SASTHA THIRU KALYANAM
The attached article by Sri, Vedanarayanan Mama forwarded by Shri CA G. Hariharan mama.
MARRIAGE OF THE DIVINE:
Lord supreme has created this Universe. To
generate the activities of the living beings, the Lord has manifested himself
as PURUSHA and PRAKRITHI i.e., Ammai and Appan, SHIV-SAKTHI or LAKSHMI-NARAYANA
Swaroopa to protect the living beings. He has taken many AVATARS. In some
avatars, He was a Brahmachari and in others, He was adorned with His consort,
in single form or dual form. Enlightened souls and elite advocated the concept
of worshipping the Lord with His Shakti aspect only.
Brahmam is one. He is the Paramatma from whom
generated all Jeevatmas. Jeevatmas exists in all living beings, from insects to
mankind. Human beings are considered the rarest and highest manifestation
gifted with the Sixth Sense. With his sixth sense, the human beings should
strive to reach the Lotus feet of the lord that is to merge back in the
Paramatma.
In this kaliyuga, Bhakti Marga is the easiest
way to reach the supreme. In Bhakti Marga, Nama Sankeerthana, singing the
glories of the Lord and his Kalyana Gunas, is considered the most pious way,
which envelopes performing of the kalyana utsavams of the lord with his
consorts, whereby the performer—devotee is bestowed with all prosperities in
this mundane world, besides proceeding on a stepping stone to reach the
ultimate.
The supreme has taken many forms for being
worshipped by devotees, towards realizing the formless. The devotees make a
choice of their own and concentrate on the form he selects and one such form is
Tharaka Brahmam, Lord Sri Hariharaputra, with his consorts Poorna and Pushkala
the divine marriage of whom forms the subject matter hereunder.
THE LEGENDARY TALES
LORD SRI DHARMA SASTHA is a divine incarnate,
born of Lord Shiva and Vishnu, to slain demoness Mahishi. He is said to have
his abode at Kantha Mala, with his two consorts—POORNA and PUSHKALA. We have
been conducting wedding ceremony to the Lord, as a form of AYYAPPA worship. It
is often questioned by Ayyappa devotees as to how a wedding ceremony can be
celebrated to Sabari Mala Ayyappa, who is a Brahmachari. This question arises
out of misconception. To erase this doubt, this article is written,
with all available details, to throw light on the different aspects of SASTHA
and AYYAPPA. For this, we have to carefully go through the Puranas relating o
the lord.
In various Puranas like SKAANDAM, BRAHMANDA
PURANAM, LALITHOPAKYANAM etc, it is said that lord Hariharaputra was born to
Shiva and Mohini(Vishnu) after PALAZHI MADANAM, which dates back to KRUTHA
YUGA. Skaandam says that Lord Sastha with his two consorts appeared before
Indra and Indrani to protect them. (This happened even before the avatar of
Lord Muruga). References of Sastha appear in various Puranas and Upa-puranas
spreading over the other three Yugas also, including Ramayana and Mahabaratha.
In Kaliyuga, Sastha descended on earth as Manikanta. Why?
The trinity force i.e., Siva-Vishnu-Brahma
combined and Dattathreya was born. The trinity-consort force i.e.,
Durga-Lakshmi-Saraswathi combined and was born a daughter named Leelavathi.
Dattatreya and Leelavathi joined in wedlock and they lived happily for a good
length of time.
As time went on, Dattatreya yearned to go back
and merge in trinity. Leelavathi would not let him go. There was an altercation
between them, at the end of which Dattatreya cursed Leelavathi to
become a Mahishi(she-buffalo). Leelavathi, in turn, cursed Dattatreya to become
a Mahisha (he-buffalo). The two curses took effect. The two, Mahishi and
Mahisha, were reveling together for sometime. Dattatreya, again yearning for
his merge with divinity, left Mahishi and has a merge. Mahishi started
perpetrating atrocities in this world and in the nether worlds. She got a boon
from Brahma that she could be killed by a child born of two positives, Hari and
Hara that too after the child’s undergoing servitude to a human being for a
period of 12 years.
As the story goes, lord Hariharaputra got
wedded to Pushkala Devi first and then won the hands of Poorna subsequently.
Father of Pushkala, a Nepalese king, cursed the lord “even after marrying my
good-natured daughter, you conducted yourself as a human being. I curse you to
become a human being and lead a life of Brahmachari in the mundane world”. The
lord replied “Demoness Mahishi has got a boon that she could be killed by a
child born of Hari and Hara, after undergoing servitude to a man for a period
of 12 years. I am born of Hari and Hara and was wondering how I could serve a
man. Now your curse has come in handy for me. Let you be born as a kind of
Pandala state and I shall take the birth of a son to you and serve you for 12
years, so as to comply with both your curse and Mahishi’s boon, so that, at the
end, I can destroy that evil force.”
