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How to Worship at Śiva’s Temple
Āṟumuga Nāvalar (1822-1879) wrote his composition, “The Proper Way to Worship at Śiva’s Temple” (Śivālaya Darśana Vidhi) in 1851 and published it on the Tamil press he had established two years earlier on the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. He addressed it to the Tamil-speaking men and women of India and Sri Lanka who had been formally initiated into the Śaiva religion, but who were either indifferent to its way of life or ignorant of it. Such Śaivas, he believed, were prey to the criticisms and arguments against Śaivism promulgated by Christian missionaries, especially the Protestants. Ignorance of their own way of life, he believed, explained the conversion of Śaivas to Christianity, a conversion that inevitably led them to painful future births. He was a devout adherent of Śiva and spent his life educating the Śaiva population in order to regenerate the Śaiva religion so that people fortunate enough, he believed, to be born as Śaivas could receive its benefits, the greatest of which is complete emancipation from birth and death.
Since Āṟumuga Nāvalar was learned in Śaivism and in Tamil literature and was exacting in his representation of the tradition, his works are reliable expositions of the Śaiva religion as it is found among the Tamils. It is known theologically as “Śaiva Orthodoxy” (Śaiva Siddhānta) and is found today in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, and North America. The religion, however, is not essentially theology, but an observance (samayam) that mixes practice and doctrine so that practice leads the initiate gradually toward a greater vision of God, the soul, and the world.
Practice begins with the worship of God in one of the “palaces” or temples where he resides in the form of icons, primarily as a pillar (liṅga) embedded in a pedestal (yoni). Śiva with his Śakti or energy indwells the liṅga and yoni, the liṅga signifying Śiva and the yoni signifying his Śakti, the Goddess. God and Goddess took up residence in that double icon through elaborate liturgies conducted by priests who followed rites believed to have been revealed by Śiva himself. Āṟumuga Nāvalar explains in detail what people are obligated to do when they visit the temple in order to obtain the vision (darśana) of Śiva. Following convention, he uses the male worshiper to represent practices obligatory for both men and women, making a distinction between them only when the rites require it. In Śaiva Orthodoxy women and men may receive the same initiations for worship and yogic practice, and both may attain the ultimate goal of emancipation. Nāvalar explains the ideal practice, knowing that approximation of the ideal depends on individual motivation. Yet, as is customary in Hindu instruction in rites, he does not explain what those actions mean. One reason is that some meanings are embedded in traditional Tamil culture and do not have to be explained to traditional Tamil Hindus. Another is that an explicit interpretation of the rites will be given to initiates later, only after they have first mastered them.
Notably, correct performance is crucial whether or not one understands the meaning of the rite. Unintended faulty performance will generate negative karmic fruits that nevertheless may be removed through rites of purification, whereas intended faulty performance may not be purified at all. The concepts of rebirth and multiple hells explain how acts are punished after death. The intention of one’s actions is crucial to Hindu thought, and Nāvalar was concerned about the matter, believing that intention is shaped by education. Among his many Tamil works, for example, is an extensive Śaiva catechism.
In order to make sense of the rites that Āṟumuga Nāvalar describes in the composition, let me indicate some of the patterns of thought implicit to Hindu temple architecture and liturgy as Śaivas developed them. Those developments are believed to express the instructions revealed by Śiva in the treatises known as the Vedas that he made relevant to the present degenerate age through treatises known as the Āgamas.
Worship in the temple is the beginning stage of the Śaiva way of life, and is an instrument designed to meet the normal human limitations of our “demonic age,” the Kaliyuga. It engages the mind, voice, and body of the worshiper by focusing them on material images, built structures, and bodily rites that are apprehended through the senses in thinking, seeing, hearing, speaking, touching, and tasting. By yoking those modes of apprehension in one-pointed focus on Śiva, it is believed, Śiva’s energy-that-is-grace (arul-śakti) will lead the devotee to eventual apprehension of God directly. Obtaining an audience with the Lord Śiva residing in the throne room—actually seeing the liṅga that is his material body and being seen by him gazing through that liṅga—is the primary way to begin a path that will lead to the direct vision of that embodied Śiva at the center of one’s own soul.
Various tropes inform the concept of Śiva’s dwelling place, not all of them literally consistent with one another. Central among them is that of a palace where subjects may obtain an audience with their enthroned king and queen, which we may understand this way: subjects carrying gifts walk into the outer court of the palace and walk through a series of enclosures toward the throne room, expressing servitude to the sovereign through physical gestures and prostrations along the way. They ask permission to enter from the officer in charge of the guards at the doors (Nandi) and enlist the help of a minister to remove any obstacles to a successful audience (Vighneśa). Once granted entrance to the throne room, they give gifts and praise to the sovereign (Śiva) and then humbly ask for a favor. They then venerate the sovereign’s various expressions of himself on behalf of the kingdom (Dakṣiṇamūrti, Somaskanda, Candraśekhara, Subrahmaṇya, and the four ācāryas), venerate the queen on her own throne (Pārvatī), and then visit the official who administers the granted favor (Candeśvara) and leave.
