|
 A question which assails all of us at some point in our day
to day life is; should I not give up the material and the mundane to pursue spirituality
and godliness and thereby achieve freedom from the continual cycle of rebirths?
The ascetics do precisely this when they embark on a life
based on the renunciation of the material world and denote it by wearing robes of ochre.
What will become of this world if everyone was to don the saffron of a sanyasin?
Lord Muruga when he was a mere child, forsook the world and left
Kailas, the abode of his Father God Shiva, to travel to Palani in a loin cloth to perform
a penance of righteous indignation at not being given the mango fruit for which he and his
elder brother Lord Ganesa competed.
The action of Lord Muruga was one of great philosophical
import and is not to be confused with the urge of mortals to abjure the material. In order
to infuse meaning into the day to day material life of samsara, Lord Muruga imparted a
profound message to a savant of South India over three centuries ago. The fruit of this
message is today enshrined in a remarkable temple found in the heart of Chennai
metro’s commercial hub; the evening bazaar or the rattan bazaar.
This shrine is none other than the Arulmigu Shri Kandaswamy
temple known popularly as Kandha Kottam. Situated in Rasappa Chetty Street, in George
Town, the temple is an excellent proof of the congenial togetherness of worship and
worldly responsibility, commerce and spirituality.
Over 350 years ago lived a man called Vellore Marichettiar
who didn’t feel inclined to pursue a life of commerce. He didn’t want to marry
and get caught in the web of samsara and yearned to lead a life of denial and penance.
Being an Ayira Vaisya Chettiar, it was his dharma to pursue a commercial vocation but Mari
Chettiar was firm in his resolve, till one day God Muruga himself conveyed to him a
message that a life of grahastha with love towards a co human being was a divine
ordinance.
 Mari Chettiar thereafter became a grahastha and an ardent devotee of
Lord Muruga. He used to travel by foot every Krithigai to Tirporur to have darshan of Lord
Muruga. On one such occasion, when Mari Chettiar was resting under a Neem tree on his way
to Tiruporur, Lord Muruga appeared before him in the form of a cobra and indicated to him
the presence of His vigraha under the tree.
Mari Chettiar and his friend immediately started digging
under the tree and found a stone vigraha of Lord Kandhaswamy. Though the vigraha was
heavy, the lord made it light and enabled his dear devotee to carry it all the way to its
present location in Chennai. Pledging his wife’s jewels, Mari Chettiar built a temple
for the Lord and since that day the community of Ayira Vaisya Chettiars have endowed
generously to the extension, upkeep and expansion of this temple. The past years have seen
a number of munificent efforts from the devotees in the field of art, culture and
education under the aegis of this temple.
From the road one can only see the Raja gopuram with the
rest of the façade being shops and shops galore; a typical metro temple one can say;
indicative of the commercial milieu of the temple trustees.
The main deity - Lord Kandhaswami with his consorts Valli
and Deivanai, with his Vel and his pennant; with a mien filled with shanta swaroopam and
his abhaya hastam showering grace on his devotees, is a balm to the weary mind. The
utsavar, in this temple, is Shri Muthukumaraswami.
In 1988, the Kumbhabhishekam of this temple was conducted
with great devotion, fervour and grandeur. The temple is open in the morning and evening
and attracts a large number of devotees from near and far.
Kandhan is said to be the repository of mercy and Kandha
Kottam, which is the bastion of this merciful warrior, is a haven and refuge for the
suffering devotee.
Ambujam Anantharaman
Previous
Articles
Published on
21st May |
