It has been our firm belief and established philosophy that God is omnipresent and that in this universe and beyond, He is everywhere and in everything! It has also been our philosophy that all that we do is an act of God and is done as per His wish and grace. God is the Sarguna and Nirguna Parabhramam and performs His five Prime Duties as Omniscient and Omnipotent.
Yet our Epics and Puranas are full of sacred lore that Gods, from time to time, took up various avatars or incarnated to descent to earth from their heavenly abodes, entered the wombs of mortal women, took up human bodies, lived as human beings and performed several acts for the benefit of mankind. Lord Krishna declares in ‘Bhagavad Gita’ that the incarnations of God happen time and again in different yugas because of His Sankalpa, (Divine Resolve) and for three specific reasons: whenever there is a need to protect the righteous, to destroy the evil forces and to establish Dharma (the Cosmic Order, Righteousness) in this world!
Gods did also descent to earth direct from their spiritual realms, assuming different embodiments, to save or rescue mankind from the danger of deterioration. While on earth in their respective avatars, through their deeds and words, Gods exhibited the highest ideals and values and served as the role models for mankind to follow so that it could live the life in the way it should be lived and attain the ultimate salvation! The manifest embodiments of Gods were also for performing some specific Leelaas or divine acts, and they relinquished their avatars and disappeared from earth after the accomplishment of the purpose for which they came! Gods’ avatars included those that were direct and complete, indirect and endowed, cosmic and salvific,inner and inspirational, consecrated and in the form of image, so on! There were also different avatars of a same God, taken for different purposes at different points of time. While in their avatars, some Gods disclosed who they were either during their mission or after completing it. And some never did that too.
The Supreme, which is otherwise omnipresent and ever-present invisibly and which is known to human minds by different names and forms, embodies itself through avatars and incarnations and descent to earth for accomplishing something specific.
The story of Lord Subramanyan is quite different from those of the known avatars of all other Gods and their deeds, and this story is extensively and exquisitely narrated in ‘SkandhapuraNam’ in Sanskrit and in ‘KandhapuraNam’ in Tamil. Although ‘KandhapuraNam’ calls His emergence ‘ThiruavathAram,’ and despite His origin having certain prime characteristics of a typical avatar of a deity, His genesis is not an avatar per se!
He is described to have originated from the third eye of Lord ShivA in the form of six glowing sparks to rescue and save the DevAs, the celestials, from the torture and clutches of the AsurAs, the demons. He assumed his physical appearance as six extremely beautiful babies, and initially, He grew up in a lotus pond in the reed forest on the banks of river Ganges, lovingly cared by six KArthikai women. Later on, Goddess Shakthi, His Mother, came to the reed forest, and being unable to control Her overflowing love and rejoice, collected all the six babies together all at once and embraced them, and as She did so, His bodies merged, and He became a baby with a single body but with six heads. He was then brought up by Lord ShivA and Goddess Shakthi in KailAsh the divine abode of Lord ShivA.
He performed several remarkable Leelaas or divine acts as a boy-wonder, before embarking on His prime mission of destroying the AsurAs, the demons. Notable among His divine acts were the imprisonment of Lord Brahmman, one of the Hindu Trinity, for not knowing the meaning of the PraNava Manthram, and the ‘Shiva UpadEsam,’ during which Lord SubramaNyan imparted the meaning of the PraNava Manthram (‘Om’ or ‘Aum,’ the primordial sound) to His father Lord Shiva and thereby becoming and being called ‘Swaaminaathan.’ When Lord Brahmman, the Lord of Creation was in His prison, Lord SubramaNyan performed the duty of creation too. Strangely, the very DevAs, for whose rescue and protection He came into being, ignorantly waged a war against Him, thinking that He was just a charming boy with no valor and knowledge of warfare. He single handedly and playfully destroyed them all in no time, but later at the request of DevAs’ Guru, He resurrected them, pardoned them and also graced them with His ‘Vishwaroopa Dharisanam,’ the divine sight of His giant posture.
He then, at the command of His Father and as desired by His Mother and with their collective blessings and special armory given to Him by them, assumed the role of ‘DEva SenAthipathy’ (Commander-in-chief of the Army of DevAs) and went on to wage a war against and slain and destroy Thaarakan, the brother of Soorapadman, the supremo of the demons and then, in a different war, the entire clan of Soorapadaman, including his other brother Singamugan and his sons. Finally, despite all his warfare and mysterious tricks, Soorapadman, the head of demons, was also defeated by Him, and thereby, He accomplished the very purpose for which He came into being! And unlike other avatars of Gods, who resumed their original forms after accomplishing the objects of their missions and went back to their natural abodes, Lord SubramaNyan is still there, here and everywhere for His devotees to worship and to take care of them!
