Be patience. speed will kill.

Similarly we have no patience in waiting.  When you see the T.V. news

you may notice one thing.   The Ooty train is often stranded in the

middle of a forest.   The Indian travellers will weep saying they have

planned a lot and everything failed due to this  old train.   But the

foreigners will say “oh,this place is also beautiful,  we are enjoying

this natural sceneries.” saying  this they will concentrate in taking

photoes around them in that unknown place.  After all what you

can do in Ooty you can do it in Ketti also.

In the pullumedu also you can see there is only a vast open land.

Only the approach road is  small.    So if the pilgrims are waiting

there sitting in the ground singing  the devotional songs nothing

bad will happen.   Instead if they push one another in the dark as

they are doing it in their hometowns to catch the citybus, to get

cinema ticket, to get inside a bank counter,arquing for everything,

not able to wait in signals, always crying emotionally,fighting with

the next two wheeler rider for accidental touch of his hand,pushing

the old man infront of you even in ATM machines, stampede will

be the only result.

So next time when you are in a tour don’t be in a hurry.   Don’t

plan a tour of Trichy,Pillaiyarpatti,Madurai,Kanyakumari,Tiruchendur,

Kutralam,Ariyankavu,Sabarimalai,Guruvayur, all in four days.   Accident

will only be the result.  Drivers are suffering a lot with these hurry burry

Pilgrimage.  As the tourist operator will leave the place in the next

morning you are running in the pullumedu or in Sannithanam. 

Result is these type of incidents.

Next time when you are in pullumedu don’t run here and there.

just sit in the muddy ground and enjoy the birds singing or

atleast the owl’s howling.   Let all those three lakhs friends run.

Even let the sun may rise.  Enjoy the nature.  Nature is God.

Don’t worry.   You are not alone.  Forest watch tower and

Communication tower are there.   So people are there

already.   It is not a forest at all.

Don't be serious with Sirius.

See the sky.   The stars karthikai(Pleiades) to uththiram (Denebola) are coming out.   January 24^th photo.

Below the star Thiruvathirai (Betelgeuse) the star SIRIUS  is rising.  Sabarimalai senior thanthri

Sri Kandararu Maheshvararu and his grandson Rahul Easwar in their news conference

in Kochi told to the Hindu edition January 24^th that this Sirius Star is worshipped

as Makarajyothy.

This Sirius star doesn’t come in our Indian astrology which contains 27 stars

(Aswathi(Arietis) to Revathy(Al Rischa).   Even if we were assembled in a hill and died in a

stampede to see the Rohini Star (Aldeberan)(Lord Krishna’s star) or the star Thiruvathirai

(Betelgeuse)(Lord Shiva’s star)  we can passify ourselves and weep for the fate.  But

to see a star of English Zodiac (and even that star is visible to ordinary eyes

even  from our house open terrace) assembled in a hill in millions and died

in a stampede is pathetic.

Therefore the makara vilakku is a man made light by using kerosine,sacks,

candles,fire box (read my previous block) and makarajyoti is the star SIRIUS

belongs to ENGLISH ZODIAC, hence our Sabarimalai pilgrims are requested to

think it over and this request is from a fellow pilgrim brother, consider. 

makara vilakku cheating : a report by a friend who has visited the lighting place personnally

On the eve of January 14th 2008, I got a chance to witness the Makaravilakku, ( Don’t mess it with Makarajyothy, which is the celestial light worshiped by the pilgrims, on the day of Makara Sankaranthi). And this is about Makaravilakku, the man made “divine” fire with the tight security of police), The mean time the myth is revealed by the Sabarimala thanthri himself, I think this scribblings won’t be unbelievable.

 

Map showing Sabarimala(big circle) and ponnambalamedu (smaller one)
 Ponnambalamedu, where the camphor blocks are lighted is just 4Km away from the Sabarimala temple,(see the map above). it is a really beautiful place with grass-caped hills and shola forests. For the makaravilakku ,at ponnambalamedu there is a permanent concrete platform and a big watch tower .This place is very near to Kochupamba ,where the Power substation is situated, Amidst the dense forest, The settlements are the Substation,Dam ,KSEB inspection bungalows and tribal colony.Sabarimala is powered from this substation situated in kochupamba. Kochupamba is serene beautiful place which is about 35km away from main highway to Sabarimala. Traversing the entire path across thick forest to Kochupamba is unforgettable. you can see the roads(colored red) to both Sabarimala (also see the secret road way directly reaches to Sannidanam -VIP’s come through this way with high security).The most notable thing is the jeep track ends near to Ponnambalamedu. Every year before the makaravilakku, this road is cleaned and cleared for the Travancore Devasom Board and police to reach there. Ponnambalamedu is at an elevation of 1170m above MSL, where as Sabarimala is just 544m. The view of Sannidhanam from Ponnambalamedu is disrupting,just like a city inside the thick,calm forest.

