Temples

I happen to read an article by Paramacharyal in Tamil, the other day, in a journal. I found it interesting. I wish to share my benefit of reading here.

In South India, most of the temples are built facing East direction. The main gopuram face East, may be 'The moolavar or swamy' may in some temples face West. But there are two temples where Bhagavan faces South. Sri Rangam is one and the other is Chidambaram Both the Gods are Rajas namely RangaRaja and Nataraja. They both belong to the Kalakshetra art culture.

The word rangam means the theatre. Chidambaram, when the word is split, becomes bliss or ananda. "Chit" + "Ambaram" - signifying the sky is the limt to knowledge. While Sri Ranganathar is in 'Yoga Nidhra', SriNataraja is in 'Natya Mudhra'. They both are in a state of 'Samsara' is a 'Sagara' and we undergo a grim battle to overcome the turmoils of Life. Sri Ranganathar and Sri Nataraja remind us to look up to them for obtaining the real and the ultimate 'Ananda.

Nataraja and Dakshina Murthy are Lord Siva's Forms. Nataraja is in a standing pose and his left leg is raised in a dance posture where as Dakshina Murthy is in a sitting pose and He is in meditation (chinmudra). While doing 'Japa', we think of Dakshina Murthy and when we are happy and gay, the thoughts get oriented towards the dancing God.

Sri Ranganathar, Sri Nataraja and Sri DakshinaMurthy, all the three, are facing the south direction. They protect us from the fear of 'Yama' - The lord of death.

Vibhoothi gives protection and we adorn the forehead with this belief. When fire destroys everything, they only become ash. Even when the ash is burnt, it becomes ash again. In other words ash or vibhoothi is not destroyable, They remind us of the Lord Siva, The Eternal.

Like wise the word Rudhraksham contains "Rudhra + Akshi" , meaning "Siva+eye", signifying that the beads look like Siva's eyes. Siva also means peace and the wearer of Rudhraksha gets peace. We should note onething. That is there is no hole in any seed or Fruit of any Tree except in Rudraksha, God has made it so that Rudhraksha mala can be strung and blissfully worn.