happy summer solstice; and sabarimala

jun 21st, summer solstice

longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. end of uttarayanam.

i am in kerala. swami saranam, i went to sabarimala (yes, bearded and after observing the vratam, though only for 12 days, not quite the 41 days prescribed). i was hoping it would be raining, but it wasn't, it was quite warm. the pamba was full of deliciously cool water though, so it is raining in the western ghats.

had excellent darshanam at sabarimala. the crowd was small, so no hassle at all. drove from trivandrum with some other people. although i have to say the hill is a bit daunting. there were moments when i wondered if i'd make it up the 4km stretch of three heart-break hills in a row. they have paved over some of the roughest parts, and i was cowardly: i wore sandals, so i didnt have to suffer the 'stones and thorns' on the path.

the old shrine was once a shiva shrine, where buddhists also worshipped the bodhisattva avalokitesvara padmapani. later it became a buddhist shrine that the intrepid traveler hsiuen xang visited and noted. he mentioned, according to historian lokesh chandra, that the place was called 'potala', an old tamil word meaning 'bright flame' -- a clear reference to the makara jyoti, the light that appears in the forest on makara sankranti day. later the bodhisattva appears to have become the Lord Ayyappan, He who is the son of hari and hara.

recall also that the potala is the dalai lama's palace in lhasa. and that the dalai lama is a reincarnation of the same avalokitesvara. thus there are ancient connections between kerala and tibet -- reinforcing once again the astonishing cultural continuity of indic civilization from north to south; and reinforcing once again that tibet has nothing to do with china.

this sort of coexistence/transition is fairly common in hindu-buddhist circles. for instance, at angkor wat, the eight-armed vishnu who once was the central deity of the temple is now worshipped as the buddha by the locals. and in java's old temples including prambanan, there is no clear demarcation between siva/isvara and the buddha.

so how did buddhism disappear from india? the 'secularists' claim hindus did it in. no, on the contrary, the mohammedans destroyed all the buddha viharas and beheaded all the monks, thus erasing buddhism in india. the few monks who escaped the massacre in nalanda ran away with a few texts to tibet, and that's how tibetan buddhism got its start. but the 'eminent historians' do not want to accept this, so they make up fantasies.