Towering Tree Of Love...

Do we learn to love another life or does it come from somewhere within/somewhere extraordinary? Do you doubt the power of love? or even its existence?
I know the mind cannot love, for the mind is working and acting as if it is unique, paramount and alone in creation. So it has to be something different when it comes to loving free (atleast to me).

I ask myself these questions; and I can say that though I love without mind from somewhere else (perhaps the heart- which goes to say that I don't love because of just sensory allure). Yet I have also learnt/my mind has learnt how to love by seeing its causal signs in nature.
I have been influenced by nature and her glory to learn how to love simply and free, and one of my biggest teachers has been a tree. Yea that sounds strange, but its quite simple really when you are actively searching for hidden signs and portents with 'eyes wide open' (which I used to do earlier in my life);

So Yea, I learnt a lot from a particular tree, my current home has been rooted in the same place for the past 2 decades, and during this time, there stood (for over a decade) a lovely Ashoka Tree right next to my 2nd floor balcony. It doesn't live in form anymore, for it used to be rooted in my ground floor neighbour's garden and over time its roots became so big that they started crumbling my neighbours floor and he eventually had to axe it down. I still remember that was one of the cruelest days of my life, the day when I stood in my balcony and could not see or touch this magnificent being. (I just could not witness it being cut down either- still sends shivers down my spine)

The Ashoka tree had existed almost a couple of years after I shifted to my current place, and it was soon planted by my then neighbors, I remember that it grew to its towering height in just a year or two and remained that way till the end. It equaled my building height and it grew thick over the years with hell lot of branches all cloaked in thick leaves.

So soon enough the tree started hosting different animals, and this is when I really really became interested in this being.... the tree started having sparrows chirping away in the days and it became a haunt for bats in the nights.. soon it was permanently hosting bats under its thick growth,  there were crows and squirrels which perpetually lived on it; there were funky birds which nested on it over the years not to mention a family of owls which lived in it for over 3-4 years (I have been unfortunate enough to be hit by a young bats wings too-something which rarely happens).  and everyday when I did put my head literally inside the tree's foliage (my 2nd floor balcony was around half its height)... I could expect something varied and interesting. Over the years, the silent powerful tree became my favorite as well, every time I would head to the balcony to see the sky and touch the leaves and communicate and accept its love. and yes, plants/trees are alive, they do feel emotion and they very well do transmit energy too.. If you have not been able to sync with a simple and innocent life-form such as a plant even once in your life, then perhaps now is your chance.

The tree faded one winter, and it didn't come back to its original green color the coming spring, which was strange enough.. I remember thinking that the ground water levels might be the reason or perhaps the pollution or such (delhi was a hell hole of smoke back in those days)... and the tree was bare almost an entire year, the branches started withering and the tree was slowly and surely dying, none of us could figure out why it had not blossomed that year... and well most people don't really think long on such 'worthless' topics as life moves on.

Then a miracle did happen... The tree became as green as it was from the year before. Just like that, this was perhaps one of the most genuine true miracles I have seen in my life... The tree was almost dead... as it was in the nascent stages of rotting from the top... but perhaps over a week or so (or maybe even less)... it became like I had seen it forever before...full bloom and ever green!

It was rejuvenated somehow- and the funny thing is that after this incident.. I never got to see the tree bare ever. Come autumn and spring and the tree would remain same, some leaves would fall but never enough to make the tree any what clad of its inner home. And yea, all the living beings of the world came over and made their home in it once again... living in paradise would have been so much fun~
The Tree seemed to have somehow made up its mind, or given some power to live on... maybe all the life which existed in peace inside the tree (think about it, so many various different lifeforms used to have their nests and home inside the same tree... and this is what I found oh so marvelous) prayed for its survival/revival and lo~ it was so!!!!

The tree had become a nesting ground for life, offering its own body as a place for others to thrive (to the best of my knowledge in harmony and symbiosis)... you could tell me that the tree had no active intention of doing this for its a vegetable at best; and well I have heard and re-heard such fallacies from many, but when you feel the vibration of acceptance and love from another life-form, and hell its not there in your gaze with some malign personal intention... its just there... in all its wonder and silence... and its a part of you as you become a part of it. This transcendence from form and silent awe struck love unconditional is what I learnt from this ancient being. It taught me the power of love, and it showed me the miracle of life through itself. Now, in the absence of body; though invisible to most, it shines forth still to me,
No No not in my mind, that would be crazy, lunatic, schizophrenic at best... No, love comes from somewhere else, deep inside, and yes it does not need words or form for it to exist. The grand vision of this loving towering tree imprinted in my soul eternal is proof enough for my doubts to disappear.

