Chidambara Ragasiyam - Scientific Secret of the Universe !!! - Part 1

Chidambara Ragasiyam - Undecoded Biggest scientific secret !!!

        In Tamizh 'Chidambara Ragasiyam' means the ultimate secret and it's a idiomatic term used by tamizh people. This term is coined after the famous temple called 'Thillai Natarajar Temple' at Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. 

What is chidambara Ragasiyam (Secret) ???

  Before going to the answer, let us have a small intro of the chidambaram temple. This is one of the 'Pancha Bootha Sthalam', Pancha - meaning five, Bootha - natural elements, Sthalam - meaning place, together it means Temples of Five Natural elements. There are five temples built in ancient tamizhakam for the five basic elements of nature, which is the basic for cosmic creation. 

        

 There are two meanings for the name 'Chidambaram'.

Meaning 1

'Chit' means -    True Awareness, 

'Aum' means -    sacred pranav mantra, 

'Param' means -  The Supreme being , 

together - 'Consciousness of Supreme Lord Shiva'. 

Meaning 2, In Tamizh

'Chit' -  Consciousness / Wisdom (Cittar / Sidhar)

'Ambaram' - meaning Atmosphere, Ether . அம்பரம் அனல் கால் நிலம் சலம் (Atmosphere, Fire, Air, Earth, Water)

together it means 'Atmosphere of wisdom / consciousness'. 

        This Thillai Natarajar temple is located at Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, which is 16 kilometers west from the shore of Bay of Bengal. The main deity of this temple is Lord Natarajar (shiva), he is situated in a hall called 'Chitsabha' (Garbha griha). Behind this deity, there is a small space covered with a black screen, which is believed to represent Akasha lingam (Ether). But, the truth is, there is no lingam over there, it is a belief that it's an invincible lingam, usually covered with Bilva (Indian Bael) garlands. 

                                                Golden roof of Chitsabha

What is the significance of this temple ???

        It is not only a temple, there is also limitless scientific knowledge and universal truth behind it. The spirituality of the temple intentionally camouflaged a biggest secret about universe which is still not understood by modern scientist and it's not bound by the law of physics (scientific part is explained in section below). Ancient tamizh people hid the truth in the fear of this temple getting destroyed during the rule of foreign invaders. They wanted to pass the knowledge to the people, so kept it as secret with a spiritual cover.

This temple represents the fifth natural element -  'Akash'. Lord Shiva, represented here as natural element in the form of 'Formless Lingam', called as 'Aagaya / Aakash Lingam' (Ether). This fifth element can be viewed in both Spiritual and Scientific ways. 

First let us know about Ether / Akash through spiritual way explained in Hinduism / Santana Dharma

Ether Through Hinduism

Akasha (or ether) is the substratum of sound (Shabda). It is the One, Eternal and All Pervading physical substance, which is undetectable. In Human body, Akasha is equivalent to Third Eye / Pineal Gland / Consciousness... It is also called as Brahman. Consciousness is the creative force of this entire universe.

What is consciousness ?

Consciousness is "the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world". Inspite of numerous analysis, explanations and debates by scientists, consciousness remains a big puzzle. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought. A simple mirror test will evaluate one's self awareness, that is, the ability to distinguish oneself from others.humans have this awareness and few animals has it. Scientists have conducted mirror test to Humans (older than 18 months) , apes, bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, elephants etc, they have all been observed to pass this test.

There are different level of consciousness, Akasha / ether refers to higher consciousness of a person in Hinduism. Higher consciousness is spiritual or energetic awareness that transcends the mind  with the past and the future. Higher consciousness is something that's beyond our ordinary conscious mind. It’s the ultimate consciousness, the consciousness of higher self, universe, and God

At the higher levels of consciousness, we no longer feel separate. We feel, we know and we experience oneness with the universal energy field... Brahma

        We are only point of energy, but energy has no limits. Ancient Siddhar / Cittar of Tamizhakam were spiritual masters, they actually posses supernormal abilities (Ashtama Siddhis). Abilities such as flying through the air, walking through solid obstructions, diving into the ground, walking on water and so forth are achieved through changing one element, such as earth, into another element, such as air. Siddhars have achieved Extraordinary powers of the soul (siddhi), developed through consistent meditation and gruelling tapas 

Siddhars were the first Scientists, saints, doctors, alchemists and mystics all in one. Siddhars are also believed to be the founders of Varma kalai - a martial art for self-defense and medical treatment at the same time. They were the first to read pulse reading and identifying the diseases through pulse. They had extraordinary knowledge in science, technology, astronomy, literature, fine arts, music, drama, dance, and provided solutions to common people in their illness and advice for their future before the arrival of Vedic civilization. 

