Karthigai Deepam, Karttik Purnima and Gurpurab 2021

The full moon day in the month of Karttik (roughly November), this year on November 19th, is celebrated as Karttik Purnima or Dev Diwali (Diwali of the gods) in northern India. Dev Diwali is also sacred to Jains. It is the day when some saints have been born, but more importantly, the day when the Chaturmas, four months of religious restrictions, ends. For Jain munis (ascetics), the Chaturmas means that they cannot travel. But on Dev Diwali, that restriction is no longer there. Also, Palitana, an important Jain pilgrimage site, opens up on this day. I am grateful to my friend Mitali Shah for explaining the significance to me. 

I begin my worship with Lord Ganesha, the first to be worshipped.

For Sikhs, Karttik Purnima is Gurpurab, the birthday of Guru Nanak, founder of the religion. Here is a lovely painting of Guru Nanak that I have placed in my altar:

By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/e2/8a/1897563e7eebdf8d397573908d17.jpgGallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/V0045187.html Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-03-29): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/gb88xa56 CC-BY-4.0, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36660823

I have decided that I will do Chandra (Moon) puja on every purnima night from now on. Here is a symbolic representation of Chandradev, the moon god, in combination with the Islamic crescent. He is flanked by a rabbit and a bird called chakor. The chakor, Alectoris chukar, is a Himalayan partridge species fabled to drink moonlight and to be in love with the moon. The real chakor has a much shorter tail than the bird idol that I have. In front of the moon is a blackbuck antelope, his vaahanam (vehicle, carrier). In Indian culture, the craters on the moon, seen as spots from Earth, are interpreted as forming the shape of either a hare/rabbit (shasha) or of an antelope (mrga), thus giving him the names Shashaanka and Mrgaanka (anka meaning mark).

Behind Chandra are the Pleiades, Krittika-s, 6 star-goddesses. In Greek mythology the Pleiades consist of 7 stars, but in Indian culture, we consider 6 out of the 7. The Krittikas lend their name to the Karttik month, since on the full moon day of this month, the moon is said to reside in this constellation, personified as one of his wives. Each day has a nakshatra, an associated constellation. There are 27 nakshatras – 27 wives of the moon – who are ‘visited’ by the moon periodically. Today, I worship the moon along with the Krittikas.

Source: Wikipedia

In Tamizh culture, this day is celebrated as Karthigai Deepam (கார்த்திகை தீபம் : kārttikai tīpam --> kārttigai dībam). This is a very ancient festival of lights, celebrated in the Tamizh lands since long before Deepavali became popular there. Karthigai Deepam may or may not coincide with Karttik Purnima of the north. The basic point is that the Tamizh festival has to be the Krittika nakshatra day in the Tamizh month of Karthigai, which is a solar month beginning roughly on November 17 and going on till December 15. If Karttik Purnima – the full moon of the lunar Karttik month – comes within the Tamizh month, then Karthigai Deepam will be that day. In years when Karttik Purnima comes too early, Karthigai Deepam is celebrated sometime in December (whenever there is a Krittika day), roughly a month after the former. But this year, both are on the same day.

Karthigai Deepam celebrates Shiva’s fiery form. The story goes that one day, Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver were having an argument. Each was proclaiming himself to be the greatest god. Suddenly, Shiva appeared there, not in his anthropomorphic form, but as an enormous lingam (phallus) of fire, endless in both directions. The other two decided to use this fiery lingam as a means to compete. Brahma said he would try to find the top, and Vishnu said he would try to find the other end. Brahma became a haṁsa (swan), அன்னம் aṉṉam in Tamizh, and started flying higher and higher. Vishnu, on the other hand, turned himself into a varāha, a boar, பன்றி paṉṟi in Tamizh, and began digging deeper and deeper. The further they went, the more evident it became that this pillar of fire was anādi, with no beginning, and ananta, with no end. But as Brahma flew on, he found a ketaki flower (Pandanus odorifer), thaazhamboo (தாழம்பூ tāḻam-pū: தாழை tāḻai, ketaki + பூ pū, flower) in Tamizh, falling from above. He decided that he would use this flower as ‘proof’ that he was at the top – which was actually not true. Poor Vishnu, exhausted after digging endlessly and meeting with no success, fell for the trick, and was almost about to accept Brahma as the supreme deity. But suddenly, Shiva appeared in his usual form. He was full of rage. Destroyer that he was, for a moment it looked as if he would open his third eye and burn the entire universe. Shiva placed a curse on Brahma for his dishonesty – the god of creation would never be worshipped. Shiva also placed a curse on the ketaki flower that forbade it from ever being used in his worship. Seeing Vishnu’s beautiful form, the Lord of Destruction calmed down. He blessed the cloud-dark god to have several temples and festivals. In my altar, the lingam represents the pillar of fire. The swan’s disproportionate size compared to the other idols and its upward-facing stance symbolizing its upward flight represents Brahma’s arrogance. In keeping with Shiva’s curse, I have offered no flowers to the swan. The boar’s downward-facing snout represents Vishnu’s humility that earned him Shiva’s blessings.

