Lord Ayyappa

Lord Ayyappa is considered as one of the famous deity worshipped in kerala. In recent times, not only in kerala, devotees from all around world started building temples and worshipping Ayyappa. The fact is that, Ayyappa is believed to be the one god who protects his devotees from miseries and suffering in “Kali Yuga”. Ayyappa is also knows as Dharmasasta, Manikandan, Bhutanathan, Pandala Raja, and Pamba Vaasan. Ayyappa is worshipped in many forms in different temples, worshipped as a child at Kulathupuzha, worshipped with his consorts Pushpaka and Poorna in Achankovil and meditating form in sabarimala. Ayyappa was born with composite energy of Lord Siva and Lord Vishnu, when Lord Vishnu was taken over mohini form. Lord Vishnu gifted a bejeweled bell necklace to the new born Ayyappa and thus, known as "Manikandan".

The main intention behind Ayyappa’s birth was to demolish Mahishi, one of the asura demon princesses who was threatening and plundering the world at that time. Pandalam King had found this boy in forest and taken to his palace. Ayyappa was lived in Pandalam Palace as the son of the Pandalam King. It is found that he had super-human or divine knowledge, wisdom, and courage. He learned Veda, Kalari (martial art) and other war tactics quickly. He had helped Pandalam king for protecting king and kingdom of Pandalam from enemy attacks. Ayyappa was forced to go to forest for seeking “Puli Paal” (tigress-milk) as his mother was suffering ill. Ayyappa went to forest and met Mahishi, fought with her and killed. He had released a beautiful woman who had been cursed to become Mahishi. The young woman proposed Ayyappa for marriage, but he declined, being a celibate (brahmachari). However he consoled her and promised that she would be housed next to him in his temple and would be visited by devotees, and if the number of new pilgrims (kanni swami) visiting him stopped, then he would marry her. Hence she is now worshiped as Maalikapurathamma.

After killing Mahishi, Ayyappa left Pandalam and went to Sabarimala, where he is worshipping in celibate meditation form. He promised his devotees that who ever comes to visit me with “Mudi kettu”, I will protect them from sufferings, miseries, illness. The very famous and important temple for Lord Ayyappa is Sabarimala itself. It is believed that over 50 million devotees are visiting this temple every year, which is of course making this temple second largest pilgrim center in this world. “Appam” and “Aravana” are the famous and special offering to Lord Ayyappa

Swamiyee Saranam Ayyppa

Vishnu Maya

Vishnu Maya is also referred as Chathan or Kuttichathan. His rides in buffalo and known for his Maya (illusions). Vishnu Maya (Kuttichathan) born in union of Lord Siva and a tribal girl called Koolivaka. Koolivaka was a tribal chandala (outcaste) girl and was forced by Lord siva to mate. Koolivaka, who was true devotee of goddess parvathy asked help from devi to escape from the embarrassment. Parvathy devi then advised her to stay away and took the form of her. The reason behind this was the pre-ordained fate of Koolivaka. She was one of the servants of Parvathy Devi in her previous birth. One day Devi happened to see her breast feeding vinayaka. Parvathy Devi could not control her anger and cursed that she would be born in earth as an out caste girl. In reply to her apology and request for getting out of this situation, goddess parvathy devi blessed her and told that she would be getting an opportunity to feed Lord Siva’s son in next birth.
Another intention behind Vishnu Maya’s birth was to kill the asura called “Jalandhara“. Once Narada revealed to Chathan the secret behind his birth and intention, chathan went to see his parents in Kailasam. He took form of Vishnu and bluffed Nandikeshwara while entering to Kailasam. Lord siva thus named Chathan as Vishnu Mayam the one who took the form o
f Vishnu as Maya (illusion).

Lord Mahavishnu

Lord Mahavishnu is one of the deities in ‘Trimurthis’. The three functions of the world namely “Creation” , “Maintenance” and “Destruction” are being done by ‘Trimurthis’. Vishnu is known as the preserver in them. Mahavishnu is honored as the highest God in Hindhuism. The term ‘Dasavathara’ is related to Mahavishnu’s ten incarnations. Dasavatharas are Matsya, Koorma, Varaha, Narasimha, Parasurama, Vamana, Rama, Balrama, Krishna and Kalki. All these incarnations take place in all yugas in cosmic scales. In “Bhagavad Gita” and Vishnu SSahasranama, Vishnu is described as the master of the past, present and future, the creator and the destroyer of the world and all living and nonliving beings.

The name ‘VISHNU’ means the one who can enter anywhere, as we usually says ‘Sarvavyapi’. Appearance of Vishnu is a little different from other Gods. His skin colour is in blue colour. It represents the infinite space color as the sky and the ocean having same blue colour. Vishnu’s appearance is picturised as a four armed male form, holding padhma (Lotus), gadha, Sankha (conch shell) or and Sudharsanachakra. There is a mark on his chest, named as ‘Srivalsam’. This mark indicates Lakshmi devi. Its believed that Devi resides on the chest of Vishnu. His famous jewel is named as ‘Kausthubham’. The main identity is his crown with peacock feather, which we can see in his ‘Krishna Avathar’. Anantha, the snake is always with him. He rests on Anantha and thus knows as ‘Ananthasaayee’. Vishnu’s consort is Mahalakshmi devi, the goddess of wealth. Vishnu is also honored as the deity of Santhi, the peaceful mood. Vishnu take five forms such as Para form, Vyuha form, Vybhava form, Antharyami form and Arcavathara form. In the Arcavathara form only the devotees can worship the Lord directly.

