Magnificence of Shaligrama stone and Golden Spiral !!

        In my previous post - Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu, I have mentioned about 'Nitya Kalyana Perumal' temple at Thiruvidanthai in Chennai.        

        The main deity of this temple is, 'Sri Lakshmi Adi varaha' and the deity is decorated with a garland of 108 shaligrama stones around his neck. Why Shaligrama stones ? Why this historic stones were used ?

        Shaligrama / Saligrama stone is a unique variety of ancient sacred stone found on the banks of Kali Gandaki river in Nepal. It is one of the oldest stone in this world, which is about 400 - 95 million years old. 

        Scientifically, they are called as 'Ammonoid' / Ammonite fossils. It is a group of extinct cephalopods, forms related to the modern pearly nautilus, that are frequently found as fossils in marine rocks dating from the Devonian Period (began 419 million years ago) to the Cretaceous Period (ended 66 million years ago)

Why it is sacred and what is so special about this shaligrama stone?

        As this stone bears the symbols (Chakra) of Lord Vishnu naturally, without any human interventions, this stone is considered as non-anthropomorphic representation of Lord Vishnu in Hinduism. It is considered as sacred stones by many south asians. 

Sri Adi Shanakaracharya had used this shaligrama stones to worship Lord Vishnu, which is also mentioned in many of hindu sacred texts...

        It is one of the most sacred stones worshipped by vaishanavites in India. This stone represents 6 values of life - Righteous living, wealth, protection, good health, pleasures and spiritual blessing.

       

    This shaligrama stone is naturally appears in the pattern of Golden spiral. Golden Spiral is a spiral arrangement that occurs naturally, with the ratio of - 1.618. This pattern allows the organism to grow without changing shape.

         The Golden Spiral has the special property such that for every 1/4 turn (90° or π/2 in radians), the distance from the center of the spiral increases by the golden ratio φ = 1.6180. 

        In geometry, a golden spiral is a logarithmic spiral whose growth factor is φ, the golden ratio. That is, a golden spiral gets wider (or further from its origin) by a factor of φ for every quarter turn it makes.

   This golden spiral symbolizes balance, growth, birth, expansion, contraction, change, evolution, surrender, release, letting go, connectivity, union, journeying, development, constant movement, and infinity – because it goes on and on

        The golden ratio is about 1.618 and it is sometimes called as "divine proportion," because of its frequency in the natural world. The number of petals on a flower, for instance, will often be a Fibonacci number.

        A spiral is a curved pattern that focuses on a center point and a series of circular shapes that revolve around it. Examples of spirals are pine cones, pineapples, hurricanes. The reason for why plants use a spiral form like the leaf picture above is because they are constantly trying to grow but stay secure.

    

        

        This golden spiral abounds in nature. Snail shells and nautilus shells follows golden spiral. It can also be seen in the horns of certain goats and the shape of certain spider's webs..

The golden spiral can also be seen in cochlea of inner ear. The cochlea is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans making 2.75 turns around its axis, the modiolus. 

Everywhere in this world, you can see the nature's design in golden ratio....

Spiral galaxy in the universe with the golden spiral - 1.6180...

            Nature has association with spirals. In hurricanes and galaxies, the body rotation spawns spiral shapes. When the center turns faster than the periphery, waves within these phenomena get spun around into spirals.

        

        Now, Coming back to Shaligrama stones, these are not only ancient, but also contains the golden spiral in nature. These stones are so unique, natural and sacred in Hinduism.  Also, as it resembles Lord Visnhu's symbol Sudharshan Chakra, it is considered as sacred in Vishnu temples and Vaishanavites... 

     The famous Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvanthapuram (Kerala), where the main deity Padmanabhaswamy (Lord Vishnu) can be seen in 'Anantha Shayan' posture (Yogic sleep). 

    The original deity of this temple in garbhagriha, is made of 12,008 shaligrama stones. These shaligrama stones were transported from the banks of Gandaki river in Nepal. These Shaligrama stones are sacred stones worshipped and venerated as a direct manifestation of Lord Vishnu.

Also, there are different shapes of shaligrama stones representing Dasavatar (10 forms) of Lord Vishnu...

Sudharshan Chakra like Shaligrama

         The knowledge of golden spiral and golden ratio was known to ancient sages and rishis in India. Thus, they built and designed many architectures in India with this golden ratio principle. Will explore those in my next post...

        Thus, there are 108 shaligrama stones in the garland of Adi Varaha swami in Thiruvidanthai (Chennai). 

Why 108 ? Why 108 is considered as divine number ?

Sun's diameter is 108 times that of the earth.

The distance between earth and moon is 108 times the diameter of the moon..

The distance between the Earth and Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Sun .

Distance between earth and sun is 149 900 000 kms

Diameter of sun 1390 000 kms

Distance from earth to moon 381 000 kms

Diameter of moon 3499 kms

Diameter of earth 12798 kms

How did the ancient maharishis know the 9 planets and their diameters, 9000 years before?

Sri Vaishnavite Tradition has 108 Divya Desams (temples of Vishnu) 

Our body has 108 Marma points i.e vital prana points...

54 is the number of triple intersections on the Sri Yantra which in Shiva-Shakti format works out to 108. 

How did the ancient sages and maharishis know the importance of this divine number 108 several thousand years before ???

The magnificence of the divine number 108 is more than this. I will write down a separate post for the divine number 108.....

- Aarthi Thiyagarajan