1992 - Photograph of SPH with Arunai Nayaki Amman
| Archives of Sovereign Details | |
| Date/Year | 1992 |
| Origin of Item | Pushpa Samadhi |
| Item Type | Photograph |
| Item Dimensions | n/a |
| Item Material | Photograph |
| Age of SPH | 14 |
| Associated Guru | Vibhutananda Puri |
| Location | Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, South India |
| Role in the Revival of KAILASA | Worship of Arunai Nayaki Amman is a intimate part of SPH's worship of the divine feminine consciousness which He continues to do as a part of the revival of Vedic feminism as well as the deep sacred sentiments for worshipping the deities in their form |
| Associated Kingdom | Kailasa Paramparagatha Adi Arunachala Sarvajnapeetha Samrajyam |
In the divine scripture of the Arunachala Puranam, where the epic history of the happening of the embodiment of Paramashiva, Arunachala, in hill form is extolled, Arunai Nayaki Amman is mentioned as the army leader of Devi Parashakti when she came down to Planet Earth to slay the demon, Mahishasura. At this time, it was Arunai Nayaki Amman who slayed the demons who assisted and accompanied Mahishasura in his pursuit to poison and destroy humanity. She herself entirely organized the army of Devi Parashakti against his evil forces. To remember her victory and worship her until today, the Arunai Nayaki Amman temple was consecrated and is today one of the oldest temples in whole of Thiruvannamalai.
In around the year 1992, when He was only 14, His Divine Holiness completed a 48 day girivalam. He continuously walked around the Arunachala Hill, along with the classmates whom He inspired to follow Him as He completed His intense penance. Immediately after completing the 48th day, HDH declared to the blessed group of the very first volunteers of Kailasa that He was going to take up volunteering and offering alankharam in the Arunai Nayaki Amman temple.
He inspired and educated this fortunate group to research into the puranas about the historical significance of Arunai Nayaki Amman before starting. He then collected the funds to creatively and beautifully offer the alankharam for her and do the whole ritual with the most sincere devotion so that they will be graced with the true experience of connecting to Devi Parashakti.
Even 28 years later, Sampath, one of the members of the first group of volunteers who was able to witness HDH during this time, remembers these days as the most sacred moments of his life.
28 years later, Sampath, one of the members of the first group of volunteers who was able to witness HDH during this time, remembers these days as the most sacred moments of his life. The following is his sharing from that period in his life where he was blessed to interact closely with the Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism: the
Once, we came to know of one Arunai Nayaki amman temple – a temple dedicated to the Divine Mother. Since he (Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism) became an intense worshipper of Parashakti, we decided we should do decoration for that temple deity also. Just the previous day, we had completed a 48-day continuous circumambulation of the Arunachala Hill in Tiruvannamalai. He had told that we should do a 48-day circumambulation of the Hill. Forty-eight is considered to be one mandala (cycle). I agreed and somehow we completed it.
Once during those 48 days he said, ‘We should go and see Arunai Nayaki Amman.’ I was already familiar with that temple. There, there would be a lot of activities such as palm reading, bearing of fire pots, driving away ghosts with the beat of drums etc. When I used to see all that, not that I had fear, but I never used to like it. I expressed to him that I didn’t wish to go there. He asked, ‘Why do you see all that. Have you seen the deity inside?’ I said, ‘Yes, She will be very majestic and powerful.’ He said, ‘Then what is the problem. Let us go and see Her today.’ So we went. They used to do the decoration in a very majestic and perfect way. She is around five and a half feet tall in sitting position.
When we went and saw Her, he said he had the feeling he was meeting an old relative after a long time. I asked him if he was feeling like that because he was a worshipper of the Mother. He said, ‘No, it is a very deep feeling.’ He said we should do decoration for the Mother. I was shocked. We ourselves were only 4 feet tall. The deity was five and a half feet tall!
By that time itself, he had taught us all the methods of calculations: for this tall a deity, how much sandal paste is needed, how much foil decoration paper sheets are required, all these calculations we would do with the appropriate rates and immediately arrive at a total cost, say 100 rupees or 150 rupees. Then we would decide how much money each of us has and whether we should go for money collection outside. So we would have an idea: for this deity, how much it would cost, will we be able to do it etc.
For this particular deity, if we do the decoration and it doesn’t turn out well…we were a little apprehensive about the reaction of the temple priest. He was a very ferocious looking person with matted locks. Anyone he sees, he would utter only bad words to them first. Even if he wants to call anyone, he will first utter a few bad words and only then call that person! In this circumstances, we wondered if he would even allow us inside. But Swami said that we have to do decoration for that deity. So we said, ‘Alright you go in front and ask. We will all stand behind you.’ Then I remembered there is one man known to my father’s older brother and that we could ask through him. But Swami said that we can ask ourselves. We agreed. We all went and stood a little away watching Swami approach him.
He went straight up to him and fell at his feet! Immediately that man cooled down! Then he said to him, ‘Swami, we wish to do decoration for the Mother.’ That man looked at him for a moment and laughed. He asked him, ‘How tall are you and how tall is this deity? How will you do decoration?’ He replied, ‘No Swami. You can ask around. We have done decoration for this Ganesha temple here, that other temple there. We will do very nicely. We ourselves will spend money and do.’ The priest was the sort who liked to do things without much expense. Also he was not very keen about things like gathering a lot of people in the temple or organizing for palm reading or anything of that sort. He just thought: alright, these young boys are going to do decoration. It is getting done free of cost. That’s all. Then he asked, ‘When are you going to do the decoration?’ We said Friday. He said, ‘On Friday, there will be a lot of crowd. Will you finish on time?’ We said we will start in the morning itself. He said, ‘Friday is Full Moon day. I will offer turmeric powder holy bath to the deity.’ At that time, for every Full Moon day, they would offer turmeric powder holy bath. After 11 am, they would offer the regular holy bath. To finish it, it will take around two in the afternoon. He asked if we can start at 2 pm and finish quickly. We requested that he finished his work earlier than usual on that day alone. He said, ‘Alright, I will finish the holy bath by 8 am itself.’ By 9 am, he finished. We went in.
