Thaipusam
This document was created in conjunction with one of the
well-known Hindu event called Thaipusam. Malaysia became one of the famous spot
for both Hindus and tourist on Thaipusam. Therefore let us unfold the
understandings related to this event which have been misunderstood and mislead
from the actual meaning and purpose of it. A mini research was done for a month
on it based on various sources.
Before knowing about Thaipusam, we need to know about Lord
Murugan. But before knowing about Lord Murugan we need to know the basics of
Hinduism to avoid misunderstandings. Therefore, let us start with the basic
exposure to Hinduism.
The many Hindu deities
As we all know there are so many Hindu temples build to
worship different Hindu deities all around the world. So let us know why it is
so first.
The divine that the Hindus adorn and worship is half-veiled
(half revealed) manifestations.
Hindu “gods” are not intended to be understood literally
(directly as how it look).
When the hymns become Veda, and Veda was to be delivered
orally, Aryans had problems in describing the forces of the universe. Hence
they portrait God through drawings of figures to symbolize the divine of the
universal force. It was not easy to manifest all the forces of the universe and
the message Hinduism wanted its followers to know through one figure.
Therefore, with the agreement of the Hindu leaders, they portrait the force of
the universe through multiple figures. The key point here was to deliver the
message and to spread the realization of the universal force. With that effort,
many different deities were designed and people were given freedom to choose to
worship the deities that they adorn. They believed this form of devotion towards
the God will eventually lead them to the understanding of the existence of the
universal force. This devotion will attract them to learn more about Hinduism
and soon they will understand that the divine transcends the image.
The various portraits and statues of Hindu deities.
This portraits of the deities are not to be understood
directly. Meaning the portraits were done with meaning and a hidden message.
This hidden messages were delivered through stories and worship songs. However
many among us knows the stories and songs but fail to emphasise on the hidden
message. Now let us move on to the god that Hindus worship on Thaipusam,
Murugan.
Polytheistic or monotheistic
Polytheistic or monotheistic
Hinduism actually cannot be described as polytheistic or
monotheistic. Hinduism have a unique description of god: God is within all and
all is within God.
Hinduism believes that God is infinite and can’t be
described.
Murugan
Lord Murugan was known to have beautiful face and
structure. He sits on a peacock that step on a snake in the picture.
= The peacock is the proudness over our external physical
beauty.
= The eternal beauty of God’s creation is beyond the
physical beauty that we show off.
= The snake is the poisonous thoughts of revenge that we
have.
= Worshipping the God whole heartily can help us forget our
revenge.
Lord Murugan holds a flag with chicken symbol
= The chicken was symbolized as the ego that chicken outs in
front the strong devotion towards god.
Lord Murugan sometimes portrayed to be accompanied by two beautiful wives.
= His two wives Valli (represent desire) and Deivanai
(represent power of action).
= This symbolize it is not easy for a man to balance his
desire and action. If you want to have great desire, u should have great power
of action.
The wives are portrayed to look happy in the picture.
= The devotion to God will show us the right way to balance
our desire and action perfectly.
Some pictures of Lord Murugan portrayed him having six faces.
= Kama (lust), Krodha (anger), Lobha (covetousness), Moha (delusion),
Mada (pride), Matsarya (jealousy) are the six passions of the mind.
=To survive the battle of life successfully, one should be
alert of all these six passions of mind and handle them correctly.
Lord Murugan was portrayed to hold a sharp weapon called Vel.
= Vel that have a broader base and sharper top represents
wide knowledge and sharp intelligence.
This is the basic explanation of Lord Murugan manifestation potrayed in the form of statue and pictures. In short, Murugan symbolize the path shown in Hinduism to reach perfection in life.
Thaipusam
Thaipusam stories can be retrieved online and in books
easily. However, many just stop after reading the story despite having doubts
on it. I did had doubts that did that incident really happens? Why we are still
celebrating it if it happens years ago?
The story can be synopsised in this way and let us see the
hidden message behind it.
1. Tarakasuran
and his siblings were evil and disturbing the mortals. They were monstrous and
can’t be defeated easily.
= Tarakasuran here means Ego. The ego and
all the other negative desires are polluting people’s mind everywhere. With the
growing intelligence and desires to own everything we want to live a sedentary
life, it is definitely not easy to defeat or overcome Ego and these negative
desires.
2. Tarakasuran
have gained boon from Lord Siva and he can only be killed by Lord Siva.
However, Lord Siva could not kill him because he was very loyal and devoted to
him.
= These ego cannot be eliminated easily. Our
ego and greedy desires and gave us all the pleasure and happiness that we
wanted. Hence it can’t be ‘killed’ easily.
3. Muruga
born from the third eye of Lord Sivan to destroy Tarakasuran. He used all the
weapons and army used by Lord Siva to fight Tarakasuran.
=The desire to destroy ego and negative
desires have to born from us.
=Our inner soul can be encouraged to fight
the ego and negative desires with the help of family and friends.
4. But
only the Vel, a weapon gave by Mothe Shakti destroyed Tarakasuran.
= Only broad knowledge and sharp
intelligence can destroy Ego which is the source of all evil desires.
Overall
Thaipusam is a day to do some self-realization on our bad desires and ego and a
day to turn to a new leaf with the guidance from God.
