Background Information:
Thiruvananthapuram is one of the 108 Vaishnavite Divya Desams. The temple is located in Trivandrum the capital city of Kerala. The moolavar is Ananthapadmanabhan in a reclining posture and the Thayar is Sri Hari Lakshmi.
The Theertham is Matsya Theertham
The Vimanam is Hemakooda Vimanam.
According to the sthala puranam Divakara Muni
regularly worshipped a salagrama. Once he was enraged to learn that the
Salagrama was swallowed by a two-year-old child. The Muni chased the toddler
but the child ran to a tree and hid himself behind the tree. The Muni was
surprised to find Lord Vishnu appear from the tree in His Vishwaroopa form. The
Muni requested the Lord to appear in a smaller form so that the Muni can
worship the Lord properly. Thus the Lord took the form of Ananthapadmanabhan.
The moolavar in this temple is the largest Perumaal in the reclining posture.
He is around 15 feet long Due to His large appearance, He has to be viewed from
three entrances of the garbha griha to have complete darshan.
Esoteric Representation of Thiruvananthapuram
The form of Lord Vishnu as Ananthapadmanabhan
reveals to us His superior nature. If you refer to the following image, you can
see Lord Brahma seated on a lotus appearing from the Lord’s navel. The Lord is
also seen to be holding a Shiva Lingam in his right hand. To me the Lord
appears to be holding the lingam playfully. Lord’s name “Keshavan” means He is
the birth place of both Ka and Esha; Ka is the name for Brahma and Esha the
name for Lord Shiva. Lord Ananthapadmanabhan reminds us about the meaning of
his name “Keshavan” at this temple. He is the origin of everything in
this Universe and the Lord of both Brahma and Shiva.
Image coutesy: http://vaadinen.wordpress.com/tag/sri-anantha-padmanabhaswamy/
The Lord is resting on top of the five headed
snake Adisesha also known as Ananta. It is said that when Ananta uncoils,
creation takes place and when he coils up dissolution takes place. The word
“Sesha” means remainder in Sanskrit and refers to that which is left when the
Universe is dissolved. Sesha also means servant. Adi Sesha means the first
servant or the Lord’s eternal servant. Adisesha is always ready to serve the
Lord. He is the Lord’s bed , throne, shoe as well as umbrella. His five heads
represent the five elements. As the Lord is resting on Adisesha depicted with
five heads, it can be understood that the Lord controls the five elements which
form Prakruthi or nature. The five heads of Adisesha also represent our sense
organs. At Thiruvananthapuram, the five heads of Adisesha are drawn inward in
contemplation. This shows us that by controlling our senses we can focus on the
Lord within our heart.
Tiruvananthapuram: The Lost City of Gold
The discovery of buried treasure at
Thiruvananthapuram made news recently. There have been mixed feelings about the
discovery. The temple is currently run by a
trust set-up by the Royal Family of Travancore.
The Maharajahs of Travancore belonged to the Chera dynasty. They were the descendants of the great saint Kulashekhara Alwar. The
Maharajah of Travancore bears the title, "Sree Padmanabhadasa’ (Servant of
Lord Padmanabha).Most of the treasure uncovered at the temple was donated to
the Lord by the Royal Family of Travancore. It was preserved safely to be used
to perform service to the Lord when the temple faces financial crisis. The
Government of Kerala is trying to gain control over the treasure and there is
an ongoing dispute between the Royal Family and the Government.
Communism Rears Its Ugly Head!
There
are many people who feel that the treasure must be removed from the temple to
be used as public property. We all know that this can never happen; the general
public will be mislead to believe that the temple property is used to
improve the conditions of the common man while the riches will land in the
pockets of rich private collectors. If the people feel that the Lord who is the
master of this universe is not entitled to retain the treasures and must donate
the riches to promote communism then should this not be applicable to other
mortal billionaires on earth? Why is it that we are ready to take riches from
the Lord but we do not ask billionaires to do the same? If we believe in
communism then we should may be start with all the richest people in the world
and ask them to donate everything they own to benefit the common citizens.
