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As an annual festival feature, when the
moon shows its whole disc illuminated in the
month of Karthigai the celebration becomes a week long temple
function. A big brass vessel especially designed in the form of a
lamp is lifted to the peak of the hill; it is filled with tins and
tins of ghee and pots and pots of butter; and an enormously thick
wick made of loosely twisted woven fibers (clothes) is immersed into
the vessel and one end of the wick is drawn out to the apex and is
ignited with burning camphor and the thick wick fully soaked in ghee
acting by capillary attraction conveys the ghee the main illuminant
to the flame around 6 pm when the sunlit full moon disc emerges from
the east and comes on to the horizon. The luminous glow of the lamp
atop the hill opens the eyes of millions of people to something
divine and auspicious and ardent devotees and others see in the
burning light lord of the world and remain visibly, moved with their
mouths uttering "Om Arunachaleshwaraya Namaha", Here man lights the
largest wick of the largest lamp once a year and the world goes into
rapture sings his songs of grace.
Deepam - The Symbol of Lord Arunachala
History has is that the practice came into existence following a
dispute between Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma over who was the
superior of the two
after the some hindrance to their attempts to gauge their strength,
the two prayed to Lord Siva for his Grace.
Their test was to find the top and the
bottom of a blazing mount which was actually Siva. Lord Siva blessed
lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma and said that he would appear as a Jothi
(flame) on top of the hill. It is to perpetuate this event that the
flame is lit on top of the holy
hill during the month of Karthigai (November - December).
This festival begins in the Uthiradam
(Star) day in Karthigai and winds up with the Bharani Deepam lit in
the early hours of the tenth day. The Deepam is lit at dusk,
coinciding with a Full Moon. The Deepam can be seen even from a
distance of 45 Km. Real image of lord Arunachala is viewed in the
appearance of "Agni". This is celebrated every year as the
remembrance of one of the image of lord Arunachala as fire. During
the holy day, more than 10,00,000 devotees get this heavenly worship
of Lord.
