Karthikai Deepam-The Symbolism & the Significance
The SYMBOLISM
It is on this day that Lord Shiva appeared as an endless flame of light at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu before Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma, who were fighting between each other as to who is superior.
In order to sort out this fight, Lord Shiva as a huge column of fire, asked them both to find the ends of this form of light - his head and feet; and who ever finds it shall be considered as the superior.
Lord Vishnu took the form of a boar (Sanskrit:Varaha, Tamil:Varaham(pandri) ) and tried to reach the end of the fire beneath the earth. He failed miserably and came back to Lord Shiva saying that he was unable to find the end of the fire from the bottom.
Lord Brahma on the other hand, took the shape of a swan (Sanskrit: Hansa, Tamil:Annam) and flew to find the beginning of the fire on the topside and flew towards the skies. After flying high with no end in sight, he chanced upon a piece of Thazhambu, a flower, learnt from it that it had been floating down for thirty thousand years from Lord Shiva's head.
He seized upon this and claimed to Lord Shiva that he had seen Lord Shiva's head. Lord Siva realized the falsehood and pronounced that there would never be a temple for Lord Brahma in this world. He also forbid the use of the flower Thazhambu in his worship.
Lord Shiva appeared as a flame hill (Arunachala Hill) at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. Indeed, the very names `Tiruvannamalai' and `Arunachala' translate as `holy fire hill.' This occurs on the day when the moon is in conjunction with the constellation Karthigai (Pleiades) and pournami. This constellation appears as a group of six stars in the firmament in the shape of a pendant from the ear.
Constellation Karthigai (Pleiades)
Tiruvannamalai Arunachala Temple
The Shivalinga in the temple is the Agni linga. The tiny lamps lit during the Karthigai festival (Karthigai Deepam) are believed to be the miniature replicas of the fire linga. Every year thousands of devotees from all over flock to Tiruvannamalai to see the spectacular Karthigai Deepam (the fire lit on top of the hill symbolizing the original column of light) there.
Agal vilakku (oil lamps) lit up during Karthigai Deepam
The SIGNIFICANCE
LORD BRAHMA represents the mind and intellect, LORD VISHNU represents the material world and its attractions and LORD SHIVA represents the endless cosmic infinity.
Material pursuits are not going to take you to any higher states. You can only increase your possessions and no matter what you do in this short lifespan, you are bound to realize its actual insignificance sooner or later in this lifetime itself or through repeated lifetimes of doing the same thing. In this context, with this clarity, Lord Vishnu submits before Lord Shiva.
Lord Brahma represents the mind which can go after all kinds of higher pursuits and all such mental pursuits only increase the ego. The ever changing mind is also deceptive and cunning.
Even after realizing the futility of the pursuit, the mind seeks to justify and also engages in scheming activities to retain or prove its superiority. Thus Lord Brahma came about with a false evidence of the flower to falsely claim his position.
Lord Shiva, representing the cosmic infinite emptiness which supports all physical manifestations banishes such falsehood that the mind is capable of.
The mind and its ever changing engagements are to be banished from a temple or from the core of a seeker of truth.
The fire and the light are symbolic of destroying of all falsehood-both material and intellectual with the pure light of knowledge to regain our own pure and infinite state. This is to show that no matter what we pursue, our only purpose in this world is to regain our own original infinite state.
Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma pursuing both ways and returning back in futility clearly is a loud message that we have come this far after millions of years of physical evolution and having come to the highest possible state to be able to make this enquiry, we are urged not to waste it with endless deceptions and preoccupations.
So, if we go to Tiruvannamalai every year and just see the symbolic representations (which are retained only for carrying the significance to generations) and return back, glorifying and expressing the awe of Lord Shiva, it is not going to serve the intended purpose.
What ever rituals you do for Lord Shiva-is it going to enhance the cosmic source in any way? The clear message here is to transcend all the material and intellectual attractions and engagements without deceiving ourselves and continue our natural evolutionary journey with the wisdom of knowledge, to become one with the cosmic source.
