PALANI

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    PALANI

  
  

  
  

  

  From the stala puranam of Palani. We know the chlid Muruga has reached the hill to reside there permanently because he had got angry with his parents on the question of  a fruit supplied by the wily Narada which the elder brother Ganesha managed to get as a present from the parents. The child, not more than three years old was just running around and playing among the peacocks and snakes in the hillock. Sage Agastya was there with his disciple Idumba, residing by the side of the hill. The boisterous play of the child distracted him and he was rather impatient. He saw the child, and as luck would have it, did not recognize the Master of the World there and started advising the child to go elsewhere and not cause nuisance to him. The naughty child said, "you old man, if you are so irritated with we, you can go away and stay somewhere else." The puny but powerful sage was enraged. The slip of a child talking to him like that! He wanted to finish off the child. He chanted many mantras and threw some ashes on the boy. In the normal course the sage expected the child to be burned to ashes. But the child was still there unmoved, just laughing and playing. The child in turn gave the sage a small piece from the dried sandal paste He was wearing on his forehead and asked the sage to taste it. The sage was skeptical but still put a little piece of that into his mouth. Suddenly he lost balance of himself and started flying in the space as if catapulted from a rocket-launcher  and knowing no means of of coming back. Suddenly realization dawned on him. It was the son of his master who had come there to purify the South India. He apologized and was taken back to his own place. The sage made himself the disciple of the Lord Muruga, and the siddha system of medicine is said to have come from Muruga himself through Agastya and his disciples like bhogs. Even now, in Palani a particular type of sandal paste which is placed in the body of the idol during night is given as rare prasadam in the morning for the devotees to eat. It is called raakkaal chandanam 

  
  

  
  

  
  

                   Pazhani Andavar did not reside there all alone for long time. The lovely brother and the doting parents would not let him. They followed him without any delay. Wherever you go in Palni, you will find only Ganapatis. The brother was so affectionate that he was running round the younger one to take him back to Kailas. You will find many ganapathis here with Murugan sitting in his lap. Their love is model for fraternal affection. Even now when we prepare kavadi one of the legs is adorned by Murugan and the other is by Ganapathi. We actually invoke Mahaganapathi also in the mudra. After Agastya left, the boy had a tiff with Idumba also. In fact the two hillocks were being carried on the ends of a huge rod by this rakshasa Idumba, and being carried south. When this Idumba saw this boy he tried to remove him. The boy simply give him a short kick and the demon was dead. Then his family entreated with the Lord and the pleased lord  revived him  decided that his own presence will be there at the top and Idumba or idumbas presence willbe in the middle. He also ordained that the first puja in palni should be given to Idumba, "Idumbanukku muthal poosai".
   The master of Siddhaa, sage Bhoga, later on finding the presence of Murugua in the mountain, started worshipping him in an idol made of nava paashaana....nins rocklike medicines.. and this is the idol which is still there. Bhoga has recorded that he has made nine such idols and when time comes the next idols will be revealed in succession. There is a cave route between the place of Bhoga and Garbagriham at Palni.. we can see the samadhi of Bhoga and the Marakatha lingam of Shiva which was worshipped by Bhoga in the temple even now. The puuja at the bhogar samadhi is even now being conducted by a descendent of that great physician sage. The worship of the temple was entrusted to the local people, Pandarams or Othuvars. But the potency of the lord was too great and the people stared witnessing depletion in their population. So they brought in the Sivacharyas (Gurukkals ) for pooja. The presiding gurukkal in Palani is held in great reverence . He is called TavarajaPandita.

              

  
  

   Going back to Bhogas time, one of the disciples of Bhoga was a sage named Pulippani (vyagrapada) and it is said that this sage rode on a tiger and used to bring water for the abhishekam of dandayuthapani from the nearby varattaru. By his yogic powers, he would just take water in a big globe without any contained. This Vyagrapada is supposed to be a nambuthiri and while he was in his moksha stage, he asked the Lord to go to Kerala. People from kerala were thronging Palani even in those times. The assuranace given by god is that He will stand facing west, looking at Kerala, and if and when a day comes when a Kavadi from Kerala is not reaching Palani He would come to Kerala. 
   Till this day that has not happened.