        Siddhars lived during first tamizh sangam i.e around 10,000 BCE. Sage Agastya was a Siddhar and immortal who complied first tamizh grammar work called 'Agathiyam' and presented in in the First tamizh sangam.

Several thousand years before Siddhars said the biggest truth, answer for the secret that,

"அண்டத்திற்குள் பிண்டம்..! (Andathirkul Pindam)
பிண்டத்திற்குள் அண்டம்.. ! (Pindathirkul Andam)
அண்ட, பிண்ட விசாரம்..!" (Anda Pinda Vicharam)

Andam - means Universe
Pindam - means Human body

Meaning: We are in this Universe and Universe is within us. 

Another quotes of tamizh siddhars as, 

“Andathil ullathe pindam, 

Pindathil ullathe Andam, 

Andamum Pindamum ondre, 

Aarinthu thaan parkum pothey.”  

-  Sattamuni Gnanam

Meaning:  What is there in this cosmos is existing within this body and the vice versa, both are one and the same when one realizes the truth.

Similar verses in vedas as,
"Yatha pinde tatha brahmande

Yatha brahmande tatha pinde " 

     Thus,  One's Consciousness is connected to the Universe, Our mind and universe are vibrating at the same frequency. It is viewed as Brahman (God) in Hinduism, as per Advaita vedanta.  Consciousness remains one of the science's greatest mysteries.

In Chidambaram lord Shiva himself gives us the realization that he is seen as both form and formless. It is the only temple in the world, where the God is worshiped in both Dvaita and Advaita ways.

 There are two philosophy in Sanatana Dharma / Hinduism

Dvaita (Dual Form) - Dualism, meaning two truths (principles), viewing Gods in the form of trinity with their consorts i.e Brahma (Creator) - Vishnu (Preserver) - Shiva (Destroyer) 

Advaita (Non - dual form) - views God as Brahman, Brahman alone is the ultimate reality - the morphogenetic conciseness field. 

Fields of consciousness is called as M - field, morphogenetic. Minds are extended beyond brains through these fields. 

    Thus in this temple God is worshiped as the Fifth element Ether, in the form of 

1. FORMLESS - Akash linga (no lingam at all, only empty space) - Advaita philosophy 

2. FORM - as Lord Natarajar (Lord Shiva, the Cosmic dance pose) -  dvaita philosophy. 

Why only in this temple, Lord Shiva is seen as Lord Natarajar, anthropomorphic form rather than Lingam ??

Why he is not seen in anthropomorphic form in other pancha bhuta sthalas ??

What is the speciality of this form at this place ?

To know the answer and the secret of this temple, please read the post fully (part 2).

    Now, coming back to the topic, the priest in the sanctum unveiling the black curtain to an empty space within the inner sanctum of the temple and called this is as Chidambara Ragasiyam. Philosophers says, When the curtain of “maya” (illusion) is removed one can see his real self. 

        Once we uncover the dark cloth of ignorance covering the consciousness then we can realize that the paramatma (God) who is formless and our soul become one. This is a spiritual and simple answer for the secret, but the interpretation through Science will leave you awestruck !!

Space covered with black screen in the sanctum

Universe reveals itself in two fundamental properties: as Motion and as that in which motion takes place, known as Space. This Space is called as 'Akasa', through which things step into visible appearance.

        The earth and all the living beings in the world is resonating with the natural frequency pulsation of 7.83 Hz... called OM, the sound of consciousness !!! 

OM NAMA SHIVAYA !!! Happy Maha Shivaratri !!

    - Scientific view of Ether in part 2

- Aarthi Thiyagarajan

Thiruvathira / Arudhra Darshan

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

Thillai Natarajar Temple, Chidambaram

        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, why this ether is related to this Thillai Natarajar temple ? As i said above, 'Chidambaram' means Consciousness of the Supreme. When you have the Consciousness, true meaning of Vacuum will be clearly understood, our soul first unites with ether (Aakash), then with the remaining elements of nature, in modern science, Quantum, vacuum, cosmos etc are neither completely explained nor understood, but it was penned down in our vedic science 5000 years ago. Chakras are energy centers of our body, there are 7 chakras in our body which resonates with different frequencies with rainbow colors, they are associated with physical, mental and emotional interactions. These chakras vitalises our physical body and brings about the development of self consciousness. Raising our Kundalini through these 7 chakras awake our consciousness, higher self.

            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.

--Aarthi Thiyagarajan