Modifying the figure of the palace is that of human body. As understood by yoga, the body consists of a visible physical sheath that subsists on food, an invisible sheath inside it that subsists on breath, and inside that a sheath of mind that envelopes a sheath of insight that envelopes a sheath of joy. All those sheaths, even those of mind, insight, and joy, are composed of obscuring matter (pāśa) and constitute the body. Accordingly, the closer a person’s thoughts move from the experiences of the physical body dependent on food to the inmost center of the body, the more insightful and joyous that person becomes.
Enveloped by the body is the soul (paśu), which in part shares in nonobscuring matter while at the same time it shares in Śiva, who is not matter but pure consciousness. The soul is both the same as Śiva and different from him. Śiva dwells in the soul through grace (arul-śakti); one might say that the soul is the “place” where God and matter meet. According to Śaiva Orthodoxy, the final purpose of human birth is to let Śiva’s grace extricate the soul from the body so that it may dwell eternally emancipated from obscuring matter and united with Śiva in love.
The palace of the first trope, then, is built on the body of the second trope. The body is of a man entranced through yoga who lies on the ground, face up. His body in turn signifies the “body of God,” which is the universe in its visible and invisible modes. The palace’s entire outer wall is God’s visible physical sheath. The tall entrance gateway is God’s feet. Worshipers venerate that gateway as they approach, just as they venerate the feet of Śiva, on whom all things depend for their existence.
Passing through the “feet” of God, worshipers enter the invisible sheath of God’s body inside the outer wall. There they encounter a flagstaff, an altar of sacrifice, and a reclining bull. The erect flagstaff signifies consciousness in that sheath of breath that the yogi has raised up to his head and brought to a standstill through the yogic control of breathing. His mind, insight, and joy are entranced in the vision of Śiva transcendent to the material world. The one, three, or five temple walls enclosing the liṅga’s inner sanctum signify the sheaths of the yogi’s body that his consciousness had moved through when it made its upward journey to rest in a region corresponding to the place above his nose and between his eyes. That entranced consciousness in the yogi’s forehead corresponds to the temple’s inner sanctum or “womb,” and the Lord Śiva dwells inside both.
The “womb” brings us to the One before anything existed. The trope explaining the One is a king whose queen gives birth to his realm and sovereignty by gestating a son that is a “rebirth” of both the father and the mother. In his formless essence, God the One is thought of as androgynous, like a king and queen enthroned as a unified pair. As that formless One, he is pure consciousness, she is primordial matter; he is intention, she is enactment; he is resolve, she is victory. The Goddess is Śiva’s energy-that-is-grace (arul-śakti), the Śakti who, when he wills it, transforms the androgynous One into a mode that is both with and without form, represented by the liṅga standing in the yoni. The androgynous liṅga-yoni inside the temple’s “womb,” resembling a fetus inside the uterus, is a transformation of both king and queen. That square and dark inner sanctum called the “house of the embryo” (garbhagṛha) or “womb” is liturgically infused with Śiva’s Śakti, which is why only the pure may enter it.
Once the One has been transformed into the primordial parents, they interact to give birth to themselves over and over in multiple forms, becoming in the process time and space and all the worlds. That is the “emission” or “creation” of the universe. Architecturally, the temple represents that process by the way manifold icons and walls appear to unfold from the “womb” outward to the outer wall and the gateway, like an artist sketching the yogi’s body by beginning from his head and measuring down to his feet.
Returning to the trope of the palace, when worshipers have had their audience and walk away from the throne room and pass out through the palace gateway, they walk through the emanation of the universe. Likewise, when they walk into the palace toward the throne room, they symbolically walk through the reabsorption of the universe into the primordial parents residing in the throne room. Their walking inward and outward, moreover, corresponds to the movement of the yogi from waking consciousness into entranced consciousness and then out of it again.
The temple also illustrates the doctrine of emancipation taught by the dominant tradition of Śaiva Orthodoxy as formulated by Meykaṇṭadevar in the thirteenth century. Śiva, the infinite number of souls, and the matter that obscures those souls remain eternally distinct, even when souls unite with Śiva in emancipating love. Using ancient agricultural symbols, they denote Śiva as the master (pati), the soul as a beast that may be sacrificed (paśu), and obscuring matter as the cord that ties up the beast for sacrifice (pāśa). In the temple, the liṅga in the inner sanctum signifies the master, the recumbant bull Nandi who always faces the liṅga signifies the soul, and the altar of sacrifice behind Nandi signifies the binding cords of matter. The position of the altar of sacrifice behind the bull and the bull’s continous gaze on the liṅga suggest the condition of the emancipated soul: It has been freed from obscuring matter and exists in a pacified state continuously exchanging gazes with its master in whose service it finds its true life. For reason of that symbolism, it appears, worshipers are forbidden to break the gaze between Nandi and Śiva by walking between them.
There is also the trope of the human body as a complex set of parts with varying qualities. Among them, the head has the highest status and the feet the lowest, with the navel as the dividing line. To venerate another person or a god or an object, one places the head at that person’s feet or at the equivalent of the feet. The region below the navel is impure compared with the region above the navel, and therefore worshipers must carry their gifts to Śiva above the waist. The right side has a higher and more auspicious status than the left side, so worshipers and priests will always give and receive with the right hand, and will generally circumbulate with the right side toward the object they are venerating.
