The Ayyappa Story and its Symbolism
Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are described in the Puraanas as the three major divine aspects of Reality associated with creation, maintenance and dissolution of the universe. These Divinities took a manifestation as Datta. The consorts of the Divinities also there upon took a manifestation as Leela.
Datta eventually married Leela and after living a few years of conjugal love, he wanted to renounce the worldly life and engage in spiritual disciplines to transcend his conditioned being and to be one with his greater existence. But Leela would not agree to this. She wanted to continue the life of mundane pleasure in the company of Datta, who tried to convince her that one can never find lasting contentment in a lustful life. But Leela was adamant. An enraged Datta cursed her to be born as a Mahishi, a senseless she-buffalo to satisfy her desires.
Datta, the combination of the all the three Gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva represent the supreme Consciousness. Their respective divine wives represent the energy aspect of Consciousness. When this energy aspect wanted to express itself into forms of energy manifestations, it became limited in nature unlike its unlimited un-manifesting real nature, the Consciousness. This limiting manifesting aspect is represented as the curse. Rest is history.
The manifested forms, acquired Ego. Ego means to identify it to the "acquired" form instead of the principle behind the form. With this emerged the whole creation. The Ego form is represented as the She buffalo or Mahishi. In course of time, Leela took birth as a bizarre creature with the head of a she-buffalo and the body of a woman. She was very powerful because of her divine origin, but very dull-witted because of her buffalo nature. She did intense penance and propitiated Lord Brahma, who granted the boons she desired for, such as that powerful creatures very much like herself would emerge out of all her hair follicles whenever she wanted and that she could not be killed except by one who was born out of a union of Lord Vishnu and Lord Siva, which was thought to be an impossibility. Having obtained this boon, she struck terror in the heavens, the abode of Devas (godly beings) and drove them and their king Indra away. She placed herself on the throne of Indra as the ruler of the heavens.
Mahishi, the Ego, though the shadow of the Consciousness, is naturally powerful. This Ego derives its power from mind, the "thoughts". This is what is symbolized by Mahishi doing penance to Brahma, the mind. Hair on head always represents Ego and that is why shaving of hair is done as a means of surrender of Ego to God. Shaving of head represents loss of identity and pride about beauty, similar to loss of Ego. Here Mahishi says similarly that her hair follicles each should give rise to creatures like it, which shows propagation of Ego into many forms.
She got the boon from Brahma that she will be destroyed only by someone born to Vishnu and Shiva, who represent the consciousness and awareness. Brahma represent the mind and killing of Mahishi or Ego represent the complete transcendence, back to the Source. Once the Ego goes out of control, it will cause havoc in heaven. Heaven means pleasures in the enjoyment of senses, however in a controlled manner. The king of heaven is Indra that comes from the word "Indriya" or senses. The heaven becomes when sensual pleasures become addiction, under the rule of uncontrolled Ego. This is the symbolism of Mahishi striking terror and driving away Indra and other gods from heaven.
The Symbolism of Ayyappa Story
The oppressed Deva-s prayed to Brahama, Vishnu and Shiva for their intervention. There was another incident which ended up in churning of the ocean (ksheer sagar). Vishnu took form of a beautiful lady - Mohini to settle dispute between the demons and God. Seeing the enchanting form of Mohini, Lord Siva himself fell in love with her and from their union a son was born to Mohini. This was Dharma Saastha, who was destined to kill Mahishi, according to the boon given to her by Lord Brahma that only the one born from the union of Siva and Vishnu could kill her. The child was placed by the Devas on earth on the banks of the river Pampa, where Mahishi was living.
The churning of Ocean is deep in symbolic meaning. When there are problems and there is no happiness, we turn inward and this is represented by the Devas seeking help to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Mohini represents the powerful form of the intellect, the inquiring nature. Inquiring nature (Vichara) leads to discrimination of the real from un-real. This deepens the awareness which we had discussed earlier. The inquiry (Vichara) helps in transcending to the awareness state. Intellect is other form of Consciousness and so the Union of the Consciousness and awareness state is Dharma Sastha or Ayyappa. At the birth Ayyappa wasfound with a jewel in the neck representing the throat Chakra, the one who has control over his body metabolism.
During this time, Raajasekhara, the king of a small kingdom Pandalam (in south Kerala), was engaging himself in a hunting expedition. When he was moving along the banks of the river Pampa, he saw a crying child in a secluded spot. He took the child to his palace and brought him up as his foster son. The child was named “Manikanda (jewel in neck)”.The child grew up in the palace under the affectionate care of king Raajasekhara, who had no son of his own. The boy proved himself to be a genius and mastered the Vedas and the martial science quickly.
