Madurai Meenakshi Temple
I reached Madurai the next evening after my Srirangam trip was completed. I reached Madurai just in time for the evening Darshan. I bought a huge garland made of flowers and herbs,a coconut,two bananas and a packet of Haldi and Kumkum each as was the usual custom for making offering to the Goddess Meenakshi. Sadly photography was not allowed, so I wasn't able to take photos that was taken for granted in the Srirangam temple. The queue wasn't as big as Srirangam temple, so the Darshan was completed relatively faster.But I was in for a cultural shock - the pilgrims were not allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum, instead the the gates were fenced off and offerings had to be made on the tray kept over a raised stone platform outside the fence. The priests standing there collected the offerings and asked the pilgrims to circumambulate the sanctum sanctorum from outside through the corridor and reenter through anther gate.Then one by one the offerings were made to Our Lady of Madurai - Meenakshi Amma.The ritual was to crush the coconut while chanting mantras in a form of bloodless sacrifice and offering the crushed coconut as sacrament to the pilgrim along with the bananas and Haldi and Kumkum powder after asking his/her name and gotra.The usual Charanamritam or Panchamritam was missing.
I decided to spend time in the corridor for the rest of the evening. I was mesmerised by seeing the sculptures in the forecourt of the sanctuary where the Nandi statue was.The most stunning was the one with Lord Vishnu arranging the marriage of Lady Meenakshi and Lord Sundareshwar.
The sculptures in the corridor were also majestic - they were mostly allegorical creatures depicting a religious truth or royal history.The entire ceiling was covered in paintings of Gods,Goddesses and Apsaras. The most noticeable of course was the one depicting the marriage of Lady Meenakshi and Lord Sundareshwar, popularly known as Amma and Swamy.
Various cymatic patterns were also painted, denoting inaudible sacred mantras.The entire length of the stone floor in the corridor surrounding the sanctum sanctorum was covered with Rangoli,again denoting inaudible mantras.
I circumambulated the Nandi statue 7 times and walked down the hall and corridor admiring the larger than life superb artworks.
The illuminated parts of the temple were full of breathtaking beauty but there were a few dark areas too. One particular spot was a gateway adjacent to the sales counters within the sanctuary. It looked ominous with lot of Bats flying and nesting !
Bats are not associated with any Deity in our religion and their presence in the gateway of the sanctuary is outright sacrosanct.
I appeal to the temple authorities to immediately drive the bats away and renovate the gateway.
I also feel that the shabby looking sales counters should be placed outside the sanctuary and not inside just like the Srirangam Sriranganathaswamy temple - world's largest temple.
The only birds/animals associated with Lady Meenakshi are green parrots. Parrots are welcome in the temple premises -not Bats.
I saw some pigeons nesting in another gateway, but they can somehow be accepted in the temple premises because for millenia pigeons have been royal messengers and they are universally accepted as symbol of peace - of course the tradition started in ancient Bharat Varsha and spread throughout the world.
I moved on and reached in front of the Lord Sundareshwar sanctuary and saw a curious signboard that read "Golden Tower view",but I couldn't find the tower or the way to view it.So I asked a temple employee and he directed me to a Brass Lotus carving on the floor and asked me to stand on it and look through the ventilator and Lord, I saw the magnificent Golden Vimana shining in the night sky - as if floating in mid air. I must appreciate the ingenious engineering skills of the ancient architect, who devised it.
After that I decided to spend time by the famous Pushkarini with a golden lotus and passed through the painted corridor and sat down on the steps leading to the water. A cool breeze was blowing and I was enjoying the view of the temple towers. Then something unexpected happened - I was bitten by dozens of mosquitoes. What in the Lord's name mosquitoes are doing in the holy sanctuary ?
They clearly disturbed my peace of mind and I went to the forecourt of the sanctuary to comfort myself.
I must say that the money wise temple authorities - this is supposed to be one of the richest temples in the world,are not bothered about the welfare of the pilgrims and are negligent about their duty. Our ancient religion - the oldest surviving to be exact, had devised ways to keep out disturbing insects from holy places and purify the environment and documented them in the world's oldest literature called Rigveda. Some of them are -
Homam with Durba grass
Agnihotra Homam
Atiratra Yaga
Ganesha Homam with Durba grass
Agnihotra Homam -the complete set
Atiratra Yaga - the set
Atiratra Yaga -The Garuda alter
The Rigvedic Atiratra Yaga - Lord Agni in all His glory
A very important point to note here is that the Atiratra Yaga cannot be performed in the temple premises, it has to be performed on the banks of the nearby Vaigai river - it will purify the river water also.
I request the temple authorities to immediately organize the above mentioned Homam and Yaga for the welfare of the pilgrims, the local population and the environment.
As I came to the forecourt of the sanctuary I saw a ritual being performed as a closing ceremony for the evening.
