SRI ARUNACHALA PURANAM REVISITED
BY
S. MAHESHKUMAR
REGISTERING facts in the form of stories or puranas are the accepted way of securing them to posterity. Thus we have at our disposal the greatest epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha. The facts elaborated in these epics are always relevant to our day to day activities. Persons who think seriously and compare their lives with that of those narrated in the cherished puranic stories may definitely find lot of solutions to their problems in them revealed wisely. The Temples, the Synagogues, the Pyramids, the Mosques, the Churches and the like such were built in order to spread the contents of the puranas and stories to the humankind at large. We take an acute look into the Arunachala Puranam in this tract now.
Brahmmam, Eeswaram and Naaraayanam are the three fundamental entities based upon which the concept of spiritualism of the Hindus can be interpreted. The male forms of Brahmmam, Eeswaram and Naaraayanam are respectively Brahma, Siva and Vishnu. Similarly the female forms of Brahmmam, Eeswaram and Naaraayanam are respectively Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Sakthi. We can also comprehend these couples of the trinities mathematically as follows: - The male and female of Brahmmam are + ∞ and - ∞ respectively, i.e., Plus Infinity and Minus Infinity. The male and female of Eeswaram are + 0 and – 0 respectively, i.e., Plus Zero and Minus Zero. And the male and female of Naaraayanam are + Number and – Number respectively, i.e., Plus Number and Minus Number. So we match for Brahma and Saraswathi as {+ ∞, - 0}. Our match for Eeswara or Siva and Sakthi is {+ 0, - N}. And the match for Naaraayana or Vishnu and Lakshmi is {+ N, - ∞}. Here N refers to any Positive Number other than 0 & ∞. We make an analogy concerning the males of the trinities mentioned earlier. That is, the cosmic slate is Vishnu, the cosmic eraser is Siva and in completion, the cosmic scribbler is none other than the Supreme, Brahma. I call Brahma the Supreme just because He is the Entirety, All in One and the Ultimate. Actually He is the Infinite Headed Being.
The Arunachala Puranam is the travelogue of Ego from Brahma en route Vishnu to Siva. When Ego got its birth in Brahma, it provoked satisfaction in him. When it reached Vishnu, it prompted in him imbalance. Finally when it reached Siva, it is destroyed. Brahma is satisfied when he achieves perfection. Ego is Brahma’s check of perfection. The three manifestations of Ego are when it is with Brahma, it is acknowledged as Manas; when it is with Vishnu, it is identified as Maaya; and when it is with Siva, it is recognised as Kaala.
Since the Ego is rooted in Brahma, it imposed on Siva the Brahmmahatthi Dhosha (that is the sin of killing a great being) before returning to its birth place as a nullified entity. Brahma is urged to fill in the cosmos with matter. He uses the cosmic slate and the cosmic eraser as his primary tools to accomplish the task of writing the cosmic drawing. As soon as the slate is densely packed with the scribblings of Brahma, then comes the time for the Creator to rub with the help of the eraser the entire contents of the slate and start afresh. This has been the eternal ritual. During this course, Brahma and Para Brahma shift their mutual domains and after this transformation they start their creation blissfully. That is, if we start from Zero and trek towards Infinity, we in course of very long time might reach at last the destination Infinity. But after that reaching of us, we confirm it by noting our distance from the starting zeroth point that our place has now become Zero and our starting place has become Infinity. So we again trek in the reverse to chase the other end. This is the game plan of SRIMADH VIRAT VISWAKARMA PARABRAHMA.
Now to the actual story. Satisfaction is the only goal of Brahma’s creating act. Once he gets it, he stops his business and takes rest. So, during the initial stage of Pralayaa (Total Destruction), he started a Dhik Vijaya (All Round Tour) to the created i.e. the World. Before his voyage, he planned his tour and carefully placed the fragrant flower Thaazhampoo (in Tamil), [Moghali Puvvu (in Telugu), Ketaka Pushpam (in Sanskrit), Screw Pine Flower (in English), Pandanus Fleur (in French), Schraubenbaum Blumen (in German) and in Botanical Nomenclature called the Pandanus Odoratissimus] on Siva’s Head. So everything went as perfectly devised by Lord Brahma. At the close of the trip of Brahma, Vishnu the container of Brahma’s creations, cried by saying, due to overburden, that Brahma had to salute him as he felt he was greater than Brahma. This was the actual point at which the commencing of the quarrel between Brahma and Vishnu was started. After war of words, they wrestled with each other.
