THRISSUR POORAM FESTIVAL, THE MOTHER OF ALL CARNIVALS – CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL ~ Ajit Vadakayil

MEETING OF THE GODS , CYMATICS FOR A 2.1 MILLION CONGREGATION ILANJITHARA MELAM , KUDAMATTAM , PANCHAVADYAM , VADAKUMNATHAN TEMPLE CONSECRATED BY LORD PARASHURAMA IN 4000 BC , THRISSUR SHIVA TEMPLE WHERE ADI SHANKARACHARYA SHED HIS MORTAL BODY IN 2000 BC – CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

Yesterday the 36 hour marathon Thrissur Pooram temple festival got over. In Kerala there is no bar of religion or caste when it comes to this temple festival.

I will put a video below.

A video of such an electrifying event can only be a pale shadow of the real thing.

Yet you can feel the energy of 21 lakh people including foreign tourists who come here to see the conscious pachyderms and feel the cymatics of the drums, trumpets and cymbals..

Above: The field created by above pattern can only be appreciated by a Kirlean camera.

When I say conscious , you must understand that the elephant is the only animal who passes a mirror test fully like human beings. That is why we have them in our temples, where you get to elevate your consciousness.

The festival is conducted in the vast premises of Vadakkumnathan Shiva Temple in Thrissur. The 6000 year old temple stands majestically on an elevated hillock right in the heart of the city. Thrissur pooram, is celebrated here every year in the month of Medam (mid-April to mid-May) when the moon rises with the Pooram star.

Lord Parasurama , the sixth avatar of Lord Vishnu , the warrior patron saint of Kerala, reclaimed the land of Kerala from the sea. He came to Kerala with a band of Namboodiri Brahmins after the river Saraswati dried up.

He asked Shiva and his family to descend from Mount Kailasa to bless the inhabitants of this new land. Shiva indeed came riding the bull Rishabha ( Vimana ) , accompanied by Parvati, Ganesha, Subrahmanya and his parashadas and landed under a banyan tree ( Sree Moolasthanam ).

Shiva stopped for a while and then disappeared . Parashurama saw a bright and radiant Shiva lingam at the foot of this huge banyan tree. From that tree, Parasurama invoked Shiva to the location of the present sanctum of Vadakkunnathan and installed the Shiva lingam.

In the ancient days the place was known as “Tiru Shiva Perur' or the town with the name of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva here is popularly known as Vadakkunnathan of the Lord from the North.

The Vadakkunnathan Temple has this Shiva Lingam inside , but you cant see it, as it is submerged under 6000 years of ghee offerings. This is the only temple in India where Lingam is not visible . Parasurama anointed the lingam first with ghee. Despite this the ghee does NOT become rancid or invaded by insects, and it does not melt even during summer.

A devotee looking into the inner sanctum can now see only a 16-foot-high mound of ghee embellished with thirteen cascading crescents of gold and three serpent hoods at top. When the ghee starts sliding down like a mini avalanche, this amount is given as prasad to the devotees.

Let me put a 100 year old picture of Vadakkunnathan Temple , printed by the British Hoe and Coat the 'Premier Press'.

Shivaguru and Aryamba, the parents of Adi Shankaracharya worshipped Shiva at this temple to beget a son in 2000 BC. They walked 53 kms to Thrissur from Kalady. They chanted bhajans in praise of Shiva for 41 days.

Legend has it that Lord Shiva appeared to both husband and wife in their dreams and offered them a choice. They could have either a mediocre son who would live a long life or an extraordinary son who would die early. Both Shivaguru and Aryamba chose the second option. It was no wonder that Adi Shankaracharya mastered the voluminous Vedas by the age of six, which normally takes a whole lifetime.

In honour of Shiva, they named the son Sankara. Adi Shankaracharya attained videha mukti ("freedom from embodiment") in Vadakkunnathan temple as per Kerala legend.

Arattupuzha Pooram was the biggest temple festival of Kerala. The participants of Thrissur Pooram were regular participants of this Pooram, which has a history of 4000 years .

About 210 years ago the King of Cochin shifted the venue to the present site, for political reasons.

Hardly anybody knows this real reason.

Thrissur was part of the kingdom of the king of Calicut ( my home town ). Then came the Portuguese Christian invader in 1498, who landed in Calicut for spice trade. These white men had NIL honour.

They thought they can impress the king with coloured glass pieces and beads, the way they had WOWED the black savages in Africa.

Little did they know that when their ancestors were running around naked, living in caves , clubbing animals for food and doing grunt grunt for language, the people of Kerala were wearing fine cotton and silk , wearing diamonds and pearls, eating cooked food from a menu and writing poetry.

They wanted to undercut the Arabs who were middlemen in the spice trade, and the honourable king was not ready to back stab people whom Kerala has been trading with for millenniums. .