A shot from inside the jeep,on the way to kochu pamba

 

The forest check post to ponnambalamedu, near the kochupamba dam

 

Waiting for the “vilakku”

 

The concrete platform for Makaravilakku at Ponnambalamedu.

Day before the Makaravilikku, I reached the KSEB IB in kochupamba and stayed there, sharing the same lobby with the high police officials and the TDB officials. Amazingly,even the modern technologies for communication are there,They were still using the AIR transmission for the timing of the “vilakku” . They have been busy with fine tuning the transistor radio for the next day, proceedings. The TATA SUMO of TDB contained a pile of camphor,sacks,kerosene etc was parking in front of the IB.

The way to Ponnambalamedu Hill from Kochupampa

 

TDB vehicle Loaded with kerosene,Camphor,sacks etc |January 14th at the front of KSEB IB,kochupampa

Starting..

On the morning January 14, the team consisting of three jeeps of armed police started roaming.But they didn’t enter to the Ponnambalamedu. After lunch,from the KSEB canteen at Kochupamba, the team started at 3:00′clock to Ponnambalamedu.


The adventure….

Locals,the Adivasis and the officials had the interest to see the fake play. Usually they trek to the hills near to Ponnambalamedu. I also got involved in this team.Half an hour trekking through the forest gave the scene of the mighty hill.( see the picture below).We seated there with a radio.
 

On the eve of Jan 14, we started to ponnamabalamedu through the grass caped hills

Videos..










































Videos..

This video is shot by me with a digital camera, just a 500m away from the Ponnamabalamedu hill, when the first glow is on.If you watch the video carefully you can see persons moving and smoke is coming up ,when the fire is kept off with wet sacks. keep in mind that Sabarimala is at the valley of this hill. A forest fire is also seen in the frame,but it wasn’t been seen at Sabarimala
 

It became darker when the second glow is on.

I suppose the next Makaravilakku will be telecasted as live by our television channels directly from Ponnambalamedu,apart from the conventional telecast from Sabarimala and Pamba…:)…Swamyiye Saranamayyappa……

courtesy...   http://sinosh.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/makarajyothy/ 


this face book link is well explaining
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=256831611032370

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KOCHI, January 24, 2011

Updated: January 30, 2011 02:14 IST

Makarajyothi is a star: senior Thantri

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The HinduSenior Thantri of Sabarimala temple Kandararu Maheswararu and his grandson Rahul Easwar at a news conference in Kochi on Sunday. Photo: Vipin Chandran

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Kandararu Maheswararu Thantri, the traditional supreme priest at Sabarimala, has alleged that certain mediapersons and the atheists' lobby are trying to damage people's faith in the Sabarimala temple as well as the Hindu faith itself.

The thantri, who is often referred to as the senior thantri, told a news conference here on Sunday that a section of the media had twisted his words, when he commented on the Makarajyothi controversy, to mean that the Jyothi was man-made. This was not true. What he said was that the Makarajyothi was a star in the sky and Makaravilakku was a traditional symbolic ‘deeparadhana' at Ponnambalamedu.

The Jyothi was a celestial phenomenon, but the Vilakku was a fire lit for the deeparadhana by people. In the past, tribal families used to light this fire. Asked who lit the fire in the present times, the thantri said he was not in the know of such things.

He alleged that an attempt was on to tarnish the image of the Sabarimala temple and to diminish the importance of the pilgrimage. This was being done using the Ponnambalamedu tragedy in which 102 devotees died while trying to view the Makaravailakku on January 14.

The 84-year-old thantri mostly spoke through his grandson Rahul Easwar. Mr. Easwar too professed ignorance about who lit the fire. Asked if the Travancore Devaswom Board was behind the Makaravilakku, which most Ayyappa devotees took for a divine phenomenon, Mr. Easwar said he was not aware of it. “It is a symbolic worship and who does it is immaterial,” he said. “Even if the TDB is doing it, what is wrong with it?”