For a very long time the clash continued steadfastly. They plucked huge trees, huge rocks to hurt the other. The battle proceeded without rest. There was nobody to interfere and bring peace and the world with all its goodness was turned topsy-turvy into disorder. Almost all that was created was demolished. The object of this never ending feud was nothing but total destruction. After this non-stop war, Brahma and Vishnu got tired. They decided to get it clarified with the help of the eraser, Siva. That is, the destroyed dust had to be wiped out by the eraser in order to get the slate ready to contain new creation.
In Brahmmam itself is both Sivam and Naaraayanam. It is for the sake of understanding that we conceive the singular Brahmmam as a plural concept. That is, in the first place we split Brahmmam into the Trio Sivam, Naaraayanam and Brahmmam. Secondly in Naaraayanam, we have Sivam included. It is in order to make our grasp easy that we split it into two viz., Sivam and Naaraayanam. Thirdly in Sivam i.e. Eeswaram we have none other than itself. It is subtle, absolute and primary. So Sivam and Naaraayanam are the parts of Brahmmam. They are dutiful to the will of Brahmmam. They are influenced by Brahma’s field. If Sivam and Naaraayanam started behaving as if they are separate, it then becomes responsible for Brahmmam to devise certain plots to accomplish the task of bringing Sivam and Naaraayanam under control. That is why we have the Arunachala Puranam.
Brahma and Vishnu decided to let their greatness be decided by Siva after long combat. With this decision they approached Lord Siva seated peacefully in trance. Due to the influence of Ego handed over by Vishnu to Siva, he convinced Brahma and Vishnu to look for the end of his top and base. Having said thus, Siva turned himself into a dazzling column of fire i.e. as the Lingodhbhavamoorthi and continued expanding into Aakaasam (Space) and into Paathaalam (Abyss). Vishnu transformed himself into Swetha Varaaham (White Boar) and begun digging with his tusks the earth in search of the base of the Lingodhbhavamoorthi. Brahma in the form of Hamsa (Swan) flew over the top of the column of fire in order to see Siva’s summit.
We comprehend these two activities of Vishnu and Brahma respectively as the subtracting process and the adding process. That is, suppose Vishnu to be the number 10. We start subtracting by 1 successively. Due to this act of subtraction we see that the number 10 changed into 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and finally to 0 i.e. Eeswaram. So the cosmic slate, its contents therein are totally wiped out and it became clean expecting further creation to hold with. As Brahma’s going to the top is compared with adding, from Zero onwards we add 1 to 0 continuously summing up. Thus we get 1, 2, 3, 4, … . But Siva’s wiping act proceeded even after cleaning the slate, unendingly. That is, Siva became uncontrollable and destroyed all without consenting to Brahma.
At the point of Siva turning himself into the light beam, the Thaazhampoo as placed earlier by Brahma himself on Siva’s head, thanks to Brahma’s foresight, slipped down. After the lapse of many yugaas of travelling both by the Swan and the Thaazhampoo in either direction, Brahma got hold of the Divine Flower Thaazhampoo in his grips. Brahma then descended and reached the place from where he had commenced his flight. There he saw Vishnu bowing to Siva. Siva’s superiority was short lived as Brahma showed him the Thaazhampoo as the proof and witness for his having seen the summit of Siva. Thaazhampoo is the embodiment of Brahma’s consort Sri Saraswathi. As Brahma’s perspiration of flying upwards was blessed with the gift of his consort Sri Saraswathi personified Thaazhampoo, Vishnu’s hardship of digging into the earth bestowed him with his consort Sri Lakshmi personified Sri Bhumadevi and Siva’s expanding himself in space as Lingodhbhavamoorthi presented him with his consort Sri Sakthi personified Prakruthi (Mother Nature).
Actually, Brahma’s conquest of Siva and hence Vishnu is explained by the law of transitivity. In short, it states that if a = b and b = c, then a = c. That is Brahma saw Thaazhampoo and Thaazhampoo saw the head of Siva from where it had descended, so Brahma in conclusion saw the head of Siva. That’s all! If Siva was really greater than Brahma, then Brahma’s seeing the Thaazhampoo and getting its hold should not have occurred. Now it was happened! So Brahma thus controlled Siva’s egoistic temperament. Upon seeing his master Siva’s position thus disturbed by Brahma’s establishing that he had conquered Siva by seeing his head, the Siva Ghanam (Siva’s steward) Kaalabhairava plucked the Fifth Head of the Pancha Mukha Brahma. The Brahma Kabhaalam consumed Kaalabhairava as its maiden prey. It then fell upon the palms of Siva and accommodated on the grips firmly in the inverted position.
