By Sharon St Joan
The young priest, the son of the head priest, spoke in Tamil for three hours straight, while leading us through the temple. Night had fallen, and there were only the flickering lights and votive fires of the temple to light the way. Very charming, he spoke with great enthusiasm and immense sincerity, pointing out the various features of the temple, their history, and their meaning. It was rather amusing that he never paused to allow time for a translation, saying only, in Tamil, “You can translate it later,” as if anyone could remember three hours of commentary.
Even without understanding the words, one could almost grasp the meaning anyway. The sense of mystery and devotion, which was the essence of the atmosphere of the temple, did not require translation.
Long stone passageways led from one sanctuary to another. There were five main sanctuaries, each dedicated to a particular deity. As well as the primary shrine of Shiva, there are also shrines to his consort, Shivakami Amman, to Ganesha, to Murugan, and to Vishnu.
Outside, in one of the large open stone corridors, the young priest had us stand in a particular spot, by a pillar, the only place in the temple where one could view at the same time all of the gopurams, the gates, of the temple – north, south, east, and west.
At the end of our tour, on a stage, a group of musicians were playing for an audience gathered below. Central Tamil Nadu is the heartland of the beautiful tradition of carnatic music. The musicians would play all night. In December, further north in Madras, every year a six-week festival of carnatic music is held, one of the world’s greatest musical festivals, where in many venues all over the city there are concerts, often several a day. People come from all over the world to attend this season of music.
The Chidambaram temple has always been run by a community of Shaivaite Brahmins, who also serve as the priests, called Dikshitar.
The primary deity of the temple is Shiva, and this is the only temple in India where the primary representation of Shiva is Nataraja, the Lord of Dance. The image of Shiva dancing is an iconic symbol that brings India to mind and is recognizable all over the world. Shiva’s dance is mystical, cosmic, and has two forms – one, the ananda tandiva, is gentle and is a dance of the affirmation of life.
The other is the final dance that brings the destruction of the universe, when Shiva, cognizant that the world has descended into evil, performs the powerful dance that ends all existence, so that after the end, a new universe may arise, purified of evil. This is a cyclic recurrence.
Shiva is the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer of the Cosmos. The cycles recur, unendingly, over and over – while, on another level, there remains always the ultimate world-ground of the universe, Brahman, who is eternal, beyond existence and non-existence, who encompasses all, both form and formlessness, both change and changelessness.
There are secret mysteries in Chidambaram; they are spoken of as secrets, and they are not revealed, so we do not know what they may be.
One of five Shiva temples that represent the abodes of the five elements, Chidambaram represents ether, space (akasha) or the sky. The others represent air or wind; fire; water; and earth. Four of the five are in Tamil Nadu; one is in Andhra Pradesh.
At Kalahasti, in Andhra Pradesh, Kalahasti Nathar is the temple of wind, or air. At the sacred mountain of Arunachala is the temple of fire. At Trichy, Thiruvanaikaval Jambukeswara is the temple of water. At Kanchipuram, Ekambareshwar is the temple of earth or land.
Remarkably, three of these temples, Kalahasti, Kanchipuram, and Chidambaram were built along a straight line at exactly 79 degrees, 41 minutes east longitude. How this architectural feat was established by ancient people is a mystery.
The Chidambaram temple is noted for its gold plated roof over the sanctum santorum, the kanakasabha.
Underneath the gold-roofed sanctuary one may visit the three forms of Shiva – the “form” – or Nataraja, which is the dancing Shiva in human form, the “semi-form” – the crystal lingam, a representation of Shiva, and the third, the “formless” – it is said that this view of formless space may confer enlightenment on the worshipper.
Called the chitsabhai, at this site of “formlessness,” there is a curtain behind hanging strands of gold leaves. When the curtain is drawn back by a priest, one can peer in to catch a glimpse. What one sees within is nothing. There is nothing there. And this nothing, beyond all levels of existence, is the essence of Eternity, the Ultimate Reality. This is the element of ether or space, or Shiva present as the sky.
As an aside, it is interesting that though modern science no longer believes in ether, it once did – up until the twentieth century.
To be continued… To read part two, click here.
Top photo: Sharon St. Joan / Chennai Museum / Nataraja
Second photo: Wikimedia Commons / “This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA.” / NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices.
Third photo: Raghavendran / Wikimedia Commons / “I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.” / The west tower of the Thillai Nataraja Temple.
© Sharon St Joan, 2015
