My dear beloved brothers and sisters, The karthigai deepam the festival of karthigai light is a dual celebration. It is the remembrance of Lord Shiva the father and Lord Murugan the son. The following is the information from the Shiva puranam and kandha puranam and my interpretation after continuous churning of that information (puranam) with conscious of the father and the son in meditation and reading other spiritual literatures available on the web.

CONTENTS 1. SIVAPURANAM:

a). The legend of Karthigai Deepam: b). The Interpretation:

(II). Explanation of Shiva Lingam: (III). Explanation of the story of karthigai deepam: (IV). Explanation of thiruvannamalai: (V). Fruit of Wisdom (Arusuvai kani): (VI). Summery:

2. KANDHA PURANAM:

a). The legend of Lord Murugan’s birth: (I). The Interpretation: (II). Summary:

3. THE CELEBRATION OF LORD MURUGAN BIRTHDAY: a). Holly bath (Abishakam): b). Meanings of rituals: 4. CELEBRATION OF LORD SHIVA:

a). Meanings of rituals: 5. CONCLUSION:

1. SIVAPURANAM:

a). The legend of Karthigai Deepam: Once upon a time when Lord Brahma, was constantly engaged in creation of the universe and the life, he gradually began thinking that he was the most important person in the job of creation and he developed Ego (Aham Bhav). When he couldn’t control his ego at one point of time, he got down from his seat (the lotus which had emanated from the naval of Lord Vishnu). and started an argument with his father, Lord Vishnu, who was reclining on the serpent bed, which is floating on the divine ocean (thiru parkadal). When Lord Vishnu awoke from his deep sleep, he found his son has come down from his seat and he looked furious. Lord Brahma said, “ I am creating the universe, I am creating the five big forces, I am creating all nine planets and I am crating all the life forms, I am responsible for all creation and you are just sleeping lazily on this serpent bed which is floating on the ocean of sweat created by my painful hard work”. Then Lord Vishnu replied, “my son please don’t disgrace your father. You should not utter such wicked words in front of your father”. Lord Vishnu’s words angered Lord Brahma. His ego swelled and he said, “Who gave you the authority to claim me as your son? I am going to create another person in place of you for the world’s sustenance and you will be unemployed and useless. These words angered Lord Vishnu. Slowly this heated argument between father and son and their egos hit a climax and physical fighting ensued. This caused a huge catastrophe in the universe, the whole creation was at the verge of collapse, the stars, planets and nebulae collided with each other, causing large-scale destruction and disharmony. Finally the impact was felt at the Lord Shiva’s place (Kailasam) and it woke up Lord Shiva from his deep state of meditation and realized that Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu were fighting each other. Suddenly a huge column of fire appeared at the midst of the fighting, which was stretching above and below infinitely. They abandoned the fight and stared at the huge pillar of fire. A booming voice, (asharere), came from the fire and claming to be Lord Shiva, and said,“ the one who finds the very tip of my head or my toe will be declared the superior of the two. On hearing this voice, they accepted the challenge to decide who was most powerful. The Lord Brahma became swan started climbing up to reach the top and Lord Vishnu became a wild boar started digging down to find the very bottom. After several thousand years of searching Lord Vishnu realized his mistake and accepted his defeat and prayed to Lord Shiva.

Lord Brahma, claimed upon the column of fire, but couldn’t find the top after several thousand years of searching. At one point he stopped climbing and looked up to estimate the distance to the top. While, Looking up he saw a flower (thazhampoo) falling down from the top. He caught the flower in his hand and asked, “where are you coming from and how long you have been traveling?”. With the information from the flower, Lord Brahma estimated the distance to the top and lied to Lord Shiva, saying that he had seen the top and showed the flower as evidence. Upon hearing the lie of Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva became angry at him and said, “ from now on you will no longer be worshiped and he also removed the flower from his prayers as it was agreed to be the part of the lie. Upon hearing the curse of Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma realized his mistake and sought an apology, and with great respect he prayed to Lord Shiva. Then Lord Shiva became calm and appeared (gave darshan) in front of them as shiva lingum (Innate form of Lord shiva). Upon their request he came down on earth and became a huge hill at Thiruvannamalai and also became a Shiva lingam at the foothill of the Thiruvannamalai to give darshan to the people of earth, to celebrate and remember the play of the Lord (Thiruvilayadal) Shiva with Lord Brahma and Vishnu. Every year in the month of Karthigai (November-December) there is a ten days celebration. At the dusk on tenth day a huge oil (ghee) lamp is lit on the tip of the hill (thiruvannamalai) in remembrance of Lord Shiva appearing as a divine flame.

