sthalams or the temple representing fire of the five elements. The place houses one of the largest temple in India for Lord Shiva. Shiva over here is not only enshrined within the sanctum of the temple as Arunachaleshwara, but also also appears as the mighty mystic hill called 'Annamalai' amidst the hustle bustle of the small yet the sleepy town. The holy hill is said to have stood the passage of time rather yugas. It was a Mount of fire in the Krutha Yuga, Mount of ruby in Thredha Yuga, Mount Of gold in Dwapara Yuga and the present rocky hill during this Kali Yuga. Goddess Parvati is worshipped as Unnamulai Amman or Apeethakuchambal.

Legend has its say that the aspect of Lingodbhava, a form of Shiva who represents a column of fire originated here. Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu over an argument of their supremacy tried to in vain to find the beginning and the end of the column of fire assumed by Lord Shiva thereby submitting to His cosmic pervasiveness. The column of fire (Lord Shiva) is said to have then taken a form of a hill to be ever present to the longing eyes of the devotees. A beacon is lit on the hill on every Karthigai Deepam day to commemorate the age old legend.

A most noteworthy aspect of the legend is that Goddess Parvati is claimed to have occupied the right half of the Lord's body here. Hence the form of Ardhanareeshwara.

The story of Vallala Maharaja in association with Lord Arunachaleshwara is heart rending. The king, an ardent devotee of the Lord prayed fervently to be blessed by a son as he was childless. The Lord pleased with His prayers assured that He himself would be His son. True to His words the lord is said to have performed the last rites of the Maharaja on his death; a event that is still followed on Masi Makha, the death anniversary of this king in this temple.

Symbolic Representation

The Lord is said to have manifested with thousand legs and arms, bearing His Pinaka bow, clothed in the hide of an elephant, with the sun, moon and fire as his three eyes and bearing His trishul when Lord Brahma and Vishnu prayed to Him after realizing the futility in trying to find His origin and end. The Lord is said to have explained the emergence of the both the deities from His form and that they were separated individually in three different forms of the divine, yet the essence being the same.

The above mentioned words of Lord Shiva is in fact a reminder of one's emergence or manifestation from the all perversive supreme consciousness yet bearing the essence of the same though different in form. The realization of the fact leads one to enlightenment. The foresaid form of Shiva represents the Lord's omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence.

Read about the Spiritual potency, Ashtalingam, Girivalam on the Next Page