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.
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
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
also read this
and the answer is this
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.
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
Updated: January 30, 2011 02:14 IST
Makarajyothi is a star: senior Thantri
Lenovo ThinkPad Twist - Ultrabook with Intel® Core™ i5. Buy now & get Rs.5,598 Off!www.thedostore.com/0%EMI
The HinduSenior Thantri of Sabarimala temple Kandararu Maheswararu and his grandson Rahul Easwar at a news conference in Kochi on Sunday. Photo: Vipin Chandran
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
RELATED NEWS
Uproar, walkout in Kerala Assembly over Sabarimala mishap
Take Makara Jyothi case to High Court: Supreme Court
Action plan coming to avert disasters at Sabarimala
Kerala High Court's poser on ‘Makarajyothi'
Makarajyothi issue: writ petition filed in Supreme Court
TDB was lighting the fire: ex-Commissioner
Makarajyothi is man-made, aver leaders
MORE IN: Kochi | Religion | Friday Review | News | Thiruvananthapuram | National | States | Kerala
Club Mahindra Holidays
Memorable Holidays w/ Your Family Every Year. Become a Member Now!
ClubMahindra.com/Over-40-Resorts
Memorable Holidays w/ Your Family Every Year. Become a Member Now!
ClubMahindra.com/Over-40-Resorts
60 days Advance Purchase
Fares starting from INR 4174. Valid on Return Bookings. Hurry!
www.JetKonnect.com/Offers
Fares starting from INR 4174. Valid on Return Bookings. Hurry!
www.JetKonnect.com/Offers
Onakkazhcha a supplement in Malayalam
Kerala has been on the front row for The Hindu for all of its 135-year history. Coming closer to the Malayali psyche, we are publishing, for the first time, a special supplement in Malayalam. » (1)
Kochi braces for opening of Idukki dam
The Hindu now in full colour from Kochi
Illegal parking takes a big bite out of busy Kochi Broadway
CIAL sets up emergency cell
Parked vehicles, vendors usurp Thoppumpady footpaths
Kochi student project selected for National CBSE science exhibition
Idukki brims, downstream Kochi sleeps
Work on metro’s first station to begin at Kaloor from Monday
Cusat B.Tech results: 8 colleges bag above 60% pass
After makeover, Paravur hospital gets an ailing ICU
also read this
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/
**************************************
- 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 28th 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
|
Monday, January 31, 2011
Don't be serious with Sirius.
See the sky. The stars karthikai(Pleiades) to uththiram (Denebola) are coming out. January 24th 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 24th 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ?
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.