Online Event, India Habitat Centre, 20th May, 2023
Talk and Screening of Film Produced for Doordarshan.
By Benoy K Behl
Introduction by Sujata Chatterji 00:05; Subject Intro 02:30; Film 08:10; Talk and Q&A 30:52
The great Meenakshi temple is like a city in itself. It has two shrines, one to Shiva and one to Parvati: Parvati as Meenakshi, the beautiful one, the fish-eyed one.
There are great festivals in this temple: annual festivals, monthly ones, even daily festivals. One of the wonderful daily festivals is in the evening, when Shiva is taken, with a great deal of fanfare, to the shrine of Parvati, where he will spend the night with her. In the morning, they are woken up with sweet bhajans and Shiva is then taken back to his own shrine. (As you might imagine, this temple is a great favorite with honeymooning couples.)
It is wonderful to see how humanly and with how much warmth Lord Shiva and Parvati are treated.
The Meenakshi Temple at Madurai is a world complete in itself. Within its vast spaces, we are taken far from the confusions and concerns of the material world. It celebrates the divinity which is in all aspects of life. The ancient rituals of the temple awaken the sense of joy which can be found deep inside us. A sense of joy which colors our lives completely.
25 май 2023