Lord SubramaNyan has many unique attributes which are far superior to that of other deities or that of the avatars of various deities. The story of Lord SubramaNyan is by far the ancient than the story of any other avatar of any other deities. He possesses the rare combination of matchless valor and supreme, divine intelligence and wisdom. He remains as the core of all the divine energies and is believed to lead one towards spiritual evolution as easily as lending a helping hand to anyone in need. There is no other deity who is equal to him in handsomeness and youthfulness. His other name ‘Murugan’ means handsomeness, youthfulness, divinity, fragrance, bliss and being extremely pleasant and graceful.
Says Lord Shiva to Goddess Shakthi in Kandhapuranam: “There is no difference between Myself and Shanmugan (another name of Lord Subramanyan)! Like Me, He is everything and is everywhere! Our beloved son Subramanyan possesses six heads which are my own six heads, and He has our entire qualities, characteristics and powers combined! On His own, He can perform all the five prime functions like I do and at His wish, as if He is just playing around. He is the ultimate possessor of the entire valor, wealth, beauty, knowledge and wisdom of all Gods, Devas, humans and all living creations in this universe! I am just briefly telling you of His attributes. It will take much more than one hundred crore (billions of) years to fully describe His attributes to you!”
And there is no deity or avatar that is as graceful and as merciful as He was and He is! When one seeks His mercy and grace, fully surrendering to Him, Lord SubramaNyan grants whatever their wishes instantaneously as if He has been longingly waiting for their pleas and prayers. Says Lord ShivA to Goddess Shakthi, “Omniscient Kumaran (yet another name of Lord Subramanyan which means ‘ever youthful’) grants wealth and wisdom for living blissfully and peacefully in their earthly life and also salvation to reach His Abode to unite with Him ultimately to all those who lovingly worship Him and unconditionally surrender to Him!” Lord SubramaNyan is so benevolent and a ‘Varaprasaathy’ that He gives away boons abundantly to His devotees with His twelve hands! Even ruthless, hardcore sinners will be graced by Him if ever they truly repent their sins and remorsefully beseeched His pardon!
Where and when Lord SubramaNyan stood out as the Lord of Absolute Mercy and Gracefulness as per KandhapuraNam? Instead of destroying Soorapadman, when he finally attacked Lord Subramanyan in the forms of a ferocious peacock and a rooster cockerel, He tamed them both and made the peacock His prime vehicle and He placed the cockerel on His victorious flag! And above all, He made His devotees worship the peacock and the cockerel along with His spear! Legend has it that because of the abundant grace of Lord SubramaNyan, Singamugan, like Soorapadman, in the form of a lion became the vehicle of His mother Goddess MahEshwari, while Thaarakan, in the form of an elephant, became a vehicle for His brother Lord Aiyappan! After all, Lord SubramaNyan’s descent to earth was to rescue the Devas and punish the AsurAs for their sins, rather than destroying them altogether. He punished and disciplined them by destroying the evilness and enmity in them. After all, by His very nature, God has no enmity against anyone or anything! Besides, the Asuras too were the creations and children of God and were the ardent devotees of Lord Shiva, and they too deserved the mercy of God! Again, philosophically, these Asuras symbolize the evils within us all, and the Lord, being the Wisdom personified, gracefully eradicates these evils and purifies us for our own benefit and salvation!
Lord Subramanyan was so very graceful to Soorapadman to even make him see with his inner eyes His ‘Vishwaroopam’ or His giant, all pervading, magnificent posture, in which He displayed that He was (and is) the Universe and everything in it, including all deities! Perhaps Soorapadman was the only demon who was fortunate enough to see this posture of the Supreme, which even great ‘Maharishis’ did not and could not see!
Saint Poet AruNagirinathar created a special vehicle for this Lord of Infinite Grace and Mercy and seated him there as if to thank and honor him for being so graceful to all his creations in general and to him in particular!
He constructed, by merely using appropriate words/verses in such an order and manner, in one of his poetic hymns in Tamil titled ‘Thiruezhukoorrirukkai,’ a seven-layered chariot (‘Ther’, ‘தேர்’ in Tamil) to seat his beloved Lord SubramaNyan in the middle of this Chariot. In Tamil literature, poetry written in this format is known as ‘Chitra Kavi’ in general and ‘Radhabhandham’ in particular. In addition to the Divine’s Grace, the poet who endeavours to write a poetry in this format should not only be versatile and highly talented, but needs to follow a very strict, tough grammar and be well-versed in arithmetic as well, and hence only a very few poets ventured to write poetry in this format. And even fewer indeed succeeded when ventured!