Among the genders, men and women have different bodies and thus different rules for behavior. There is a distinction between an eight-part prostration for males and a five-part prostration for females. Whereas females are required to be covered above the waist, males should be uncovered above the waist in the presence of Lord Śiva. Relations between the genders in the temple are to be completely nonsensual, not because sensuality is evil, but because desire is to be focussed only on the king one has come to see. The proper setting for sensual pleasure is in the household between husband and wife, where desire can be kept in check while being satisfied.
Anything that moves from inside the body to the outside like saliva and urine, or comes off the body like hair and nails, or that dies becomes a pollutant to ritual purity. Worshipers are therefore prohibited from eating and drinking, shaving, combing the hair, spitting, blowing the nose, passing gas, urinating, defecating, emitting sexual fluids, and menstruating in the temple. They also may not enter when polluted by the birth or a death of a relative, because birth and death pollutions automatically travel along kinship relations whether actual physical contact with the pollutant (birth fluids or corpse) has been made or not. The bodies of kin are assumed to interpenetrate. If the temple does not sustain its ritual purity, it is believed, the daily rites conducted by the priests will be faulty and the government and the realm will suffer. The liturgical service of Śiva thus has direct bearing on social well-being.
The exception to the rule of pollution are cattle. Since the cow gives birth and then the milk essential to Śiva’s rites, she represents female transformative power and gracious self-giving; since the powerful bull fertilizes the cow so that she gives birth and the milk, he represents male potency controlled in obedient service to Śiva. Cattle therefore top the animal hierarchy. Their bodily effusions (milk, urine, and dung) are not polluting but purifying. Cattle dung mixed with water is a purifying agent used domestically and liturgically by Hindus; cattle dung has none of the unclean connotations found in modern urban cultures, though Hindus share those feelings with regard to the dung of other animals.
Similar to the figure of the human body is the figure of the universe, which is thought of as being like a human body turned inside out: The visible bodily sheath exists at the center and the invisible material sheaths exist at its outer boundary. The world we inhabit and see through our senses is that visible bodily sheath of God’s body. Like our own, it goes through stages of purity and pollution, which are measured by the sun, the moon, and the stars. Humans must adjust their actions to those cosmic rhythms of purity and pollution. Sunset, for example, is the time when demons emerge from the west to rule the night; sunrise is the time when sun emerges from the east to rule the day.
The Śaiva’s personal rites should begin before sunrise to harmonize with increasing purity. Bathing removes the pollutions brought about by sleep and the night. Worship in the temple around sunset purifies one against demons during the dangerous transition to night. Similar patterns emerge in the distinctions between the “dark half’ of the waning moon and the “light half’ of the waxing moon; between the “dark half’ of the year beginning from the summer solstice and the “light half’ beginning from the winter solstice; and between the days of the week and periods of the day ruled over by the seven “graspers of human destiny” (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn), Saturn being especially dangerous.
Not only time but also directional space has differing qualities. In the cultures of Bhārata (the region extending from the southern end of Sri Lanka to the Himalayas in the north), the meanings of the cardinal and intermediary directions always have had a determining influence on the way people build structures and lead their lives. Without explaining why, Āṟumuga Nāvalar gives precise instructions on where to place the head when prostrating, where not to place the feet, and where the priest is to stand when conducting the worship of the liṅga. It depends on the direction in which the Lord Śiva faces in a particular temple, usually east, but sometimes west, south, or north. Temples are almost always built aligned to the cardinal directions and their rites must be adjusted to the distinctive qualities of those directions.
The east is an auspicious direction because the sun rises and purity begins there, while the west is an inauspicious direction because the sun disappears there as demons arise and pollution begins. The north is auspicious because the gods dwell in the Himalayas (such as Śiva on Kailāsa), which lie south of the mountain at the center of earth called Meru. The south, however, is inauspicious because Yama, the god of the dead, dwells there overseeing a variety of purgatorial hells, and from the south he sends servants north to fetch those on Bhārata whose time it is to die and face rebirth or purgation.
Consequently, during temple worship one may point the feet (the low-status part of the body) toward the west or south (the inauspicious directions), but not toward the east or north (and not toward the west whenever the sun is undergoing a crucial transition). Similarly, when conducting rites the priest serving the liṅga must stand to the side of Śiva that will allow him to face north or east with his back to the south or west: When Śiva is facing east, for example, he stands at Śiva’s right side, facing north with his back to the south while worshipers stand at Śiva’s right side facing northwest toward him.
The circumambulation of Śiva’s “womb” clockwise (from east to south to west to north back to east) is believed to follow the direction in which the sun circumambulates the central mountain, Meru; it signifies the auspicious emanation of the universe, of daylight, and of life. Worshipers move in that direction when desiring well-being. The counterclockwise direction signifies the inauspicious resorption of the universe, the emergence of night, and of death. Ascetics who have renounced the well-being of the householder life in favor of emancipation circumambulate in that direction, as do those householders who want emancipation along with worldly well-being.
Finally, we may note the social distinctions made explicit by the temple liturgy. Following ancient thought, Śaivism recognizes the four-class division of society that is believed to be built into the hierarchical structure of the universe. In any ritual context, brahmans take precedence over kṣatriyas, who take precedence over vaiśyas, who take precedence over śūdras, who take precedence over “the fifth class,” the untouchables. Yet the Āgama tradition modifies that classification when it comes to the worship of Śiva and the relations among Śaivas. Men and women of the first four classes may receive the same initiations and worship in the temple. Śūdras who have been initiated have the same status as vaiśyas and need not recognize the authority of brahmans who have not been initiated. Untouchables may receive other initiations and worship Śiva outside the gateway.