b).The Interpretation: (I). Explanation of Shiva Lingam: The Shiva lingam is not the representation of male or female, either as a whole or in part. Rather it is a representation of a seed. Like the seed is the pro runner or primordial or ancient or the basis of all life forms on this earth. The Shiva lingam is the representation of a spiritual consciousness or a divine light, which is in all human beings called a Soul (Athma). (II). Explanation of the story of karthigai deepam: Though the Lord Brahma and Vishnu are great souls and are reincarnations of Lord Shiva himself, they have come in contact with worldly life (in the

form of creation and sustenance) and because of their indulgence with the body, they have become body conscious and started looking externally. They have prejudged themselves and fought with each other without remembering who they are (a reincarnation of Shiva) and why they are doing this job (divine job of creation and sustenance). Then the supreme father himself comes and shows himself as an athma to make them realize they are the same. To disseminate the same knowledge to all of us, he has come down on earth as Shiva lingam and helps us to realize who we are. (III). Explanation of thiruvannamalai: I am visualizing the thiruvannamalai hill as a huge banyan tree bearing a fruit called Fruit of Wisdom. The tree is abundant with fruit and has a divine fragrance. The fragrance of the fruit travels a very long distance. The people in search of God, sense the smell and start coming towards it like birds travel from a for away land to eat the fruit of the tree and to satisfy their appetite. The fruit of wisdom is so delicious and has six tastes (arusuvai). As in ancient days the houses are built with a large veranda. The house entrance is sprinkled with water every morning and evening and drew kolam (rangoli) with rice flower. Who so ever comes and sits at the veranda is considered as God sent and is invited with great respect and served a food of six different tastes on a banana leaf. Their blessings are sought for the family members. The same way the divine tree (Kalpaga viritcham) invites everybody and offers the fruit of wisdom, which has six different tastes: (IV). Fruit of Wisdom (Arusuvai kani)

1. Taste of Love (Anbu) 2. Taste of Peace (Amaithi) 3. Taste of Happiness (Magizhchi) 4. Taste of Truth (Unmai) 5. Taste of Bliss (Anantham) 6. Taste of Purity (Thuimai)

Because the fruit has six tastes, whoever consumes this fruit develops a verocious appetite and eats it all the time because it is a thevitatha kani (you don’t get bored) and it has an intoxicating effect. The tree also acts as a divine mother (kamathenu) who gives milk with great love and affection and as a holy mother (anapurani) who has a food vessel called atchyapathram which never empty.

After a period of continuous eating of the fruit of wisdom, people sit in meditation and ponder over the six different tastes (qualities) with love and care for the divine mother. Like a silk worm after feeding on the leaves for sometime, starts building a cocoon and sits quietly until it matures. So the divine tree now is serving as a spiritual incubator (karuvari or garba graha). After experiencing these six different qualities of the soul in remembrance of the divine mother (supreme soul) whom himself is an embodiment of all these qualities, they begin to understand that they are actually made of these qualities. Then the seed in them (athma) sprouts, start to grow. Once these six qualities starts flowing out of them like a stream, they break the cocoon (born again or new life) and come out like colorful butterflies bearing the torch of their father to enlighten the rest of the people on this earth. There are many great saints who have come out of thiruvannamalai such as Arunagirinathar and Ramana Maharishi etc. (V). Summary: The thiruvannamali is a realization of parm athma (supreme soul) who is the embodiment of all six qualities and serves as divine mother who nourishes the human soul, conceives them, giving them new life and sends them forth as the role model of human life. 2. KANDHA PURANAM:

1. The legend of Lord Murugan’s birth: The kandha puranam says Lord Shiva once wished for a son. He opened his third eye and a divine light had emerged from it. The beam of light divided itself into six lights and went towards the direction of saravana poigai (pond). Then the six lights became six babies on six lotus flowers. The six babies were reared by six karthigai maids. After they had grown for a while, Lord shiva combined all six babies and made them one baby with six heads. Therefore, the son of lord Shiva has different names. He is called Saravanan (birth pond), Karthigeyan (reared by karthigai maids), shanmuhan or arumuhan (having six heads), mayilvahanan (having peacock as his vehicle) and kandan (son of Shiva). (I). The Interpretation:

