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Home > Temples of Kerala > Sabarimala Temple > The Pumkavanam and the Pampatirtham The Pumkavanam and the PampatirthamThe sabarimala differs from the other pilgrim resorts extraordinarily in a number of matters. The important peculiarities among them are the thick forest and the river pampa. The place having the following peculiarities is called Tapobhumi, they are having 1. flowing or reserved water (a river or a lake) There are seven kinds of places as the recognized holy pilgrim resort in this world. They are respectively 1. Swayambhulingabhumi or Jyotirlingabhumi (the place where the self originated Linga of Lord Siva is seen) Whichever may be among the seven, is similarly holy. One jivatma gets sinless purity and good and moral virtue, by visiting, staying and thinking about the reality there. The purified subtle presence of the God is glittered always at such places. This is a peculiarity of the nature or the power of creation. Sandal among trees, musk among secretions, wise among men, cow among animals, the Ganga among rivers, and the jewel among stones are disclosing always their own individuality. A Tirthabhumi reflects always the glitter ness of the God. All the qualities deemed for a pilgrim resort or essential for a Tapobhumi have culminated in Sabarimala. The spiritual experience which is created by the mountain ranges, the dense forest and the gurgling and gently flowing Pampa is like the exotic experience which is provided by the trio of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Saraswati. Tirtha – the holy spiritual pilgrim resort presents great piety, wisdom and mentality of renunciation. ‘Ta’ the first letter of the word Tirtha, means piety, the second ‘Ra’ means ‘Vairagya’ (hatred to the worldly pleasures) and the last ‘tha’ means wisdom, enabling emancipation. The sabarimala which is bound with the consciousness of Ayyappa includes all these three aspects of the Tirtha. To emancipate himself or to realize the supreme power, every man has to be a devoted pious. Without accurate pious no one can achieve wisdom and cannot renounce. Without the foundation of piety the wall of renunciation and wisdom cannot exist. The piety is as clear as water. The flow of Pampa is the symbol of Bhaktiyoga. The bhakti flows incessantly like the river and merges into the ocean. When a man dips himself in the Pampa, his inner man is encooled with the bhaktiyoga. After the Pampa we go through the dense forest the Pumkavan of Sri Ayyappa. There are elephants and carnivorous animals like tiger, leopard and bear. It is difficult to protect life on the way and may be attacked within minutes by any of these animals. The footpath is not so comfortable for a safety journey. The journey through the dense and profoundly silent forest, its darkness, the chilling effects, every pilgrim may think that he is going through a way of death. The death in near and the life is fearfully short (naimishika), he feels, while he is thinking. The thought in this way leads him eventually to a state of hostility towards the life and its seeking of pleasures. This kind of repeated thinking helps his mind to reach the God. The result of the journey through the forest to the Pitham of Ayyappa gives this kind of experience. The man who follows the real nature of Ayyappa’s Pumkavanam, will soon feel the worldly hatred or renouncing mentality and becomes pious. The third and the last in the Jnanabhava of the concept. This bhava is risen from the hardship or mountaineering. When a manclimbs up and up over a mountain, he gets withered, palpitated, having hunger, thirst, conflict, reluctancy etc. There lies the point that a man can achieve victory or realize the Satya onlyl through hardships and hazardness. Sometimes the impediment before the achievement, in such cases of realization of truth, may be his own body. (here it was the body which made hindrance to the victory of seeing Ayyappa while climbing the mountain). The way of realization of the supreme power like the mountaineering is made hindered by the body consciousness. Beside that, there is unpiety, unrighteousness and the mentality of attachment, help the impediments, but with the same body an other person can reach the aim of resort by this hard mountaineering. In such a way a person can experience the reality by hardships and with this body consciousness. All these are the lessons which we earn from the Sabari pilgrimage. We can say, without any concealment, that the Pampatirtha, is exactly the Bhaktiswarupa, the Pumkavan is the Vaira gyaswarupa and the mountain ranges are the sources of wisdom. (we should also remember that by destroying the divine nature and its hallows, and reaching the Sabaripitham in a joyful, playful and pleasureful way abolishes the status of Sabarimala as a Tirthabhumi).
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