The Tamil social context modifies the practice even further, because the society has long been composed primarily of castes classified as śūdra and untouchable with a minority of brahmans. There have been few kṣatriyas and vaiśyas. The social, cultural, and intellectual leadership of the society and of Śaivism has been in the hands of śūdras and brahmans for centuries, and Āṟumuga Nāvalar was himself from a caste classified as śūdra. Belief in the power of initiations and mantras taught in Śiva’s Āgamas to purify anyone for the worship of God that leads to emancipation from birth and death has made Śaivism the dominant religion by far among the Tamils for centuries.
The following translation is of the fifth edition of Civalayataricanaviti (The Proper Way to Worship in Śiva’s Temple), published in Madras by the Vittiyanupalana Yantiracalai in 1882, with Āṟumuga Nāvalar’s proof texts from Tamil scriptures omitted. As customary, Nāvalar began his composition by invoking the Goddess, Śiva’s Śakti, with a symbol and by appealing to Gaṇapati, the Lord of Obstacles (Vighneśa), to remove obstacles to its successful completion. He ended it by invoking Śiva residing at Cidambaram, the cultic heart of Śaiva Orthodoxy, and by blessing the feet of the thirteenth-century theologian, Meykaṇṭādevar, whose authoritative interpretations Āṟumuga Nāvalar intended to articulate.
Further Reading
Other texts by N. Āṟumuga Nāvalar include the Caiva Vinavitai (Śaiva Catechism), Book One, 30th printing (Madras: Arumuganavalar Vittiyanupalana Accakam, 1980); and Caiva Vinavitai (Śaiva Catechism), Book Two, 16th printing (Madras: Vittiyanupalana Yantiracalai, 1953).
For further information on Āṟumuga Nāvalar, see the following articles by D. Dennis Hudson: “Āṟumuga Nāvalar and Hindu Renaissance among the Tamils,” in Religious Controversy in British India: Dialogues in South Asian Languages, edited by Kenneth W. Jones (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), pp. 27-51; “Winning Souls for Śiva: Āṟunuga Nāvalar’s Transmission of the Śaiva Religion,” in Modern Transmission of Hindu Traditions in India and Abroad, edited by Raymond Brady Williams (Chambersburg, Pa.: Anima Publications, 1992), pp. 23-51; and “Tamil Hindu Responses to Protestants: Among Nineteenth-Century Literati in Jaffna and Tinnevelly,” in Indigenous Responses to Western Christianity, edited by Steven Kaplan (Albany: State University of New York Press, forthcoming).
More generally, see Mariasusai Dhavamony, Love of God According to Śaiva Siddhanta: A Study in the Mysticism and Theology of Śaivism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), and E. V. Singhan, Temple Worship: Tirukkovil Valipatu (Singapore: EVS Enterprises, 1986).
Śiva’s Śakti
With the help of Ganapati
The Proper Way to Worship at Śiva’s Temple
Written for the easy use of all Śaiva initiates
by Āṟumuga Nāvalar of Nallur in Jaffna
1. Śaiva initiates are those people who have determined that the primordial God, who is without beginning and whose form is joy and consciousness, is the Lord Śiva himself. With true love, they follow him as appropriate to their respective classes and stages of life according to the rules of the Vedas and Āgamas that he has graciously created.
2. The Lord Śiva, the repository of compassion, graciously receives adherence from those who live in this world by dwelling externally in the Śiva liṅga and in other auspicious forms within auspicious temples and in the auspicious guise of his true slaves, and by dwelling internally within the soul. These are therefore places to adhere to him.
3. This adhering to Śiva is a body whose limbs are virtues such as desiring few possessions, not killing, not eating meat, not stealing, not drinking liquor, not desiring another’s wife, not hankering for prostitutes, mercy, truth, patience, self-control, liberal giving, and adhering to one’s mother and father and other elderly people. The conclusion, therefore, is that adherence to Śiva without these virtues will produce not the slightest benefit.
4. The insignia of Śiva worn as protection by Śaiva initiates who follow this adherence are ash and the “eyes of Rudra” beads. It is certain that meritorious deeds performed for Śiva without wearing them will produce not the slightest benefit.. . .
5. The Śiva liṅga inside the auspicious temple is called “the liṅga for the sake of others.” It has five types: the self-generated liṅga, the liṅga of Śiva’s companions, the liṅga of gods, the liṅga of seers, and the liṅga of humans. Among them, the self-generated liṅga appeared on its own. The liṅga of Śiva’s companions was established by Vināyaka, Subrahmaṇya, and other companions. The liṅga of gods was established by Viṣṇu and other gods. The liṅga of seers was established by the ṛṣis and also by the anti-gods and the demons. The liṅga of humans was established by humans. Of higher status than the liṅga of humans is the liṅga of the seers, higher than that is the liṅga of the gods, higher than that is the liṅga of the companions, and higher than that is the self-generated liṅga. . . .