The ritual enacts the celestial marriage between Lady Meenakshi and Lord Sundareshwar - symbolising the cosmic union of Shiva and Shakti.It is important to mention the history of this divine marriage. Please don't be fooled by the official date - the actual marriage took place in Mahabharat times. The king of Madurai Malayadhwaja Pandya and his queen Kanchanmala had no children, so they performed the Putrakameshthi Yagnya as per Vedic law to obtain a Magic child. The ritual was successful and the queen gave birth to the child in due course. But to everyone's astonishment the child was a girl with three breasts. As soon as the child was born a voice prophesied that this child would conquer the world and then marry Lord Shiva and with it her anomalous third breast would disappear.The prophesy also asked the king and queen to bring up the child in the manner of a male warrior. She was named Meenakshi and accordingly trained as a warrior and she set out to conquer the world and at Kailash she won Lord Shiva's heart too and as prophesied her third breast disappeared. Lord Vishnu played the matchmaker and the divine couple got married on the banks of the Vaigai river in Madurai.Two Magic children were born to her - today we know them as Lord Ganesha and Lord Kartikeya.
This version is similar to the one we find in the Mahabharat, which says that the Goddess Parvati won the world and Lord Shiva's heart through her rigorous penance.The Mahabharat mentions her as the divine Mother of the world - Jaganmata.
The Madurai Meenakshi Temple was built on that holy spot and even today the sacred marriage is enacted in the temple in ritual called Tirukalyanam.
As you can see the Lord's image is carried in palanquin from His sanctuary to Her's, just as a bridegroom would be from his house to the bride's house, accompanied by musicians and peacock's feather bearers.It was an awesome sight to behold.The ceremony ended at around 9:30 PM,the temple was about to close for the day and I decided to come back the next morning for visiting the Lord Sundareshwar sanctuary.I came out of the temple and started walking down the road and all of a sudden a poor little girl came to me and pleaded with me to buy some maps she was selling. I already had such a map and so felt very sad for the poor child. She was speaking in Tamil,which I didn't understand at all,so I composed myself and asked her in English, if she liked coconut and gave her the sacramental coconut I had.She went away happily and I felt happy to have fed a hungry child in an act of piety in the darkness of the night. I knew the Lord was watching.
The next morning was more eventful than the previous evening. I worshipped Lord Sundareshwar as per custom and set out to explore the temple in bright daylight.
In one corner of the corridor I saw an elevated shrine dedicated to the sacred marriage of Lady Meenakshi and Lord Sundereshwar. An elaborate ceremony was performed and the sacred figurines were ritually married accompanied by mantras and devotional music.I walked down the corridor and saw pilgrims light oil lamps before every shrine along the corridor. Some of the pillars had Deities carved into them and the pilgrims worshipped the deities by smearing the Deities with Haldi and Kumkum and lighting oil lamps.The Goddess Meenakshi is known as a universal mother and her fertility cult had been widespread for millenia. I saw lot of women bring their newborn for the blessing of the Goddess.One of the most popular shrines is the one depicting the Goddess in her three breasted form symbolising her miraculous ability to nurture her devotees especially women.I saw devotees fall prostrate before her in the manner of Sastang Pranam.
A variant of the Miracle Mother statue found in the forecourt of the Meenakshi sanctuary
The corridor also had numerous Shiva Lingams and shrines dedicated to Deities and saints.It was like walking down the streets of heaven with painted ceiling, sculpted pillars and sweet smelling incense everywhere. I circumambulated the sanctuary along the magical corridor several times,but still couldn't get enough of it.
At the back of the Nandi Shrine facing the Holy of Holies were the majestic Tandava sculptures on a raised platform. Lord Shiva and Lady Bhadrakali both doing their respective Tandava dance - basically a cosmic allegory of creation and destruction in a never ending cycle.An elaborate ritual was underway,wherein a priest bathed both statues with holy water and then applied holy ash to the Lord's entire sculpture and dressed Him in white silk garment.Then he applied Haldi and Kumkum paste to the entire sculpture of the Goddess. The devotees offered small butter balls to Her which was again applied to her entire sculpture. The priest then decorated her head with gold leaves and dressed her in bright red silk saree. The ritual with the Goddess was nearly an hour longer than it was for the Lord - I sat down on the Stone floor to capture the true essence of the ritual. It was strikingly similar to how Clay artists of Kolkata prepare the statues of Goddess Kali, Durga and their entourage during the Pujas. The only difference being the temple statue is permanent whereas the Clay statues are temporary and are immersed in the Ganga river after the Pujas are over.Now let me explain it to you as to why the temple statues are treated this way. The chemical reaction of Haldi,Kumkum and butter protects the stone statues from erosion - the heat from the oil lamps lit at the feet of the statues works as a catalyst helping the essential minerals to absorb into the stone.It is for this reason that the statues have remained intact for centuries and their polish have not faded either - trust me, it is a Vedic formula for eternal youth and immortality.
The shrine I visited next was dedicated to Lord Ganesha.Lord Ganesha's reputation as Shiddhi Vinayaka or giver of miraculous power places him at the very entry to the Pradakshina corridor through which the pilgrims enter Lord Sundereshwar sanctuary - you don't attain Lord Sundereshwar before receiving the blessing of Lord Ganesha.