As a consequence of the ingestion of Kaalabhairava by the Brahma Kabhaalam, the Time that he represented was frozen and everything became still except the visionless Siva asking for alms with the cranium of Brahma’s Fifth Head. This happened on the day of Sivaraathri or darkness of Siva’s ignorance! As a result of the Time being frozen, it is absurd to catalogue the consequent events that followed till the next day of Mayaanakkollai or the ‘Loot of the Graveyard’ to a particular period or duration of time. The flight of Brahma over the Top of Siva which can be comprehended as a kind of wiping the Cosmos using Siva as a wiper by Brahma might have taken infinity of time or yugaas for its accomplishment! As time is relative, it can be subjected to contraction or expansion along with space. The frozen Time on Sivaraathri was invigorated on Mayaanakkollai, as if they were two following days. The episode that happened in between those two days was beyond time and hence ubiquitous.
The Kabhaala (Cranium) swallowed everything that was put into it. As a result due to the Brahmmahatthi Dhosha, Siva became very hungry. He collected the entirety of the Cosmos and put into his Biksha Pot that was the Brahma Kabhaala. That too, the Kabhaala ate! In conclusion, he went to the consort of Brahma, Sri Saraswathi who was Siva’s female form. The Goddess then poured the Divine Ambrosia into her spouse’s Kabhaala that was being used by Siva as a Begging Device. To the surprise of Siva, the Kabhaala got filled. Siva took the Kabhaala nearer to his mouth. Unexpectedly, the Brahma Kabhaala swallowed Siva himself and then became the Lingajeeranamoorthi (the God who had digested the Siva’s Identity and Form i.e. the Sivalingam). After consuming or giving place to Siva in its entirety, the Kabhaala ejected all that was previously consumed or swallowed by it along with Time in exchange.
The day that followed Sivaraathri which is being celebrated annually as ‘Mayaanakkollai’ or ‘Loot of the Graveyard’ is in memoriam of the recreated stuff that the Brahma Kabhaala had ejected by rejuvenating the lifeless that filled the grave like world. Thus Siva got his actual Swaroopa as the eraser in the hold of Brahma as his Inner Face i.e. the Thathpurusham or the Antharmukham. And the Brahma, now called Sri Panchamukheeswara with four faces outward (Eesanyam, Agoram, Vaamadevam, Sathyojaatham) and the Lingam as Inner Face (Thathpurusham) resumed his act of creation.
THE ARUNACHALAM, the Siva’s or THE ZERO’S ABODE (Thiruvannaamalai, the heart & pulse of the world, the Arunagiri & the Siddhapuri in Tamilnadu, South India) is reminiscent with the Agni Lingam of Lord Siva also called Lord Sri Arunachaleswara Swami. THE BRAHMACHALAM, the Brahma’s or THE ZEROID’S ABODE [ZEROID = ZERO + NUMBERS + INFINITY] (Sri Kaalahasthi Mountain, the brain & intellect of the world, the Brahmagiri & the Gnaanapuri) is reminiscent with the Antharmukham of Brahma, the Brahmalingam or the Vaayulingam of Lord Sri Brahmachaleswara also called as Lord Sri Kaalahastheeswara Swami, enshrined at Sri Kaalahasthi, in Andhra Pradesh, South India.
This phenomenon repeats forever and Brahma due to his exasperation again acquires the Fifth Head by exposing it above his four faces and if it will be plucked again, the same story follows at once in order to enliven perfection. If there are no mischiefs from the created and also from his tools, then the Five Headed Brahma liberates everything by his mergence called as Maha Moksha.
In essence, it is the mutual engulfing of the Brahmmam and the Eeswaram in the Naaraayanam for the cherished invention of the PERFECT-INFINITE-BLISS known as the BRAHMAANANTHAANANDHAM that is reiterated in the quintessential story of Sri Arunachala Puranam.
—S. Maheshkumar.
{Composed on 27th November 2000 at 11.54 AM and updated on 14th January 2008 at 12.26 PM, Indian Standard Time}.