6. The Lord who is the Śiva liṅga is inside the “womb” [inner sanctum] within the auspicious temple, and the place surrounding it is the first enclosure. Beyond it is the second enclosure, beyond it the third enclosure, beyond it the fourth enclosure, and beyond it the fifth enclosure. Beyond it is the realm of the village, which is the sixth enclosure. The benefits of circumambulating the Śiva liṅga in the “womb” are greater for walking around the second enclosure than around the first, for walking around the third enclosure than around the second, for walking around the fourth enclosure than around the third, for walking around the fifth enclosure than around the fourth, and for walking around the sixth enclosure [the village] than around the fifth. . . .
7. Those who are qualified to perform the worship of “the liṅga for the sake of others” are Śiva’s ācāryas. They are Śiva brahmans known as “the original Śaivas” because they were born in lineages of the five seers beginning with Kāśyapa that appeared from the five faces of the form of the eternal Śiva at the time of emanation. They should have have no mental or physical defects, have received the four initiations (samaya-dïkṣā, viṣeśa-dīkṣā, nirvāṇa-dīkṣā, ācārya-dīkṣā), and know how to recite the Vedas and Āgamas. They should be adept in performing the six types of liturgies (the daily liturgies and their subsidiaries, the periodical liturgies and their subsidiaries, the liturgies performed to fulfill specific desires and their subsidiaries) and the three elements of mantra, visualization, and rite faultlessly, with faith, and according to the rules. If anyone other than these people even touches “the liṅga for the sake of others,” ruin will arise for king and society. . . .
8. The Śiva ācāryas who conduct worship should conduct it standing on the right side of the iconic Presence of God if it faces east or south and on the left side if the Presence faces west or north. . . .
9. The Śaivas qualified to administer an auspicious temple are those who have no mental or physical defect, have received all three initiations (samaya-dīkṣā, viṣeśa-dīkṣā, nirvāṇa-dīkṣā), know the Śaiva Āgamas and the Śiva Purāṇas, and are devoted to Śiva. Those who administer an auspicious temple with faith and according to the rules, without designs on the property and other things that bring worldly profit, receive Śiva’s glory in this life and then attain Śiva’s realm. But those who conduct their administration with the purpose of worldly profit and steal Śiva’s property curtail the ancient regulations and will be punished. . . .
10. Worship and other things must be conducted within an auspicious temple every day without fail and according to the rules. If there is a lapse, evil will arise for the king and the world. . . .
11. Śaiva initiates should go to an auspicious temple each day, obtain the sight of Śiva with faith and according to the rules, and then return home.
12. Those who want to obtain the vision of Śiva ought to go to an auspicious temple once they have bathed according to the rules in the Śiva bathing place near Śiva’s abode and, standing on its bank, dry themselves with a dry cloth, place ash on the forehead, tie the hair into a knot, remove the wet loincloth and replace it with a dry one, purify both hands, tie two pieces of clean cloth that are untorn and have been washed and dried around the waist, and complete the rites and prayers. Those who go to an auspicious temple without the bath and other disciplines are like those who sneer at Śiva. . . .
13. When going to the auspicious temple, they ought to go with a plate held up in the hands so that it does not fall below the waist, on which they have placed such things as a coconut, fruit, and areca nut and betel leaves. When going to serve the Lord Śiva, the mandate of Śiva, or the ācārya, it is proper not to go empty-handed but to place the things to be given in his Presence and then venerate. He who possesses nothing should give beautiful flowers and then venerate. He who cannot do even that should remove such things as dry leaves that are in the Presence and then venerate.. . .
14. When they approach the auspicious temple they ought to venerate the gateway, which is the “massive liṅga,” enter inside with both hands piled on the head, and then prostrate on this side of the altar of sacrifice, which is the “beautiful liṅga.” . . .
15. Men should perform the prostration with eight parts of the body, women with five parts. Prostration with three parts of the body is common to both. . . .
16. The eight-part prostration is to venerate by touching eight bodily parts to the ground: the head, both hands, both ears, the chin, and both arms, with the legs stretched out their full length. The five-part prostration is to venerate by touching five bodily parts to the ground: the head, both hands, and both knees, with only the legs below the knee stretched out. The three-part prostration is pressing both hands together on the head. . . .
17. Prostrations should be done three times or five times or seven times or nine times or twelve times. Doing it only once or twice is a mistake.
18. When prostrating, the legs should stretch to the west or south, not to the east or north. . . .
19. They ought to perform prostration by placing the head at the Agni corner [SE] of an altar of sacrifice when the Presence faces east, at the Nirṛti corner [sw] of an altar of sacrifice when the Presence faces south or west, and at the Vāyu corner [NW] when the Presence faces north; by stretching the right hand straight ahead and the left hand straight behind in order to span the ground and then reversing the order; by stretching the hands at the waist in order to rub the right arm and left arm in the dust; and by first rubbing the right ear in the dust and afterwards the left ear. . . .
20. If they go to obtain the vision of Śiva in the late afternoon of a dangerous eclipse or of the beginning of the sun’s northward course, they may not stretch their feet toward the west where the sun is beginning to set; therefore they should not perform the eight-part or five-part prostration at the Presence that faces south or north, but only the three-part prostration. . . .
