Thiruvathirai / Arudra Dharisanam
'Thiruvathirai / Arudra' is the name of the nakshthra in vedic astrology. This festival falls on Dhanu / Margazhi month which is Mid December - mid January as per sidereal calendar, when the Sun enters into Sagittarius. On this month, when the full moon appears in the sky with 'Thiruvathirai' nakshthra (Ardra in Sanskrit), this festival is celebrated, it's the star of Lord Shiva. In English, this star is associated with Betelgeuse / Alpha orionis, which is the second brightest star in the Orion constellation. It is the important festival of Lord Shiva, where women of the house observe fasting and worship the Lord of universe for the longevity of their husband and unmarried women worship the Lord, to get good husband. It is predominately celebrated in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
In Kerala, women celebrates this festival for their husband, where as in Tamil Nadu, they celebrate it as Lord Shiva's birthday, it is also believed that on this day Lord Shiva incarnated in the form of Natarajar, king of dance (Nata - Dance, Raja - King). The Thillai Natarajar temple at Chidhambaram, Tamil Nadu is popularly acclaimed for this festival.
Significance of Thiruvathira
- It is one of the oldest festival of Bharat (India), which we celebrate and worship Lord Shiva.
- This day's night is the longest night of the year.
- Lord Shiva's cosmic dance will be enacted at Thillai Natarajar Temple, Chidambaram. Below picture, the cosmic dance pose of Lord Shiva called as Aananda Thandavam , 'Natarajar' , the one who founded the graceful dance of bharat 'Bharatanatyam'. The one who learns Bharathnatyam, never missed to do a pose of Lord Natarajar.
Natarajar
This place represents 'Aakash / sky', which is one of the five natural elements. Lord Shiva, represents this natural element in the form of 'Lingam', called as 'Aagaya / Aakash Lingam' (Ether). This temple is located in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, which is 16 kilometers west from the shore of Bay of Bengal. It's a ten day festival celebrated with much rigor and pomp at this temple. 'Chit' means True Awareness, 'Aum' means sacred pranav mantra, 'Param' means The Supreme being , together, 'Consciousness of Supreme Lord Shiva'. There is also another meaning to this, 'Chit' - wisdom and 'Ambaram' - Atmosphere, together it means 'Atmosphere of wisdom'.
The deity Lord natarajar can be seen in hall called 'Chitsabha' (Garbha griha), behind this deity, there is a black screen, which is considered to cover the Akasha lingam, actually there is no lingam over there, it is a belief that it's an invincible lingam, usually covered with bilva (Indian Bael) garlands. Invisible ?? or Nothing ?? Or Vacuum ??
It is Zero point field - ZPF. Zero-point energy (ZPE) is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical system may have. The matter and force fields have zero-point energy. A related term is zero-point field (ZPF), which is the lowest energy state of a particular field.
The vacuum can be viewed not as empty space, but as the combination of all zero-point fields. It's Zero point Field (ZPE), energy filled in the vacuum (ether) also called as vacuum energy / Quantum energy. All space is filled with this (ZPF) quantum vacuum energy. It fills everything and in doing so changes what we think is a vacuum into a space absolutely full to the brim with energy, technically known as a “Plenum”.
70 % of our universe contains this quantum vacuum energy and this ZPE works with space & time , it is the cause for the expansion of our universe. In Tamil, there is a very old famous term called 'Chidambara Rahasayam' (Secret in Chidambaram temple), actually what is the secret over there ?
Is the empty space, ether, ZPF. 'Aakasha' in sanskrit means ether / upper sky / atmosphere, which is associated with vacuum in this temple. Our vedas and siddhantic science influenced many westerners and Nicholas Tesla is one of them. Ether is Tesla's fascinating subject, many of his discoveries have been stolen and patented in other westerners name, Tesla secretly kept some his work related to ether which is not discovered till now, he understood our science of siddhis, Brahman, consciousness and energy, he used many sanskrit terms like 'Aakasha', 'Prana', 'Kalpa' in his works.
Now, coming back to Thillai Natarajar temple, Chidambaram, there are only couple of temples, where Lord Shiva is represented by anthropomorphic form rather than Lingam. It is also said that Chidambaram is at the center of World's Magnetic Equator. This is the only one temple in all over India, dedicated to Lord Shiva as Natarajar, the lord of dance. 'Natyanjali' festival devoted to Lord Natarajar is celebrated every year at this temple, which is the opportunity for all classical dancers to perform and pay tribute to the Creator of the Dance. His dance of anger is called 'Rudra Thandavam' and his dance of joy is called as 'Aananda Thandavam'.
Temple Gopuram with Teppakulam (water storage)
The cosmic dance of Lord Natarajar symbolizes five acts.
1. The small drum that he holds in his upper right hand symbolizes creation (Srishti)
2. the lower right hand raised in blessing refers protection and symbolizes preservation - Abhaya mudra meaning 'Fear not'
3. the upper left hand that holds the cosmic flame stands for destruction - posing Ardhachandra mudra (Half moon)
4. the foot over the asura (demon) denotes ignorance - obs curation
5. Anugraha - Granting grace. The raised left foot refuges the soul and the left hand pointing down to the foot in Gajahasta pose (Elephant trunk) reveals grace.
