Om Namha Sivaya
UPA DEVATHA'S
Muruga or Subramanya is a popular deity among Hindus, especially among Tamil people. Many names are there for Muruga as Karthikeya, Kumara, Velayudha, Shanmugha and so on. His main weapon is known as ‘Vel’, which was given by Parvathy. Thus known as Velayudha. He was born as the second son of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathy. But he was brought up by six mothers known as Krithika devis, hence he known as Karthikeyan. The intension of the birth of Muruga was to kill ‘Tharaka’, the crude and cruel asura. Its believed that he has six faces. Peacock is the vehicle of Muruga. Valli and Devayani are the two wives of Muruga. He is known as the God of War . One speciality of Lord Muruga is that he will always be young and handsome.
Vinayaka is one of the famous and greatly worshipped deities in Hinduism. Vinayakar is also known as Ganesh, Vinayaka Vigneswara, Ganapathy, Pillaiyar . The main identity of Vinayaka is his elephant like head. Its known that Vinayaka is the eldest son of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathy. We believe that if we pray to Ganapathy, then all the obstacles in front of us will remove quickly. Because of that Vinayaka is known as the Lord of obstacles and the God of new beginnings. Thus got the name ‘Vighneswara’, the one who removes ‘Vighna’ from our path. For all new beginnings, Hindus do ‘Ganapathy Homam’ properly in temples and even at homes. Vehicle of Vinayaka is a mouse.
Many stories are there about the birth of Vinayaka. Once Devi Parvathy created a very powerful boy for preventing anybody from entering into her room, without her permission. Then Lord Siva came there for visiting Devi and asked that boy to allow him to enter. Devi was then having bath. But that boy didn’t allow Lord Siva to enter. Then the uncontrolled Lord Siva cut off that boy’s head. Hearing this news, Goddess Parvathy became furious and asked Siva to get back her son. Siva was helpless in returning his head. Then he cut the head of an elephant and placed it over his neck. Thus Lord Siva gave him a new birth and named him as Vinayaka. He is the God of art, music and prosperity. Devotees of Vinayaka offers him ‘Modhaka’ and laddus for getting his blessings.
Lord Ayyappa is considered as one of the famous deity worshipped in kerala. In recent times, not only in kerala, devotees from all around world started building temples and worshipping Ayyappa. The fact is that, Ayyappa is believed to be the one god who protects his devotees from miseries and suffering in “Kali Yuga”. Ayyappa is also knows as Dharmasasta, Manikandan, Bhutanathan, Pandala Raja, and Pamba Vaasan. Ayyappa is worshipped in many forms in different temples, worshipped as a child at Kulathupuzha, worshipped with his consorts Pushpaka and Poorna in Achankovil and meditating form in sabarimala. Ayyappa was born with composite energy of Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu, when Lord Vishnu was taken over mohini form. Lord Vishnu gifted a bejeweled bell necklace to the new born Ayyappa and thus, known as "Manikandan".
The main intention behind Ayyappa’s birth was to demolish Mahishi, one of the asura demon princesses who was threatening and plundering the world at that time. Pandalam King had found this boy in forest and taken to his palace. Ayyappa was lived in Pandalam Palace as the son of the Pandalam King. It is found that he had super-human or divine knowledge, wisdom, and courage. He learned Veda, Kalari (martial art) and other war tactics quickly. He had helped Pandalam king for protecting king and kingdom of Pandalam from enemy attacks. Ayyappa was forced to go to forest for seeking “Puli Paal” (tigress-milk) as his mother was suffering ill. Ayyappa went to forest and met Mahishi, fought with her and killed. He had released a beautiful woman who had been cursed to become Mahishi. The young woman proposed Ayyappa for marriage, but he declined, being a celibate (brahmachari). However he consoled her and promised that she would be housed next to him in his temple and would be visited by devotees, and if the number of new pilgrims (kanni swami) visiting him stopped, then he would marry her. Hence she is now worshiped as Maalikapurathamma.
After killing Mahishi, Ayyappa left Pandalam and went to Sabarimala, where he is worshipping in celibate meditation form. He promised his devotees that who ever comes to visit me with “Mudi kettu”, I will protect them from sufferings, miseries, illness. The very famous and important temple for Lord Ayyappa is Sabarimala itself. It is believed that over 50 million devotees are visiting this temple every year, which is of course making this temple second largest pilgrim center in this world. “Appam” and “Aravana” are the famous and special offering to Lord Ayyappa
Swamiyee Saranam Ayyppa
According to Indian culture snakes are also considered as gods. ‘Nagas’ or ‘Sarppas’ means snakes. Usually we considers a naga as a king cobra. There are more importance for this ‘Nagas’ in our epics. Many stories are written about them. One of the very famous snake in our epic ‘Mahabharatha’ is ‘Anantha’, on that snake Lord Mahavishnu is laying. Great enemy of Nagas in the epics is Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu.
Main offering to nagas are "Paalum, noorum". This can be offered in almost all naga temples in kerala.
