SIVAMANIKANDANCSE

Kamakshi amman

The Goddess Kamakshi prevails in the form of Shakti. There are 51 Shakti Peetas across the country. The goddess residing place in Kanchi is called as “Nabisthana Ottiyana Peetam”. The Goddess is called as “Sri Kamakshi. The word is derived from the heritage “Ka” means Goddess Saraswati (God of Education), “Ma” means Goddess Lakshmi (God of Wealth), “Akshi” means Eye. The name as a whole refers as the god lives in Kanchi with Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakshmi as her both eyes. The Lalitha Sahasranama poem is an idle example for the goddess power.

History

Kanchi is also called as Satyavrita Kshetra . The Goddess worshipped Lord Siva by creating a mud idol in Kanchi. At that moment, Lord Siva incarnated as Kamba River with high tides to test the worship of the goddess, the goddess grasped the idol closely with her two hands from eroding in the tides. This prevented the idol from getting eroded in the floods. The goddess also performed Pooja by sitting in a needle tip surrounded by “Panchakagni” (surrounded by 5 fires) to free herself from the interest of livelihood. The Lord Shiva became happy, gestured before her and married the goddess. Though there are many Shiva temples in the city, the only temple to have the sanctorum of the goddess is 'SRI KAMAKSHI AMMAN TEMPLE’. There are also eight other Shakti goddesses surrounding the temple.

The place where goddess resides is “Gayatri Mandapam”. The Goddess lives in temple in 3 forms. They are Sri Kamakshi, Sri Bilahasam and Sri Chakram. The goddess is in a sitting posture of “Padmasana” .The goddess contains Pasa, Angusa, Pushpabana and Sugarcane in her forehands.

The Goddess Mahalakshmi was given curse by the Lord Vishnu to incarnate as Aarupam form. The Goddess Mahalakshmi comes to Kanchipuram and performs the worship chanting in the name of Lord Vishnu to free her from this Aarupam. After long prayers, the Goddess is freed from her Aarupam and given a Rupam by the Lord Vishnu. There exists a belief that Goddess kamakshi kumkum has to be offered to the idol of Aarupa Lakshmi within the sanctorum where by the goddess Lakshmi will fulfil your needs on the prayer.

The temple sanctorum consists of a deity “Adivaraha Perumal” which is one of the 108 Vaishnaivaite deity worship temple.

The history reveals us that King Dasaratha performed “Putra Kameshi Yagam” in the temple for the Birth of a child to his kingdom. The King performed pooja to the “Nabisthanam” of the goddess in the temple. The King Dasaratha within a few months received a child. The King Dasasratha belongs to the “Ekshuvagu Vamsam” where by the prime deity is Goddess Kamakshi. The extract of this story is visible in “Markendeya Puranam”. The faith is if prayed truly the goddess provides child for the childless couples.

The Saint Adisankara born at Kaladi in Kerala travelled across all the parts of the country. When he visited Kanchipuram he felt the goddess is in a ferocious mode that the entire sanctorum was very hot. So to personify her and accomplish to her to normal state the saint sung songs in the praise of goddess named “Soundarya Lahari” then he established a Sri Chakra in front of her idol to keep her cool and personified. This srichakram is visible to all of us and all the poojas are done to srichakram too. The Saint established Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam and attained Sarvagyna peetam in this holy city.

The temple was visited by a dumb devotee named “Mookan”. The devotee begged the goddess to free him from this dumbness so that he can perform poems on the praise of the goddess. The goddess suddenly provides him grace by freeing him from dumbness and giving him intellectuality in creating poetry. He was very happy with the goddess that he wrote a poetry named “Mookapanchashati” in which he praises entirely about the grace of the goddess with her beauty.

The temple goddess has been so graceful that she has made dumb to a poetist, has given birth to the childless couples and provides wealth to all her devotees. The goddess destroys evil and helps the prosperity of goodness to prosper throughout the world.

The special occasions for the Goddess Kamakshi are Navratri, Bhramotsavam and Pournami (Full Moon Day). The goddess is distinctively powerful in these times and it is even more auspicious to visit the temple in these days.

I wish all the devotees to participate in this special time and receive the blessings of the Goddess Kamakshi without fail.