During early morning of the full moon night, Maha Abhishekam will be performed to Lord Natarajar and his consort Sivakama Sundari at Raja Sabhai hall, this will happen for about 3 - 4 hours. Then the deities will be decorated with sacred jewels, scented fresh flowers, gems, silk clothes, garlands etc, followed by special poojas. The devotees will stand in a crowded queue to get blessings of the Lord Shiva and Goddess Sivakama Sundari on this festive day, all the people in a single tone loudly chant Lord Shiva's name and slokas.
Spatika Lingam
Spatika means Quartz crystal. Quartz in the shape of Lingam, . There are only few temples, where spatika lingam is present. This Spatika Lingam represented as Lord Chandramauleeshwara is one one of the most ancient spatika linga, was installed by Shri Adi Sankaracharya at this Chitsabha and daily six times pooja will be performed here. Getting the Darshan (View) of this Spatika linga is very blissful, spatika removes negativity, strengthens postivity within a person, liberates from all causes of fear, anger and ignorance. That's the reason this is also called as 'Mukthi Lingam', indeed it is believed that visit to this temple will lead to liberation from cycle of birth and death.
Pooja Procedure at home
A day before Thiruvathirai, we clean the pooja room, pooja utensils and apply turmeric, kumkum on all the utensils. On the day of this festival, women and girls wake up early in the morning, takes oil bath and wear new clothes, will keep fasting on this day (not taking rice, but can eat fruits). First, will decorate pooja room with flowers, will pour oil in all the lamps followed by cotton wicks, Dasangam and Agarbathi's (Scented cones and sticks) will be kept ready. In the early morning, will start preparing neivedhyam (Special food offered to God), on this day the special foods are 'Thiruvathira Kali', 'Ezhukari Kootu', the preparations of these foods are explained below.
On a small low height platform (Manai in Tamil), we place Lord Shiva's photo and keep the table on the floor. On the 2 sides of the photo, place 2 diyas, Agarbathi, decorate the photo with flowers and garlands. As per our family practice, we use plates for placing neivedhyam , we use banana leaf only on Pongal and Kula devatha Pooja. So, on a plate, will keep betel leaves, betel nuts, bunch of bananas, turmeric sticks, a coconut and prepared neivedhyam. Then, will light all the diyas / lamps , light Agarbathi and will do aradhana (Worshiping by taking rounds around the God) ,then break the coconut into two pieces and keep it back on the plate. Then, will take Deeparadhana (Worshiping using deepam fire and taking rounds around God) and everyone will take blessings from the fire and will put Viboothi, Kumkum on their forehead, married women will apply kumkum on their forehead and mangalsutra. Before sharing prashadham (Neivedhyam) with neighbours, we have to eat it first.
In my mother's place, we place 'Ammi Kal' in pooja room, 'Ammi Kal' is a traditional grinding stone that is used for grinding cooking paste, chutneys, masalas etc. We were using this method of grinding for ages, it's good exercise for hands and strengthens the hips. On this festival day, we assume the cylindrical roller stone as Lord Shiva and decorate this ammi kal in the pooja room, by drawing eyes with turmeric powder and kumkum, covering the stone with new piece of cloth, adorn the stone with jewels and apply Viboothi (Ash) at last. 
Ammi Kal (Grinding Stone)
Special Prasadham offered
Thiruvathira Kali
Kali means cereal cooked like thick paste form using rice, moong dal and jaggery. First, will coarsely grind raw rice , mix moong dal and cook with excess water so that it will be in a paste consistency, to that paste mixture, sufficient jaggery and cardamon powder will be added, will cook till the jaggery blends with the rice paste and then kali is ready.
Ezhu Kari kootu (7 vegetables dish) / Thallagam
It is side dish filled with 7 fresh vegetables without onion and garlic. Usually, will use Ash gourd, Yellow Pumpkin, Field beans (Mochai), Broad beans (Avarakkai), Brinjal, Chow Chow (Chayote) and sweet potato (Yam and Raw banana can also be used if some veggies are not available), will cook these veggies with more water and to make it thick, will grind freshly grated coconut, with green chilli, coriander , rice flour to a paste consistency and then mix with the cooked vegetables. Will cook this dish till the raw smell goes off (around 5 mins) and turn off the stove. At last, add tempering to this dish using coconut oil, mustard, asafoetida and few curry leaves.
It is side dish filled with 7 fresh vegetables without onion and garlic. Usually, will use Ash gourd, Yellow Pumpkin, Field beans (Mochai), Broad beans (Avarakkai), Brinjal, Chow Chow (Chayote) and sweet potato (Yam and Raw banana can also be used if some veggies are not available), will cook these veggies with more water and to make it thick, will grind freshly grated coconut, with green chilli, coriander , rice flour to a paste consistency and then mix with the cooked vegetables. Will cook this dish till the raw smell goes off (around 5 mins) and turn off the stove. At last, add tempering to this dish using coconut oil, mustard, asafoetida and few curry leaves.
--Aarthi Thiyagarajan
