Sacred India: Traditions & Heritage

A sailor’s perspective on Indian temples, rituals and science of spirituality

America prompted the question : What Is the meaning of life ?

I am a South Mumbai resident who was brought up in an English-speaking environment. I went to a Convent school and a Jesuit college. As a result, America was my mecca and jeans and t-shirts, American music, movies and lifestyle my benchmark of excellence.

Soon, life saw me moving to America, studying in a leading American university and working and living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, San Francisco. I spent my youth sailing in San Francisco Bay and skiing in Lake Tahoe. Weekends were spent hanging at Stanford, Berkeley and bicycling on Golden Gate Bridge. Eating ‘fish n chips’ at pleasant cafés in Sausalito and all across San Francisco bay. My friends were colourful good, intellectual people from Germany, America, Costa Rica, Greece, Brazil, England and other eminent nations across the world. We camped, bicycled, hiked, ate together sang songs and celebrated the good times. I was happy with my picture book life, which would have made for a great Facebook page.

But one day I asked myself, is this the meaning of life ? Is having a great picture book life filled with adventures, experiences and colourful people a sign of a great life? the answer came in a strong and powerful manner and it was a big NO. In my core, I felt the answer lay in India so I returned to find the meaning of life. Through a series of coincidences, I found meditation, yoga and the rich heritage and traditions of India which also included the Temples of India.

My first Rudra Puja with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar catapulted me into an unknown terrain of pujas and chanting. As soon as heard the Rudra Puja chant I was washed and baptised into the unknown. The unknown I was looking for. In my subsequent trips to Chidambaram Temple I was opened up to a huge gateway of understanding and then finally it was the great Lord Dhanvantari Temple at the Arya Vidya Chikitsalaya in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu that grounded me to respecting, loving and honouring the great cultural temple heritage of India. The depth of peace I felt as every day I would visit the Lord Dhanvantari temple was unbelievable. It was because of authentic priests who truly worshipped those idols as Gods with flowers, the incense, the offerings. The air was thick with ghee and potent for healing. Thanks to Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who ignited me with his Rudra Puja and 9 days of magical Navratri Puja I have seen and experienced the healing of great temples of Chidambaram, Lord Dhanavantari Temple and Tirupathi Temple, experienced the healing of abhsihekams and worship first hand year after year and am left on my knees with gratitude for the great sacred Indian heritage.

My friend circle of school, college, sailing who all pride themselves on being secular and perhaps do not wish to be referred to as Hindus of Hindustan mostly ignore, sometimes condescend at and many a times mock our Indian culture and traditions including our pujas / festivals, our habits for threads and tikkas, our love for cows and our love for idols and idol worship. Today many of these anglicized Indians are moving towards Buddhism and other new age spiritual paths such as sound meditation, art based therapy meditation, dance based therapy meditation etc etc even sailing is considered as a form of meditation.

The great Indian Guru Parampara Tradition of learning yoga and meditation, the tradition of worshipping idols as Gods is looked down upon and mocked by a western and or an intellectual mind. It pains me that there is no sensitivity or courtesy on behalf of most of the educated Indians to stop for a moment and think why does our culture worship these idols, surely, they cannot be so daft, there must be a reason.. There is a great science behind worshipping idols as Gods.

Chidambaram Temple : A sailor finds her anchor in the ocean of samsara

In 2004 when the Tsunami struck India I started traveling to Tamil Nadu to help build schools as a part of disaster relief activities by the NGO United Way which I was spearheading at that time. That’s when I by sheer chance stepped into Chidambaram Temple and something very deep shifted in me forever. I had come home. A sense of extremely, deep, deep relief came over me. I recognized everything and felt I had never left. Chidambaram Temple was my home, my family, Chidambaram Temple was me. The moment I set foot in that temple I felt there was no ground, I was stepping into a great void, space. Thus, began an over 12-year saga of sailor discovering the importance of temples of India.