Rajasekhara (Sekhara means hair) refers to Shiva , the awareness in us. A spiritual aspirant who has progressed to the state of the throat chakra, which means control over his metabolic needs of the body, will next progress total control over the body represented by the ajna- chakra, the third eye (Shiva). However the Raja's wife under the influence of the minister to get rid of Manikanda, pretended head ache and the royal physician was bribed to prescribe fresh Tigers milk as an antidote. Manikantan volunteered to bring the Tigers milk. The minister felt happy over the expected turn of events which assured the imminent death of the Prince in the forest.
A spiritual aspirant in his spiritual evolution notices mystical powers. Often the Ego desires to acquire that. He does not understand that dwelling in these mystical powers is a trap. This trap will ruin the whole spiritual Sadhana. This is beautifully symbolized by the above story of Ayyappa, where the queen with the minister enacts the trap to kill Manikanda. The leopard symbolizes the mystical powers. The queen represent the one form of the Ego that wants to rule the kingdom of the mind. The minister represents the cunning nature of the Ego and the bribe to the royal physician is attraction towards exercising mystical powers.
All spiritual aspirants go through this phase of getting attracted to mystical powers. This use of these powers only strengthens the Ego and is a trap that strangles the sadhaka. |Very few like Manikanda overcomes it by killing the Mahisha within. Ayyappa who sent in search of Tigers milk encountered the Mahishi in the forest. He caught hold of Mahisi by her horns, lifted her and hurled her downwards. She fell near the river, Azutha. Lying there incapacitated, and having had the divine touch of Ayyappa, she immediately recollected her original divine nature and sang in praise of him. As the compassionate glance of Ayyappa fell on her, there emerged out of her bizarre body an extremely beautiful Goddess, now worshipped as Goddess Maaligappurath-amma in Sabarimala.
Killing of the Mahishi is the killing of the Ego. The moment the veil of Ego is removed, the inner light of Consciousness is realized. We understand our True Self to be Consciousness and not the Ego, body and mind. Then such a realized person would live a royal life in the palace of bliss. "Maaliga" in Malayalam means palace. This state of a Self-realized person is an honorable state and so symbolically worshipped as "Maaliga Purathamma", the would-be wife of Lord Ayyappa.
When the Mahishi was killed, Leela emerged and remembered her real nature to be the divine energy of Consciousness. She asked Ayyappa to marry her. Ayyappa refused saying that he has to take care of people who needs his help. When there are no more help needed then he would marry her, until then she has to wait, indicated by no more arrows in "Saram kuthiyaal". In the section about the Journey to Sabarimala we will discuss about this very interesting aspect in detail.
A self realized person immediately does not leave the body, if he or she has any trace of vasanas (desires) left. This will be extinguished through the action of Service to others. This is symbolized by the refusal of marriage (Union of jiva with the supreme Atma). The nil arrows in Sarankuthiyaal represents this symbolism. Thereafter, Ayyappa returned to the kingdom of Pandalam with the a group of Tigers.
A Self realized person who has killed his Ego, would have all the mystical powers under his control as seen As Ayyappa riding on the Tiger. The king, the queen and all others realized the divinity of Ayyappa and surrendered to him before him. Ayyappa imparted to them spiritual wisdom about the meaning and destiny of human life. The king prayed to the Lord to bless them with his everlasting spiritual presence in a temple to be dedicated to him, for showering his Grace to millions for generations to come. That would be especially necessary in the present Iron Age (Kali Yuga) when people would increasingly tend to be self-centred and materialistic, bringing much disharmony to life. Thereupon, the lord suggested a holy spot and advised the king to construct a temple there. The Lord assured him that the temple would ever be vibrant with his Divine Presence and then He disappeared. Eventually the king constructed a temple in the deep forest of Sabarimala as suggested by the Lord. An idol of Lord Ayyappa seated in the Yogic pose Veeraasanam and showing the mystic sign of Chinmudra by the right hand was installed in the temple.
In a self realized person all the thoughts are under his control. He recongizes his divinity asinscriped in the Sabarimala temple "ThatTvam Asi", which means "You are that supreme Consciousness".
This is the meaning of chin-mudra that ayyappa shows. Little finger represents body, ring finger represents mind (that is why in wedding ring is worn in ring finger or mind finger because the event is the joining of two individuals are mind level) . The middle finger is the senses and the fore finger is the “I” or ego thought. The thumb is the consciousness finger or intellect finger without which the other fingers are useless. The forefinger is always found associated with the other three fingers and when it transcends them it merges with the thumb to form a circle which indicates that this consciousness has no beginning and end. This is the thatva of chin mudra that Ayyappa shows and tells his devotees to achieve in life.
Knowing the Symbolism of Sabarimala Ayyappa, let us now take the Journey to The Source. We will understand how each ritual in the journey represents the symbolism of Ayyappa story actually represents our inward spiritual journey to our own source, the Consciousness.
Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are described in the Puraanas as the three major divine aspects of Reality associated with creation, maintenance and dissolution of the universe. These Divinities took a manifestation as Datta. The consorts of the Divinities also there upon took a manifestation as Leela.
Datta eventually married Leela and after living a few years of conjugal love, he wanted to renounce the worldly life and engage in spiritual disciplines to transcend his conditioned being and to be one with his greater existence. But Leela would not agree to this. She wanted to continue the life of mundane pleasure in the company of Datta, who tried to convince her that one can never find lasting contentment in a lustful life. But Leela was adamant. An enraged Datta cursed her to be born as a Mahishi, a senseless she-buffalo to satisfy her desires.
Datta, the combination of the all the three Gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva represent the supreme Consciousness. Their respective divine wives represent the energy aspect of Consciousness. When this energy aspect wanted to express itself into forms of energy manifestations, it became limited in nature unlike its unlimited un-manifesting real nature, the Consciousness. This limiting manifesting aspect is represented as the curse. Rest is history.
The manifested forms, acquired Ego. Ego means to identify it to the "acquired" form instead of the principle behind the form. With this emerged the whole creation. The Ego form is represented as the She buffalo or Mahishi. In course of time, Leela took birth as a bizarre creature with the head of a she-buffalo and the body of a woman. She was very powerful because of her divine origin, but very dull-witted because of her buffalo nature. She did intense penance and propitiated Lord Brahma, who granted the boons she desired for, such as that powerful creatures very much like herself would emerge out of all her hair follicles whenever she wanted and that she could not be killed except by one who was born out of a union of Lord Vishnu and Lord Siva, which was thought to be an impossibility. Having obtained this boon, she struck terror in the heavens, the abode of Devas (godly beings) and drove them and their king Indra away. She placed herself on the throne of Indra as the ruler of the heavens.
Mahishi, the Ego, though the shadow of the Consciousness, is naturally powerful. This Ego derives its power from mind, the "thoughts". This is what is symbolized by Mahishi doing penance to Brahma, the mind. Hair on head always represents Ego and that is why shaving of hair is done as a means of surrender of Ego to God. Shaving of head represents loss of identity and pride about beauty, similar to loss of Ego. Here Mahishi says similarly that her hair follicles each should give rise to creatures like it, which shows propagation of Ego into many forms.
She got the boon from Brahma that she will be destroyed only by someone born to Vishnu and Shiva, who represent the consciousness and awareness. Brahma represent the mind and killing of Mahishi or Ego represent the complete transcendence, back to the Source. Once the Ego goes out of control, it will cause havoc in heaven. Heaven means pleasures in the enjoyment of senses, however in a controlled manner. The king of heaven is Indra that comes from the word "Indriya" or senses. The heaven becomes when sensual pleasures become addiction, under the rule of uncontrolled Ego. This is the symbolism of Mahishi striking terror and driving away Indra and other gods from heaven.
The Symbolism of Ayyappa Story
The oppressed Deva-s prayed to Brahama, Vishnu and Shiva for their intervention. There was another incident which ended up in churning of the ocean (ksheer sagar). Vishnu took form of a beautiful lady - Mohini to settle dispute between the demons and God. Seeing the enchanting form of Mohini, Lord Siva himself fell in love with her and from their union a son was born to Mohini. This was Dharma Saastha, who was destined to kill Mahishi, according to the boon given to her by Lord Brahma that only the one born from the union of Siva and Vishnu could kill her. The child was placed by the Devas on earth on the banks of the river Pampa, where Mahishi was living.
The churning of Ocean is deep in symbolic meaning. When there are problems and there is no happiness, we turn inward and this is represented by the Devas seeking help to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Mohini represents the powerful form of the intellect, the inquiring nature. Inquiring nature (Vichara) leads to discrimination of the real from un-real. This deepens the awareness which we had discussed earlier. The inquiry (Vichara) helps in transcending to the awareness state. Intellect is other form of Consciousness and so the Union of the Consciousness and awareness state is Dharma Sastha or Ayyappa. At the birth Ayyappa wasfound with a jewel in the neck representing the throat Chakra, the one who has control over his body metabolism.
During this time, Raajasekhara, the king of a small kingdom Pandalam (in south Kerala), was engaging himself in a hunting expedition. When he was moving along the banks of the river Pampa, he saw a crying child in a secluded spot. He took the child to his palace and brought him up as his foster son. The child was named “Manikanda (jewel in neck)”.The child grew up in the palace under the affectionate care of king Raajasekhara, who had no son of his own. The boy proved himself to be a genius and mastered the Vedas and the martial science quickly.
