The implications of symbolic acts during India’s coronavirus lock down

 

So the PM of India asked the people to light oil lamps and candles yesterday night based on astrological and numerological advises and people lit fire torches and walked out on to the streets in crowds when they were supposed to be under lock down. There were also many who were bursting firecrackers prompting social media to ask how did those people buy firecrackers during the lock down and how could they celebrate a pandemic when people are falling sick and dying. This is what ignorance and lack of critical thinking can lead people into.

Fire is the only element in nature that can cleanse without polluting itself. This is why fire is used in all Hindu rituals. The depiction of Lord Shiva who is considered the destroyer in the Trinity of Gods with fire in his 3rd eye and a river in his hair bun is the metaphor for how destruction is caused by fire and then the arrival of water restarts life. The recent example of this is the wildfires of Australia. The Trinity of Gods in itself is the metaphor for the 3-dimensional representation of the Universe because any body can be described as being stable when it has at least 3 dimensions. Ancient Indian texts are replete with descriptions of advance science and technology but they were made into religious texts when they were attached to temples and human representations of Gods. In the 21st century with all the technology around, Hindus still choose to consider those texts as divine and submit themselves to the diktats created around them.

Lighting oil lamps and candles can dispel darkness (for which Diwali is celebrated). Can fire kill a virus? Possibly yes. Then, now that the virus is all over the world, why not use the nuclear weapons we have been making for so long and burn the whole world down? The virus is affecting us because of the inability of our immune system to fight it. Life in the tar and concrete world with junk food and gadgets is the reason why our immune system cannot fend off a simple virus. Microorganisms can be fought and defeated where they thrive, by going to nature.

How the people have responded to the PM’s call time and again shows how gullible they are to be shepherded into obeying every symbolic act he comes up with. The appreciation being shown for the healthcare workers everywhere has been spontaneous. Only in India did the country’s leader ask the people to do his bidding for the same purpose. The dangerous precedent of allowing him to shepherd the population was set from the time India’s economy was destroyed by the demonetization of it’s higher currency notes in 2016. The economically devastated and morally weakened German population after the defeat in World War I and the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles was exploited by the Nazi Third Reich to go to war with the rest of the world again and commit genocide of the Jews. Indian society has always been fragmented and weak owing to it’s caste system. Add fear mongering of Hindus being under threat from other religions and it is very easy to see why people are becoming subservient to the PM’s call for theatrics each time.

Chronicles of a mystery temple

Lord Shiva, the most mysterious God of India. His name is chanted with the word Om and they say in deep space, there is a mysterious sound that reverberates like Om. It is said that the cosmos and everything in it begins from Him and ends in Him. All other Gods are said to pray to Him and even Lord Ram and Lord Krishna are said to have prayed to Him before going to war. Numerous temples are associated with Him and innumerable mysterious places attributed to Him, the most famous being His supposed place of dwelling, Mount Kailasa. No one has been able to scale the peak of the mountain yet. I had read about a famous mountaineer who, on the last leg of his climb of the mountain encountered such a fierce avalanche suddenly that he had no other way than to quit. It is said that people age faster and even finger nails grow long faster when they are in the vicinity of the mountain. Then there are the numerous Shivalinga (phallus) that have sprung up all over India and which are worshipped as a representation of Him. A massive Shivalinga made of snow grows every year at the Himalayan mountain temple of Kedarnath and could be seen at its full glory on full moon day.

One such place of mystery lies in the town I come from, Thrissur in Kerala. The Vadakkunnathan temple is a massive temple complex and the entire town is built around the perimeter of the complex. Everything about the temple is shrouded in mystery. To start off with, there is no written history about the temple. No one knows when it was built. Carbon dating puts it’s age at 1000 odd years which I believe is completely absurd. The temple used to exist when the great saint Sankaracharya visited Thrissur and that was a couple of thousand years back. The entire area of the town used to be a teak wood forest and even during the younger days of my grandparents which is the first few decades of the 20th century, the teak wood trees used to surround the temple. No one knows for how long the forest had existed. It is simply not possible that such a huge area of the forest was cleared to build the temple complex and no record exists about the construction. This means only one thing: the temple was built before the forest came to existence.

The entire construction of the complex and the massive wall built around it makes it look like a fortress than a temple. There are 4 entrances called “Gopurams” around the temple. The architecture, woodwork and wall paintings are so exquisite and rare that no one in the present times have the skills and ability to recreate them. One of the gopurams caught fire during a yearly festival a few decades back and even the best architects haven’t been able to restore it to its original form. My granny used to say that the entire complex was built in one night by the demons who serve Lord Shiva. She also used to say that when eyes were drawn to the wall painting of a deity, fire started emanating from them. Inside the inner sanctum sanctorum there is a Shivalinga which is covered by a mountain of ghee or clarified butter, made by pouring the butter over the Shivalinga for maybe hundreds or thousands of years. The mountain of butter cracks up sometimes due to it’s own sheer weight and whenever it happens is considered to be highly inauspicious and bad omen for the entire town. An elderly lady who supposedly saw it happen got the news that her son who was working in the Middle East had passed away by the time she reached home from the temple.

