Finally it was
time to go to Ramanatha Swamy temple. What a lovely name for Lord Shiva.
Ramanatha Swamy, the Natha of Rama. This Lord is so generous, that if someone loves him, he is ready to dissolve
himself into the devotee, whether it is his name or half of his body. Before
going to the temple, we decided to take a dip in the sea. There was some
confusion in my mind if I should chant the name of Rama or Shiva, so I decided
to chant both. Bhakthi is so flexible. Sometimes when people say things like,
Bhakthi is not my path, it is just not my cup of tea, I wonder what they are
thinking. If you don’t like tea, go have coffee , no? Who is stopping you?
There are so many flavors here, choose what you like! It was a wonderful
experience for the kids as well. A guide appeared out of nowhere and introduced
himself as Munisamy and insisted we take bath in the 22 different wells within
the temple. After much cajoling, we finally gave in and I am so glad we did. It
is said the after killing Ravana, Lord Rama incurred the sin of killing a Shiva
Bhaktha. Inorder to cleanse himself he created 108 wells out of which 22 are
within the temple. While one goes to Kashi to gain punyam, one goes to
Rameshwaram to lose all paapam. When you bathe in the 22 wells, you are
absolved of all your sins by the grace of Lord Shiva. As we went to each well,
our guide drew a small bucket of water from each well and poured it on our
heads. He told us to chant Om Namah Shivaya as he poured the water on our heads.
Lord Shiv here probably wants us devotees to also experience the joy of
abhishekam. It was a very surreal experience. The water in all the wells,
although fed by the same sea, tasted slightly different, some sweet, some salty
and some, way too salty. Each well has a name and is said to have the ability
to grant your wishes. Our guide kept insisting on asking Ramanatha swamy for
whatever we want by chanting om Namah Shivaya.
But standing in that place and chanting Om Namah Shivay and receiving
the blessed water was itself such a rewarding and moving experience, that there
wasn’t any necessity to ask for more rewards. You do chores to get a reward,
but in the kingdom of Mahadev, you get rewards for getting rewards!
When we got to the 5th well, our
guide informed us that this was the most important well. He said this well was
named Sethu Madhava Theertham. Excuse me, I am sorry, but what is Madhav doing
here? How did you make your way in here, my dear Krishna? You cannot tolerate it if people turn
towards other Gods, even if it is just for a day, can you?! Did you build the
Sethu? No! Rama built the sethu and dug the wells and Shiva maintains them, but
you coolly walk away with the title Sethu Madhava? Nice!This is so Krishna!
After the
lovely baths, we decided to do Mahabhishek of Lord Shiva. As we did the
sankalpam to do Abhishek, the poojariji chanted Rudram. Oh my goodness! Rudram is so
mesmerizing. I loved it every sound in it, it filled the whole place with such
divine vibrations. Finally it was time to go see Ramanatha Swamy. After seeing
the huge Nandi, I prepared to go inside and see a colossal Lingam, the one that
Mother Sita made with her own lotus hands. But when I went inside and came face
to face with him, I was blown away. He is so tiny. Completely unexpected. The
much celebrated Ramanatha swamy is so tiny and so cute. Cute and Shiva don’t
belong in one sentence, but this is an exception. The Ramanatha Swamy has not
only dissolved his name into the name of Rama, but he has also dissolved a part
of his personality into that of Sita. He looks so sweet and so “Nalina”. There
is not a good English word for “Nalina”. The closest I can think of is gentle.
He is really Nalina Ramanatha swamy. When I read the words, outside the temple,
“Arul Migu Ramanatha Swamy” (most gracious Lord of Rama), I didn’t understand.
But when I went inside and saw this sweet form, I understood why that title
Arul migu! Om Namah Shivay!
No comments:
Post a Comment