21. Having venerated in the above manner, they ought to arise and join the hands in worship and conduct a circumambulation [of the inner sanctum] while thinking steadily of the Lord Śiva, holding prayer beads in the hand and uttering the five-syllable mantra (namaḥ śivāyà) or folding both hands together at the region of the heart; and, walking like a woman in an advanced state of pregnancy who places a pot full of oil on her head and puts one foot carefully in front of the other, they ought to watch the ground while absorbed in thinking, “Will I injure any creature?” and place their feet carefully. . . .
22. They should perform the circumambulation of the Lord Śiva three times or five times or seven times or nine times or fifteen times or twenty-one times. . . .
23. They should perform circumambulation of Vinayaka one time, of Sūrya two times, and of the goddess Pārvatī and of Viṣṇu four at a time. . . .
24. If a shadow falls within the enclosure for circumambulation from the tower above the inner sanctum or from the flagstaff, they ought to avoid the shadow by three-fifths and walk in the remaining two-fifths. If there is a shadow when walking during a festival of God, however, it need not be avoided. . . .
25. At the time of the unction rites for the gods, acts such as circumambulation and veneration are not to be performed inside the inner wall. . . .
26. Students before marriage ought to circumambulate with the right side toward the inner sanctum or “womb,” clockwise. Householders and forest-dwellers ought to walk both clockwise with the right side toward the “womb” and counter-clockwise with the left side toward the “womb.” Renunciant ascetics ought to walk counterclockwise. Worldly enjoyment arises from walking clockwise; emancipation arises from walking counterclockwise; and both worldly enjoyment and emancipation arise from walking both clockwise and counter-clockwise. . . .
27. The Svāyambhuva Āgama speaks of walking clockwise and counterclockwise inside the “womb.” It enjoins that only the Śiva brahman who conducts the worship may circumambulate inside the “womb.” Circumambulating clockwise and counterclockwise inside the “womb” should be done if one does not walk across the shadow of the Śiva liṅga or unremoved offerings or the drain for the liṅga’s unction. The Kalottara Āgama enjoins that circumambulation clockwise and counterclockwise should be done inside the “womb” and circumambulation clockwise inside the outer walls.
28. They ought to walk around [the inner sanctum] until they reach the altar of sacrifice and the bull within the enclosure in which they are circumambulating. If there is no altar of sacrifice within that enclosure, they ought to circumambulate up to the altar of sacrifice and bull inside the next outer wall. According to the Kalottara Āgama, they should not go in the middle between the Śiva liṅga and the altar of sacrifice and the bull, in whichever enclosure they are located.
29. Once they have circumambulated and have performed veneration in the manner stated above they ought to arise and join the hands in worship, venerate the door guardians, and then venerate and praise the auspicious god Nandi, who is master of the companions, and beseech him, “O Bhagavān, graciously grant permission for me your slave who has attained your auspicious feet to enter in so I may receive the fruit of having seen the Lord Śiva,” and go inside.
30. First they ought to reach the iconic Presence of Vighneśa, the Lord of Obstacles, press both hands together, gaze at him and visualize him mentally, make fists with both hands and hit their forehead three times, seize their right ear with their left hand and their left ear with their right hand, pull down three times, and praise him.
31. Then, with both hands piled on the head, they ought to reach the Presence of Lord Śiva, gaze at him and visualize him mentally, join the hands at the head and the heart, and while the mind dissolves, body hair stands on end, and joy wells up and overflows, sing hymns of praise to him with one out of the thirty-two ragas that is appropriate to that time of day.
32. The most elevated of the hymns of praise are certainly from the five Tamil poems inspired by divine grace, which are the Tēvāram, the Tiruvācakam, the Tiruvicaippā, the Tiruppallāṇtu, and the Periyapurāṇam.
33. Once they have had the priest make the bael leaf offering to the Lord Śiva, feed him the fruits and other items purified according to the rules, and perform the service of waving burning camphor, they ought to give him the appropriate ritual gift that makes those acts theirs rather than his.
34. In order to perform the offering of flowers with Śiva’s primordial mantra (namaḥ śivāya), Śiva’s brahmans ought to enter into the “womb,” other brahmans into the entrance hall to the “womb,” and kṣatriyas into the great hall before the entrance hall. Vaiśyas ought to move to the front of the bull and śūdras ought to move to the rear of the bull, make a four-cornered figure on the ground with cowdung, and worship with Śiva’s primordial mantra. That is prescribed in the Am̃cumān Ágama
35. They then ought to gaze at images of deities such as Dakṣiṇamūrti, Somaskanda, Candraśekhara, and Subrahmaṇya and of all four of the ācāryas of the religion, and venerate and praise them.
36. Afterward they ought to approach the Presence of the goddess Pārvatī, fold their hands at their head and heart, gaze at her, visualize her mentally, perform offerings and other rites, and praise her.
37. Finally they ought to receive ash and apply it, circumambulate, approach the iconic Presence of Candeśvara, venerate and praise him, and clapping three times beseech him to give them the fruit of having obtained the vision of Śiva.
38. They ought then to return to the god Nandi and venerate and praise him, come to this side of the altar of sacrifice, prostrate three times, arise, sit down facing north and while visualizing the Lord Śiva mentally utter the five-syllable mantra a suitable number of times, and then arise and go home.
39. When returning from the vision of Śiva they should leave without showing their backside either to their Lord Śiva or to Nandi, the god who is a bull.