It took me 10 years plus of visiting Chidambaram at least 4 times a year to discover that the Father of Yoga Maharishi Patanjali himself and created this great magnanimous temple called Chidambaram Nataraja Temple where Shiva is worshipped as space. It is the only Shiva temple perhaps that has no lingam. The focus is on the space tattva(Energy field). There is a Lord Nataraja idol to help the visiting devotees focus on as the central deity. Maharishi Patanjali is said to have built the great Chidambaram Temple to help ignite the space element in an average man. If one is doing one’s sadhana regularly and immersed in meditation and yoga one may not need to visit temples but for an average man visiting such Shakti peethas does help increase the vibrations of our energy thereby helping evolution.

It was only after 8 years of visiting the Chidambaram Temple that perhaps the universe decided I was now to make my first pilgrimage to the Panchamahabhutas, the 5 temples in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh where Shiva is worshipped as Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Space.

· Ekambareswarar Temple, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu (Earth)

· Thiruvanaikaval temple, Trichy, Tamil Nadu (Water)

· Arunachaleswarar Temple, Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu (Fire)

· Kalahasti Temple, Srikalahasti, Andhra Pradesh (Air)

· Natarajar Temple, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu (Sky or Space)

I will never forget the sheer awe and amazement at seeing the Kalahasti Temple shivlinga because on that day the clear electric massive charge and current moving around the shivlinga was very apparent. This was a 4-day trip which included the circumambulation of mount Arunachala as a homage to the great sage and enlightened Master, Ramana Maharshi. This circumambulation of the mount Arunachala was one of the most difficult walks I have done in my life. The body beginning to burn up, feet aching and blisters arising. By the end of that circumambulation I had to practically crawl into our hotel and drag myself up the stairs because of the sheer breakdown of the body in the face of the great charge and power of mount Arunachala. The next day we visited Arunachaleswarar Temple, Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu (Fire). The body was already charged and electrified after having done the circumambulation around mount Arunachala. The first few steps into the Arunachaleswarar Temple, where Shiva is worshipped as fire, heightened the pain in the body and the heat so much that sailor broke down sobbing and leaning on a friend’s shoulder saying I can’t walk anymore, every bone in my body is breaking and my body is on fire. Am sharing all this so that the readers can know the impact a temple can have on one’s body and being, the caveat being that one needs to be ready and aligned and vibrating at the level needed to receive the massive charge that these temples are still able to give after 3500–5000 years.

These ancient temples of India were designed to help evolve man

These ancient temples of India were designed to help evolve man in a very scientific manner. The location of the temple as per latitude and longitude were well planned to help generate maximum magnetic waves. The place where the idol was placed, the angle at which it faces all of it has a meticulous science behind it. They say the temple bells are usually made up of a mixture of metals such as cadmium, lead, copper zinc, nickel, chromium and manganese. Each of these bells is made to produce a sound that creates unity between the left and right brain. Indian temples were built in such a way that the floors were good conductors of magnetic vibrations. That is why it is a practice to walk bare feet in Indian temples. Of course, unfortunately today the temple caretakers keep the temples so filthy and dirty it makes it very difficult to walk bare feet in all that grime and dirt.

If one is sensitive as one walks through these temples that are shakti peethas one can actually feel the different energies they hold. There is just no taking away from the fact that when one walks in Chidambaram Temple all one feels is the space I.e. the Akasha tattva. The great sage Patanjali (considered father of Yoga) and Rishi Vyaghrapada who created these temples must have through some deep sadhana and scientific processes riveted the space element into the grid system of this temple. Similarly, when one walks into the Arunachaleswarar Temple, Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu where Shiva is worshipped as fire one can actually feel one’s body start feeling as if it is on fire.

Why do we do abhishekams ?

