pa.nchAyatana pUjA (was Re: A Question???)

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

There is one opinion in Tamil Nadu that skanda can be substituted for
sUrya in the pancAyatana pUjA. The more prevalent opinion is that worship
of skanda is in the context of Siva worship, as Siva is usually worshipped
as sa-umA-skanda mUrti in Tamil Nadu temples. There is another opinion
that talks of shan-mata, or the six matas, namely saiva, vaishNava,
SAkta, Saura, gAnapatya and kaumAra.

pancAyatana pUjA should not be confused with worship in temples dedicated
to the individual Deity. kArtikeya is normally worshipped in the public
temple more often than at home. And there are certainly more temples
for kArtikeya in Tamil Nadu and other southern states, than there are
for sUrya in all of India. The worship of sUrya is pre-eminently a
personal one, beginning with the daily sandhyAvandana. However, the
worship of skanda is predominantly public. This is because the purANic
legends always have kArtikeya in a war-like role, where he leads the
armies of the devas against three asuras. Typically, it is advised that
such ugra forms of brahman (including Siva as naTarAja) are not to be
worshipped in a home, but only in public temples. The idea is that
although brahman can take ugra forms, the individual sAdhaka has to
control anger and passion, not overly celebrate them, or else these can
overwhelm him.

Vidyasankar