Where Beauty Meets Grace………
3 min read
By: Klinsa Kurian, Bureau Chief-ICN Kerala
Come December, it is truly the time for a spiritual journey which nourishes not only the spirit but also cleanses the mind. This spirit of oneness and goodness is truly and in fact prevalent in the southern part of India during this time.
All roads lead to this “Sanctum Sanctorum” and it is none other than “Sabarimala” which is located in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. It is one of the largest annual pilgrimages in the world that has a staggering number of roughly 60 million devotees paying their prayerful presence to the Lord Aiyyappa. This lord Aiyyappa is supposed to be the son of Lord Shiva and Mohini. Their order of worship is a rich blend of Shaivite, Shakti, Vaishnav and Sramana traditions. This temple is located on a hill which has a height of 480 metres above sea level and is surrounded by very thick and dense forests on all sides. It is a very ancient temple and the deity of Aiyappan is worshipped with great fervour and it is a common belief that a Prince from the famous Pandalam dynasty prayed for many days and attained divine power. This is the very spot in which the temple itself stands now.
This Sabarimala temple is one of the very few Sastha temples around India and the world. The Sastha temple in Sabarimala is one of the temples founded by Parasurama who is an avatar of Lord Vishnu. The Lord is depicted in two forms one being the vanaprastha or the renunciation and secondly as a makaravilaku, which refers to a lamp that is lit during devotion and worship Aiyappan pooja). Alongside this, there are other interesting stories of the temple. After the temple was fully constructed, there were not many devotees since the path was itself unreachable. There was a Prince named Manikandan from the Pandalam dynasty in the 9th century who charted out the way to reach the Sabarimala temple which was then rebuilt and it comes under the jurisdiction of Travancore now.
The main temple is built at a height of 40 feet. It has a gold plated roof and filials with a mandapam consisting of a flag staff. The main offering to the Lord is broken coconut. This pilgrimage to Sabarimala begins on the first day of the Malayalam year and ends on the 11th day of the following month. The whole duration of the pilgrimage is 41 days which is during the December-January period. The prasadam which is offered at the temple is the Aravana Payasam and Appam which is prepared with rice, ghee, sugar and jaggery. There is Harivarasanam being chanted at the temple every night. There is also the ritual of the Neyyabishekam (the pouring of sacred ghee brought by pilgrims in their Irumudi (a bag used by devotees to carry offerings). A red irumudi is used on a devotee’s maiden journey, followed by a blue one till the third year of pilgrimage, and finally the saffron-coloured one.
The final day of this two month long worship is the Makaravilakku day. This day is also commemorated as the day when the Lord Dharmasastra stops his chariot in order to bless his people. The devotees believe that a shining light emerges from the sky on this day. This is sent by Aiyappa himself in order to bless his devotees.
It is important that during the course of this spiritual journey, the devotees must live a completely strict life in all faith and humbleness, observe the 41 day vratham or fast and take a vegetarian diet, have control over their temper and grow their hair and nails, having a bath twice a day. Devotees climb up to the steep hills and trek all along the path till the Neeli Mala hills and finally Sabarimala. This brings them to the end of their glorious journey.
This, in brief is an account of the spiritual journey to the shrine of Lord Aiyappa. I cannot describe in words this ethereal world of belief that a devotee enjoys. It is only individual specific. But what I have heard from my Hindu acquaintances is that it is truly a “God-on-earth” kind of an experience. The degree of divineness felt varies from person to person. I am merely a theorist of this!
About Author
