SRIKALAHASTHI AND THE BREAKING OF THE COCONUT

          When I had booked tickets for me and my son to go to Tirupathi, in a conducted tour, I did not know that we were to be taken to #Kalahasthi temple also.

          Only after returning from Tirupathi, some persons in the bus started talking about whether to go to Kalahasthi or to return to Coimbatore, because it was already very hot.  From the discussion only I came to know that Kalahasthi was a Siva Temple.  Somewhere during my school days, I should have read it, but had not cared to remember it for the details. 

          Then when we reached Kalahasthi, the Guide gave us a brief about the temple premises, that it was known as RaghuKethuSthala and that we should take care to note the gate through which we were entering so that we will return by the same gate to return to the bus.

          On going inside, I saw a board ‘Patala Ganapathy’.  Lord Ganesa Idol was kept in a tunnel more than 20-25 feet below ground level for which there was a window like entry.  One had to crawl through it and then take steps down.  There was a board saying that only 10 people at a time should enter.  But since there was no one around to state whether there were 10 people inside, we had to wait for the persons to come out.  On entering there, I felt even the number 10 was too much.  Because only 3 persons could stand in the place (where the deity was kept) and only one could climb up or down at a time. 

          After coming out and while standing in the queue to have darshan of the main deity, Siva or Kalathinathar, I saw a statue in a sitting posture, with a lot of decoration, to which pooja was being conducted.  I did not remember that it was a Thursday, and hence did not immediately realize it was Dhakshinamurthy, the south facing aspect of Siva.  But a painting above that idol caught my attention.  It was the painting of #kannappanayanar.  

         On seeing that painting, suddenly there were tears in my eyes.  I did not understand the reason.  This painting I have seen in many other Siva Temples also.  But there was some great emotion surging in me, which I could not understand.  When the queue started moving, I also started moving, pushing aside the emotion. 

          After worshiping at the altar of the main deity, when I came across a statue of a king like person with a Siva Linga before that, there again I felt the same surge of emotions and tears were flowing from my eyes.  I restrained myself and then came across an inscription there that it was the statue of Kannappa nayanar.  I thought that it was some king because in my mind Kannappa nayanar was only a hunter.  Then I noticed that it was also written there that it was at that place that kannappa nayanar had worshiped the Lord.  Again I became emotional.  Then I told my son that the statue was that of Kannappa nayanar.  He did not know who it was.  When I started telling him the ‘story’, he remembered it to some extent.  (His second language was Hindi).  As I described him the ‘story’, when I said, Siva came and said ‘Kannappa Stop’, my voice chocked, eyes brimmed again and I could not complete the words. 

I could not understand these emotions.  It was all purely illogical.  I have not given much thought to that ‘story’ of Kannappar.  I can never accept that one would pluck one’s own eyes, that too if a stone was seen bleeding.  Then to attempt to pluck the other one too would be pure madness.  It could not have happened.  That is how my rational mind still thinks. 

But after returning, I read the verses related to Kannappa Nayanar in the #PeriyaPuranam.  

A child called Thinnan was born to Nagan and Thathai after they worshiped Lord Muruga or Subramaniya because they did not have a child for a very long time.  Nagan was the chief of the hunter-tribe of that area.  After Thinnan took over from his father, he came across the siva linga at Kalahasthi and became very emotional and attached towards it (him).  He felt that the Lord was unprotected there from wild beasts of the forest.  So he undertook to take guard.  He found that the Lord was made to starve because there was no trace of any meat provided to him.  So Thinnan, a hunter and who primarily had meat of different animals as his food, could not understand how the Lord could be left hungry without meat.  So he went to prepare meat, ensured that they were tasty by tasting them in his own mouth first and then with water in his mouth, flowers on his tuft, bow and arrow in one hand and the tested and tasted prepared meat on a leaf in another hand, he proceeded to the Siva linga and after sweeping away the flowers decked around the linga by someone else with his chappal clad feet, spat on the linga (conducted purification with water from his mouth),  placed the meat before the linga and decked it with flowers kept in his tuft.  He stood guard throughout the night and with day break, again went for hunting and for preparation of food for his Lord.  He started preparing meat with honey also liberally showered on them so that it will be more sweet and tasty. 

   In the morning, Sivakosariyar, the Brahmin priest who used to worship the same Linga with flowers came and was aghast at seeing meat and bones strewn around his Lord. Cleaning them away, he again poured water on the Linga, worshiped him with flowers and fruits and left.

  In the meanwhile, the other hunters reported the matter of madness of Thinnan to his father.  His father and mother came and tried to take him away.  He refused and stayed back, to protect his deity.

The alternative methods of worship by both these persons continued for some time.  Sivakosariyar was very much disturbed that someone was coming and desecrating his Lord with non-vegetarian stuff.  [After all ‘saiva' meaning 'vegetarian' was itself getting derived from Siva].  So how is the Lord permitting someone to desecrate his premises with such unholy stuff?  He was very much disturbed with these events.  One night, the Lord appeared to the Brahmin in his dream and asked him to be present at the place and watch who was doing it so that he will understand.

As the Brahmin hid himself behind some trees, Thinnan came with his preparations for worship as usual. Then, he saw that one of the eyes of the Lord had started bleeding.  He thought someone had hurt the Lord.  On not being able to find anyone or anything around which could have possibly hurt the Lord, he started trying to cure the wound with some herbal medicines.  (That the Brahmin could not be traced by a hunter is a puzzle to my logical mind).  Then when the wound did not heal and blood continued flowing, he remembered that healing could be done by replacement.  (OonukkuOon).  So he scooped out his own eye with his arrow and placed it on the bleeding eye of the Lord.  The bleeding stopped and Thinnan was exported to the heaven with ecstasy.  He wept with joy and jumped between heaven and earth, that he had been able to cure the Lord’s ailment.  Then the other eye started bleeding.  Thinnan now knew the cure.  So he decided to replace that eye also with his remaining other eye.  But how will he replace it? So to identify the spot he touched the eye of the Lord with his chappal clad feet and was about to scoop out his other eye with his arrow, when the Lord caught hold of his hand saying, ‘Stop Kannappa’. 

*******

This ‘story’ I had felt, was only a treatise regarding how the Lord does not discriminate between his devotees, whether they were vegetarians or not and whatever method of worship is involved.

But the emotions that gushed through me at Srikalahasthi, have made me understand that it was ‘love’ for the Lord himself, deep and unadulterated, which is the fundamental of the so called story. 

And the coconut breaks – it may not have been a story after all.  That was the reason that the emotions were still around.  The emotion of true love - gushing out in the form of tears.

For, what logic does enable us to understand how lush green life emanates out of ‘mundane earth’?