Thai month and Pusam/Poosam star constellation
The month of Thai is the first month of Hindu calendar.
On this day, there is a day where the poosam star constellation.
*Star constellation= An arbitrary formation of stars
perceived as a figure or design, especially one of 88 recognized groups named
after characters from classical mythology and various common animals and
objects.
The poosam star constellation was said to be in the shape
of udder of a cow which symbolise nurture. This star constellation was said to
be shine very brightly even on a full moon.
*nurture = care for and encourage the growth or
development of someone or something.
Therefore this day was chosen as an auspicious day to
encourage and develop spirituality in order to leave ego and negative desires.
It was stated in astronomy websites that most of the
stars and the brightest star in the Poosam star constellation is in yellow
colour. This could be a reason the yellow colour was chosen as an auspicious
colour for this day.
Kavadi
Myth= Beautifully decorated, brought as a symbol to thank
Muruga to make our wish come true.
Fact = The kavadi which is decorated beautifully was then
used to bring the prayers items such as flowers, coconut and so on for
Thaipusam prayers. As most of the temples those days were built on hills, there
were no convenient vehicles to bring those items up. Therefore people used to
carry those prayers stuffs on their shoulder up the hill using kavadi. They had
the great sense of pleasure after carrying the things to the temple and putting
down the weight there.
Significant= The size of kavadi is up to an individual’s
preference. Hence the items for the prayers that one carries signifies his love
and devotion. But, if a person is greedy in showing his devotion by bringing
kavadi bigger than his strength, he might not make it till the temple unless he
gave up some of the things. This signifies that too much of desires that
exceeds our capability (greed) will burden us.
Pal Kudem
Myth= Usually taken by girls. Thankgiving to the Lord for
fulfilled desire.
Fact= The purpose pal kudem was taken was to bring the milk
for Murugan abishegam. Cow’s milk is considered as sacred and pure by Hindus
and used for prayer’s purpose. Once again the milk was carried in pot on head
up the hill because no transport to go up the hill.
Significant = Same as kavadi.
Body and tongue piercing
Myth= To show the pain one can endure to show his/her
love to god. Or pierce tongue to remind us not to talk bad.
Fact= Most of us have heard of Yoga. But not all of us able
to understand it. There are few stages in Yoga that is unlocked through the
chanting of Aum/Om.
1.
1st stage= Conscious mind.
Where we are able to feel our external
environment through our senses. The conscious mind enable us to feel the pain
and pleasure.
2.
2nd stage= Unconscious mind.
Where we can’t feel our external environment
through our senses. We could feel the internal environment which includes dream
and illusions.
3.
3rd stage= Unconscious mind. Deep
sleep state.
We can’t feel both the external and
internal environment. It’s a total silence. Energy regained. Recovery of the
cells.
4.
4th stage= Atman.
We can’t feel external and internal
environment. It is not entirely a total silence, we sense our atman and realize
the universe. All ego and bad desires were realized.
If
you read those stages properly, you can see there is another way to go through
these stages. A harder way. That is through tongue and body piercing.
1.
1st stage
The pain can be felt.
2.
2nd stage
A certain amount of pain can cause a
pleasure sensation. (This is proven in studies). The pleasure is the pleasure
that can lead to a sense of ecstasy that will make us enter the unconscious
mind. Feel dreamy and have illusionary images.
Most of us tend to stop at this stage and
enjoy the pleasure it gave us. Dance along and entertain the illusions created
by our mind.
Only those who overcome this stage and
believe this sense of pleasure is an illusion created by mind could pass to the
next stage.
3.
3rd stage
At this stage, the person will be in total
silence. He or she can’t feel both pain and pleasure. It’s a total silence. The
energy is regained slowly and cell recovers.
4.
4th stage
The self-realization process takes place.
At both stage 3 and 4, a person will be in
total silent. Hence, salangai is tied to his/ her leg to alert people on
his/her presence so that they can walk through.
Only a person that manage to pass all these
levels during body or tongue piercing will experience a new energy and a
refreshed mind. Still there is milder way to do this. That is through Yoga.
Yoga can be learned through books and online for free, there is a better
alternative to the harder way.
Once again, the level of piercing is up to
the individual. It is not necessary to pierce a lot and in variety of ways to
show one’s capacity to endure pain on Thaipusam. It was supposed to be done
humbly to reach one’s atman. This is the reason why the piercing was done
without bleeding during Thaipusam. The person in charge of piercing said to
have gone through trainings to do this kind of piercing.
Head shaving
Myth= Was done as thank giving for Lord Muruga.
Fact= Was done for small children to shave off their baby
hair in the presence of family and maternal uncle. However now even the adults
are shaving their hair off.
Significant= Was done on small children to remove their baby
hair as the Hindus believe shaving baby hair off will eliminate the baby’s
previous life sins before he/ she begin her life as another life in this birth.
Adults do this to signify that the person have taken vow to eliminate all
his/her previous sins and be a person with pure thoughts.
Conclusion
Overall, Thaipusam is a day that is held to nurture
spiritual development and self- realization. Thaipusam should bring calm to
your mind and feel satisfied with what you are and what you have. With
this realization no more sins will be committed. It’s a day to thank God for
the good things and memories of last year and leave all the ego and bad desires
that we had to start ahead a better year as a better person with the guidance
of God.
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