He rejected a suggestion that the TDB, a quasi-governmental agency, was colluding in cheating millions of Ayyappa devotees by projecting Makaravilakku as a divine miracle.

Mr. Easwar, who frequently offers television comments on issues relating to Sabarimala and Hinduism, said he had mentioned even two years before the difference between the Jyothi and the Vilakku. Jyothi, he said, was the star Sirius which shone brighter on the Makarajyothi night (January 14) and the Vilakku was the fire made at Ponnambalamedu as a symbolic ‘deeparadhana.' “In other words, Makarajyothi is not man-made,” he reiterated.

He claimed that the millions of pilgrims arriving at Sabarimala were not attracted by the Makaravilakku.

Makaravilakku was just one of the many rituals at Sabarimala.

He also said that it was a question of faith and religious traditions and it was not proper to challenge such beliefs.

Keywords: Makarajyothi, Makaravilakku, Sabarimala

View comments(36)

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Kerala High Court's poser on ‘Makarajyothi'JANUARY 20, 2011

Makarajyothi issue: writ petition filed in Supreme Court JANUARY 23, 2011

TDB was lighting the fire: ex-CommissionerJANUARY 23, 2011

Makarajyothi is man-made, aver leadersJANUARY 21, 2011

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COMMENTS(36)RECOMMENDEDPOST A COMMENT

I have some questions on Makarjyoti to be recognised as a star because usually a star is a thing which appears or remains in the sky for a particular amount of time but the information enlisted here is that the Makarjyoti appears only three times but not more than that.So could someone explain why this star appears only thrice and is not seen widely across any region or within the vicinity of some other regions.

from:  Natesh.B.Iyer

Posted on: Feb 3, 2011 at 18:29 IST

It is myth or faith why not proper arrangements where provided by the TDS to the devotees. Who takes the responsibility of the lost life. Is it the god or human ? Lot of people will agree with me if i say it is human.

from:  Pooventhan

Posted on: Jan 28, 2011 at 15:30 IST

The question is not whether it is true or not true. In Hinduism there is no compulsion. Nobody compels anybody to go to a particular temple. Every body can think and if they feel fit they can worhship. If they dont want they need not. Whether a particular person worhship or dont worship it no way affect the God who is omnipresent. God is not valued ( in Hinduism) based on the number of deveotees nor he requires any valuation from mortals. 

I request each and every brother and sister in this country not to fall prey to this contoversy as these are all politically motivated for some vested interests. Instead, we must devote our valuable time on our activities which adds value to our life.

from:  T.V.MURALI

Posted on: Jan 28, 2011 at 13:28 IST

I just like to bring one aspect here..Away from celestial/not celestial. What organisers should do etc... 
People have problems. Today human relations have become economical relations. Concept of Humanity is almost lost. Government are not able to find solutions to problems of the people. Hence people want solution. 
People desires are not become billionaires like Ambhani. All they want is good health, home, food etc..which our constitution promises to achieve. Problem is people want instant solutions. 
so whatever we may talk here.Problems (in changing global scenario)are going to increase ... so would be number of people going to temples...if not temple people would go to some baba... 
the real problem i feel in words of swami vivekananda is "miracles are stumbling blocks in way of truth". 
So projection of Ayyappa Deeksha or seeing of light (presenting it as miracle) to bring miracles in someone's life is real culprit.I agree organizers should take adequate steps. 

Finally i dont understand why ISRO (which came out with remote sensing data-without anybody asking them),Indian Institute of Astrophysics, IUCCA PUNE to tell the court and people officially what is the object visible in the skies...Why keep silence ?

from:  kiran

Posted on: Jan 28, 2011 at 12:49 IST

There are a lot of manipulated stories in God's own Country. Kerala is a place where the priests throw chandan (sandal wood paste) towards the devotees. Devotees has to remove their shirts before darshan. This is to symbolize that they are slaves for the god and the priest. Because they treat every one as untouchables. 

It is right time to teach lessons for these priests for their behavior and false stories.

from:  Ravindran Anand

Posted on: Jan 27, 2011 at 19:22 IST

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also read this

My Travels, My Life

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

So that no more ‘Jyothi’-s will be lit...

Links and pieces of facts from the internet – for those who still believe that the 104 dead in Sabarimalai are ‘martyrs for a better tomorrow!’ Yes, that’s what I hope too; that their martyrdom will serve for the final curtains to fall on the divine light of Makara Vilakku.

• THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government, which organises the 'divine light fraud' Makarajyothi every year, is solely responsible for the death of more than hundred pilgrims near Sabarimala, Indian Rationalists Association president Sanal Edamaruku said in a release here on Saturday.

Rationalists had already exposed this 'miracle' several years ago. They had found that the 'holy light' was created by the employees of the State Government by burning camphor in big vessels. The camphor is burnt on the high-altitude Ponnambalamedu hill, he said. Rationalist volunteers had photographed the scene. Under the leadership of Sanal Edamaruku, more than 10,000 people marched to Ponnambalamedu in 1990 demanding the State Government to admit in public that the 'holy light' was its handiwork.

The then Chief Minister E K Nayanar had agreed in public that the Government was organising the 'holy light' through the State-controlled Devaswom Board.

However, to everyone's surprise, the practice was continued without any break by every consecutive governments. If anyone is responsible for the Sabarimala mishap, it will be the State Government.

*********************************************

Ø In http://www.srai.org/tragedy-at-sabarimala-the-miracle-of-makara-jyothi/

TRAGEDY AT SABARIMALA: THE MIRACLE OF MAKARA JYOTHI

http://nirmukta.com/2011/01/18/sabarimala-the-recurring-tragedy-caused-by-state-sponsored-superstition/

**************************************

•  it has happened yet again. Over 100 persons were killed and as many seriously injured in an easily avoidable tragedy at the ‘holy’ Sabarimala hills in Kerala, on the night of January 14, 2011. As per newspaper reports, the tragedy occurred when the pilgrims were returning after witnessing the Makra Jyothi, the ‘miraculous’ appearance of Lord Ayyappa, the presiding deity of the Sabarimala temple. A report in the Mathrubhumi

daily (15 January, 2011) says most of the dead were from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

Exactly 12 years ago, on the night of 14 January, 1999, about 53 persons were killed in a similar stampede as the pilgrims were returning after witnessing the ‘divine celestial light’. The government then instituted an inquiry commission and nobody knows what precise actions were taken by the state authorities to avoid similar tragedies in the future. The government has yet again instituted a commission to look into the latest incident and as usual the report will be conveniently buried as the government fills it coffers with the blood-money of poor and illiterate pilgrims by shamelessly promoting this nonsense of religious tourism, setting up an official magic show every year (See the Appendix-I below for details of the government-sponsored magic called Makara Jyothi).

Whoever be the inquiry commission members, one thing is for sure - no one will touch the real issues involved. They will undoubtedly suggest various proposals to help the pilgrims to conveniently witness the ‘divine light’. Most of the proposals will be impractical because, unlike the Tirupati temple (which attracts the highest number of pilgrims in India, the second being Sabarimala), the Sabarimala temple is situated in the middle of a forest. And if at all the government builds roads and other infrastructures for the convenience of the millions of pilgrims visiting the shrine every year, it will irretrievably ruin the ecologically sensitive Sabarimala forest; it will be an environmental disaster.

What is the way out of this mess?

As of now, I am told, the road to the Sabarimala temple is strewn with plastic bottles and other non-biodegradable waste dumped by the devotees. During the Makra Vilakku season, the ‘holy’ river Pampa turns into a stream of human excreta – because in the absence of adequate number of toilets, the millions of pilgrims defecate right along their holy river. They bathe in the very same river, unmindful of the health hazards involved. Nobody keeps count of the people who fall ill (or even die) as a result of the unhygienic hill surroundings. I am told that the well-to-do among the pilgrims do not spend much time in the hills – after visiting the temple they rush back to the nearby town and spend the nights in better hotels.

Given that nobody can stop pilgrims visiting the hill temple, the only solution is limiting the number of people visiting the shrine every season, each year. In consultation with competent professionals (and not the religious heads), the government should impose an upper limit on the number of pilgrims visiting the temple.

When the government-sponsored fraud of Makara Jyothi was exposed by the activists of Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham in 1981, and as a result of the relentless campaign mounted by them for more than two decades, the temple authorities stepped forward and came out with the truth. On the 28^th of May 2008, the Sabarimala head-priest, Kanatararu Maheswararu Thantri, said in a press-statement that there was nothing miraculous about the Makra Jyothi and that it is a man-made fire (See Appendix-III).

