I recently had been to the hill shrine of Sabarimala for a couple of times.  I am religious ofcourse but this Ayyappa cult was incredible tome. Every year I saw thousand of devotees from all over India, rich, powerful and the poor thronging to this hill shrine during the major two events - Mandala Pooja in late December and Makara Vilakku in Middle of January. They observe 48 days penance- a majority of them even though this has now been reduced to bear minimum. One was to live a life of Sanyasi through out this period, keeping away from marital life, conducting poojas morning and evening, walk bare foot, and observe fasting. Well I did not observe this long period of penance. But I went to Sabarimala. I went to Pamba at the foothills of the holy shrine and like other Ayyappa Devotees took up trekking the 3-4 Km arduous hill route to reach the shrine. Many people take what is called peruvazhi( longer route) that starts from Chalakkayam( Erumeli) to Sabarimala. the experience was blissful. I am sure anyone who undertakes this journey will vouch for the fact that this trekking makes you feel that you are just one of the many species that God has ordained to be born. In olden days, journey to Sabarimala was lot more difficult with forest animals disturbing the journey. I am told that people undertaking this yatra were not sure of coming back. But still Ayyappa had devotees thronging his shrine year after year. 

The idol is absolutely charming that you will feel to have a glimpse of it again and again. there were many rituals like bathing the idol using 8 different ways using Sacred Ash, Ghee,Honey, Sandalwood paste, Turmeric, Milk, Panchamirtha( mixure of banana,honey, Jaggery, Candy) Rose water etc. The Melsanthi does an eloborate pooja and evey year there are rituals like aarattu( when Lord goes for hunting) Wearing of golden ankles brought from royal family of pandalam( Ayyappa is the adopted son of Pandala Raja) and the festivities are done to the accompaniment of Panchavadhya- a collection of 5 musical instruments including the percussion instrument Chenda. All these rituals promote the faith in the lord. an interesting feature of Ayyappa darshan is the communal harmony that this preaches and practises. Wavar, a Muslim friend of the Lord is given equal importance. Any one going to Sabarimala for the first time needs to go to Mosque of Wavar at Erimeli and worship. They were supposed to take bow and arrows from there and come to the shrine of Ayyappa in a procession called Pettai thullal. Even in the hill shrine, there is a sannadhi for Wavar. Muslim descendents of Wavar give away sacred ash to Ayyappa devotees. May be these people can solve the Ayodhya issue permanently. 

My purpose of writing this blog post is to impress the need to have rituals in order to promote our faith in the creator of this earth. Rituals make you get involved in religion all the more seriously even though rituals by themselves may not make the religion perfect.