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Re: Significance of Siva Linga
nnyxsi@ny.ubs.com (Kunal Singh) wrote:
> As far as the orgin goes, you can refer to the shiva puraaNa for the story.
> He
> appeared as the liN^ga when vishhNu and brahma were arguing who was superior
> (liN^godbhava muurti). The place where this happened was thiruvaNNaamalai,
> where the column of fire (GYaanaagni) condensed as the mountain. I believe
> that
> the story can also be found in the skanda puraaNa. A small idol describing
> this
> is a common feature in many shiva temples in Tamil Nadu.
>
>That's interesting. Where is ThiruvaNNaamlai ? In my own Shiva
>Purana, the notes at the bottom seem to mention Kasi. But regardless,
>it seems that the idea of consciousness was demonstrated to the
>Vaishnav and Brahma philosophers. An interesting detail is that
>Vishnu bored into the earth to find the bottom of the lingam, perhaps
looking at the fundamentals of how consciousness could support the
>world, and Brahma flew towards the heaven, perhaps looking at the
>implications of consciousness. This story is told both in Shiva
>Purana and Brahma Purana.
Yes, that is exactly the same story I was talking about. However according to
the shiva puraaNa it happened in thiruvaNNaamalai. I used the verse to verse
translation by J.L. Shastri, published by Motilal Banarsidas. The shiva puraaNa
takes up 4 volumes. This story comes in the vidyeshvara saMhita. The chapters
are 5-9. I quote the following verses from that book,
"Since the linga rose high resembling a mountain of fire, this shall be famous
as Ruddy (aruNa) mountain" (told by shiva) - shiva puraaNa I.9.21.
The foot note to this verse says "Arunachala: The Aruna mountain lies to the
west of Kailas and is the abode of Siva (Va 47 .17-18, Br. II.18.18, Sk.
III.59-61."
They are in the page 61, Vol I of the translation I mention above. The shiva
puraaNa that you have might be a local adaptation from the main shiva puraaNa.
There is a separate section called aruNaachala mahaatmya in the skanda puraaNa.
There is popular verse in Tamil Nadu: "To see chidambaram, to be born in
thiruvaaroor, to die in Benares and to think of aruNaachala, these confer
salvation". thiruvaNNaamalai is about 200 miles from Madras. It takes about 5
hours by bus. The temple is very beautiful and the architecture is excellent.
The temple ratam, has intricate figures and is also very beautiful. It's
definitely a "must see" temple. The famous Tamil saint Sri aruNagiri naathar
attained realization here. He was a bhakta of Lord kaartikeya and has sung the
famous collection of poems, "thirupukaz" in praise of him. There is a big
sannidhi for Lord kaartikeya in this temple.
Ramakrishnan.
--
Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said, "The flag is moving." The other
said, "The wind is moving." The sixth patriarch happened to be passing by. He
told them, "Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving." - The Gateless Gate
http://yake.ecn.purdue.edu/~rbalasub/
