Worship The Vayu Lingam At Srikalahasti

Worship The Vayu Lingam at Srikalahasti

We have all visited the holy shrine of Tirupati. There is another temple just 36 kms away. It is Srikalahasti temple. This is the temple we are going to discover today. The presiding deity of the temple is Lord Shiva who blesses the devotees as Vayu Linga. The Lord here is known as Srikalahasteeswara. The temple was constructed in the 12th century by the Chola Kings.

Mythology states that, this was the place where a great devotee of Lord Shiva, Kannappa was ready to offer both his eyes to stop the blood coming from the Shiva Lingam. This act filled with devotion, pleased Lord Shiva and he granted salvation to Kannappa. The Srikalahasti temple is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams. Interestingly the temple is home to a small miracle. In the inner sanctum there is a lamp that remains lit, despite the lack of air within. Here too, the lingam is considered to be swayambhu ligam or self manifested.

Another interesting fact of the Srikalahasti temple is that, despite constant abhishekam [form of worship] with a mixture of water, milk, camphor, panchamrita, sandal paste and flowers, the Vayu Linga remains untouched. There is a story describing the origin of the Srikalahasti temple which also explains its unique name. Lord Shiva was being worshipped by a snake, an elephant and spider in their own ways. The elephant sprayed water from the nearby river, to keep the remises clean for god. The spider created a web to protect the Lord from dust and all weather conditions. Finally, the snake put a precious gem on the lingam to adorn the Lord.

In this way each of them was serving Lord Shiva, without knowledge of the others doing the same. One day all of their services interfered with each other and they killed each other in a fit of anger. Observing their devotion, Lord Shiva granted the salvation and said that they will have their names will be merged. As a result he brought together Sri [spider], Kala [snake] and Hasti [elephant] and came to be known as Srikalahasteeswara. In the next life, the spider was born as a kind and he decided that all the temples built by him should not be accessible to elephants. Therefore Srikalahasti temple has a narrow passage leading to the main deity of the temple. Interesting, isn’t it? Hope you enjoyed reading about the Srikalahasti temple.

- Kruti Beesam