40. If the vision of Śiva is obtained at daybreak, sin committed during the night disappears; if obtained at midday, sin committed from the day of birth disappears; if obtained in the evening sin committed during seven births disappears. Therefore all Śaiva initiates every day, at all times without fail, ought to obtain the vision of Śiva with true love according to the rules.
41. Obtaining the vision of Śiva on Monday, on the eighth lunar day, on the evening of the thirteenth lunar day of the waxing moon and of the waning moon, on the full moon, on the new moon, on the auspicious day of the Ārdrā constellation, on the first day of the sun’s northward course after the winter solstice, on the first day of the sun’s southward course after the summer solstice, on the spring equinox, on the autumn equinox, on the day beginning a month, on the eclipse of the sun, on the eclipse of the moon, on the Night of Śiva, and on other such meritorious times is deemed meritorious action of the highest order for Śiva.
42. Those who, while visualizing the Lord Śiva mentally and reciting the five-syllable mantra verbally, perform bodily prostration from the beginning of sunrise until sunset or for a period of three hours will become free of all evil deeds, and attain emancipation. . . .
43. The “drain circumambulation” is done this way. Gaze at Nandi, the god who is a bull, and walk to his left [around the inner sanctum] and gaze at Candeśvara; returning the same way, gaze again at the bull and proceed to his right to the north, but do not cross the cow gargoyle whose mouth is the mouth of the drain from the liṅga inside the “womb”; return the same way, gaze at the bull, and walk to his left [around the inner sanctum] to gaze at Candeśvara; return again but without gazing at the bull pass to his right, to the north, and to the mouth of the drain; return again without gazing at the bull and pass to his left to gaze at Candeśvara; return and gaze at the bull and then gaze at the Lord who is Śiva’s liṅga and worship. When leaving the temple, a “circumambulation of one’s own soul” should be performed. A single circumambulation performed in this manner produces an endless quantity of fruit. It is especially excellent if this circumambulation occurs within the “evil period.”. . .
44. The “evil period” is the name for the ninety minutes before and the ninety minutes after sunset on the thirteenth lunar day that comes in each of the two halves of the month, the “light half’ of the waxing moon and the “dark half’ of the waning moon. When Viṣṇu and the other gods were churning their Ocean of Milk for the elixir of “deathlessness,” they saw the Halāhala poison arise first, and were racked by fear. When it closed in on them from the right and left they fled to the auspicious mountain Kailāsa and hid in the testicle of Nandi, the god who is a bull. The Halāhala poison followed them there, and to protect them the Lord Śiva sat down between the bull’s horns, picked up the poison in his auspicious hand, and ate it. Then he stood between the horns and graciously danced. That happened during the crescent moon in the evening of the thirteenth lunar day, a Saturday. A different version of this story of the “evil period” is also told. According to it, the Lord Śiva ate the Halāhala poison and protected the gods in the evening of the eleventh day. When the elixir of “deathlessness” appeared from the Ocean of Milk on the twelfth day the gods ate it, and on the evening of the thirteenth day the gods venerated the Lord Śiva by worshiping him. The Lord Śiva then graciously stood on the bull. During the “evil period” one should touch the testicle of the god who is a bull and utter “Hara, Hara” with the mantra Oṃ while gazing between his two horns at the Lord who is Śiva’s liṅga.
45. If, with true love, one obtains the vision of Śiva during the “evil period,” debt, poverty, sickness, anxiety, distress, untimely death, the pangs of death, and sin disappear and emancipation will be realized. . . .
46. Meritorious acts to perform for Śiva inside a temple are these: Arising every day before sunrise, bathing, and when the daily rites are completed, sweeping up the insects in the temple with a soft broom without killing them; collecting dung emerging from a cow that has not recently calved and is not sick on a leaf before the dung falls on the ground, or, if that is not possible, turning upside down dung that has fallen on a clean place and, picking up the middle portion, mixing it with water selected from such places as a reservoir or river and smearing it on the temple floor to clean it; picking flowers from an auspicious garden according to the rules, removing the ruined parts, tying them into a garland, and adorning the Lord Śiva with it; singing the Tamil Veda with rāgas in Śiva’s Presence; playing it on the sāraṅgi; singing hymns to Śiva while clapping the hands and dancing joyously; burning fragrant incense; lighting auspicious lamps; reading Śiva Purāṇas aloud and explaining their meanings; listening to them; sponsoring temple service and acts of worship according to one’s own means; etc. . . .
