Hall of consciousness

[Guest guest]

The world famous Nataraja temple in Chidambaram holds the key to Saiva siddhantha truth.It enshrines two halls.

The kanaka Sabha or the Golden hall of dance enshrines god in the form of the visible entity Nataraja in his cosmic dance posture and the ChitSabha or the hall of consciousness enshrines god as invisible entity.

 

The god in the hall of consciousness is hidden behind two screens, one screen is visible to our eyes and the other screen is invisible to our eyes. The invisible screen is the Maya or illusion.

We can see the truth only when we successfully lift the invisible screen.

 

This is the famous "Chidambara Rahasyam".

 

In the temple, the golden hall is decorated with vast quantities of gold and silver while the hall of consciousness is made of wood.

Gold represents attachment and wood represents detachment from material pleasures.

[Guest guest]

do you have any pictures? i would luv to see what it looks like.

[Guest guest]

Unfortunately cameras are not allowed inside the temple, so I couldn't take photos myself.

 

But you can go to www.templenet.com. This is a wonderfull and regulary updated website and is really an encyclopedia of Indian temple history and architecture.

 

It is maintained by an NRI residing in USA. She developed interest in knowing more about our culture and history right from her childhood thanks to the interesting stories her grandmother used to tell her.

 

We need more grandmas like her /images/graemlins/smile.gif