Shivalyottam

Shivalayaottam – Running to Shiva Temples on Shivratri

Shivalayaottam is a unique ritual held to 12 Shiva Temples located in Kannyakumari District in Tamil Nadu on Shivratri day. The unique aspect of the Shivalayaottam is that those participating in the running chant Govinda Govinda – Vishnu Nama. Performing Shivalayaottam is considered highly meritorious. The visit to the twelve temples should be completed on the Shivratri day.
The 12 temples are located in Kalkulam and Vilavankodu Taluka in Kannyakumari District. The twelve temples are Tirumala, Tikurichi, Triparappu, Tirunandikara, Ponmana, Pannipakam, Kalkulam, Melamkodu, Tiruvidaykodu, Tiruvithamkodu, Tripannikadu and Tirunattalam.

The running to 12 Shiva Temple is associated with Pandavas, Sri Krishna and the Mahabharata.

Legend has it that Krishna wanted to invite Vyakrapada Muni as chief priest for the Ashwameda Yaga conducted by Pandavas after the Mahabharata war.

However, Vyakrapada Muni was a Shiva devotee and he had anger towards Vishnu. Sri Krishna also wanted to alleviate this hatred – which was ignorance.

Krishna asked Bhima to invite Vyakrapada Muni for the yajna. Krishna also gave 12 Rudraksha to Bhima and a piece of advice.

Bhima approached the Muni who was meditating at a spot named Munimarthottam. As advised by Sri Krishna, to garner the attention of the Muni, Bhima called out Gopala, Gopala.

The muni who was a Shiva Bhakta was angry with someone disturbing his meditation with a Vishnu chant.

The Muni dashed towards Bhima and fearing the curse of the Muni, Bhima started running.

When Muni was about to catch Bhima, he dropped a Rudraksha as directed by Sri Krishna.

Immediately a Shivling came up there. The Muni shed his anger and started offering worship to the Shivling.

When the Muni completed his worship, Bhima approached him again chanting Govinda, Govinda... The Muni got angry again and started chasing Bhima again. When the Muni was about to catch Bhima, he dropped another Rudraksha and a Shivling came up there. The Muni again performed puja.

This running and dropping of Rudraksha continued for another nine times.

Finally, the place where the 12th rudraksha was dropped Sri Krishna appeared as Vishnu before Bhima and as Shiva before Vyakrapada Muni. The spot where Sri Krishna appeared a temple was built and the deity worshipped here is Sankaranarayana.

Sri Krishna was thus able to convince Vyakrapada Muni that Shiva and Vishnu are One.

Vyakrapada Muni agreed to participate in the Ashwameda yaga.

Shivalayaottam is performed in memory of the running performed by Bhima. The temples in the Shivalayaottam are at those places where Bhima dropped the Rudraksha.

Krishnamachari Santhanam

Cork!!

 Have you ever wondered where that cork in your bottle of wine comes from?
The answer is most likely to be Spain or Portugal, here over half of the world's cork is harvested.

In fact it is the National Tree of Portugal. However, unlike other forms of forestry, the production of cork never involves the death of a tree.
Instead, they are gently stripped, leaving a strange but fascinating landscape of denuded trunks.
All of this takes some time.  Cork trees can live to over 200 hundred years but are not
considered ready for their cork to be removed until they are at least 25 years old.

Even then, the first two harvests do not produce cork of the highest quality.

It isn't until the trees are in their forties that they produce premium cork. Once the trees have reached the maturity necessary to produce high quality cork then they will be harvested only every nine years. A tree, in its lifetime, can be harvested (the process is known as extraction) about fifteen times. The cork must, however, be extracted from the trees without causing any lasting harm to them,
otherwise, 9 years later they will be useless. The poor cork which is produced as a result of the first two harvests is known as male cork.  Later extractions provide what is known as gentle cork which is what you will screw out of a wine bottle,the contents of which it helps to flavor.

The extractors must be skilled at their job.  They make two cuts to the tree. The first is horizontal
and is cut around the tree.  This is known as the necklace and the incision is made at a height
around three times the circumference of the tree.

Then a series of vertical cuts are made which are called openings or rulers.

This is the point at which the extractors must use the most strength but at the same time be at their
most gentle.  They push the handle of the axe in to the rulers and pry the cork away.
If you are a fan of badminton, then without cork you would no longer be able to play.  it is a vital
component in the manufacture of shuttlecocks.  More sports rely on it too the centers of baseball
and cricket bats are made of cork.

Cork is also a great material to use for insulation.  It is non-allergenic and easy-to-handle and if it does
catch fire, its fumes are not toxic like man-made insulation materials.
Also used for flooring, bulletin boards and catching sunfish! More amenable to a cork screw , as well.

Krishnamachari Santhanam.