The six Krittikas are the mothers of Lord Murugan, who is named Karttikeya after them. Every Krittika day – including the one in the Karthigai month – is sacred to him. Today, I am worshipping him as the son of the fire god Agni, who is also one of his fathers. This is why he stands with a goat vaahanam today, instead of the usual peacock. The goat is the vehicle of Agni, and Murugan’s first vehicle, as I describe in my previous post on this blog. 

Murugan was conceived when Shiva’s fire – either from his third eye, or his fiery seed – was received by Agni. Agni is Fire personified. But Shiva’s fire was too much for Fire himself to bear, and he cast it into the river Ganga. The Krittikas, who were bathing in Ganga, became pregnant and produced six babies. When these children were brought to Goddess Parvati, they became one baby, named Karttikeya, Skanda, Murugan and so on. Today I celebrate Murugan as the son of Shiva, Agni and the Krittikas. But even though today is a Krittika nakshatra day, it is not Murugan’s birthday. His birthday is on Vaigaasi Visaagam, the full moon day or Vishakha nakshatra day in the Tamizh month of Vaigaasi (mid-May to mid-June). 

I also worship Ayyappan today, since the Karthigai month, called Vrishchikam – Scorpio – in Kerala, is when pilgrims travel to his temple in Sabarimala, located in the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala. His story can be found here. Here is a beautiful painting of him atop a tiger by Abhilash Narayanan, which stands in my altar tonight. Ayyappan is Hariharaputra, the son of Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva), who are seen as pillars here. Vishnu, in his feminine form Mohini, acts as Ayyappan’s mother. This is one of the commonly-quoted examples of queerness in Hindu mythology.

Source: https://abhilashnarayanan.artstation.com/projects/xz4dgX 

The more commonly-worshipped form of Ayyappan is in a yogic posture. But I personally prefer to worship him as the tiger-riding archer, since it points to his origin as an Adivasi deity. 

Here is my syncretic kolam for the occasion. It is built around the six-pointed star representing the Krittikas, Murugan's yantra (sacred symbol), containing the six-letter (ṣaḍakṣara) mantra śaravaṇabhava (written சரவணபவ​ ca-ra-va-ṇa-pa-va in Tamizh, clockwise from top). In general, the number 6 is sacred to Murugan, as I described in my previous post. The name Śara-vaṇa-bhava of Murugan indicates his birth in the vanam (forest) of śara (a kind of tall grass, Tripidium bengalense, called sarkaṇḍā in Hindi). On the outside, there is the five-letter (pañcākṣara) mantra of Shiva, namaḥ śivāya, written in Tamizh as நம​ சிவாய​ na-ma-ci-vā-ya. Normally, Murugan's yantra contains Om in the middle, written as ஓம்/ ௐ. But I have replaced it with the sacred Sikh symbol of Ikk Onkar (One Divine), made of the numeral 1 and the symbol Om, since today is also Gurpurab.

Here is the complete altar:

Finally, here are the lamps I have lit for the occasion. Note the six lamps placed for the Krittikas.

A happy Karttik Purnima, Dev Diwali, Karthigai Deepam and Gurpurab to all! In these dark, confusing times ravaged by diseases, climate change and much more, let us invoke the divine fire for some light and warmth.