Peace and Love

Wild~Flavor~Flower

Mysterious and Spaced; lying on my chest yet so far away from my heart lies she.... in damned silence and peaking rage, why is she still facing away from me? Where are her doe-eyes pointing to... towards dark empty space?

I am haunted by this ethereal scent that she brings; the flavor of my fondest flower and my darkest sin. The requiem of love on my grave. She is centered and dowsed in this emotion. Jasmine is her loving name.
A kiss on her lips and surely you are doomed to wander, She owns you. You remain her sensual game...

Every dawn, she would walk upstream close to the pulsating river. She would disappear in the mist and reappear as if walking in from a frozen dream. Dressed in the color white. Her fragrance would wake me up in an orgasm unfulfilled; begging for ever more. For that darker jasmine.

Cloaked in decaying flesh and rotting bones, seeking what was forever more; I fell to deceit and cheats, lifted my gaze and saw her seeping into my soul, saving the wasted and fallen me.... she razed me towards her intoxicating smell. The dark jasmine ruled me whole. What else is there to tell....

Her past shrouded in subtle mystery, her present was dismal ecstasy, she spoke of her childhood in sullen frames... where her father beat her and her mother ran away in shame.
She took upon her heart the unthinkable and accepted her cruel fate. She rose and sprang her cheer and she was never the same.
Her silence forever made me morose. Her shy demure laughter made my eyes shed and my throat hoarse, Her beauty ever resplendent like the shining sun above. Her madness grander than the moon on her throne.

Jasmine, oh darkest Jasmine; would you lie down for a bit now? Cease to be pained by who you were hurt by someday, somehow....
Your soul so pure!, saved me; touched me; kissed my shredded heart; You became my cure!
Let us be intertwined this solemn night, where we lose robes of skin and in each others eyes, make magik love like hungry djinns!
Your fragrence has lifted me from the pit of my despair, shed my pain, and has finally cut the painful mortal snare.  Your sadness has shown me my worth this life. To become your lover and servant till time exists no more.


Oh Jasmine, there is surely no need to cry anymore. See the abundance of love pouring through; from shore to distant shore..... Jasmine, you remain the darkest damsel. You remain sheer delight, dissolving the exterior in turn for one and final ethereal core.

Love and Peace

(This is a continuation from http://civashakti.blogspot.com/2009/10/wildflower.html)

Walk Pilgrim Walk

I think about the most insistent/persistent/consistent thing which I have done in my life, and the answer is clear.
I have walked. I walk and as long as my legs shall support my breadth, I shall walk.
I have been told that I started using my legs, exactly on the day of my first birthday. I could stand and walk in one go, and I am thankful for this grace bestowed. For this is one of the fondest and most meditative acts which I have been able to do time over with relish.

Walking is at some level genetic, instinctive and eventual in any humans life. Those of us who haven't been able to enjoy walking for one reason or other (mostly laziness) can never enjoy the true carnal pleasure of wanderlust. Of absolute freedom from direction or rules. Freedom to go where one pleases, when one wants and when one chooses!

I am not a big fan of man-made transport. Its needed in concrete jungles where walking is sheer pain rather than pleasure. But when we have the open space above and beyond us to explore. Then the walk becomes the goal-less goal. The pathless path. The meditative spiritual state of reality- where the truth is that there is no walker- there is no walk- there is no path. There is just one-ness.

I know for sometime now- that when pilgrims/walkers are able to go long distances (just like myself); they experience special peaceful states (theta brain wave states) which are absolutely the same states which lucid dreamers and meditation experts can extract.

There are many pilgrimages in India (way too many), and its really wonderful to walk ways which lead through Indian rural sceneries to places of power, the act of walking is so slow and strenuous that in a period of time; the pilgrim starts experiencing a slower pace of the mind. He starts with viewing the external world in a slower light (try it.. cause the only way most of us know how to move is with a car/bike/mechanical transport- which takes us through our visual externals at a faster pace, but walking is so slow- that it allows you to change your scenery at a constant slow pace- inducing visual delight to the pilgrim to enjoy and understand the external world around us, while enjoying the internal rapture of walking meditation).