The creator, the Lord Shiva (param athma or supreme soul) sees himself as an embodiment of a spiritual light (representing his third eye and light coming out from it) and made up of six characters. He wanted to create a copy or exact representation of himself. As the creator he wanted to enjoy himself during the creation process to create himself. Like an artist, if he knew his paintings going to take life form, how much love, joy and dedication he would have put into making the art. In this way, Lord Shiva wanted to see all six characters of himself grow as babies and enjoyed with them for a while and combined them into one form. So the Lord Murugan is a soul (athma) like father like son, he is the embodiment of all six divine characters of him. (II). Summary: Believe or not we all are made by the creator or the supreme father with this same love, joy and dedication. The Lord Murugan, Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Hanuman and Lord Ganesa and etc. are our own remembrance and role model. When we came first on this earth from our father’s land (Ideal world or param tham) we constantly radiated all of these qualities and we always remembered our father. Our kingdom was ruled with love, peace and happiness. No one assumed the role of king and we were servants of one another. There was little difference between male and female and everybody reflected the characteristics of athma. The male and female union only took place for the purpose of creation (not for recreation). The whole nature was filled with happiness and harmony. The deer and the tiger drank water together peacefully. That is why this time was described as Swargam or porkkalam (heaven, golden age or sath yug). As time passed, we entered into a vicious cycle of birth and death. The athmic light got dim. Like silver or copperware gets a coat of oxidative dust and looses its shine if it is not cleaned regularly, we ignored the real self and its qualities and our creator. When the athmic light disappeared, we lost contact with our own self and the father and started identifying our self as the body (started looking externally), like a driver of a car thinks that he is the car. Another example is in bhagavat geetha, there is a drawing of chariot with five horses (which represent the human body with its five senses). A driver (sarathy) sits on it always thinks that he is the chariot.

Today, all these five senses are being exploited and we have become the victim of these senses. We cater to the body’s needs in the form of business and money. Though, the money and business are essential for the body and its worldly needs, lust, ego, greediness, anger, hatred, attachment, temptations, cynicism and laziness are deeply rooted in body consciousness. Now because of the mental pollution (due to the above said characteristics) the nature, all life forms are affected and are at the verge extinction. It has become a hell. Now it is time to put the driver back into his seat and let him be the master of his car. We need to tell ourselves we are not the above qualities, we are a soul, an embodiment of love, peace, happiness, truth, bliss and purity and we need to grow the dormant seed within us by remembering the real self and our father. Once we embody these qualities they will flow from us like a stream and we will become givers and we will ignite all others. Our life, the nature will be happy and heaven will be reestablished (nelluku paichia neer kasinthodi pullukum pusikkumam athupola ivvulakil nallor oruvar ularel avar poruttu ellorkum peyum mazhi- Ouviyar). 3. THE CELEBRATION OF LORD MURUGAN BIRTHDAY: We will celebrate the Lord Murugan birthday by having six holy baths or abishekam each depict the character of athma, as he is our role model.

a). Holly bath (Abishakam):

1. Love-Honey 2. Peace-Milk 3. Happiness-Turmeric 4. Truth-Thiru neer (white ash) 5. Bliss- Kunkumam (red ash) 6. Purity- santhanam (sandal past)

As the children spontaneously reflect the qualities of the soul, six young volunteers will do the abhisekam (holy bath) and will receive prasadham (gift). The following message will be written on the prasadham. I give you the prasadham of love, peace, happiness, truth, bliss and purity and I bless you to become like me and my father.

b).Meanings of rituals:

1. Placing the Lord Murugan on a chariot: Symbolizes he is the master

of his body and he is always in communion with himself and the lord. 2. Doing chariot procession: symbolizes the message of whom is Lord

Murugan and his father is and that they enlighten human souls.

3. Breaking the coconut: symbolizes the presence of a soul inside the body made of hard bone and flesh. By breaking the hard shell the soft quality of the coconut is exposed.

4. Applying santhanam or kunkumam on the fore head: symbolizes the

place of athma (the third eye of Lord Shiva) in remembrance of the soul.

5. Deebha arathani: Symbolizes we are made of divine light and pray to

our role model (Lord Muruga or others) with athma consciousness. 4. CELEBRATION OF LORD SHIVA: In remembrance that Lord Shiva appeared as a divine flame and gave darshan at Thiruvannamalai, we will be making a shallow pond with a small hill placed in the middle of the pond. A nai (ghee) lamp will be lit at the hilltop. Small earthen oil lamps will be lit from the flame of the hilltop and will be floated on the pond by placing them on the lotus models. a). Meanings of rituals:

1. Lighting the nai (ghee) lamp at the hilltop symbolizes the Lord Shiva.

2. Lighting the first 6 small oil lamps symbolizes the creation of Lord Murugan.

3. The pond symbolizes the saravana poigai where Lord Murugan was born.

4. Other oil lamps from every body will be kept in the pond after each is lit from the holly flame, which symbolizes our birth (as athma) by the creator.

5. Conclusion: We will have a short multimedia show, were we will show the real karthigai dheepam telecast followed by a sparklers show outside the temple for the children. Om annamalayane potri (namaha). Om murugane potri (namaha).