Being born as Hindu itself is like winning a lottery because you are born into the only tradition which has elaborately laid out the path to attain the highest possible truth, unlike other basic paths laid out for societal well-being. Hence, it will be a terrible disrespect to your true tradition, if you dont have this as the primary purpose of existence and do what ever it takes to realize it.
Kartikai Deepam and Lord Muruga
Lord Muruga, also known as Skanda, Subrahamaniya and Kartik, was born as six different babies to Lord Shiva after he awoke from the deep meditation after Goddess Sati’s death. The six babies were looked after by the Six Krittika stars and the six children were later joined to a single force by Goddess Parvati.
Krittika is the six stars or the Pleiades cluster – when Muruga joins them as a child they make seven stars. As Muruga was born as six different babies and later joined into one He is popularly known as Aarumugan in Tamil culture.
Lord Muruga as Kumaraguru Advising Lord Shiva
Another legend has it that the lamps lit symbolically represent knowledge, victory and peace. Muruga as Kumaraguru is believed to have taught the meaning of ‘OM’ to Lord Shiva. Thus the lamps lit on the day are in remembrance of sharing the ultimate knowledge of ‘OM.’ The knowledge of OM helps in enlightenment and emancipation.
The Lord Muruga episode is also symbolic of continuous life and masters appearing in the physical plane to share the science of enlightenment, which can be attained through meditations on the maha mantra OM.
OM is AUM - A (ah) is the first sound one can make. If you try making any sound with your mouth, you will realize that A (ah) is the first sound possible and there is no sound before that. U (oo) is the mid sound you can make in a similar way and and M (mmm) is the final closing sound in a similar way.
Hence, the mantra OM or AUM, covers the entire sound phenomena that represents the entire manifested world. When you intone this sound, it represents the entire manifested material world and in the gap you have when you intone the next AUM lies the SILENCE, the silent space which supports all manifestations.
So, AUM, silence, AUM, silence, AUM, silence ..... and there will come a point where nothing else exists in your meditation except these 2 and when you are established only in this, the silent infinity takes over and you become one with the cosmic source.
The SYMBOLISM
It is on this day that Lord Shiva appeared as an endless flame of light at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu before Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma, who were fighting between each other as to who is superior.
In order to sort out this fight, Lord Shiva as a huge column of fire, asked them both to find the ends of this form of light - his head and feet; and who ever finds it shall be considered as the superior.
Lord Vishnu took the form of a boar (Sanskrit:Varaha, Tamil:Varaham(pandri) ) and tried to reach the end of the fire beneath the earth. He failed miserably and came back to Lord Shiva saying that he was unable to find the end of the fire from the bottom.
Lord Brahma on the other hand, took the shape of a swan (Sanskrit: Hansa, Tamil:Annam) and flew to find the beginning of the fire on the topside and flew towards the skies. After flying high with no end in sight, he chanced upon a piece of Thazhambu, a flower, learnt from it that it had been floating down for thirty thousand years from Lord Shiva's head.
He seized upon this and claimed to Lord Shiva that he had seen Lord Shiva's head. Lord Siva realized the falsehood and pronounced that there would never be a temple for Lord Brahma in this world. He also forbid the use of the flower Thazhambu in his worship.
Lord Shiva appeared as a flame hill (Arunachala Hill) at Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. Indeed, the very names `Tiruvannamalai' and `Arunachala' translate as `holy fire hill.' This occurs on the day when the moon is in conjunction with the constellation Karthigai (Pleiades) and pournami. This constellation appears as a group of six stars in the firmament in the shape of a pendant from the ear.
Constellation Karthigai (Pleiades)
Tiruvannamalai Arunachala Temple
The Shivalinga in the temple is the Agni linga. The tiny lamps lit during the Karthigai festival (Karthigai Deepam) are believed to be the miniature replicas of the fire linga. Every year thousands of devotees from all over flock to Tiruvannamalai to see the spectacular Karthigai Deepam (the fire lit on top of the hill symbolizing the original column of light) there.