The Portuguese used to steal the pepper vines at night. When the king was told about this he laughed loudly and cried “ They can steal our pepper plants and even our soil , but can they steal our weather ?”

The Portuguese did NOT want to pay custom duty for the trade and things went from bad to worse. They gave several local girls venereal disease by raping them. To escape retribution they kidnapped this king’s close relatives and fled in their ships towards Cochin, as they knew the King of Cochin was the mortal enemy of the King of Calicut ( Zamorin ).

Monsoon weather prevented the Calicut king from pursuing the Portuguese ships who has long range cannons. . Finally the Portuguese set camp at Goa and they were kicked out for good in 1961.

Punch into Google search PORTUGUESE INQUISITION IN GOA VADAKAYIL

In 1761 when Hyder Ali , the father of Tipu Sultan attacked the super rich kingdoms of Calicut . to steal the gold from the temple vaults, the King of Calicut committed suicide, rather than be servile to this cruel man.

The king of Cochin made a deal , accepted the Mysore's superiority, and became a vassal for payment of heavy money. With this sweet deal the king of Cochin bargained over Thrissur and secured it.

Rama Varma Kunhjipilla Thampuran , popularly known as Sakthan Thampuran shifted his capital from Cochin to Thrissur. But the people of Thrissur both high and low castes , were still loyal to the Kings of Calicut , who were honourable kings.

Hyder Ali’s son Tipu Sultan again invaded Calicut in 1788 , and Calicut was razed to the ground along with thousands of Hindu temples . Fires took more than a month to be put out.

Punch into Google search TIPU SULTAN UNMASKED VADAKAYIL

This is the man Salman Khurshid and the Italian waitress turned empress has been trying to establish as freedom fighter and secular.

Tipu Sultan did NOT destroy the Vadukunnathan Temple at Thrissur as his Hindu astrologers advised him that it would bring him ill luck. This trust in Hindusim was for his own selfish good.

King Shaktan Thampuran ( ruled from 1769-1805) was merciless with all those who were loyal to the King of Calicut and this included the Namboodiri Brahmins who ran the temples.

The Cochin king had support both from the British who had killed Tipu Sultan and the southern king of the state of Travancore. To start the exodus the king wrested the temples of Thrissur from the Namboodiri Brahmins of Thrissur ( Yogiatiripppads ).

These Brahmins had been in charge of the Thrissur temples since the days of Parashurama. Now these poor guys were totally uprooted, like snake charmers without snakes.

To get the moral support of the low castes he started the Thrissur Pooram. This was almost like Nero having the games in Rome, to get instant popularity , win the hearts of the vast majority low castes , and to consolidate his rule..

The last Yogiatirippad was banished from Trichur 1763 for being loyal at heart to the king of Calicut , Zamorin against Cochin. One by one the Namboodiris were ethnically cleansed and the numerous Namboodiri illams situated in Trichur gradually became extinct.

In the days of the Calicut King’s rule, Arattupuzha Pooram was the biggest temple festival of Kerala. The current participants of Thrissur Pooram were regular participants of this Pooram. During one particular year of floods Shaktan Thampuran used this as an excuse to break from past tradition. He shifted the pooram to Vadakkunnathan Temple which is on higher ground.

And since then the pooram has been there. There still used to be competition from temples loyal to the King of Calicut and temples loyal to King of Cochin. This competition still exists, though all have forgotten the root cause.

Even today no Hindu from Calicut would look beyond Thrissur for brides and bride grooms for their children. For the Hindu king of Cochin had first mollycoddled the cruel Muslim invader and then the white Christian invader.

Today the Kudamattam competition is between two groups the Western and the Eastern. The Western group consists of Thiruvambady, Kanimangalam, Laloor, Ayyanthole, and Nethilakkavu temples. Paramekkavu, Karamukku, Chembukavu, Choorakottukavu and Panamukkamppilly come under eastern group.

Nobody knows the past and well, let bygones be bygones. In the bargain here is a festival which is for everybody.

The Cochin king may think that he has done a great thing , and he must have gladdened the hearts of the white Christian invader, whose only interests was to divide the Hindus.

Hindu temples are NOT like churches and mosques. There are proper puja procedures.

Most of the Kerala temples are now run by PRETENDER PUJARIS who draws a monthly salary from a Dewaswom board run by soulless atheist communists, and manipulated by Christian and Muslim ruling ministers whose loyalties lie in Vatican and Mecca.

This is what has happened in most of the ancient Kerala temples. Hindu temples are all about raising your consciousness. Hindu temples are NOT for carnivals like in Goa or Mardi Gras.

You cannot have a scavenger pujari from a clan , who has no spiritual traditions and who cannot utter a single mantra for nuts, the way BR Ambedkar wanted it , prodded on by the British-- all in the name of human rights .

