SubrahmaNya - Skanda Murugan.

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Found this... BB yogi

 

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/1201.html

 

In certain orthodox traditions the five divinities of the main

tradition are all worshipped together through a sophisticated ritual

called, pancAyatana pUjA, meaning worship at five altars. Here the

divinities are worshipped not in their human-like forms but in

certain symbols in the form of stones, which are nothing but certain

rock formations available in specified locations in India. In this

scheme of things, gaNeSa is the red somabhadra stone found in the bed

of the river Sone flowing into the Ganges. The pancAyatana pUjA

tradition may be taken as an intermediate stage between the worship

of Godhead with form and the worship of the formless, because the

symbols of worship as rock formations have certainly a form but they

are also formless in that they have no parts like face, eyes, body,

hands or feet. It is as though the devotee trains himself to tune the

mind from the forms to the formless while at the same time allowing

full scope for his devotional feelings in favour of worship of the

form.

 

In addition to the five deities in the main tradition, there is one

more, devoted to Lord subrahmaNya particularly in the southern states

of India. In Tamilnadu the deity is more popularly known as murugan.

in Tamil comes ..from the Tamil word 'murugu' which is said to

connote the six qualities: Beauty, Freshness, Fragrance, Sweetness,

Divinity, Joy. He is meditated upon by the six-lettered mantra

SaravaNa-bhava. The six syllables connote Him who manifested as a

personification of Auspiciousness, Light, Splendour, Bounty, Purity

and Infinite Prowess. SaravaNa-bhava therefore means the one who is a

combination of all these.

 

The mythology that goes with the deity is pretty complicated. Lord

Siva is the perfect yogi. The divines want a marriage of Siva and Uma

so that the war-God may be born out of that divine Union and the

enemies Taraka, Surapadma and Simhamukha (who are esoterically the

evils Dynamism, Ego and Delusion respectively) may be vanquished. The

Love-God Manmatha is set upon by the Divines to disturb Siva's

penance but Siva burns him down to ashes by just a glance. Then

Parvati (Uma) undertakes a penance to seek the hand of the Lord and

the divine marriage took place. But even after 1000 years of the

marriage, no conception takes place. The vIrya (Energy) of the Lord

was considered so potent that Uma was scared to receive it. Finally

it was deposited with the Fire-God Agni, but the latter, again, was

unable to bear it. Lord Siva asked Agni to pour the flaming energy

into the bodies of those who were suffering from the cold of the

winter. The wives of six of the saptarishis (seven great sages) who

were trembling with cold after their early morning bath, basked in

the welcome warmth of the Fire. Arundhati, the wife of the seventh

sage thought it was not the right thing to do and so did not join the

others). In the process, the six Rishi-wives took in Siva's energy

which Agni passed into them through the pores of their skin. From

there on the six wives carried the burden. Their husbands, the sages,

cursed them that they would become just stars in the sky. That is how

they became kRttikAs, (Pleides). But before this the kRttikAs

unburdened Siva's energy in SaravaNa lake (at the southern end of

Mount Kailas, according to one trdition and, according to another

tradition, near Tiruchendur in the southernmost tip of India). This

lake had itself been purified in times of yore by the body of Uma

herself. When the demon Bhasmasura was threatening to put his hand on

Lord Siva and destroy Him , Siva disappeared and in the agony of that

disappearance, Uma split her body into thousand pieces which fell

down in this very lake. This was why this lake of Sara grass had

divine strength to receive Siva's seed.

 

Again in times of yore there was a boy who had seen the torture that

the divines suffered under the hands of the demon Taraka. So he did a

fierce penance for the purpose of vanquishing Tarakasura and he

offered his own body to his sacrificial fire. He was later born as

Sanatkumara, out of Brahma's will. This Sanatkumara taught the

supreme wisdom to Narada. In Chandogya Upanishad he is identified with

Skanda. The kRttikA sisters saw the falling of the seed in the Sara

grass, were excited and themselves begot six children. They

breast-fed the children and the six children became one child with

six heads.

 

According to another tradition, the scattered energy came together,

formed one whole, flowed down the river Ganga, mingled with the Sara

grass and a six-headed boy was then born. This boy was nurtured by

the kRttikA sisters. He is therefore called kArtikeya. He is also

called skanda because the seed of Siva fell in this way. The word

'skanda' also means that which is gathered into one. The six divine

sparks from the eyes of Siva first took the form of six different

babes. The Divine Mother hugged them all at once and the six merged

into one form, skanda.

 

Two goddesses amuda-valli and sundara-valli appeared from the two

eyes of mahAvishNu. In the SaravaNa lake these two performed a long

penance with the purpose of marrying Lord subrahmaNya. The latter

appeared before them and ordained that one of them should be born in

the heavenly world and the other in the earthly world. Accordingly

amuda-valli became a heavenly child and was adopted by Indra as his

daughter. The other one sundara-valli did penance in a hillock in

Tamilnadu and was born as vaLLi. These are the two consorts of

subrahmaNya. The first one devasenA who sits on the left of the Lord

grants us heavenly bliss; the second one vaLLi sits on the right and

confers on the devotee all earthly bliss. The spear of the Lord

called vEl in Tamil confers moksha on the devotee. The two consorts

and the vEl are said to represent the three Saktis -- Energies: Will,

Action and Knowledge -- of the Lord namely, icchA-Sakti, kriyA-Sakti,

and jnAna-Sakti.

 

The Chandogya-upanishad speaks of skanda as the Supreme Being. The

word subrahmaNya itself means the one who originated from brahman in

joy and is inseparable from the Bliss of the ultimate Reality. God

subrahmaNya is primarily the preceptor who imparts the highest

knowledge. He gave divine wisdom to his own father, Siva, and so, He

is swAmi-natha (the Lord of the Lord). He is a yogi and the Lord of

palani hills and so He is palani-AnDavan, (the Lord or God of

Palani). He is the commander-in-chief of the gods and so He is

deva-senA-pati. His six faces confer the light of wisdom, grace,

austerity, mantra-Sakti, victory over evil, and love.The six hills

which are especially sacred to him are signified by the six chakras

in the human body through which the kundalini rises to travel to the

Supreme. In the bhagavad-gItA, the Lord says: Among commanders, I am

skanda. Sankara says that the six main qualities of Godhead

(bhagavAn), namely, lordship, valour, fame, wealth, wisdom and

detachment are signified by the six faces of shanmukha, which is

again, another name for subrahmaNya, because, it means, the six-faced

one.