Navaratri - Day 8 - Evening
October 14, 2008
One of the advantages of going back to a place like Kanchipuram over and over is that you get to know the place and develop some real attachments to some of the various temples. This last evening we visited one of my favorites; a Shiva temple where, as the story goes, Vishnu came after the episode of the churning of the ocean of milk. In that story, the gods wanted to become immortal so they had to churn the ocean of milk with the help of the demons. They used Mount Mandara as the churn, and Vasuki, a divine snake, as the rope. But they needed something to rest the mountain on so that it would turn. Vishnu assumed the form of a giant turtle (Kurma Avatara).
But afterwards he needed Shiva’s help to remove that form and return to his normal form. So he came to this spot and make a simple sand lingam to which he performed puja and Shiva came to help him out. The sand lingam is preserved in the main sanctum. In the image above you can seen a representation of the story.
At this same temple there are a number of shiva lingams sitting outside in their own areas.
And this is also the temple that has the beautiful pipal tree under which there are hundreds of Rahu/Ketu vigrahas. It was interesting to note that since we did a big yagya here some months back and completely cleaned the area, it seems to be much better maintained and more frequently visited. I like to think that we have had a positive influence in the temple!
Finally, before returning for Lalitha Sahasranam, we visited the main Subramanyam temple that sits between the Kamakshi goddess temple and the Ekambeshwara Shiva temple. The funny story behind this temple is that there was a time when Brahma was asked by Shiva what the meaning of OM was, and he didn’t know, or forgot. So Brahma was put into jail. While he was in jail, Shiva’s son Subramanyam took over as Creator and in this temple he is shown holding a mala, which is a characteristic more usually associated with Brahma.
There is also a story about shiva appearing as a column of light and Vishnu and Brahma competing to see who could find the end of it first. Brahma lied and said he had found it, but Shiva caught him in the lie and he was cursed not to be worshipped. You can see Brahma falling downward in the carving below.
