Elephant faced god and agastyar

Elephant faced god and agastyar

 

Sage agastayar has a lot of connections with vigneswarar. Both have pot bellies. Agastyar was very short (infact considered to be the height of a thumb!) he is called small sage. Vigneswarar is also called "small formed" – vamana roopa.

 

Vamana-roopa maheswara-putra

Vigna-vinayaka pada namaste ||

 

Vamana roopa means short form – like the vamana avatar of Vishnu. Vakratunda and mahakayam on one side, describes him as a big bodied person, and another side describes him as petite formed. Big and small are both him. He is the atom as well as the universe – that is the principle. Auvaiyar has sung in the ahaval, that he is inside the atom as well as beyond the horizon.

 

In humbi there are 2 big vigneswarar statues. One is ten feet tall and another is 20 feet tall. The names of these gigantic forms are on the contrary vamana roopa (petite form). The name of the 10 feet god is sasivukallu- it means the one who is the size of mustard. The 20 feet one is called kadalaikallu – means that he is the size of a peanut! Do not think why he has such huge statues. In actual fact, it is impossible for any one to make a life size statue for him who envelopes the entire comos. We have tried to make it as big as we can. When compared to his real form these statues are the size of a mustard or peanut – so they humbly kept such names.

 

I told there is a relation between agastyar and vigneswarar. It was vigneswar who came in the form of a crow and toppled the vessel in which Agastayar had locked the river Cauvery. Though at that moment agastayar got angry with the crow, once he realized that it was none other than lord vigneswarar, he became very devoted – to the crow – and to vigneswarar.

 

Let me come to the vatapi matter. Agastayar is an important actor in that. There were two demon brothers called vatapi and ilvalan. I think most of you know his story. These demons were one stage more cruel than other demons who simply kill people, as they cunningly kill saints and eat them. Normally demons devour human meat. That too, they consider the meat of saints who have chanted Vedas and made their bodies pure, as a special sweet. To get these sweets, these two demons will do cunning acts. The elder demon, ilvalan will take the form of a Brahmin and prayerfully invite one of the rishis with all prostration and courtesies to have a meal in his house. The Rishi will also accept. What the demon will do is cook vatapi himself in a way that no one can know that it is meat. Rishis use their intuitive power only when needed. At other times they behave like human beings. Unknowing the cunning act of the demons, they will eat the vatapi meat meal. After the meal, ilvalan will serve the rishis the dessert and ask them to take rest, and call out his brother "vatapi" please come out. Immediately the vatapi who is the form of food in the stomach of the rishi will take the form of a goat at come out piercing the stomach of the rishi, killing the rishi. Afterwards both the demons will happily eat the body of the rishi.

 

After serving a similar meal to agastyar, ilvalan called "vatapi please come out". Agastayar always prays to vignewarar. Therefore, knowing the cunning act of the demon lord vigneswarar blessed his prayer. He blessed agastayar with a trick to counter the call. Immediately agastyar moved his hands on his tummy and said "vatapi already digested". the demon got digested in the by lord in the form of vaisvarana agni in the stomach.

 

On version of the story says that watching this, out of fear ilvalan surrendered at the feet of agastayar, and gave him lots of gold and wealth as his token. Another version says that getting angry at the fact that agastayar digested his brother, ilvalan attacked the sage. The sage threw a small blade of grass at him with a prayer—it attacked and killed him.

 

For allowing him to digest vatapi and do good to the world, agastayar did poojas for vigneswarar. The vigneswarar of that moment got the name "vatapi ganapathi".

 

In tiruvarur there are several Ganesha statues. There is also a vatapi ganapathi. The vatapi ganapatim bhaje in deekshitar's song is this name only. Many mistakenly think of the ganapathi in the thiruchenkattukudi. In the song itself the name of the temple of origin comes. It is the earth principle's temple – tiruvarur. When agastayar was doing his pilgrimage and reached tiruvarur, he installed the vatapi ganapati at the earth principle's place. Let us leave that matter.