After having been a part of a weekly Rudra Puja for over 4 years every Monday in Mumbai(Nath Gagangiri Ashram Malabar Hill), the sailor has learnt many things. Just as we humans need food to survive, the Gods we invoke in our idols need a certain tattva to vibrate at that God energy level. Milk has a powerful tattva (vibration) so also do honey, sugar, pure ghee and water. All these magically combined with powerful Sanskrit chants are designed for a very powerful God ignition. Lot of the educated, westernised, secular, intellectual, Americanised Indians consider abhishekams a waste of milk. Please, I call upon all of them to stop for a moment and imagine the amount of life energy being wasted or compromised (I can use stronger words but will refrain) around the world in eating non-vegetarian food as well as all the fuels we are burning up for powering our concrete jungles. I call upon my fellow Indians, please let us give some credence to this sacred heritage tradition and this sailor’s fervent prayer is one day i hope you too will get to experience and feel this beautiful God energy created by India’s temples and its pujas and abhishekams.

Why do we ring bells in temples?

The sound of bell energizes chakras and balances the distribution of energy in body. It is also mentioned that bell should be made of pancha lauha — five metals, namely, copper, silver, gold, brass and iron. These 5 metals represent the pancha bhutas. Bells have symbolic meaning in Hinduism. The curved body of the bell represents Ananta. The clapper or tongue of the bell represents Saraswati, who is the goddess of wisdom and knowledge. The handle of the bell represents Prana Shakti — vital power and is symbolically linked to Hanuman, Garuda, Nandi (bull) or Sudarshana Chakra. The hollow of the bell represents the void from which all phenomena arise, including the sound of the bell, and the clapper represents form. Together they symbolize wisdom (emptiness) and compassion (form or appearance). The sound, like all phenomena, arises, radiates forth and then dissolves back into emptiness. The moment bell rings, mind is disengaged from thoughts and becomes more receptive.

It is also seen that in the inner sanctum usually the doors are kept very low and I usually wondered about this as it seems so very inconvenient for the priest to bend low and go into the innermost chamber. Bending always implies lack of ego and humility. The inner chamber is also pretty tightly closed. This could perhaps be to contain and build the energy to help the energy transfer better.

Why are we asked to do a circumambulation or take pradakshina around a temple? Due to the innumerable chanting, camphor and ghee aartis, shloka chanting, the vibration of the inner sanctum is very high. By requesting devotees to go around and do a pradakshina the devotees are given a chance to stay longer in the vibratory field and absorb positive vibrations.

Our idols as our Gods

This great tradition had mastered the science of consecrating idols as living entities using all 5 elements i.e. earth, water, fire, air and space, and hence radiate the particular energy with which they have been ignited with. Wherever this science is perfected over time those temples become shakti peethas.

Over time these idols start emitting, cleansing and purifying the space around it. If a human body is sensitive and usually years of meditation and pranayama, yoga and meditation can help the grossness of the body decrease, one can pick up these vibrations. If one is not into any of these practices or has heart based devotional perspective to life and has a western conditioned intellectual mind then the eco system of a puja or a temple will not resonate in their bodies. God is a vibration that is experienced in one’s body and not an intellectualized understanding. Unfortunately, the over westernization of our intellect has moved us away from this great Indian culture whose centre point is finding and connecting with the God vibration.

I agree our temples are filled with seemingly odd people who push and shove and do some crazy things in their pursuit to reach the idol to take a 5 second darshan but that does not in the least take away the power and immense sanctity of great shakti peethas like Chidambaram, Tirupathi, Shirdi and every temple of India and that those who visit these temples whether small minded or big minded definitely benefit in a very big way.

The ultimate quest is also that one’s body becomes a temple that helps spread peace, purifies and evolves the surroundings the body lives in. Yoga, pranayama, dhyana and a Guru are invaluable on this journey. Until that happens, the pilgrimage to temples serve as a good support to stay in positive vibrations. Let’s start respecting sacred India’s great Vedic traditions instead of compromising it in the name of secularism.

Jai Gurudev

Sailor Meditator