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

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Vidyasankar wrote:

>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.

Hmm, never heard of this opinion. The books I have seen, one from
Sringeri, one from the Kanchi Mutt and one from R.S.Vadhyar and sons, a
famous publisher from Palghat, all mention only sUrya. The book from
kA.nchI also quotes from the smR^iti-s (bodhAyana  smR^iti I think) on
the relative positions of the mUrtis and also talks about other
pa.nchAyatana-s like the vishhNu pa.nchAyatana etc, but never makes any
mention of skanda.

>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

Sorry, I mentioned the worship in temples only to indicate that shiva
being worshiped as somAskanda is nothing unusual.

>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

Actually, as I mentioned my father's maternal grandfather's house had
worshiped skanda in idol form at home traditionally and my father has
taken it up after his grandfather passed away. I don't think there's any
restriction on worshiping skanda at home. I have seen it in other homes
also. I have heard all sorts of contradictory opinions about worship at
home of devata-s like durgA etc also. However AFAIK all these are
general opinions passed down by various people and have no basis in
actual smR^iti-s.

>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.

As far as shiva goes, the idea is that the li.nga is the most
efficacious and hence even in temples the main mUrti is always in li.nga
form. Refer shiva purANa for details. I believe the various shaiva
Agama-s say the same thing.

Ramakrishnan.
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                   http://yake.ecn.purdue.edu/~rbalasub/