Thorppukaranam for pillayar

Why do we put thorppukaranam for pillayar?I have two versions for reason.

1. Maha Vishnu:
Once lord Ganesha swallowed the sudarshana chakra of his uncle maha Vishnu. Ganesha was very powerful as we all know. So it is impossible to take out of his stomach using any force. Vishnu thought for a while. He must make something so that Ganesha himself voluntarily gives the chakra. So Vishnu decided to make Ganesha laugh aloud, so that the chakra can be retrieved. So Vishnu held his ears with his hands in a criss crosss manner i.e right hand holding his left ear and left hand holding his right ear and sat down and stood up alternatively. On seeing This, Ganesha laughed out aloud and the chakra automatically fell out of his stomach. So since this pleases Ganesha all started to do this in front of him.

2. Gajamukhasuran:
Gajamukhasuran got a boon from shiva that no weapon should harm him. So he started troubling the rishis and devas. He ordered them to put 1008 thorppukaranam in front of him 3 times daily. Also he troubled them by not allowing them to perform yagnas. So they went to shiva to find a solution for this. Shiva assured them that his son Ganesha will help them. Accordingly Ganesha waged a war against gajamukhasura. Because of the boon he got from shiva, ganesha's weapons could seldom hit him. He became invisible and reappeared in front of Ganesha as a mouse (mooshika). Ganesha thought for a while and did this. Ganesha sat on the mouse's back and the asura was thus unable to do anything. Ganesha thus won the asura's pride and the latter surrendered at the former's feet.
So to commemorate this victory we are offering thorppukaranam for Ganesha. Also since the asura surrendered, The Lord accepted him as his vahana. So Ganesha is seen along with mooshika.

Mandana mishra and Sharadambal

In my earlier post, I mentioned about Mandana Mishra (Sureshwaracharya). He became one of the prime four disciples of Adi shankara. Thodagar (for whom shankara wrote the famous thodagashtagam - vijithakila sastra sudha jalate...), hasthamalakar, padmapathar and sureshwaracharya are the four disciples of shankara.

Shankara went for thargam (argument on principles) with mandana mishra. He was about to get defeated. Then his wife posted a question to Shankara. Shankara was stunned and he meditated on Goddess Saraswati the vaag devata. He found that the person posting question is none other than the goddess. Shankara found the answer and convinced Her too. So Saraswati's work of establishing shankara's brilliance is done and mandana mishra has surrendered to Shankara. So she planned to leave this Earth. Shankara tied the goddess with a matra and pleaded her to stay on the Earth. Here the husband Mandana Mishra is none other than Brahmma's incarnation and his wife is none other than Saraswathi's incarnation.

Mandana mishra became shankara's disciple and was known as sureshwaracharya. Goddess accepted Shankara's plea and asked him to place her wherever he wants. Shankara chose the banks of river tunga. That place is today's sringeri. The goddess is blessing us as Sharadambal. Sureshwaracharya is the 2nd peetathipathi of sarvagya peetam at Kanchi and Sringeri (2 of the 6 peetams installed by Aadhi Shankara). 

Skandan and Sambandan

In Hindu mythology, Lord muruga is known as "The learned" - "Pandit". We call him gnana panditha. Gnana means wisdom. This word suits for skandan - gnanaskandan. Skanda was born to Lord Shiva from the fire that came out of his 5 five known faces (satyojatam, tatpurusham, eesaanam, vamadevam and aghoram) and 1 invisible adho mukham. So the six sparks (fire) came out of the sky, transported by air, reached the water (saravana poigai) and ruled (still ruling) the earth in the form of Lord Muruga or subrahmanya. This shows that skanda is manifestation of the five bhootas.

This skanda was 'Sanath kumara' (one of brahmma's manasa putra) in his previous birth. Sanath kumara was always meditating on Brahmman or the Paramatman. He had a dream that he was the leader of Devas or celestials and saved them from the holds of asuras or the demons. There is a rule that those who meditate on brahmman i.e for one who is an advaiti (practiser and preacher of the vakya aham brahmmasmi), will always speak, think the one that is true. Since sanath kumara dreamt about he being the lord of devas, it should become true. But in that birth, since he is meditating on brahman, there is nothing like leader or lord or deva or asura. So Lord Shiva came with his consort Parvati and made sanathkumara to ask for a boon. Sanathkumara in turn told shiva that he doesnt need anything and if he needs anything he will grant. Shiva was happy at his reply as sanathkumara proved that he is a true advaiti as he didnt differentiate him from brahman. So shiva asked sanathkumara that he may be born as his son in the next birth. Sanath kumara readily agreed to that request and told he will be born to Him, Shiva alone as Parvati didnt ask for any boon and it is wrong to grant boon to one who has not asked for it. Parvathi understood the situation and persuaded sanathkumara that there should be a small part played by her in this task. So sanathkumara assured that he will be born out of the sparks coming from Shiva's third eye and only a water body of Parvati's form could handle it.

Saravana poigai is Goddess Parvati's form. So it was able to handle the spark when even river Ganga was unable to handle it. Then goes the history of Kartika maids who got an opportunity to grow up six children and gave them back to goddess parvati who united them into one child with six faces, twelve hands. He is Skanda.

Sambandan was born in a family of priests in Sirkazhi in Tamilnadu. He is a reincarnation of Muruga. Because of his knowledge, he is known as GnanaSambandar. One of the six faces of lord skanda, protects the veda and the path established by it. Gnanasambandar too proclaims that it is his duty to uphold the vedic tradition. He did it. Fought against the Jains, re-established shaivam. Even the Pandya king who was supporting Jainism, returned back to shaivam after being cured by Sambandar's thiruneetru pathigam - "mandiram aavathu neeru.... thiru aalavaayaan thiruneeru".

