Dear Mr W. Pillai,

I understand your problems. Saivites in S.Africa are purists of a kind  and because  which they do not want to  acknowldge even the worship of Murukan and Vinayaka as part of the Saivite lore.  They worship only Siva and that too in selected archetypal representations. There are more than 60 muurththams of Siva himself but only the Sivalingam, ArththNari and Siva Nadarajah are worshipped in  S Africa. Let me now come to the issue  Annamalai Theebam which is probabaly the meaning of Karthikai Thiibam in S Africa and also in many other parts of the world. . There is small book in my collection about  Vizaa Viratham and PaNtikai, quite interesting , brief and to the point. It mentions that in addition to ThiruvaNNaamalai  it is also celebrated in grand scale in the Thirumurukan centres such as Pazani, Thrisengkoodu Thiruccenthur etc. We must remember that Thrirumurukan is Muruku, Pure Brilliance and hence the Karthikai Thiibam also very relevant for the ThiruMurukan worshippers. The question about these deities being Saivite or not , I'll take up later.

However it is possible that the Annamalai Thiipam  is what is celebrated by the Saivites in SAfrica and there is plenty of references to this in Theevaram itself. One of most meaningful occurs in the First Pathikam itself, that which starts with Thoodudaiya Seviyan. I give the relevant lines below with their meanings in Tamil (TSCII fonts) and follow it up with English paraphrases and  Agamic  Psychological explanation.
 

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 Here Siva is said to have disclosed Himself, not as Rudra one of the trinities but as the Footless and  Headless  Flame to defeat the attempsts of Brahma and Vishnu who wanted to grasp the true essence of BEING in their own ways.  Brahma is said to reach the skies in the form of Swan and Thirumal went  underground in the form of a boar. This traditional explantion does not do full justice to the MEANING implicit in this dream-like myhtology. Seraching through the head is actualy searching through THINKING and REASONING , the kind of intelecctuala activities ascribed to Archetype of Brahma, the God of learning and scholarship and One who ordains the  kaRRaLi, Swathistanam. Exploring through the Leg (ThaaL) ascribed to Vishnu is actually trying to understand BEING through parapatthi, the life feelings and emotions tuned to the maximum such that thinking is totally excluded and which is the diametric opposite of that of thinking and reasoning. BEING cannot be FULLY UNDERSTOOD either through reasonings alone or  the cultivation of feelings alone but only transcending  TRANSCENDING both.

The Flame or Jothilingam stands for the burning of all thaRpOtham , human attempts such as the above and destroying all ego and  allow meekly to be INSTRUCTED by BEING himself as what He is. BEING cannot be Understood unless He GRACES us with that disclosure. «Åý «ÕÇ¡§Ä¾¡ý «Å¨É «È¢Â ÓÊÔõ. We cannat get to understand BEING by any kind of efforts of the human will, the very presence of humal will distancing  the  self from BEING.  One must allow BEING glow from within by making the self PURE by absolving slowly from all the worldly desires.The FIRE is the form BEING that demands the burning to cynders  ALL desires such as those of Brahma and Vishnu, that  kind WILL  from which emerges all worldly desires .
The understanding of BEING, as Meykandar has explained the matter in the sixth and seveth sutras, is neither Sathu nor Asaththu, but rather Sivasaththu. Sivanjaam is not enjoyed within the dichotomies of sathtu and asaththu but rather by transcending them. The Sivanjaanam is ALREADY BURNING but only that we are NOT  cognisant because of the dirty filters in our mental eyes  that either distorts or or blocks off the vision.  The inner impurites, the Mummalam, must be REMOVED to allow the preexistent civanjanam to GLOW  from within in all its majesty. The ANNamalai Thiipam, represents to me this Civanjaanam and reminds us through  this mythological account and celebration of the festival of karthikai the NEED for self ablutions, the need for self purification without which the total submission to self to the  dictates of BENG will be impossible.

Dear W. Pillai  and other readers, please feel free to ask further questions regarding this matter. I'll try my best to clarify myself further. I want to  stop at this so that I remain readable.

Dr Loga

        At 06:19 AM 27-10-99 SAST, you wrote:
Dear loga.
How many versions are there of karthigay dheepam. my saivites friends will not take very kindly to the version that you have given.  I have always heard about Vishnu. Brahma and Siva and  Siva the pillar of light. Please do not misunderstand my probing the issue . I only wish to learn .Also tell me if Ganesha and Murugan feature in Saivism.  Should Saivites worship Ganesha and Murugan. You will  remember the Saivite prayer manual that was launched at the conference  in  Durban in1996which contain many prayers to dieties like Ganasha and  Murugan. Well the gauteng Saivites objected to the inclusion of those  prayers, saying that it is not of Saivism.
Sir your valued comments please.   Did our Nayanmars sing songs about the  dieties mentioned above please if so quote some of them.
thank you kindly.
w.pillay

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