As soon as we go in, he would first see the deity. What happened on that occasion was, the day previous to the decoration day, he had a dream: Exactly how that deity will be without clothing, how Her body structure would be – came in the dream. When the priest gave permission to decorate, Swami became very happy and he said, ‘We should know more about Her. We should know what Her purpose is.’ I asked what for he wants to know all this. He said, ‘No, there is something in this deity. She is very powerful. All the temples we were doing decoration for till now were relatively new ones. This is the first ancient and powerful temple we are going to take up. We should know more about Her.’ I said alright and asked how to ask. He said he will talk to Kuppamma ayah and come.
Kuppamma ayah said, ‘In order to kill the devil Mahishasura who represents the human ego, in the sacred chant - Devi Mahatmyam – the Mother comes to Tiruvannamalai. It is here in this temple that he was killed by Her.’ At that time, Arunai Nayaki Amman came as Mother’s army leader. Mahishasuran’s right hand general in the army was an evil person. His name is mentioned in the chant - Arunachala Puranam (verses depicting the story of Arunachala). Arunai Nayaki Amman is said to have killed him. There is also a statue of that man lying crushed beneath Her feet in the temple.
As soon as he heard this and saw the statue of that man, he spun into action. In both our houses there was only the new version of the Arunachala puranam. He said, ‘This is the new version. It has been released only some twenty or thirty years back. We need the older version.’ He said that the older version was with Kuppamma ayah and he went and brought that book. We read page by page. Only in that book, there were two extra lines that said She was Mother’s army leader and She killed that particular evil person. In the newer version, it was just mentioned that She was in the war. But in this version, it was clear. He read it and said, ‘See, we are going to do decoration for such a great lady!’
He made me understand that if I went into the real significance of the deity and then did the decoration, the impact will be entirely different. He would say, ‘Generally if we go and do the decoration, we won’t know the impact of it. Now after this knowledge if we go, we will know Her power. Now you will know how powerful, how significant She is, how important She is.’ When he said all these things, I used to get gooseflesh… I used to be engulfed with the feeling: She is so powerful. She is so great. We are going to actually touch Her and do the decoration. Do we have the qualification? Do we belong to such a qualified caste? Because in those times there were rules that only certain people from certain communities can touch certain deities. When it was like that, how is it that we were going to do it for Her? When these thoughts came up, our sincerity for the job increased.
We decided we should do things in a very neat way. We decided: we should not eat or drink even water when we are doing the decoration. We should buy fresh and clean things for the decoration. We should ourselves sit and grind the sandal into paste. All these thoughts started forming within. With this inspiration when I slept, the form of the deity, how She was seated in the battlefield, how Her structure was beneath the clothing - that form appeared in my dream as well! I have never seen the deity like that ever. With the total inspiration when I went to sleep, this form appeared, the night before the decoration. When I woke up in the morning, I wondered: this form seems to be Arunai Nayaki amman’s form, but I have seen Her differently at the temple with Her usual adornment. Then I thought, because of the devotion I had towards Her, maybe She gave this kind of an appearance to me. With that mood I went for the decoration. Meanwhile he also seemed to have had different visions of Her. We met and at 9 am we entered the temple with all the things for the decoration.
We had collected nearly 400 rupees. With just 400 rupees, you will be surprised how many things we could get at that time for decoration! When we removed the clothing and saw the form, both of us got a shock. For a minute, the rise of emotions was too much. It is an unforgettable moment in our lives. Whatever we saw in the dream, the exact form was there! My devotion towards Her increased a lot. I felt we should do things with tremendous sincerity for Her and that She was really sitting there, very powerful. For him, it was more than that. He had seen more than that. He said, ‘Last night, She spoke to me. I saw Her.’ He then prostrated in front of Her. Then he said, ‘She is really sitting here. Do things sincerely for Her. Don’t have any other thought. When you do the decoration, let your total concentration be here.’
All this can be taught only by a mature Guru. How to pray to God. How to tread the path of devotion etc. Normally at home, what we pray, it is different. But how does a real devotee pray to God? One should sincerely imagine that the deity is really there and pray with that mood. Only then will the real impact be got. At that time, this happened in us naturally itself - how to pray, how to offer puja, how to do decoration etc. That incident was a very powerful one.
We did the decoration very sincerely. We started at 9 am and finished at 6 pm without even drinking water in between. It was my first experience of that kind. After the decoration was done, even that priest was surprised. He said that even trained temple priests will not do in such a fashion. That was the first time we were doing an entire face with sandal paste. Till then we had done only for Ganesha (elephant God). And for Him, on the face there will be two tusks. However you do the sandal decoration, it will not change the look. But for Mother, you need to work well to bring out the facial features.
The priest was very pleased with our skill. He took a big plate, kept bananas, apples, sweet lime, all that had come as offering that day, asked everyone to sit, picked up some flowers, blessed us and gave it to us. Then he told us that any special decoration in the temple thereafter, we should only do.