47. Mistakes not to be made inside an auspicious temple are these: Going to the temple without the proper conduct; going without washing the feet; going while polluted because of a birth or a death; spitting; excreting and urinating; blowing fluid from the nose onto the ground; passing intestinal gas; chewing areca nut and betel leaves; spitting chewed betel; eating and drinking; sleeping; having oneself shaved; taking an oil bath; examining the hair; combing and tying the hair; playing dice; tying a cloth around the head; wearing the upper cloth over the shoulders; covering oneself up; wearing a jacket; riding in a vehicle; carrying an umbrella over oneself; carrying a torch for oneself; sitting on a high place; sitting on a throne; treading on shadows cast by the tower, the flagstaff, the altar of sacrifice, the bull, and the images; touching the images and offerings already made; placing one’s own shadow in the shadow of the auspicious lamp and in the shadow of the Śiva liṅga; flattering women; touching women; looking at women covetously; copulating with women; performing prostration and uttering prayer on the left side of the Presence that faces south and of the Presence that faces east; prostrating only once or twice; performing circumambulation only once or twice; circumambulating at a run; going between the Lord Śiva and Nandi, the god who is a bull; showing one’s backside to them; crowding together in a bunch; obtaining the vision of Śiva at an inauspicious time; prostrating between the Lord Śiva and the altar of sacrifice; talking idly; talking indecently; listening to indecency; laughing; singing idle songs; listening to idle songs; hankering for the gods’ wealth; flattering the vulgar; disparaging the esteemed; following malignant gods; worshiping while standing directly in front of the Lord Śiva or behind him or to his left; not trimming an auspicious lamp although one sees that it has gone out; worshiping when there is not an auspicious lamp; entering inside to worship instead of worshiping at the place where a festival is graciously taking place; worshiping gurus and others; and so on. Impure acts such as excreting and urinating, spitting, blowing the nose, and copulating are also not to be performed in Śiva’s bathing place, in an auspicious garden, or in an auspicious hall. If any one makes one of these mistakes out of ignorance and utters the Rudra mantra, that mistake disappears. If a person not qualified for the Rudra mantra utters the Aghora mantra one thousand times, that mistake disappears. People who make these mistakes knowingly will fall into hell and suffer and there is no purification for them. . . .
48. Those who want to make a pilgrimage to a distant place of Śiva ought to bathe on an auspicious day, complete their daily rites, place a ring of darbha grass on the fourth finger of the right hand in front of a true brahman outstanding in culture, knowledge, and conduct, and make the solemn vow, “I am obliged to make a pilgrimage to the place of Śiva,” and perform the auspicious feeding of the ascetic slaves of Śiva. They then ought to take in hand the goods pertaining to one on the path of the good and right and set out from the house. Having discarded completely all evil qualities like desire and anger, they ought to travel without eating the food of strangers or buying the handgoods of others, and each day do such things as utter the five-syllable mantra, worship Śiva, recite the Tēvāram [Tamil Veda], obtain the vision of Śiva, hear the Śiva Purāṇas, and worship the gods by worshiping the devotees of Śiva. Traveling in this manner, when they reach the intended place of Śiva, they ought to prostrate to the gateway from a distance and then rise up and proceed, forsaking food for that day. They then ought to have themselves shaved, bathe according to the rules, offer balls of cooked rice to their ancestors, give the required ritual gift to a brahman of the highest worthiness that is appropriate to him, and then enter the auspicious temple and obtain the vision of Śiva according to the rules, give the Lord Śiva substances befitting him, and worship. . . .
49. Those of highest worthiness qualified to receive the required ritual gift are brahmans who recite and understand the Vedas and Āgamas and the Śiva Purāṇas, who have completely discarded sins, who perform the morning twilight worship, the worship of Śiva and other such rites without fail, according to the rules, and with faith, who live according to the duties of householders, and who are learned. They who give the ritual gift to anyone else will be born for ten births as a lizard, three births as a donkey, two births as a frog, one birth as an untouchable, and then as a śūdra, a vaiśya, a kṣatriya, and a brahman, and will whirl around suffering from poverty and disease. They therefore should give the ritual gift only to brahmans of highest worthiness. If there is no such person of high status in that place, they should resolve formally to give generously to a high-status person in another place and take property worthy of him and give it to him. If he has died, they should give it to his son. If he also has died, they should give it to the Lord Śiva. . . .
50. They ought to bathe in Śiva’s bathing place there each day for three days, or five days, or fifteen days, or a month, or a year, and dwell there worshiping Śiva, obtaining the vision of Śiva in his abode, worshiping the gods by worshiping Śiva’s devotees when appropriate, and studying texts about śaivism. Those who have no wealth ought to give the ascetic slaves of Śiva just a single handful of food before they eat. Once they have stayed their allotted time, they ought to worship the Lord Śiva and take leave of him, come to the outer limit of the temple and go to the gateway and prostrate, and then prostrate at the auspicious boundary of the realm. When, by following the discipline described earlier, they have reached their own village they ought to perform the feeding of brahmans and the worship of the gods by worshiping Śiva’s devotees. . . .
51. Even though they possess human birth that is difficult to obtain and were born in Bhārata, which is the land of meritorious action where the true treatises that are the Vedas and Āgamas flourish, and in a Śaiva lineage of a caste that performs the rites of devotion, many people nevertheless pay no attention at all to the great value of these things. And even though they have studied and heard about the greatness of the Lord Śiva who is the repository of compassion and about meritorious deeds and sins and about their fruits, they remain ignorant, do not renounce sins and perform meritorious deeds, but spend the days of their lives idly and become prey for burning hells. A few people, even though they try in some way or another to begin to perform a few meritorious deeds, have no knowledge at all about the proper way to do them and they cover themselves only in sin, like one who spreads mud over himself when he has gone to bathe. Yet those Śaiva initiates who do not destroy themselves in this way but consider instead that this human birth is rare to obtain and the boundary that transcends it is rare know, who read and understand this composition, and who renounce sins and adhere to the Lord Śiva’s feet with mind, speech, and body according to the rules and with love, ought to receive the transcendent joy that is eternal and be freed. . . .
Auspicious Cidambaram
May the auspicious feet of Meykaṇṭadesikan flourish.