The Golden-Lotus Pond

Madurai – “Primal Heaven on earth” (‘Boolokha Sivalokham’); The “Golden-Lotus Pond” even pre-dates the rivers Ganges and Kaveri; Agasthya explains the 64 ‘Lilas’ or 64 Divine Sports played by the Lord in Madurai; ‘Iravatham’ the White Elephant of Indra the Lord of the Angels cursed to be born on earth and Salvation by bathing in the holy pond The Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple’s Sivalinga and its ‘Golden-Lotus Pond’ (‘Porthamarai Kulam’) are said to be the oldest and foremost ones in not just the earth but in the seven upper and seven lower worlds. The Golden-lotus pond dates back to even before the creation of the holy river Ganges and Kaveri according to the holy Sage Agasthya himself . Agasthya mentions this fact in the introduction

They were blessed and fortunate enough to get such an exemplary person as ‘Thilagavathy Rajasekar’ to be their guide for she was an expert (and author of the ‘Thiruvilayadal Puranam’ in modern simple Tamil),scholar and devotee of the Lord as well as an ardent devotee of the Siddhar of Thiruvannamalai Sri Ramsuratkumar as well as the living-Saint Sri Muralidhara Swami who in fact released her book in 1986. Thilagavathy explained to them in brief about the greatness of the Thiruvilayadal Puranam and the temple’s antiquity and said that even the first ‘Padalam’ or chapter of the Purana begins in ‘Indralokha’ or heaven being the realm of Lord Indra the Lord of the ‘Devas’ or ‘Angels’ and ends at the very spot they now stood. Indra was returning to heaven after winning a battle over the ‘Asuras’ or ‘Titans’ and he was filled with pride and with great pomp was majestically riding the heavenly single-tusked white elephant ‘Iravatham’. Even as he was entering his capital city ‘Amaravathy’ surrounded by his four types of troops (foot-soldiers,horse-mounted,chariots and elephant-mounted soldiers),the Divine-Sage ‘Dhurvasa’ in the midst of the mighty rich and famous presented with piety and

Dhanjeyan as luck and fate deemed it,had lots of high quality perfumes and other holy articles like ‘Athar’(a highly-valued perfume)sandal-oil,turmeric,camphor,sandal-paste etcetera with him which he presented to the holy devas that were therefore utilized in the puja worship. The whole night was spent in such a way and everyone was revelling in the ecstatic-joy that was ever present in the vicinity of the Lord. Even as dawn started to break all of a sudden all the Devas had vanished with only Dhananjeyan present before the Lord. After circumambulating the Lord many times with hands raised above his head in prayer with tears of joy streaming down his face,Dhananjeya with great reluctance left the Lord to return home. Dhanjeyan immediately went to the palace met the King and reported with great joy the sighting of the Lord and the performance of continuous prayers and pujas by all the devas for the entire night. That very night the Lord appeared in the dream of the King and asked him to clear the kadamba forest and raise a beautiful city filled with many temples containing innumerable sacrificial-altars and divine ponds. The Lord repeatedly appeared in the King’s dreams as a Siddhar and guided him on how he was to lay the various tracks,roads,temples and towers in the leveled land and thus creating a beautiful