Sri Kala hasthi temple .

 The Panchabhootams ...five elements making a compound .

Everything we know has these five .

Earth, Fire ,Water,Air, and Akasha or Ether or Space .

Lord Sivas  personification in each of these are called Panchabhootam lingams in five temples in South India four in Tamilnadu and one in Andhra Pradesh .

Arunachala temple in Thiruvanamalai as Agni lingam depicts Fire .

Ekambareswaram temple in Thiruvarur Kanchipuram depicts Prithvi lingam or earth .

Thillai Natarajan in a dancing pose in infimity is the Akhasa lingam in Chidambaram .

Thiruanai koil temple near Thiruchirapalli represents the Jala lingam or water .

And Sri Kalahasti temple represents Vayu lingam or air .

The first four are in Tamilnadu and Sri Kalahasti in AP .

We visited Sri Kalahasti a few days back on our drive from Thirupathi and yesterday we visited Thiruvanai koil near Trichirapalli .

I had visited Arunachsla temple in Thiruvanamalai .

My blog post on it is

http://hariwrite.blogspot.com/2006/04/arunachala.html?m=1

I need to visit Ekamberesawar temple in Kanchipuram and Thillai Natarajar temple in Chidambaram 

I will describe Kalahasti now .

Some pics are from online

Sri Kala hasti is 36 km from Thirupati .

We drove back from Thirupati after darshan and reached Kalahasti .

A not very good road led us into SS Residency we had booked online .

The place was small but neat .

We met some people there who gave us advice on temple visit .

We were told by a contact to reach temple next day morning at 6am for famous Rahu Ketu pooja .

It was drizzling in morning .

Our place of stay was close to temple.

More than 100 people had gathered for the pooja this is with restricted crowd due to Covid .

After completing rituals we went and prayed in sanctum sanctorum .

Our friend Somanathan as a senior SBI officer told me he had visited the temple and he was tsken close to idol and asked to observe the fine breeze near lingam as it was a vayu lingam .

Its said that Lord Siva pleased with hard penance of Vayu or wind on the Karpoora lingam grants him three boons .

One he will personify as vayu lingam in this temple in the very same Karpoora lingam and all beings from all worlds will worship in temple .

Secondly every living thing as long as alive wil have vayu in it .

Thirdly you will be present everywhere in this world .

Theres another legend about Vayu fighting with Adi Sesha  serpent kong on superiority and Adi Sesha encircles Kailasa mountain abode of lord Siva himself .

Vayu comes as a twister or tornadoe and breaks Adiseshans hold and Ksilas is blown into pieces one of which falls here in Sti kalahasti hence called as dakshin Kailasam .

This temple is said to have existed in 5 th century AD though Rajrndra Chola rebuilt it in 11 th century .

Many contributions continued by the kkngs who ruled the region .

In 1516 Krishnadeva Rayabuilt the 100 pillared hall and 120 feet Gopura .

Temple tower collapsed in 2010 and was rebuilt .

We left Kalahasti never knowing in a few days we will visit Thiruvanaikoil .

About that i shall write shortly .

Ayappas posture

 Have you all wondered why Lord Ayappa is in this rare posture unlike most idols ?

This is an yogic stance called Yogarudrasiddhaasana difficult to maintain .

Hes in Yogabhaava or in an ascetic stance in deep meditation 

It occupies least earth space as toes are pointed too .

He does not sit on a throne or flowers or rock but on his feet .

Most idols are either sitting standing or lying down postures .

Sitting denotes married deities with laps for partners .

Ayyappa is an eternal bachelor

 (Naisthika Bramacharya )though an incarnate of Dharma Saastha who had two wives Purna and Pushkala .

Ayappas band of cloth tied around his knees is needed for maintaining posture and also denotes yogic discipline is called Yogapatta .

The two mudras of his hand are Chin mudra denoting universatality and Abhaya mudra denoting benevolence and protection of devotees .

Abhaya is refuge or solace or protection to those who seek it .

 One may ask where is all this written ?

Its from our texts and experts on temple idols .

The next question that could rise is why are these important for a religion which believes in Advaita or presence of God in all living and non living things ?

This can be explained in two ways .

All humans are in different states of spiritual development and understanding and need thousands of birth to get into that state of spiritual attainment to merge with God .

Til that spiritual truths are never fully understood .

The complexity and abstractness of a formless energy innervating every other being is a very difficult concept to comprehend, hence symbolic deities, idols and temples are there to  allow most to focus on this energy .

Then comes the question is that the only significance of rituals and rules in a temple and are idols only solid represenations to understand a vague power ?

Well in my understanding its a NO to that question 

 and iam no expert at all .

Why no ?

Because from the Vedas which devoloped aeons before any other religion came to humanity, the intonations pronouncements and vocalisations of the slokas recited carried vibrations which were powerful to produce spiritual inflections .

Similarly idols in temples which are  built under agamic regulations  reflect an aura of strong spiritual intonation which affects living beings positively .

So the prescribed pujas, rituals ,the consecration and the bakti of devotees ,all made an idol a representation of the enigmatic energy in the ether, empowering everything in the universe called God .

This is just my intrepretation subject to correction .