Sambandar did lot of miracles that one cannot imagine. The poems written by him on palm leaves were undisturbed after being thrown into fire or water. Such is the highness of his songs. He drank the breast milk of tripurasundari ambal of sirkazhi when he was 3 years old. That incident is known to us. So I didnot mention much of it. This alone is enough that he is lord muruga. Who else is eligible to drink that mulaipaal?

Like sambandar in south india, there was a great scholar, kumarilabhatta who was a mimamsa by practice. For mimamsa, bhakti is not necessary. Just practising the karma mentioned in veda is enough. He fought against the buddhists who were of strong opinion that there is no bhakti no karma. Kumarilabhatta's mimamsa tradition came to be known as bhaatta matham after his victory over buddhism. Then came Adhi shankara who argued with kumarilabhatta that karma is first step to purify our external organs and bhakti is the next step to purify our mind. There is also a third step where there is no karma and no bhakti (i.e these will fuse together) and we will recognize our self (atman). Kumarilabhatta accepted his defeat and he sacrificed his mortal body in fire in front of shankara. Shankara tried to rescue him but it was a vain. Before leaving his body, kumarilabhatta asked shankara to go to Mandana mishra who was a staunch mimamsa, and tell him whatever was taught to him. Shankara even won mandana mishra and he became his disciple - sureshwaracharya also known as vaarthigar for his elaborate commentaries on upanishads and other vedic principles. 

Pancha or the number 5 in our life

This number 5 has a special place in Sanatana Dharma. We saw about panchayatana pooja. We know about pancha bhootas or 5 elements, pancha karmendriyas (motor organs - body, eye, ear, nose, mouth), pancha gnanendriyas (sense organs), panchaksharam, pancha tanmatras , pancha upacharas, pancha sankhyopacharam, pancha krutyam etc..

Pancha upacharam or 5 acts of offering to God consists of Gandham, pushpam, arkyam, dhoopam and dheepam. These 5 upacharas represent five elements of nature or pancha bhootaas namely sky, earth, fire, water and air.

Gandham is applying sandal paste to God (Alankaram or decoration). This represents Prithvi or Earth.
Pushpam is offering flowers to God (Archanam). This represents Aakash or Sky.
Arkyam is offering water to God (Abhishekam). This represents Appu or Water.
Dhoopam is showing sambrani or dhoop stick. This represents Vayu or Air.
Dheepam is showing deepaarathanai with camphor. This represents Agni or Fire.

Again these 5 bhootas are related to our 5 senses (shabda - sound, sparsha - touch, roopa - form, rasa - taste and gandha - smell) and sense organs (ear, skin, eye, tongue, nose).

Sky is has only sound and hence related to shabdam or sound.
Air has both sound and touch and is related to sparsha or touch sense.
Fire has sound, touch and  form and is related to roopam or having a form.
Water has sound, touch, form (takes the form of the container) and taste and is related to rasam or having taste. Though we chemically argue water is tasteless, it does have a taste that everyone of us will agree.
Earth has all these - sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Hence it is related to gandham or smell. (We even have a film called mann vasanai :))

We hear with our ears, feel with skin, see with eyes, taste with tongue and smell with nose. So our ear is representation of sky, skin is representation of earth, eye is representation of  fire, tongue is representation of  water and nose is representation of  air.

Panchaksharam is the 5 syllable mantra na ma shi va ya.

Pancha krutyam as we all know is the 5 duties of god namely srushti (create), sthithi (sustain), samharam (destroy), thirothanam (hide) and anugraham (bless).

Pancha sankyopacharam is doing 5 pradakshinams and 5 namaskarams in a temple for 5 continuous days. If we do this, Ambal who is known by the name panchasankyopacharini will be pleased and grant boons to us.

Coming to Pancha tanmatras or 5 state of mind as told in Lalita sahasranamam, it is harshanam, roshanam, soshanam, mohanam, maaranam. Goddess Lalita has 5 flowers in her hand which is known as pancha baanam or 5 arrows. These 5 five flowers symbolize the 5 tanmatras mentioned above.

We have pancha pranas that we say doing nivedanam - prana, apaana, vyaana, udaana and samaana.

The list may go endless. But whichever seemed to be important and likely to say in this posting, I mentioned.

Panchayatana Pooja

Panchayatana pooja - a way to unite with God, is the way of worship established by Aadi Shankara. The deities in this pooja are Ganapathy, Shiva, Parvathi, Vishnu and Surya. Incidentally these deities form the main aaraadhana moorthy under Ganapathyam, Shaivam, Shaaktam, Vaishnavam and Sowram of the shanmatham. The sixth being Kaumaram where Muruga is worshipped as prime deity.

Kanchi paramacharya has told, as seen in Deivathin kural, that one may add a vel (spear in the hands of Muruga) in this panchayatana pooja and worship muruga too to complete shanmatham.

If we see the forms of deities in this pooja, they are all from nature. The material for Ganapathy is found in river sona. Bana lingam for shiva is found in Narmada river. Ambal's swarnamukhi is found in Swarnamukhi river in Andhra. Salagramam for Vishnu as most of us know is found in Gantaki river. The spatika for Surya is found near Vallam in Tanjore, Tamilnadu.

Why this was established is that, we need to go with nature always. We should not deviate from it. Also the minimal requirement for this pooja is water, akshada (rice), dry grapes, vilvam and tulasi. Vilva for Shiva, tulasi for Vishnu, Akshada for Ganapathy, Ambal and Surya. We can perform archanai with these. Even if tulasi or vilva went dry, it is not a problem. Dry grapes can be used for nivedanam. So if one has taken this pooja, he can perform everyday, wherever he goes. It is easy for him to take these small things in a box. With all these in mind Guru Shankara has paved this pooja.