True Capitalists Evade The Radar Of Communism!
The
following is the list of the richest people on planet earth.
Carlos
Slim and family - 69 billion US dollars
Bill
Gates – 61 billion US dollars
Warren
Buffet - 44 billion US dollars
The
Vatican – 10 to 15 billion dollars
Mukesh
Ambani 21000 million US dollars
From
the above list we can easily see that Lord Ananthapadmanabhan does not even
make third on the list! The Vatican has as much net worth as the temple of Lord
Ananthapadmanabhan ; how can it be fare that we demand money only from Lord
Ananthapadmanabhan and not from the Vatican ? This is taking advantage of the
peaceful nature of Hindus.
In
reality the treasures have been donated by the Royal Family of Travancore and
only they should have control over the riches. If Carlos Slim and his family
can own 69 billion US dollars’ worth of estate why shouldn’t the Royal Family
of Travancore possess a mere 20 billion US dollars? Since the colonial period
the Europeans have robbed the various Indian Royal families. It is time to put
a stop to such robberies. As the private owner of the treasure, the Kings of
Travancore had every right to donate to the Lord. Private collectors all over
the world spend their money like water to collect the most expensive diamond or
desire to own more than 7000 expensive cars like the Sultan of Brunei. The
crown jewels of England contain the famous Kohinoor diamond & the Hope
diamond both of which have been forcefully taken from India ; the
priceless Kohinoor diamond is valued at 12.7 billion Euro! The hope diamond is
worth anywhere from $200-$250 million US dollars! In a private auction, the
famous Sancy diamond which was also taken from India during the colonial period
was sold to a private collector at ten million US dollars!
The world’s most expensive
cell phones are the Diamond Crypto Smart phone at 1.3 million US dollars,
GoldVish ‘Le Million’ Piece Unique at 1.3 million US dollars, Peter Aloisson’s
Kings Button iPhone 2.4 million US dollars, Goldstriker iPhone 3GS Supreme at
3.2 million US dollars and the Stuart Hughes iPhone 4 Diamond Rose Edition at 8
million US dollars! Has anyone ever given thoughts about the estate of the
owners of these phones? What must be the net worth of their estate if they can
spend millions of dollars on something frivolous as a cell phone?
Communists Stop Targeting East Indian Maharajas and Paramatma!
If we allow the billionaires to use their money to fulfill their selfish desires instead of uplifting the common man then we should definitely allow the Royal family of Travancore to retain the treasures to perform service to the Lord. Performing service to the Lord is an honourable deed and the good karma generated by this will definitely work for the benefit of everyone. The funds from the temple are used to pay a salary to the Brahmin priest and other people who are employed by the temple authorities. In this day and age the most neglected of all communities is the Brahmin community as a result of the stigma associated to them. They are hardly paid and are pushed into a dark world of poverty. It is very unfair to hold the Brahmins alone responsible for the cast discrimination. Please refer to my previous posts about the caste system for further detail.
The
temple should definitely retain the treasures within its walls. If a religious
institution like the Vatican can have an estate worth 15 to 20 billion dollars
(this is a conservative estimate; the real value is estimated at 292 billion US
dollars!) I don’t see why the temple of Lord Ananthapadmanabhan should not
be allowed to hold 20 billion dollars. While the funds from the Vatican are
used in unwanted proselytizing efforts and create nuisance to people of other
cultures, the funds from the temple will be used to truly serve the Lord if and
when the temple faces financial crisis. If we state that the funds should be
considered as the property of the Royal family of Travancore then we definitely
cannot prohibit the Royal family from owning such a large estate as,
individuals like Carlos Slim and Bill Gates own roughly three times the
net worth of what was discovered in the temple!
Suggested Reading:
http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2012/01/conclusion-caste-system.html
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