There is a beautiful movie on walking pilgrimage which I recently saw, its called "the way" starring martin sheen in a very composed and strong lead.  He walks the ancient pilgrim road- "The way of St. James" or the "El Camino de Santiago"  spanning over 800 km's. The movie is a sheer visual delight as they show a lot of pit stops which the pilgrims go through as they make their way to the holy ruins of apostle St. James located in the west most point of spain in gallacia. The entire route is laden with holy power places where pilgrims can rest and contemplate. Most pilgrims walk to and from santiago atleast once in their lives.
I loved the movie which was able to show case the serenity and rest that a wanderlust-ing pilgrim on his way to his maker feels. There is no maker on this earth, but there are such beautiful natural power-places strewn all across- that its quite literally a sin not to walk on our feet and explore the beauty of this green earth!
And that is what walking is for all its worth. Its that innocent sense which most us city dwellers have left far behind... Imagine being able to walk amidst dense jungles, or snow peaks or uninhabited islands, or green misty valleys and so much more... exploring and seeing things for the very first time! Thats what nature's grand vision to teach us is... to show us the beauty of heavens right here on earth, but these beautiful mysterious grand visions won't come to us if we sit and slack inside our 4 wall cubicles. These mysteries and visions are not there on a road map or even on a road... they are there where man has yet not visited, and I assure you that our mother-this earth has many many places like this. Completely invisible to the fool, and only pleasing those who work hard and walk silent without expectations!

Walking makes one a man! It brings patience and faith of a just path/goal. It brings strength and endurance to stop the world/or atleast slow the world (stopping the world- quite literally stopping what the external is projecting). Walking brings out being and character. It is a conversation (not a monologue) which one has with oneself. It results in ending of the conversation, replaced by the true state of one-ness.
Walking appeases the beast in man, It cures wanderlust and the diseases which ravage the mind and body. Depression and insomnia, obesity and lust, materialism and hedonism. Everything is balanced when one walks with his walking stick (you can see ancient iconography of most gods of ancient lore- and you will see that most carry a walking power stick in some form or other). Everything remains in perfect equilibrium... this realization so strong and in grand magnitude hits the enduring pilgrim, who walks day and night; sun and star to no end and to the end of the world for the pleasure of it.

I love to walk. I love to see this beautiful perfect Earth through my eyes, No I wont have it- that someone else will tell me about what is what without me seeing it for the very first time myself, and this is what walking is eternally. Seeing and being for the very first time. Like never before. It couldn't be so without the strength in my legs and the fire in my heart. It could be only so... with the wind in my hair and my eyes in awe twinkling like stars! Feels like seeing things for the very first time!

Peace

The Alien Crown

There is much debate nowadays, on origins of human history and anthropological evidence discovered so far and what it all really points to. Well the debate is whether our past is molded by our species or whether there have been extra terrestrial entities also involved intimately to shape our present/future. 

For years, I do not need any more convincing. I believe that most encounters with divine entities in any culture’s past are influences of other worldly beings, some call them angels/demons, djinns and siddhas, bhuta and pishach etc. The gods which most of humanity prays to look like they have arrived on some space ship here, and are dressed in astronaut suits with perhaps jet packs and multi utility instruments in their mechanical hands (refer the thousand hands of the multitude of gods/goddesses we have- who carry weapons and other instruments)
Well I have been pondering long on this topic, there are innumerable examples in subcontinent texts to bluntly explain the role of the extra terrestrial gods in fields related to astrology, science, art, ethics, religion, spirituality and so much more.


