Issue 4

Baskara Sparsa Pooja Soorya's Worship of Siva At Chettikulam Ékambarésvara Temple Part 1 of 5 If you visit Arunachala, you can immediately sense the spirituality in the air. That's because it's home to the Supreme Master of the Universe and millions and millions of Siddhas who throng that place in both concrete and subtle form. The intense spiritual vibrations of these great beings coupled with the "here and now" presence of the Lord of the Universe influence even the most material minded amongst us and elevate us to a higher spiritual state. Now contrast this with the atmosphere in a bar or a pub. The atmosphere there is not conducive to spirituality because people gather there for reasons other than spirituality. Their vibrations cause the agitation of materialism, not the serenity of spirituality. Thus the intrinsic subtle vibration of each and every object, animate and inanimate, is important. This vibration influences all those who come into contact with it. If we come into contact with beings and objects that have intense spiritual vibrations, we get uplifted spiritually. Spiritual Vibes! If we are in the presence of a Siddha, we'll definitely get uplifted by his or her powerful spiritual vibrations. Of course. But locating the whereabouts of Siddhas is not exactly easy! They are not in the habit of announcing themselves! So what else we can do? We can come into contact with an object that has come into contact with them. That which has been touched by a Siddha is precious. That which has touched the form of God is precious. Hence the importance of substances that have been used in abishekam ceremonies performed on the divine form. These substances are referred to as divine prasadam, that is, divine grace in tangible form. Receptors of Divine Grace We get divine grace through abishekam substances. This is because these substances, having come into contact with the divine form, get elevated to a high spiritual state and thus become receptors of divine grace. Though God's grace is everywhere, we humans, because of our failings and deficiencies are not very good receptors of grace. But we can partake of divine grace through better receptors of the same like abiskekam substances. That which has touched the form of God is special. Abishekam substances become purified by divine contact and thus become receptors and conveyors of divine grace. But even these abishekam substances are touched by human hands during abishekam. Can we do better than that? A Divine Receptor and Conveyor of Grace  An Agasthiar Nugget If you drop a bomb and kill thousands of people, that's not progress. If you drop a bomb and create hundred bags of rice, that's progress. What if these abishekam substances are not touched by human hands at all? That is, what if the abishekam is done by a divine personage? Furthermore, what if the abishekam substance isn't even from this world? What if the form of the Lord to which the abishekam is done is a svayambhu moorthi (a form not sculpted by any being but a self existent, unoriginated form willed by God Himself)? Imagine now how much more pristine and potent that abishekam substance would be when it reaches us! This is exactly what we get during Baskara sparsa pooja. Hence the importance of witnessing this momentous spiritual event. The Divine Touch! Sparsa = touch. Baskara = Soorya. Pooja = Worship. Thus Baskara Sparsa Pooja means Soorya's Worship with His hands. It's not a mental exercise of Soorya, but His conscious, physical worship of the Lord's form. Whom does Soorya worship with His hands? He worships the Siva Lingam form of the Universal Lord; He worships the form of the Universal Mother, of Maha Vishnu and other deities. The latter worship procedures of Sri Soorya are called Dévi Paadha Pooja and Vishnu Paadha Pooja respectively. How does Soorya do this worship? By bathing the divine form with his rays. His rays are at once both His hands and the abishekam substance that He offers to the Supreme Lord. The personage who does the pooja is the divine Soorya Himself. The svayambhu moorthi to whom the abishekam is done is the Ultimate Lord of All. Thus it's abishekam done by the divine hands of Soorya using his divine rays as abishekam substance to a self existent, unoriginated form of the Supreme Master of the Universe. Sparsa Pooja and Sparsa Deeksha When these rays bounce of the divine form and fall on our physical being, it's Soorya blessing us with the Lord's grace personally. Thus Soorya, the divine personage, is the performer of the abishekam. The abishekam substance is His own divine energy in the form of His rays. The receptor of the Lord's grace is Sri Soorya who absorbs it during this divine abishekam. The conveyor of this grace is also Sri Soorya who transfers it to us by sparsa deeksha, that is, by touching us with His rays. Thus Sri Soorya touches the Lord as part of His worship and then touches us to convey the Lord's grace to us. This is the divine secret behind the unique spiritual nature of these rays when they bounce of the Lord's form and fall on us. Unique Pooja This is Soorya's sparsa pooja of the Lord and His sparsa deeksha of the prasadam to us. It's - divine prasadam - given to us by a divine personage - of a divine substance - that had been offered by a divine personage to the Ultimate Lord of All! Both the pooja and the deeksha happen with no human intervention at all! Can anything be more pristine in its divinity than that! Hence the uniqueness of this prasadam. All humans must partake of this unique prasadam of the Lord's grace given to us by Sri Soorya. If ordinary abishekam substances have disease removing qualities, imagine how much more potent this prasadam, which has not been touched by any human, will be! It's the disease removing panacea for all ills. The grace of God can do anything and everything if only we can receive it in full measure. Sri Soorya receives this grace for us and communicates it to us expertly during Baskara Sparsa Pooja as only a divine personage can do. As we said before, we are not good receptors of divine grace, but the divine Sri Soorya receives it and hands it to us on the proverbial silver platter. He gives us something that we are not good at getting ourselves. You can think of it as Soorya's charity to humankind; that which He got by doing pooja to the Lord, He offers to us selflessly. (If Soorya does selfless service, imagine how much we should serve!) Witness Déva Pooja! Imagine us being invited to Deva Pooja! It's unthinkable, but it happens on selected days in selected temples and it's ours for the taking! Don't miss these totally special events! The Étthapoor temple near Salem, the Vaitheesvara temple in Poondhamalli near Madras, the Kundrathoor temple near Madras, the Thiruchérai temple near Kumbakónam, the Vaitheesvara temple near Mayuram, the Panangaatoor temple near Villupuram, the Aiyarmalai Rathnagireesvara temple, the Trichy Hill Fort temple are a few of the temples (in the state of TamilNadu in south India) in which Baskara Sparsa Pooja can be witnessed on seleceted days each year. Baskara Sparsa Pooja at Chettikulam In the Ékambaresvara temple at Chettikulam near Trichy, Baskara Sparsa Pooja can be witnessed on the 19th, 20th and 21st days of the Panguni maasam each year. In 1999, these three days fall on April 2, 3 and 4. On these three days, Sri Soorya does sparsa pooja of the Ékambaresvara form of the Universal Lord and the Kamakshi form of the Universal Mother. One month before this, on the 19th, 20th and 21st days of the Maasi maasam, Soorya's rays fall on the divine form of Sri Muruga in the Chettikulam temple. Sri Muruga's shrine is opposite that of Sri Ékambaresvara, as though Sri Muruga Himself wants to witness Soorya's sparsa pooja of the Lord. (An interesting point is that the beautiful Sri Muruga wields a sugarcane in one of His divine hands in this shrine.) The spiritual forces present in these temples that feature Baskara Sparsa Pooja are unique. Each one is a bit different. Depending on the Siddhas who are present there in sookshma (subtle) form, the special moolika medicinal herbs which are there, the sthala vruksham (temple tree) and the temple pond, each of these temples offers its own unique brand of spiritual energy. For those who visit the Chettikulam temple on all three days mentioned above and receive the Lord's grace prasadam from Sri Soorya Himself, there are special spiritual benefits and that's the subject of the rest of this article. Next | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5