This poetic Chariot has seven upper layers, and each layer in the poetry has some homonymous words, each of which means a number and/or something else. The words bearing the names of the numbers in each layer, when arranged in accordance with the concept of binomial theorem, will yield the following triangular pattern, which is similar to the top structure of a traditional Indian Chariot or car:
1
121
12321
1234321
123454321
12345654321
1234567654321
The seven lower layers of the Chariot are the symmetric reflection of the seven upper layers. In the middle, Lord Subramanyan is seated.
In Tamil, the word ‘ezhu’ means number ‘seven’ as well as ‘rise.’ Thiruezukoorrirukkai’ means a imaginary seven- layered (seven upper layers plus seven lower layers) structure in the form of a Chariot, poetically created, by making seven statements or narrations or proclamations in a hymn, comprising of homonymous words of numbers to seat the Supreme in the middle. It also means a ‘Divine Throne,’ poetically created and provided in the middle of an imaginary Chariot, on which the Supreme appears or rises up to reign and grace its creations!
The first layer has number one, and the numbers in each of the remaining six layers, start with number one and end with number one, which signify the indisputable facts that ‘Bhrahmam’ alone is the Supreme and the Absolute, and everything in this universe stems from ‘It’ and settles in ‘It.’ The numbers in each layer are the results of the multiplication of 1, 11^2, 111^2, 1111^2, 11111^2, 111111^2, 1111111^2. Similarly, it is number one at the very top, and it is again number one at the very bottom, which further reiterates and reemphasises the above said philosophy of Ekam Sath, and the Bhrahmam is the beginning and end of everything.
The sum total of all numbers in each of the 7 upper and 7 lower layers in this pattern is 280, which if and when numerically reduced to a single digit, the result will be 1. And that again emphasises the very basic concept that God is only One, but ‘It’ has many names, and there are many means to realise ‘It ‘ within.
The hymn which begins as "ஓர் உருவாகியத் தாரகப் பிரமத்து" is not just filled with homonymous words nor is it merely playing with words. It poeticallyproclaims the prime philosophy and narrates the principal events of 'Skandhapuranam,' the largest of the 18 ancient Hindu literatures or treatises, which narrates the story and glory of Lord SubramaNyan.
‘Thiruezukoorrirukkai’ is the 9th work of Saint Poet AruNagirinathar, and it is the shortest of all his works! In this poetic chariot sits Lord Swaaminaathan, another name for Lord Subramanyan, which signifies that being the wisdom personified, He is the Guru to His father Lord ShivA, the ‘Parameshwarar!’
Also, it is in this poetic Chariot that Lord Subramanyan sits and goes around the Universe merrily and victoriously, proclaiming His supremacy over all other deities and performing His divine acts in addition to His other known vehicles such as the peacock, the elephant and the ram! ‘Thiruezukoorrirukkai’ is, though small in size, is a powerful hymn, and it is said that singing or reciting this hymn in utter devotion will give the same benefits of having recited all the hymns in ‘Thiruppugazh,’ the main treatise of Saint Poet Arunagirinathar.
It is also said that only because of the ‘Punyam,’ (good karma) which one accumulated over several thousand births that one can be a devotee of Lord Subramanyan! Once having become a true devotee of Him, one is entirely taken care of by Him so very well and in such a manner that no other deity can do. After all, Lord Subramanyan is the Lord of Infinite Grace and Mercy, who even magnanimously emancipated from the darkness of ignorance and arrogance and elevated a terrible demon Soorapadman to the status of a deity! And it is only those, who have accumulated even more ‘Punyam’ than the true devotees, are fortunate enough to be chosen to serve Him and His devotees! Those who are involved in the creation of a beautiful Mani Mandapam for Saint Poet Arunagirinathar in Thiruvannamalai are among those chosen few and are indeed very dear to Lord Subramanyan and Saint Poet Arunagirinathar! All other true devotees of Lord Subramanyan should salute them in unison and help them to accomplish their mission in whatever way possible and celebrate their success!
“Prostrations and humble Salutations to Lord Subramanya, the Supreme, Who is the ruler of this universe, Who is the indweller of our hearts, Who is the second son of Lord Shiva, Who is the beloved of Valli and Deivayanai, Who bestows boons easily on His devotees and Who is the embodiment of power, wisdom, love and bliss! Subramanyom, Subramanyom, Subramanyom”
Om Subramanya Saranam!
Surguru Thiruvadigale Saranam!