The way I have come to see which of the pantheon of gods are actually extra-terrestrial is by the way of whether they actually adorn a crown on their head or not. Now here is the funny part, except for the ancient figure Shiva, all the other gods have been depicted wearing a crown to represent their grandeur.
What is it about the crown that is so alien ? Well its not the crown per say, its what's underneath the crown… In many other parts of the world, people have discovered the presence of human skulls/fossils with elongated heads, there is still rampant practice of elongating a living babies head in certain tribes of africa- as a token to their gods. You can search and see the impact of the expanded head across various religions and tribes in the world. Its truly profound. In India; there are no gods depicted with elongated craniums, but every god does possess and wear an extended Crown. Perhaps as a helmet or some sort of locking device for the safety/security of their brain.
The link below shows that artificial cranial deformation is as old as perhaps the evolution of the modern human- who has used this technique as perhaps a method to emulate the superiority of the ancient alien races which might have come to earth in the past. Across various religions such an act (performed on babies) is for lifelong change and is used as a caste/social status cue for the others to know.

The skull representation of an Egyptian princess
(You can refer to the wiki link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cranial_deformation)
The reason according to me why the god Shiva is always depicted without a crown (well apart from the religious esoteric reasons), is because shiva has been a human being; someone like us who is used more often than not as iconography to depict divine consciousness transcendence. He is not a real alien/extra terrestrial who came from the heavens/skies above to show us something which we didn’t know. It is quite a revelation to me.
There is also more to Indian History than most know or care to admit, Indian history has been shaped by multiple time eras. Well India has been an Island and also part of the Asian continent. It has been close to the Sangam continent as well. There have been cultures evolving and living here through different time periods.
And yes, all of these cultures have encountered divine, transcendental heavenly beings time to time. From maha-avatars and therionthropes to hyper dimensional siddhas, naths, aghoris etc. These all are either extra or ultra terrestrial beings; mingling with the human race and propounding information and ways to live more seamlessly.
So I have understood parts of the ancient Dravidian/Tamil literature to the mohendajaro extinction and also the Indus valley gods. The supposed Aryan conquest and the mixing of the natives/tribal with the oncoming agrarians (that too was propounded by extra terrestrials at some point). The thing is, In India- its all accepted; if I was to go about and rant that Maha-Kali is an alien who came down as a last resort to the ‘experimental gene farm’ which we call the earth to fight over some other alien entity- well this won’t go down bad or misunderstood by any Indian, cause most Indians have gotten their own mechanisms by now to remove any disconcerting or conflicting knowledge about their theosophy or religion without being least affected by it. This gives the average Indian moron way more tolerance about the ambiguities of our own past, yet at the same time it gives us way more nonchalance regarding the beliefs we hold as our sacred past without questioning their true origins.

Peace

Your MoJo

These are the two ways for consciousness to shift during one’s lifetime:
1) Consciousness experiences only the repetition of days and nights. There is uncertainty and little or lack of self understanding or knowledge/being with power. This consciousness tries to become self-aware through breaking down of physical and mental barriers. It tries to expand and experience ‘subjective more’ about its own creation. This is the experience of the householder going through phases and realizing that the end so near and realization yet so far. Its brief but you can generally see this for yourself, are you happy currently yet you are not happy in the moment? The moments are not what they are to the conscious full person… different and unexplainable.
2) The other visualization of consciousness is when it realizes (subjectively); that its unending limitless conscious power of the universe, and it can experience through the senses or in their absence as well. This is the true real state of creation. And the former one mentioned is the maya which most of us human beings go through in the vague and generally unrewarding quest to become self aware. This is the way of zen too. There remains nothing to realize for you are already that. This is the true state. Stateless state to be precise. Words and thoughts lose their charm when one is pure consciousness. As it should be always.
The first perception is the evolutionary conscious action.
The latter is the revolutionary conscious being. The latter where there is paramount realization of one’s own state and being. The one universal power present without forms or understanding. As dark as the darkest nebula, As light as the glowing suns forever…
The way when one realizes that they are not who they are, there is nothing as it is. yet the universe remains like this and that. This is the avaduta path to realization. There is no realization, for its forever realized.
These are not yet ramblings; these are the ways in which consciousness passes in the vessel of the body and onwards forever.
Which of these methods appeals to you? The way in which every single moment you become and be more and more of this entire existence. Growing multiplying consciousness ever expanding?
Or the method where you already are, everything already is. In bliss and love. There is no change envisioned, there is nothing to slay. This is the pure freedom that is here and now. Its the avaduta’s method. The warrior method. The revolution is just beginning, and we got to make sure that we are ready when our day or reckoning arrives. Ready and one!
Peace and Love

