ExpertDabbler

Last weekend, I was on a mini pilgrimage trip. I visited Singaperumal Kovil and Kanchipuram (Kanchi Kamakshi and Varadaraja Perumal temple) and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not often that I enjoy temple visits. Invariably, I find myself dragged to temples on New Year and Diwali by my mom. So what is that I enjoyed last week, which I missed out during earlier temple visits? Nothing except that last week I had my eyes, ears and mind open.

Our temples, if one looks closely, is beautifully designed. When I say design, I don’t simply refer to the Gopurams and Sirpakkalai that people generally refer to. I think it’s actually designed to induce an experience, if only we have our eyes and mind open to it. When I mean experience, I do not necessarily mean the “divine” or “godly” experience. Rather, I mean the psychological state which makes us feel good during a particular point. I think there are some interesting psychological insights and patterns common to practical life in our temples.

Praharams and Padhayathra

Many see walking as an exercise. Some see it as a needless activity. But walking is more importantly, a great stress reliever. Cardiologists ask patients to walk not only because it’s a safe exercise but also for its magical ability to relieve stress. The bottom line is, we need an optimum physical activity to feel good about ourselves.

People nowadays go for trekking during weekends to beat stress. Just imagine how different it is from taking a trip to Sabarimala for instance. It’s a different matter that a Sabari Mala Maalai nowadays implies the alcohol be served in a separate glass in bars. It’s just that its Iyyappan’s bad time that he has to tolerate such people.

Art work, paintings, bhajans and literature in the temple.

Involvement in art, craft, work, music are all attempts by man to create order in his consciousness while living in a chaotic world. For the sake of pointer, there are more poets per capita in Iceland than in any other country. The reason being that reciting the sagas was a way for Icelanders to keep their consciousness ordered in an environment which is hostile to human existence. Music, art and craft are the means by which man strives to master his consciousness and enhance the quality of his life. Our temples blend these with religion beautifully.

Alangaarams

I think it takes a great sense of imagination to bathe a statue, dress it in various costumes, and treat it like a living human form. How different it is from children who bathe, dress and talk to their favorite dolls? Or a young mother dressing up her kid? This symbolizes the affection one has for the object of his/her love and affection. And conversely, the very act of doing such a ritual may expand the love and affection, be it a doll,kid or God.

Deeparadhanai

There is a huge difference in the attention span of the masses. So to attract our people and make all of them think about none but one thing (in this case, God) at least for a short while, our forefathers have devised a technique which is used till date in all the films.

What is that? Make people wait with bated breath and then give a grand intro.

It struck me as I was standing in the Kamakshi Amman temple. It was around 5.30PM. In the main sannidhi, the veil was on, obviously alangaaram was go on. I went to the dhyana mandapam which is slightly at an elevated level. Because of this, I could get a clear view of the deity whenever the veil would go. We were waiting, and waiting. After about 15 minutes, the nadaswaram and thavil vidwan begin their music, the temple bell swings into action and immediately there is heightened anticipation, and even as we were looking, off went the veil and voila!, a beautifully decorated Amman, the deeparadhanai makes her look as if she’s glowing. The alangaaram, the melam, the bell and the deeparadhanai added to the effect magnificently. I could definitely feel an electrifying atmosphere. I’m sure in at that split second everybody was thinking about Amman.

I think this Deeparadhanai is the world’s original and till date, the best visual presentation ever.

I am sure the above mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. I think by sheer observation, one can decipher a whole lot of reasons and meanings in our temples.

But the real tragedy is, people emphasize the mechanics, keep adding the fear component while completely omitting the logic and the reasoning part. Certain things should never stop changing while certain other things should never change. But we, like stupid programmers, treat variables as constant and vice versa. But then, that’s what happens if you treat God as one govt. official and try to bribe the peons to get darshan.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 28th, 2006 at 7:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.