ANNABISHEKAM

ANNABHISHEKAM

Annam means food. Without food no living beings can sustainthemselves. We can go without food for a few days, but can’t live without food.Food is both nourisher and consumer. It consumes the one who consumes it – so saysthe Taitreeya Upanishad (annam – annadam). Annamaya kosham is the grossest veil covering the subtle veils of Prana(vital force), Manas (Mind), Vigyana (Intellect and the power of inquiry) andultimately Ananda (supreme bliss).  Weare born of food, live by it and ultimately are consumed by it. Although Annamgenerally means food, in particular it refers to cooked rice as it is the maincourse and nourisher of the body. It is decreed by the Vedas that Annam shouldnever be ignored or wasted. Anna dhanam or feeding the hungry is considered tobe the highest form of dhanam – ‘Undi koduthor Uyir koduthore’.

During the full moon day in the Tamizh month of Aiprasi(Tulam), in the Shiva temples in the southern parts of our country, especiallyin Tamilnadu, the main deity, Shivalingam would be adorned with cooked rice. Theorigin of this festival, to my knowledge does not have a Puranic background.Since there are two main harvests in south, one in the month of Aipasi beforethe rains start and another before Thaipongal, this custom might have evolvedwith the farmers offering cooked rice to the Lord before they partake of thenew harvest. The Pongal festival in the month of Thai (January) is also aharvest festival of thanks giving to the Lord as Soorya the Sungod.

Elaborate arrangements would be made in the temples for thisfestival. The Lord would be anointed with oil and abhishekam of variousingredients like milk, curd, honey, panchamrutham would be performed andfinally Annabhishekam would be done and the image of the Lord would bedecorated with fresh vegetables and flowers to make the deity come alive. Thisdarshan is believed to remove one of the pangs of hunger. The decoration wouldbe removed after a couple of hours and Maha abhishekam will be performed beforefinal aarathi.  The rice used for theabhishekam would be immersed in the waters of rivers or ponds as an offering tothe butha ganas of Lord Shiva.

The intrinsic meaning of offering annam which is thesustainer of life to the Lord is to offer that which is most dear to us and inthe process we offer ourselves to Him. When we surrender our gross body to the Lord,we pray for the Lord’s blessings that our consciousness be shifted from thegross to the subtle so that we can remove one by one the five veils (Koshas)and discover our true self as Ananda gana – a journey from Annam to Anandam.

OM TAT SAT