Kantha Sasthi Kavasam Introduction

In religion, there are three parts viz philosophy,
mythology, and ritual. Philosophy is the essence of
religion. It sets forth its basic principles or fundamental
doctrines or tenets, the goal and the means of attaining
it. Mythology explains and illustrates philosophy by
means of legendary lives of real men or supernatural
beings. Ritual gives a still more concrete form to
philosophy so that everyone may understand it. The
Puranas contain various myths. Skanda Purana is one of
the most important of the Puranas.

The Skanda Purana richly illustrates the advent of Lord
Murugan and His Lilas. It states that at one time the
Devas were strongly oppressed by the Asura Sooran, and
his brothers, Tharagan and Singan. Being unable to bear
their ill treatment they prayed to Lord Siva and out of His
abundance of compassion ejected six sparks from his
third eye, the inner eye of intuition and threw them in
the Ganges, but as Ganges could not bear the intensity of
the heat, threw them into the Saravana Poykai. This is
where Lord Murugan was born, hence He is called
Saravanabhavan. The six sparks took the form of six
babies and they were brought up by Karthigai Pengal.
Thus, He is called Karthikeyan. God Mother Umadevi
embraced all together and Lord Subramanya took a form

with six heads and 12 hands. He is also called Guhan,
Murugan, Shanmugan, and Velayutham. Guha’ means
“one who dwells in the cave of the heart” or “In-dweller
of the heart.”
Lord Murugan killed Tharagan and Singan at first. They
represent Karma Mala, and Maya Mala. Soorapathman
represents Anava Mala (ego). According to Saiva
Siddhanta Philosophy, Anava Mala is not completely
destroyed but remains dormant when the soul attains
bliss. Skanda Purana reveals that when Lord
Subramaniya’s Velayutham killed Soorapathman by
splitting his body into two parts, one part took the form
of a cock and adorned His flag, while the other took the
form of a peacock and became His chariot.
Soorapathman was killed by Lord Murugan on the Sashti
Day i.e. the Sixth day after the new moon in the month
of Ipasi (October—November). That is the day on which
He bestowed boon on all His devotees. All the six days
including the Sashti day are regarded as auspicious days
for worship and all those who fast and pray to Lord
Murugan receive special boons from Him. It is said
devotees who fast on all six days get the following exils
eradicated: Kama (desire), Grotha (anger), Loba
(miserliness), Moha (avariciousness), Matha (ego), and
Macharium (jealousy).

Lord Murugan is another manifestation of Lord Siva –
born as a ray of light from Sivan’s pure consciousness.
Valli and Deivayanai are His two wives. They represent
the power of will (ichcha-sakthi) and the power of action
(kriya-sakthi), respectively. The six heads represent the
six rays or attributes. They also indicate Murugan’s
control over the five organs of Knowledge as well as the
mind. That His head is turned in all directions signifies He
is all-pervading. They indicate that He can multiply and
assume forms at His will.

Kanthar Sashti Kavasam is a famous Tamil hymn in
praise of Lord Murugan. It is composed by Sri Devaraya
Swamigal and helps one to obtain the grace of the Lord.
It is sung particularly on festive occasions, such as during
Kanthar Sashti in October-November. When chanted
daily with concentration and devotion, the kavasam
serves as a protective ‘armour’ for devotees and confers
great spiritual and material benefits. This rare and
valuable treasure helps one to be successful in our daily
lives.

Lalitha Navarthna malai

Lalitha Navarthna malai by Guruji Swami Haridas Giri


Gyana ganesha sharanam sharanam
Gyana skandha sharanam sharanam
Gyana sathguru sharanam sharanam
Gyanaanandaa sharanam sharanam

Kaappu

Aakkum thozhil aiyindanatranalam
Pookkum nagaiyaal bhuvanesvari paal
Serkum navarathina malai inaik
Kaakkum gananagayava ranamey

Vairam

Katrum theliyaar kaadegathiyai
Kan moodi nedung kanavaana thavam
Petrum theriyaar ninaiyennil avam
Perugum pizhaiyen pesaththagumo

Patrum vayira padaival vayirap
Paghaivarkemanaga yeduththavalaey
Vatraadha arut chunaiye varuvai
Matha jaya om lalithaam bhigaiye

Neelam

Moolakkanaley sharanam sharanam
Mudiyaa mudaley sharanam sharanam
Kolak kiliye sharanam sharanam
Kundraadaoli kuvaiye sharanam
Neelath thirumeniyiley ninaivai
Ninaivatreliyen nindren
Vaalaikkumari varuvai varuvai
Matha jaya om lalithaam bhigaye