In one of his subsequent births, the Nepalese
king was born as a Brahmin by name “Vijayan”. He had no issues. He propitiated
lord Sastha as per the advices and directions of huntress Sabhari (of Ramayana
fame). When the lord appeared before him, he prayed “you should be my son”.
Lord said: “be it so”. In due course Vijayan was born as king Rajashekara of
Pandalam.
The rest of the story the entire world knows.
Lord Sastha materialized himself in the shape of a tiny child called
“MANIKANTA” on the banks of the holy river Pambha, brought up by the Pandala
king, gone to dense forest, slained demo ness Mahishi, brought leopard milk for
his step-mother and took to Brahmacharya yoga at the Shabari hills.
On redemption, Mahishi (now Leelavathy)
requested the lord to marry her. Lord replied: “In this avatar as Manikanta, I
am a Brahmachari. I shall opt to marry you when no Kanni Ayyappa(one who is
trekking Sabari hills for the first time) turns out to the hills. Till such
time, you may join in doing penance near my temple as “Maligaipurathu Manja
Matha”.
From the above, we can conclude that only in
the avatar of Manikanta to slain Mahishi, Lord Ayyappa was a Brahmachari. But
the origin of Ayyappa, Lord Dharma Sastha dwells at Kantha Mala with his two
consorts Poorna and Pushkala, even before his Ayyappa avatar. We may refer here
the avatars of Lord Maha Vishnu—as Parasurama, he was a Brahmachari; as Rama he
was Eka-Pathni Vrathaa. As Krishna, he did Raasa Leela with gopikas. Similarly,
one of the facets of Sastha took to Brahmacharyam as Ayyappa. A distinct line
should be drawn between Sastha and Manikanta.
It may be recalled that Ayyappa devotees chant
“Poorna-Pushkala Kanthane, Saranam Ayyappa”. We do archanas to him ending with
“Poorna-Pushkalamba Sametha Sri Hariharaputhra Swaminae Namaha”. As per Hindu
traditions, we worship the lord as “Shiv-Sakthi Swaroopa”. Accordingly, the
wedding ceremony is celebrated only to Sri Hariharaputra Swamy and not to
Sabari hills Ayyappa Swamy.
Apart from the story aspect, Sastha
Thirukalyanam stands to reasoning from other angle (philosophy) also. Goddess
Lakshmi and Durga—the Sakthi aspects of Hari-Hara function as such for
Hariharaputra in the names of Poorna and Pushkala respectively. In yoga Marga,
the cords “IDA” and “PINGALA” represent Poorna-Pushkala, on two sides of the
centre cord of “SUSHUMNA” wherein Sastha dwells.
The basic concept behind “RADHA KALYANAM”
which is widely conducted in India is the merge of JEEVATHMA (Radha) in the
PARAMATMA (Krishna). This concept holds good for the “AJYA ABHISHEKAM”
performed at Sabari hills, where ghee symbolizes Jeevathma and lord who is
receiving it as Paramathma. This is otherwise called the Sabari merge. In
Kaliyuga, there are two ways to each the supreme viz., Bhakti Marga and Gnana
Marga. While Sabari Yatra means Gnana Marga to attain the lotus feet of Sri
Dharma Sastha as “NIRGUNA BRAHMAM”, Nama Sankeerthana and performing Kalyana
Utsavam for the lord comes under Bhakti Marga to reach him as “SAGUNA BRAHMAM”
in his cosmic form. The two Margas are denoted by Poorna and Pushkala to reach
the infinite.
Worshipping Lord Sastha with his consorts has
been in vogue in Tamil Nadu and Kerala from time immemorial. In country-side
temples spread over Tamilnadu, Sastha is being called as “AYYANAR” with his two
consorts. In Kerala too, Sastha is worshipped with his consorts for eg.,
Noorani, Thirunilayi, Achankoil etc. In one of the five abodes of Sastha ie.,
at ARYANKAVU (near Shencottah) Sastha Thiru Kalyanam is being performed by
TRAVANCORE DEVASWOM BOARD, with all religious rites on the 10th night
of Dhanur masya (prior to Mandalabhishegam day) every year, for ages past.
By and beyond reasoning school of thought, it
is considered fit and proper to sing the glory of Hariharaputra with this two
consorts, by performing “SASTHA THIRU KALYANAM” in all houses, Bhajan Mandalis,
community Centres, Samoohams and temples to reach the sublimity of bliss.