Vinayaka

Vinayaka is one of the famous and greatly worshipped deities in Hinduism. Vinayakar is also known as Ganesh, Vinayaka Vigneswara, Ganapathy, Pillaiyar . The main identity of Vinayaka is his elephant like head. Its known that Vinayaka is the eldest son of Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathy. We believe that if we pray to Ganapathy, then all the obstacles in front of us will remove quickly. Because of that Vinayaka is known as the Lord of obstacles and the God of new beginnings. Thus got the name ‘Vighneswara’, the one who removes ‘Vighna’ from our path. For all new beginnings, Hindus do ‘Ganapathy Homam’ properly in temples and even at homes. Vehicle of Vinayaka is a mouse.

Many stories are there about the birth of Vinayaka. Once Devi Parvathy created a very powerful boy for preventing anybody from entering into her room, without her permission. Then Lord Siva came there for visiting Devi and asked that boy to allow him to enter. Devi was then having bath. But that boy didn’t allow Lord Siva to enter. Then the uncontrolled Lord Siva cut off that boy’s head. Hearing this news, Goddess Parvathy became furious and asked Siva to get back her son. Siva was helpless in returning his head. Then he cut the head of an elephant and placed it over his neck. Thus Lord Siva gave him a new birth and named him as Vinayaka. He is the God of art, music and prosperity. Devotees of Vinayaka offers him ‘Modhaka’ and laddus for getting his blessings. 

Rama or Sreerama

Rama or Sreerama Chandra is the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Rama is one of the popular deities in Hindhuism. He is considered as the perfect man in the world. He is called ‘Maryadha Purushothaman’ in this sense. Our famous epic ‘Ramayana’ describes the story of Sreerama from his birth. Devi Sita, the avathar of Mahalakshmi, is the wife of Sreerama. Sita is here represented as a concrete example of perfect woman. Dasaradha, the king of Ayodhya is the father of Rama. Dasaradha has three wives, Kausalya, kaikeyee and Sumithra. Kausalya’s son is Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana, Sathrughna are the brothers of Rama.

For keeping the word of his father, Rama even decided to avoid his kingdom and live in forest for 14 years. His wife Sita and brother Lakshmana accompanied him through the way. On the way devi Sita was kidnapped by Ravana, the king of Lanka. Then Rama made an army with the help of Hanuman and the monkey king Sugriva. Then they killed Ravana and demolished his kingdom. Lanka then handed over to Vibhishana, brother of Ravana. After 14 years Rama came back to Ayodhya and became the king. This full story is written in our epic ‘Ramayana’. Even though he is incarnation of Lord Vishnu, he lived as a human, with all qualities of an ideal man. He thus showed others, how to liv
e like an ideal man.

Siva

ord Siva is an important God in Hinduism, including in the Trimurthis. In the ‘Trimurthis’, Siva has the duty of destroying or ‘Samhara’. Siva is believed as the supreme God. Siva is referred as consciousness as per Sakthisam. Siva has many more other names as Rudhra, Mahadeva, Parameswara, Neelakanda. Siva is worshipped mostly in the form of ‘Siva Linga’. Siva is usually portrayed as immersed in deep meditation or the famous Natraja form. His famous dance is known as ‘Thandava’. In Sanskrit, the word ‘Siva’ means kind or ‘The pure one’. The main feature of Lord Siva is his third eye, which situates in the middle of his forehead. He uses his third eye to burn desires to ashes. His appearance is also different from other devas. He is often shown garlanded with a snake around his throat. ‘Tri soola’ or trident is his main weapon. A small drum named as ‘Damaru’ is always attatched to his trident. Lord Siva and all attendants live in Mount Kailasa in Himalaya Hills.
His dress is the skin of cheetah. He usually applies bhasmam on his forehead and also wears half moon in his head. River Ganga devi is also resides in Siva’s hair, which has a shell like structure. Thus he got the name ‘Gangadhara’. Its believed that the blue color of Siva’s throat is because of the poison which he drank during the ‘Palazhimadhanam’. Thus he got the name ‘Neelakanda’. Devi Parvathi is the wife of Lord Siva. Their combination is usually known as ‘Ardhanareeswara’,half man and half woman. Lord Siva is easy to be pleased and easy to be angered. It is told that his anger is like a fire. Lord Siva’s vehicle is Nandhikeswara.

The main offering to Lors siva is Dhara. The main feature of siva temples is, one should not circumambulate in full inside the temple. It is because of “Somarekha” placed in the position.

Pandavas

Pandavas are described in the Indian epic ‘Mahabharatha’. Pandavas includes five brothers Yudhishtira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. They are the sons of ‘Pandu’, by his two wives, ’Kunthi’ and ‘Madhri’. The word ‘Pandavas’ means the sons of ‘Pandu’. Yudhishtira, Bhima and Arjuna are the sons of Kunthi. Remaining are the sons of Madhri. It is described in Mahabharatha, that five brothers were married to ‘Draupathi’, a true Krishna devotee. Lord Krishna was closely related to Pandavas during Kurukshethra war by giving advices and help at right times. Friendship of Lord Krishna and Lord Arjuna is well known in that epic. Pandu has a brother named Dridhrashtra, who was blind by birth. The main enemies of Pandavas were Kauravas. Kauravas were 100 in numbers, the sons of Dridhrashtra . After the death of Pandu, Pandavas and Kauravas started quarrel for the kingdom. The kingdom was supposed to handover to Yudhishtira, the eldest son of Pandu. But Duryodhana, the eldest son of Kauravas did not like it and often trouble the Pandavas. Kauravas played dirty game against Pandavas and succeeded of pushing them away from the country. The battle of Kurukshethra was happened dispute of the kingdom.

Yudhishtira is the begotten son of ‘Yamadharma’ and known as Dharma puthra. Arjuna is the son of Indra. Bhima is the son of Pavanan. And Nakul and Sahadev are the sons of Aswini Kumars.