Dark Dance Haunts Chidambaram~

The holy pose which Shiva upholds tonight, not for the faint of heart, not for the spiritually blind. He raises his leg up and stomps the ground and sky at once.
He is the shining nataraja, the keeper of the sacred dance. The shaker to the hypnotic drums. His matted hair glistens like the sun and his third eye opens possibilities beyond our comprehension;
Yes Yes he is in the fervent mood tonight. Dancing and laughing and forgiving our trespasses like a million times before…. through towards eternity.
He resides inside the Akasha-Lingam at chidambaram. The akasha is ether, the subtle formation of the gross phenomenon which our senses perceive as the world and everything in it. There is no linga at chidambaram. There is only the mirage of the real deal. The linga is nothing, representing the subtle element of consciousness. The akasha is the prana in most refined form. Prana coming down and showing infinity.
And as we stare at the empty nothing- which is where the akasha linga stands as it has for timeless years before. I understand that my brain shall never comprehend. The extent and impact that the ether has had on my personal self. The prana which has moulded me as a vile human being is the same prana which is now bowing down before the infinite self in front above and beneath!
My father and his family have spent long periods of time in chidambaram and ever since I remember, my father has sung praises of the size and grandeur of the temple located in the blessed city. Where there has been homage paid to dance and art since time immemorial. (it has remained a centre for art and learning since its inception)
Its not just another temple but a huge, grand town in itself, and I kid you not. The temple is fortified(with huge walls that tower) and is humongous. There are huge parapet walls which enclose almost an entire city within itself. Yes the only difference remains that the city does not host any humans, Its the refuge of the gods who have come since eons to see the holy and powerful nataraja take form and dance the world away to creation and dissolution. The sanctum is unique to the chola architecture that it towers like a vimana/craft/alien rocket to the sky…. something that every temple in this region can boast of.
The sincerity of the devout and the ascetic can be seen here. The temple hosts people from all over the world who have come to give themselves up to the grace of the eternal all powerful dance (many foreigners come here too over the entire year to learn dance and also spend time meditating on the ether linga).
This dance is perfect, this dance is unique. Its the dance that only a master can indulge in. Its the dance absolutely not for the weak. Yes I mean it. The dance which the master like you and I too once shall indulge in; is what creates and sustains this world; and in its peak.. most aesthetic moment- it shall destroy- implode everything of any value back into nothing. This is shiva ananda murti present in this holy ground. Shiva dancing back to ash and void this entire play of ignorance~

Shiva here is in bliss and the tandav/cosmic dance he plays is ananda/blissful to say the least. The one who comes here in search for the soul, in desperate need for the feet of shiva consciousness, will not go back disappointed. He has seen you and everyone else who has entered the holy sanctum. He has begun the never ending dance and will sustain us in balance through terrible/ghora nights like these.
I spent time looking at the architecture on the walls and the sanctums, massive effort to build a city within a city. The tamil saivite kings doing a marvellous job as usual to build something out of this world, the number of structures to the various deities apart from the central dome itself is incomprehensible; even to an experienced temple tripper like myself.
The master here is worshipped not in his linga form (the akasha linga is not a linga at all, its emptiness which is generally covered by a metal linga to denote the ether element present here. The central deity is the bronze glistening statue of the most awesome dancer of the world. The euphoria which I felt looking at the deity first time was beyond words. The nataraja is full of consciousness and power. This translates into freedom for those who have come to give themselves up and rest at Shankara’s feet.
I am not religious, the temple is the same to me as a place of commerce or a place of death. Because that is what nataraja is projecting in the first place, a dance so blissful that nothing remains in a web of illusion. one can and does have the right to dance free, and dance over the oh so many real maya/illusions one experiences or seems to experience.
There are many vishnu and shiva worshippers who sit and contemplate for years together, though I was afraid of the seeming commercialized vibes of the place, nothing to put my spirits down ever happened during my visit. The people who I saw there had genuinely come to pray, come to sell the trinkets of the masters outside and sincerely do worship for the lord of the universe. There is a sort of calm and repugnance towards the mundane and material world when one enters a shiva temple… no matter where it may be; the presence of the linga (and in this case… absolute nothing of a linga) calms the world into submission at the ascetic feet of the maha-deva~
I was immersed for sometime in peaceful being as I saw the afternoon arthi and worshipping coming to a close, The sincere smile on nataraja’s face was more than enough to convince me of the love that this place exuded. Its just a feeling, many can feel it. many wont and would discard it as some placebo of the brain, but for me its just being… being which exists in bliss looking at the ananda tandava of the greatest dancer of this cosmos.
Chidambaram is where true dancers come to get inspired. This is where saints and rishis for long have sat looking and gazing at empty yet completely filled ether; the soul and undercurrent of this creation. This is where this same consciousness comes alive and to the fore with power and grace. This is where the dancer merges with the beat of the drum and the melody of music. The dreamer and dream becomes one and none. This is the holy land of chidambaram.
I am devotee to the dance and the dancing master. I love to dance, love to lose myself within the beats and tune and also in the infinite silence between the beats. I know that dance is everything worth anything its salt in this creation. If you don’t know of dance, or don’t like to dance then you have missed the entire point of bliss. The pointless and all prevalent bliss which none of us in our daily rut and mundane chores ever seem to care about or even acknowledge.