*****************************************************

Ø Post-stampede, divinity of Sabarimala light questioned

2011-01-18 13:49:26

Thiruvananthapuram: With 102 lives lost in a stampede on the day the revered Makar Jyothi appears three times on the horizon soon after dusk above the famed Sabarimala temple, questions are now again being raised about the divinity of the light. On Makar Sankranti, which is considered the most auspicious day in the two-month long festival season of the Sabarimala temple, more than a million devotees stay put in and around the temple waiting anxiously for the celestial light to appear. Kerala court directs government to probe Sabarimala stampede Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham (KYS), a rationalist organisation, has been leading a campaign for the past three decades against the 'cheating' by the state government and the Devasom Board, that looks after the temple affairs, and accusing them of making an artificial light appear on the horizon. D. Sukumaran, an office bearer of the KYS, is leading a march to the Devasom Board office Tuesday, demanding to put an end to this. "Since 1980, on numerous occasions we have come out with pictures of this artificial light being lit by employees of the Devasom and the Kerala State Electricity Board who are accompanied by the police," said 58-year-old Sukumaran, a retired Kerala State Transport Corporation official. In 1982, a day before the divine celestial light appeared, KYS created an artificial light to prove their point, he said. Sabarimala stampede: Another tragedy reduced to a probe? "This was even reported by All India Radio, but was promptly denied by the Devasom," Sukumaran said. He added that in 1983 the KYS activists were badly beaten up by the police when they were at Ponnambalmedu, the area where the light is created with the help of burning camphor. Believers consider the citing of the celestial light as an auspicious event and over the last few years there has been a huge influx of pilgrims from the southern states to witness the sight. The Kerala Shastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), a pro-Communist Party of India-Marxist social science movement, Tuesday asked the state government to come clean on the celestial light. "It is high time that the state government came out in the open to say if this celestial light is a man-made event because lakhs of devotees from neighbouring states are taken for a ride," KSSP president K. Balakrishnan said. Kerala to seek judicial probe into Sabarimala tragedy "We have decided to get in touch with similar organisations in these neighbouring states to run an awareness campaign on this event because it is high time that this stops," he added. Kantaru Maheswararu, the supreme priest of the Sabarimala temple, created a controversy on the event in 2008. He clarified in a letter that Makar Jyothi is a star that appears in the sky above the temple around dusk time on the first day of the month of Makaram, while Makar Villaku means a light which is lit as soon as the star appears in the sky. His grandson Rahul Eashwar had remarked that the light is artificially created on top of a hill (Ponnambalamedu) away from the Sabarimala temple but he does not know who does that. With the Kerala High Court demanding a detailed report on the stampede from the state government by Thursday, all eyes are on whether the court will ask the government to come clean on the celestial light. The Sabarimala temple, located on a hill in the Western Ghat ranges at an altitude of 914 metres above the sea level and four km uphill from Pamba in Pathanamthitta district in central Kerala, is one of the most famous Hindu pilgrim centres in south India. The number of pilgrims visiting the shrine has been steadily going up every year. Last week, a stampede occurred on Makar Sankranti day at Pulumedu, a forested area about 30 km from the temple, when pilgrims were returning after watching the celestial light.

and the answer is this 

Monday, January 31, 2011

Don't be serious with Sirius.

See the sky.   The stars karthikai(Pleiades) to uththiram (Denebola) are coming out.   January 24^th photo.

Below the star Thiruvathirai (Betelgeuse) the star SIRIUS  is rising. Sabarimalai senior thanthri

Sri Kandararu Maheshvararu and his grandson Rahul Easwar in their news conference

in Kochi told to the Hindu edition January 24^th that this Sirius Star is worshipped

as Makarajyothy.

This Sirius star doesn’t come in our Indian astrology which contains 27 stars

(Aswathi(Arietis) to Revathy(Al Rischa).   Even if we were assembled in a hill and died in a

stampede to see the Rohini Star (Aldeberan)(Lord Krishna’s star) or the star Thiruvathirai

(Betelgeuse)(Lord Shiva’s star)  we can passify ourselves and weep for the fate.  But

to see a star of English Zodiac (and even that star is visible to ordinary eyes

even  from our house open terrace) assembled in a hill in millions and died

in a stampede is pathetic.

Therefore the makara vilakku is a man made light by using kerosine,sacks,

candles,fire box (read my previous block) and makarajyoti is the star SIRIUS

belongs to ENGLISH ZODIAC, hence our Sabarimalai pilgrims are requested to

think it over and this request is from a fellow pilgrim brother, consider.