The celebrations of Skanda Shasti Brahmotsav

At the Dhyanapeetam ashram, Skanda Shasti Brahmotsav celebrations continued today with Lord Subramaniya being taken on a procession in his golden palanquin specially decorated for this occasion. Procession started at 6pm from Raja Sabha. At the Sri Nithyanandeshwara temple Subramaniya received the Divine spear from Devi Nithyanandeshwari and the procession returned to Raja Saba, one of our meditation halls. In the Hindu mythology, Goddess Parvati presented the Vel to her son Murugan (another name for the Lord Subramaniya) as an emobodiment of her Shakthi (Power and Energy) to vanquish the evil asura Soorapadman. According to the Skanda Purana and its Tamil version, Kanda Puranam, in the war between Murugan and Soorapadman, Murugan used his Vel (spear) to defeat all the evil forces of Soorapadman. When a complete defeat for Soorapadman was imminent, the asura transformed himself in to a huge mango tree to evade detection by Murugan. Murugan, not falling for the deception, hurled his Vel and split the mango tree in to two halves, one becoming a rooster and the other a peacock. Murugan, henceforth, had the peacock as his Vahanam and the rooster became the emblem on his battle flag. The Vel became the symbol of courage and of the triumph of good over evil.