But the dance is addictive, its sensual and its complete. Its the union of the male to the female. Its the entire creation experiencing and expressing without judgement or face. Its what has been or is irrespective of dimensions, labels or any other fact.
Visit chidambaram and get invigorated once again to dance without care. Yea; Dance like no one’s watching! Cause no one is!
Peace

To Return To As Is

A Monologue on changing consciousness:
I think and speculate a lot on what a singular or plural consciousness means to me. I also regularly negate or refute what I think is correct or true or real on this matter. It keeps me on guard never to accept an explanation as final or ultimate.
For this whole abstract concept cannot ever be described explained or understood. The mirage which is the mind tries to gather knowledge. Knowledge is like garbage, well existence is garbage too. Knowing garbage or not knowing is not gonna do or be anything you see.
But I ‘instinctually’ ‘know’ or have ‘enlightened’ my being with the concept that when there is talk about a changing consciousness, (and consciousness is ever changing and beyond a dichotomy), this change of consciousness is only required to return ‘us’/living realizing consciousness of the universe to the state of what was. Or is.
Well what is this – what was/is, state? The intial state, nascent state (and every state is nascent/raw/perfect when this too is known/unknown-intial or nascent is not representative with time but with the endless cycle consciousness undergoes of knowing and unknowing itself in a maya framework) is what is true consciousness at peak looks like. The nascent state – where man was not using his ‘intelligence’ to dissect useless philosophies and burn the forests down to print paper- there was no seperation from the land and forest and earth. The intial state- where the child is in a state of emotional and intuitive peak through life and not just for a period till pre-puberty. The intial state- where there is no concept of personal self greater than a tribe/a group as indicated in our age. The intial state- where god is not somewhere. God is no one, and god is the all.
Well this intial state is the change in the consciousness desires. We fall from heaven, we bury our head underground and wait for emancipation. I am not talking/explaining zen here. This is the state of us; Now when I do talk zen- and I talk zen more often than not- The state we are in is perfect and its also the nascent state. The realization of such anomaly or a dichotomy is preposterous (well to the mind and the vehicle trying to hoard information or knowledge). What is the mind to believe? to trust? or do?
Believe me the change is going to take place, there is no other way. The way out is to direct it with the function of will, and then lose it with the function of unity/love/collective consciousness, leave it and let it be. This is intuitive learning, and perhaps you too see it such?
Peace

The Elemental Union in Sand at Ekambreshwara

Tamilnadu state of India has 5 major centers/temple regions dedicated to powerful lingas worshipping the 5 natural elements. It is ancient worship of the elements in the form of solidified lingas. Concentrating their natural power into stone and into the place where the temples may have been constructed.
The 5 Temples are: (in no particular order)
1) Ekambreshwara: At the very famous and dis-reputed town of Kanchi. This represents the earth element
2) Jambukeshwara: This representing the Water element. I haven’t seen this place yet.
3) Arunachaleshwara: At the holy town of arunachala, where the natural mountain is the real shiva woshipped as such for eons now.
4) Kala-Hasti: Representing the air element, legends of a spider and an elephant worshipping together for a lifetime at the same shiva linga, which is considered to be very old.
5) Chidambaram: Representing the subtle ether element. The dancing tandav master Shiva is in his glorious dancing form worshipped here. Dance and creative love for the divine has been encouraged and propagated from here since a long time.
The Union in Sand and Stone:

I went last year to Kamakshi, as the goddess here is worshipped as much if not more in devotee volume compared to the holy Earth Linga of Ekambreshwara here. The goddess’ temples is independent (unlike most other temples where the shakti sanctum lies within the shiva temples) and through time this place has cultivated infinite legends but the most pertinent among these is the one -when adi-shankara found this place (the original shankaracharya), the goddess’ energy was present somewhere in a cave nearby and the power exuding this entire place was just too much to handle or be worshipped by masses. Sankara made a shakti pit/peeth- consisting of the shri yantra to worship the goddess in a benign form. The power here intially to my understanding was immense, and it was toned down through the use of a yantra (most places use yantras to amplify the effect of natural energy). The region also corrosponds to the shakti peeth of the goddess where her divine navel supposedly fell (one of 52 such other sites where sati power is present).
The reason why power here is toned Down has a reason as per my understanding, Kamakshi and ekambreshwara are located in a power full place. The legend is that this is the place where Shiva weds Parvati who comes down to earth as a beautiful 16 year old virgin- known as tripurasundari or even sodasi. She is virgin paramount energy. This place hosts the exact moment where Power/Shakti comes alive to look for the keeper of herself and her force. That is shiva.
Parvati does tapas here, and the idol made in the little temple show the goddess sitting in a lotus posture (with both legs bent), indicating her extreme power and energy. She is a yogin beyond classical imagery here. That is why this force feminine is known as the ‘one who is beautiful in all three worlds’, any world or dimension, she is the epitome of beauty and power. She is gorgeous, She is ripe and she is a powerful mother waiting for her partner. The partner who will wed her into this web of life.
Ekambreshwara temple is a humongous site. Its a huge temple and most of it is just architectural delight. There is no stone unturned, something very characteristic of shaivite kings in this region (chola chola and the like), who with devotion and power towards consciousness built massive structures unimaginable until seen with one’s own physical (or mind’s eye). The temple hosts a very old mango tree as well, which is the supposed site where shiva meets parvati and unites in wedlock. The tree is very peaceful to sit under, though its a lot shrivelled to look at (atleast when I last saw it), but the calmness is not imagined or concocted at such a benign beautiful location.
Ekambreshwara is a very unique shiva linga. (atleast according to me). To my knowledge or its limits, the iconography of the god shiva depicts a man who is immersed in practices which are psycho-kinetic in nature. Heating himself and his body/mind physically doing this for years, leads to Shiva to be constantly cooled (the classic imagery of water source ganga flowing from his head depicts this). Hence every linga made for worship contains a dhara on top. Something which pours water on the union of shiva-shakti as the linga. There is ofcourse the exception-
In ekambreshwara there is no dhara, as the linga is made of a particular sort of sand, the local priest told me that it was made from some sort of pheromone of the sevet cat, which might constitute parts of the linga, but I saw the linga and it looked very unique in its own way, Long tapered and most definitely made of some water soluble material. I did not know at that time that this represented the place where Parvati made this linga out of sand and meditated on it for eons until shiva descended from his own trance pulled to his love.
The esoteric Representation:
This place to me represents the Muladhara-chakra. The base chakra of the human anatomy, where the sleeping kundalini sleeps around a so called svayambu (self made) linga. The rising kundalini wakes up and then we can see ‘her’ in all her glory, in her benign yet powerful radiant and beautiful form as the virgin energy looking for her other half. The linga becomes the union of shiva consciousness and Kamakshi/Tripurasundari Power. This is what people at kamakshi must have felt, when they built the grand idol and the shri yantra forever capturing (or trying to) the eternal beauty of the feminine (the youth, virility and fertility- all for which kamakshi is known for- granting boons to finish kama/desires once and for all to reach her).
The place is very crowded due to the presence of the kama-kothi peeth established by following shankaracharyas over time. The place hosts over a thousand old temples in a few kilometer radius (it is also known as a temple town across south india). But the shine and grace of goddess and the strength and stability of the Sand/Stone god of consciousness are the reasons why this place till date comes alive in the hearts of devotees of life wherever they may be,
They always come back to the golden feet of Devi Kamakshi~
Peace