Rajasekhara (Sekhara means hair) refers to Shiva , the awareness in us. A spiritual aspirant who has progressed to the state of the throat chakra, which means control over his metabolic needs of the body, will next progress total control over the body represented by the ajna- chakra, the third eye (Shiva). However the Raja's wife under the influence of the minister to get rid of Manikanda, pretended head ache and the royal physician was bribed to prescribe fresh Tigers milk as an antidote. Manikantan volunteered to bring the Tigers milk. The minister felt happy over the expected turn of events which assured the imminent death of the Prince in the forest.
A spiritual aspirant in his spiritual evolution notices mystical powers. Often the Ego desires to acquire that. He does not understand that dwelling in these mystical powers is a trap. This trap will ruin the whole spiritual Sadhana. This is beautifully symbolized by the above story of Ayyappa, where the queen with the minister enacts the trap to kill Manikanda. The leopard symbolizes the mystical powers. The queen represent the one form of the Ego that wants to rule the kingdom of the mind. The minister represents the cunning nature of the Ego and the bribe to the royal physician is attraction towards exercising mystical powers.
All spiritual aspirants go through this phase of getting attracted to mystical powers. This use of these powers only strengthens the Ego and is a trap that strangles the sadhaka. |Very few like Manikanda overcomes it by killing the Mahisha within. Ayyappa who sent in search of Tigers milk encountered the Mahishi in the forest. He caught hold of Mahisi by her horns, lifted her and hurled her downwards. She fell near the river, Azutha. Lying there incapacitated, and having had the divine touch of Ayyappa, she immediately recollected her original divine nature and sang in praise of him. As the compassionate glance of Ayyappa fell on her, there emerged out of her bizarre body an extremely beautiful Goddess, now worshipped as Goddess Maaligappurath-amma in Sabarimala.
Killing of the Mahishi is the killing of the Ego. The moment the veil of Ego is removed, the inner light of Consciousness is realized. We understand our True Self to be Consciousness and not the Ego, body and mind. Then such a realized person would live a royal life in the palace of bliss. "Maaliga" in Malayalam means palace. This state of a Self-realized person is an honorable state and so symbolically worshipped as "Maaliga Purathamma", the would-be wife of Lord Ayyappa.
When the Mahishi was killed, Leela emerged and remembered her real nature to be the divine energy of Consciousness. She asked Ayyappa to marry her. Ayyappa refused saying that he has to take care of people who needs his help. When there are no more help needed then he would marry her, until then she has to wait, indicated by no more arrows in "Saram kuthiyaal". In the section about the Journey to Sabarimala we will discuss about this very interesting aspect in detail.
A self realized person immediately does not leave the body, if he or she has any trace of vasanas (desires) left. This will be extinguished through the action of Service to others. This is symbolized by the refusal of marriage (Union of jiva with the supreme Atma). The nil arrows in Sarankuthiyaal represents this symbolism. Thereafter, Ayyappa returned to the kingdom of Pandalam with the a group of Tigers.
A Self realized person who has killed his Ego, would have all the mystical powers under his control as seen As Ayyappa riding on the Tiger. The king, the queen and all others realized the divinity of Ayyappa and surrendered to him before him. Ayyappa imparted to them spiritual wisdom about the meaning and destiny of human life. The king prayed to the Lord to bless them with his everlasting spiritual presence in a temple to be dedicated to him, for showering his Grace to millions for generations to come. That would be especially necessary in the present Iron Age (Kali Yuga) when people would increasingly tend to be self-centred and materialistic, bringing much disharmony to life. Thereupon, the lord suggested a holy spot and advised the king to construct a temple there. The Lord assured him that the temple would ever be vibrant with his Divine Presence and then He disappeared. Eventually the king constructed a temple in the deep forest of Sabarimala as suggested by the Lord. An idol of Lord Ayyappa seated in the Yogic pose Veeraasanam and showing the mystic sign of Chinmudra by the right hand was installed in the temple.
In a self realized person all the thoughts are under his control. He recongizes his divinity asinscriped in the Sabarimala temple "ThatTvam Asi", which means "You are that supreme Consciousness".
This is the meaning of chin-mudra that ayyappa shows. Little finger represents body, ring finger represents mind (that is why in wedding ring is worn in ring finger or mind finger because the event is the joining of two individuals are mind level) . The middle finger is the senses and the fore finger is the “I” or ego thought. The thumb is the consciousness finger or intellect finger without which the other fingers are useless. The forefinger is always found associated with the other three fingers and when it transcends them it merges with the thumb to form a circle which indicates that this consciousness has no beginning and end. This is the thatva of chin mudra that Ayyappa shows and tells his devotees to achieve in life.
Knowing the Symbolism of Sabarimala Ayyappa, let us now take the Journey to The Source. We will understand how each ritual in the journey represents the symbolism of Ayyappa story actually represents our inward spiritual journey to our own source, the Consciousness.