I came towards the Pushkarini and started walking down the corridor surrounding it. I saw many paintings and sculptures that I missed the previous evening. It was a magical place indeed.
It was already past Noon and I was feeling hungry, so I bought the delicious Prasadam from the counter situated on the corridor itself and decided to leave. I reached near the west tower exit and had the surprise of my life.The previous evening I didn't notice that the temple had a museum too. So off went my hunger, I rushed to the museum. On the way I saw a huge sacred Kadamba tree - the temple Sthalabriksham, on whose branches were tied little yellow coloured wooden cradles with a child that looked like Lord Krishna.These cradles are the votive offerings from the pilgrims following the millenia old tradition of fertility rites dedicated to Goddess Meenakshi.
I circumambulated the sacred Kadamba tree and saw that at the base of the tree there were many Shiva Lingams and a Lord Ganesha statue. The pilgrims anointed all the statues with Haldi and Kumkum and lit oil lamps as per custom.
The Kadamba flower - symbol of fertility
After worshipping the tree and the Deities I moved forward and entered the museum,and found to my surprise that the Thousand pillar hall is incorporated within the museum.At the center of the hall I saw a huge statue of Lord Shiva in Nataraja form accompanied by Goddess Parvati. I realised that it was still very much a part of the temple where active worship was still carried out. Actually the Thousand pillar hall had been renovated and part of it had been converted into a museum. The original stone flooring was replaced with modern tiles and some electric lighting were added but that didn't take away it's ancient charm.
As I stood facing the Lord's statue the entire hall as if came to life. The thosand pillars seemed like sentinels watching over the pilgrims. Most of the pillars had sculpted figures - some allegorical creatures, some Apsaras,Gandharvas,Yaksha &Yakshi and of course other Deities. There were fabulous ancient paintings and ivory figurines of kings & queens and dancers and amorous couples.A large part of the museum was dedicated to ancient bronze figurines of Gods and Goddesses that were once worshipped in that very temple - in fact they are still venerated to this day. The difference between a temple museum and a foreign museum like the Louvre is that the statues displayed in the Louvre are no longer venerated as their ancient religion is dead, whereas we continue to worship the same ancient Gods & Goddesses that are displayed in the temple museum for spreading cultural awareness and creating nostalgia for our glorious history.Even though the figurines were kept inside glass cases they seemed to be alive very much like the statues that were actively worshipped in the sanctuary. The Deities were still blessing the pilgrims from inside the glass cases as our Dharma is still alive and will continue to be so until Kalki Avatar comes and starts a new epoch.
An important thing to notice here is the androgynous sculpture depicted in one of the central pillars.It is actually a representation of Ardhanishwar - part man, part woman. It can represent Lord Shiva and Lady Meenakshi at the same time.I think you know that Lord Shiva is called Ardhanishwar because He had raised the Kundalini Shakti - the miraculous feminine energy latent in the male body at the base of the spine. On the other hand the Kundalini Shakti in the female body manifests itself as miraculous male energy when awakened. Our Lady of Madurai, Goddess Meenakshi raised her Kundalini Shakti as per divine decree and so she gained masculine power that turned Her into the warrior Goddess.It was only after confronting Lord Shiva that her feminine nature returned symbolised by the falling off of the third breast. I think the sculptor who made the statue was a devotee with raised Kundalini Shakti. Our country is full of ancient temples with similar statues - all dealing with raised Kundalini Shakti. It has been described in the Rigveda as Purusha and Prakriti - the cosmic union of Shiva and Shakti.
The Kundalini Shakti is graphically shown here. It starts the journey from the Muladhar Chakra and crosses Swadhishthan Chakra, Manipura Chakra, Anahat Chakra, Vishuddhi Chakra, Agna Chakra and reaches Shahasrara Chakra giving miraculous power and Moksha to the devotee. The Third Eye of Lord Shiva is his Kundalini Shakti empowered Agna Chakra.
The Madurai Meenakshi temple is indeed magical - even after spending an entire evening and morning I still couldn't get enough of it. There were still lot of things yet to be explored.The memory of Madurai Meenakshi temple lingered on as I left for my next destination Rameshwaram.A strange melancholy overwhelmed me - Goddess Meenakshi had captivated me.
NB : To know more about the mystery of Madurai Meenakshi temple please follow the blogs by the brilliant researcher Santanam Swaminathan
https://tamilandvedas.com/2013/09/29/the-wonder-that-is-madurai-meenakshi-temple/
To know more about the scientific aspects of Agnihotra Homam please follow the blogs by the brilliant researcher Ajit Vadakayil
http://ajitvadakayil.blogspot.com/2012/08/agnihotra-ghee-cow-dung-fuel-capt-ajit.html
All the photos and videos used in this blog are copyrighted materials taken from YouTube and other sites.
To be continued in third part ...
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