The day starts at the temple at 3 in the morning with the blast of a single dynamite and closes at 8:30 in the evening. No humans are allowed to enter the temple complex after 8:30 because it is believed that Lord Shiva and his wife Parvathy along with their kids and the demon servants visit the temple in the night. In the late 18th century, there used to be a ruler called Tipu Sultan from the neighbouring state of Karnataka who had invaded Kerala. He was a notorious idol breaker; he used to enter every temple on his way and break the idols of Gods worshipped there. He reached Thrissur and decided to set up his camp inside the temple premise. It is said that he entered the inner sanctum sanctorum, returned a while later and told his soldiers to treat the temple premises with full respect and leave everything as it used to be. No one knows what he experienced inside the sanctum sanctorum. Under the idol of Lord Ganesha inside the sanctum sanctorum, there is supposedly a passage way that leads to Kashi, the location of the most famous temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. In the epic Ramayana, when Hanuman was carrying part of a mountain containing medicinal plants to Lanka to treat Lakshman, some of the plants and leaves supposedly fell down inside the temple complex. It is said that plants in that area still carry the same medicinal values. Here is something my grandfather had experienced at the temple. The temple supposedly harbors many poisonous snakes and one morning a King Cobra appeared suddenly in the middle of the sanctum sanctorum, neither allowing anyone to enter the temple nor allowing people inside to leave. Finally, the priest sprinkled some holy water on the snake and chanted some hymns and the snake went away.

I have always wondered about the temple and the mysteries associated with it. When was it built and who really built it? Otherworldly beings, beings of an advanced race that existed on earth before humans or by the demon aides of Lord Shiva? Why is the complex built like a fortress? Is the construction intended to protect or hide someone or something? What did Tipu Sultan encounter inside the sanctum sanctorum? Everything about Lord Shiva is a mystery and beyond our understanding and it means just one thing. We are not prepared to comprehend and accept the power and energy from a higher source, just like we are yet to comprehend the real purpose of the Great Pyramids of Egypt and numerous other mysterious constructions from the distant past.

The temple complex is under the care and supervision of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) so it is prohibited to take pictures inside the temple. There may be many more intriguing facts and stories about the temple the older generations may have known and might be lost to the present and future generations. I am tempted to find a way inside the temple at night and to try and climb Mount Kailasa. I don’t know if I am ready for what I might come across but if I get the chance, the fear of consequences will not deter me.

People’s indifference amidst global recognition

Thrissur, the town where I was born and brought up has been in the news recently. The most prominent temple in the town, the Vadakkunathan temple around which the town itself has been built has received an award from UNESCO for best conservation of an archaeological site. (http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/Vadakkumnathan-Temple-Conservation-Gets-UNESCO-Award/2015/09/03/article3007495.ece) The irony which was lost upon most people is that it took an international award to bring the temple to national prominence.

First of all, I am not sure if it was built as a temple at all. Built on top of a hillock with mighty entrances on all four sides, it has all the typical characteristics of a fortress. But there are more intriguing things about the temple. There is not a single historical record to show when the temple was built. Some say the temple is more than a 1000 years old and that is mostly based on the fact that Sankaracharya, a revered Hindu saint had visited the temple in the 9th century AD. This would mean that the temple is much older than that. The irony is, the entire area was covered in teak wood forest for a very long time so how could a construction of such a large scale within the forest go unnoticed and be not mentioned anywhere? Was the temple built much before the land around it became forested? We may never know.

About the temple complex itself, the legend goes that it was not build by human hands. It is said that the demon servants of Lord Shiva built the temple in a single night. Whatever the legend may say, a few visible facts do seem to confirm the association of a non human entity with the temple. First, the entire construction of the temple and especially the wall that runs around the temple. Huge wall, mighty stones, worthy of a pyramid like debate about how it’s creation. Second, the architecture and wall paintings inside the temple. In 1973, when part of the temple got damaged during a festival, it couldn’t be restored to it’s original form because relevant knowledge do not exist with present day artisans. Third, a mountain of hardened butter stands on top of a normal sized Shivalinga (Phallus), the result of pouring butter as offering to the linga for numerous years. How it maintains itself on top of the linga is a complete mystery. In the late 18th century, Tipu Sultan, the King of Mysore went to war against most of the Kings in South India. He gained the notoriety as an idol breaker during his conquest. He would take his army into Hindu temples wherever he could find them, ransack them and break the idols there. He entered Vadakkunathan temple as well and set up camp there, but for some mysterious reason, he neither entered the sanctum sanctorum of the temple nor destroyed any part of the temple. The temple closes at around 8:30 pm every evening and it is forbidden to enter the temple after that as Lord Shiva, his family and his demon servants supposedly visit the temple. It is also said that there is a passage inside the temple that leads directly to the temple at Kashi, the most prominent Shiva temple in India. Stories and legends do not get created out of thin air, so there is definitely something about the temple that is beyond our understanding.

Because it lies in the southernmost state of India, it hasn’t received any of the recognition it truly deserves. The temple was declared as a world heritage site that is why it’s age old grandeur is still being maintained. It is an accepted fact that no artisan can recreate any part of the temple if it gets destroyed. What is vexing is the respect it gets from the local people. The large area of land around the outside of the temple complex is largely neglected. All kinds of shady people hang around there and people urinating on the walls is a common sight. A festival every year in the temple’s premises makes it completely dirty and it takes days to clean. The fireworks after the festival shakes out a lot of tiles in it’s roof. The tragedy in 1973 happened due to the fireworks of this festival which burned down part of one of the entrances and was never repaired to it’s original form. Another tragedy cannot be ruled out and what it can do to the temple is unimaginable.

The questions to be asked are, how relevant is this award when people show scant respect to it’s magnificence? When the risk of another tragedy due to incessant fireworks during the yearly festival is always looming, how can UNESCO be assured of it’s conservation and the steps being taken for it’s conservation are enough? The governing body of the temple shows no interest in cleaning up the land around the temple. This award eventually means nothing other than something natives can boast about when they talk about the place where they come from.