Let human rights remain outside the inner sanctums of our ancient Hindu temples. You must be qualified like a neuro-surgeon in a brain surgery theatre.

Today if my wife wants to do some special pujas for her dead ancestors, or my sons , she goes all the way outside Kerala to Mookambika temple in Kollur Karnataka. She being a Reiki grandmaster knows which temple has what vibes.

Punch into Google search POWER OF MANTRAS ON HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS VADAKAYIL

The massive display of sound explosives Vedikettu also started after Tipu Sultan was killed. This was never a visual display . This was more of a crude terrific sound display, that we too have gunpowder, bombs and rockets.

Tipu Sultan’s and his father Hyder Ali’s army were no match for the Kerala Nair swordsmen in prowess who carried swords like umbrellas. But the Mysore Muslim kings had rockets and long range cannons.

Back to Thrissur pooram.

Thrissur pooram is a festival unique in its pageantry and magnitude. The Pooram attracts a lot of elephant enthusiasts. With over 50 elephants at the pooram site, and many more all over town, keeping them well fed and hydrated in the hot season is an uphill task.

During the festival, over 100 caparisoned elephants will pass through the town and all of them have micro chips in them.

In the Pooram ground the people throng so close that if there is a rain shower , no moisture will hit the ground.

It must be noted that Vadukumnathan Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, remains a mute spectator during the festival , only involved in granting the premises and convenience for the festival. No offering is received nor is any expenditure incurred by the temple in connection with the Pooram. Not even a special puja is offered on the occasion.

The custom was developed by Shaktan Thamburan , as if all the gods and goddesses are doing pooram ( a meet) in front of Shiva, considered by Hindus as a supreme god. Only Sastha’s ( divine combination of shiva and Vishnu ) or Durga’s are the participant of the pooram.

Here you get to hear the electrifying Kerala traditional music (Chembada Melam, Pandi Melam, and Panchavadyam) . This is NOT like a western symphony orchestra were all are nattily dressed and sit like dead fish. Here you can feel the thumping cymatic energy resonating every cell in your body.

Panchavadyam has about 250 expert artistes playing musical instruments like Thimila, Maddalam, Trumpet, Cymbal and Edakka . 'Pandemelam', is for 200 artistes holding mastery of drum, trumpets, pipe and cymbals..

Several processions with caparisoned elephants form various temples land up at the venue. The most impressive processions are those from the Krishna Temple at Thiruvambadi and the Devi Temple at Paramekkavu . The sprawling Thekkinkadi maidan, en circling the Vadakumnathan temple, is the main venue of the festival.

The drummers , all in the zone, literally mesmerize the onlookers. You can feel the collective consciousness . 'Elanjithara Melam' ( drum beats in front of "Elanji" tree or bulletwood tree ) is performed in which artistes play drums, pipes and cymbals for hours on end as if in a trance. The entire display is divided into 3 kalams, based on the speed of percussion. It needs no mention that the 3rd is the fastest an d the most explosive in nature.

Poorma starts with the ceremonial flag hoisting (Kodiyettam) by various participating temples. Ten temples take part in the festival. But like I said before the main participants are the ‘Bhagawathys’ ( goddesses) from the Thiruvambadi and the Paramekkavu temples.

These two temples had never been under the control of Namboodiris, are given pride of place.. Here lies the King’s politics . Usually Kerala kings never interfere in temple affairs, and hence you can identify the British invader’s role in this .

The main Pooram starts on the sixth day after the flag hoisting. The spectacular show of 'Kudamattom' ( parasol exchange ) is the cynosure of all eyes . Parasols of myriad numbers, designs and colours are exchanged by the people atop the 30 elephants, of which 15 line up one side and the other 15 on the opposite side and it is a virtual competition between the two eyeballing sides.

On each elephant are perched three men atop waving the ‘aalavattom’ (peacock-feather fan), ‘venchamaram (white gazelle-hair fan) and ‘kuda’ (silver-sequinned parasols in all the imaginable hues). The tallest tusker in the middle carries the golden ‘thidambu’ representing the deity.

When the percussion reaches its crescendo, the parasols are changed with an even more colourful and exquisite one. The crowds between the 30 elephants , a virtual field of consciousness , give a mighty cheer for each parasol change . The devotees look on the elephants as the very incarnation of Lord Shiva’s son Lord Ganesha.

The grand finale fireworks happens on the seventh day after the flag hoisting and that marks the end of the festival. You never get the see the majestic blue colours like out here , in world wide fireworks, for expensive copper is involved.

The 36-hour celebrations ends with `Vida Chollal' (farewell) ceremony, enacted at the Thekkinkad Maidan.

Divine meeting now completed , the deities of the Thiruvambadi and Paramekkavu temples bid farewell to each other and the deity of Sree Vadakkunatha Temple at the ceremony, with a solemn promise to meet again next year same place, same time..