Agal vilakku (oil lamps) lit up during Karthigai Deepam
The SIGNIFICANCE
LORD BRAHMA represents the mind and intellect, LORD VISHNU represents the material world and its attractions and LORD SHIVA represents the endless cosmic infinity.
Material pursuits are not going to take you to any higher states. You can only increase your possessions and no matter what you do in this short lifespan, you are bound to realize its actual insignificance sooner or later in this lifetime itself or through repeated lifetimes of doing the same thing. In this context, with this clarity, Lord Vishnu submits before Lord Shiva.
Lord Brahma represents the mind which can go after all kinds of higher pursuits and all such mental pursuits only increase the ego. The ever changing mind is also deceptive and cunning.
Even after realizing the futility of the pursuit, the mind seeks to justify and also engages in scheming activities to retain or prove its superiority. Thus Lord Brahma came about with a false evidence of the flower to falsely claim his position.
Lord Shiva, representing the cosmic infinite emptiness which supports all physical manifestations banishes such falsehood that the mind is capable of.
The mind and its ever changing engagements are to be banished from a temple or from the core of a seeker of truth.
The fire and the light are symbolic of destroying of all falsehood-both material and intellectual with the pure light of knowledge to regain our own pure and infinite state. This is to show that no matter what we pursue, our only purpose in this world is to regain our own original infinite state.
Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma pursuing both ways and returning back in futility clearly is a loud message that we have come this far after millions of years of physical evolution and having come to the highest possible state to be able to make this enquiry, we are urged not to waste it with endless deceptions and preoccupations.
So, if we go to Tiruvannamalai every year and just see the symbolic representations (which are retained only for carrying the significance to generations) and return back, glorifying and expressing the awe of Lord Shiva, it is not going to serve the intended purpose.
What ever rituals you do for Lord Shiva-is it going to enhance the cosmic source in any way? The clear message here is to transcend all the material and intellectual attractions and engagements without deceiving ourselves and continue our natural evolutionary journey with the wisdom of knowledge, to become one with the cosmic source.
Being born as Hindu itself is like winning a lottery because you are born into the only tradition which has elaborately laid out the path to attain the highest possible truth, unlike other basic paths laid out for societal well-being. Hence, it will be a terrible disrespect to your true tradition, if you dont have this as the primary purpose of existence and do what ever it takes to realize it.
Kartikai Deepam and Lord Muruga
Lord Muruga, also known as Skanda, Subrahamaniya and Kartik, was born as six different babies to Lord Shiva after he awoke from the deep meditation after Goddess Sati’s death. The six babies were looked after by the Six Krittika stars and the six children were later joined to a single force by Goddess Parvati.
Krittika is the six stars or the Pleiades cluster – when Muruga joins them as a child they make seven stars. As Muruga was born as six different babies and later joined into one He is popularly known as Aarumugan in Tamil culture.
Lord Muruga as Kumaraguru Advising Lord Shiva
Another legend has it that the lamps lit symbolically represent knowledge, victory and peace. Muruga as Kumaraguru is believed to have taught the meaning of ‘OM’ to Lord Shiva. Thus the lamps lit on the day are in remembrance of sharing the ultimate knowledge of ‘OM.’ The knowledge of OM helps in enlightenment and emancipation.
The Lord Muruga episode is also symbolic of continuous life and masters appearing in the physical plane to share the science of enlightenment, which can be attained through meditations on the maha mantra OM.
OM is AUM - A (ah) is the first sound one can make. If you try making any sound with your mouth, you will realize that A (ah) is the first sound possible and there is no sound before that. U (oo) is the mid sound you can make in a similar way and and M (mmm) is the final closing sound in a similar way.
Hence, the mantra OM or AUM, covers the entire sound phenomena that represents the entire manifested world. When you intone this sound, it represents the entire manifested material world and in the gap you have when you intone the next AUM lies the SILENCE, the silent space which supports all manifestations.
So, AUM, silence, AUM, silence, AUM, silence ..... and there will come a point where nothing else exists in your meditation except these 2 and when you are established only in this, the silent infinity takes over and you become one with the cosmic source.
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