Muthu
Muththey varummuththozhilatridavey
Mun nindralum mudalvii sharanam
Viththey vilaivey sharanam sharanam
Vedaantha nivasiniye sharanam
Thaththeyriyanaan danayan thaai nee
Sagaadha varam tharavey varuvai
Maththeyrudhadik kinaivaazh vudaiyen
Matha jaya om lalithaam bhighaye

Pavazham

Andhi mayangiya vanavi dhaanam
Annai nadam seyiyum aanandha media
Sindhai niram pavazham pozhiparoar
Thembozhilaamidhu seidhavaLaaro
Yendha idaththum manaththum iruppaal
Yennuvavar karuL yennam mighizhthaL
Mandira vedamayapporulaanaal
Matha jaya om lalithaam bhighaye

Manikkam
Kaanak kidaiyaak gathiyanavaley
Karudhak kidaiya kalaiyanavaley
Poonak kidaiyai puviyanavaley
Pudumaik kidaiyai pudumaiththavaley
Naanith thirunaamumnin thudiyum
Navila thavarai nadaathavaley
Maanikka oli kadirey varuvai
Matha jaya om lalithambhigaiye

Maraghadam

Maragadha vadivey sharanam sharanam
Madhuridhapadamey sharanam sharanam
Surapadipaniyath thigazhvai sharanam
Sruthijathi layamey isaiye sharanam
Hara hara shiva yendradiyavar kuzhuma
Avararul pera arulamudhey sharanam
Varanava nidhiye sharanam sharanam
Matha jaya om lalithaam bhigaye

Komedhagam

Bhoomeyviyanaan puriyum seyalgal
Pondraa payanum kundra varamum
Theemel idinum jaya sakthiyena
Didamaai adiyen mozhiyum thiranum
Komedhagame kulirvaan nilavey
Kuzhal vaai mozhiye varuvai tharuvai
Maameruviley valar kokilamey

Padhmaragham

Ranjini nandhini angina padhuma
Raaghavi kaasavi yaabhini ambha
Sanjala rogha nivarini vaani
Saambhavi Chandra kaladhari rani
Anjana meni alankruda poorani
Amrutha swaroopini nidhiya kalyaani
Manjula meru sringha nivaasini
Matha jaya om lalithambhigaiye

Vaidhooryam

Valaiyoththavinai kalaiyoththa manam
Marulapparaiyaa roliyoth thavidaal
Nilaiyatreliyen mudiyath thaghumo
NighaLam thughaLaaga varam tharuvai
Alaiyatr asaivartraanubhoothi perum
Adiyaar mudivaazh vaidhooriyamey
Malayaththuvasan maghaley varuvai
Matha jayaom lalithaam bhigaye

Payan

Yevar yethinamum isaivai
Lalitha navarathna malai navindriduvaar
Avar arputha sakthi yellam adaivaar
Shivarathnamaai thigazhvar avarey

The 10 Vedicpractices, Niyama

Niyama 1 - Remorse, Hri
Allow yourself the expression of remorse, being modest
and showing shame for misdeeds. Recognize your
errors, confess and make amends. Sincerely apologize
to those hurt by your words or deeds. Resolve all contention
before sleep. Seek out and correct your faults and
bad habits. Welcome correction as a means to bettering
yourself. Do not boast. Shun pride and pretension.
Moderate Appetite, Mitahara

Niyama 2 - Contentment, Santosha
Nurture contentment, seeking joy and ser enity
in life. Be happy, smile and uplift others. Live
in constant gratitude for
your health, your friends and your belongings, Don’t
complain about what you don’t possess. Identify with
the eternal You, rather than mind, body or emotions.
Keep the mountaintop view that life is an opportunity
for spiritual progress.

Niyama 3 - Giving, Dana
Be generous to a fault, giving
liberally without thought of reward. Tithe, offering onetenth
of your gross income (dashamamsha), as God’s
money, to temples, ashrams and spiritual organizations.
Approach the temple with offerings. Visit gurus with gifts
in hand. Donate religious literature. Feed and give to those
in need. Bestow your time and talents without seeking
praise. Treat guests as God.

Niyama 4 - Faith, Astikya
Cultivate an unshakable
faith. Believe fi rmly in God, Gods, guru and your path
to enlightenment. Trust in the words of the masters,
the scriptures and traditions. Practice devotion
and sadhana to inspire experiences that build
advanced faith. Be loyal to your lineage, one with your
satguru. Shun those who try to break your faith by
argument and accusation.

Niyama 5 - Worship, Ishvara-Pujana
Cultivate devotion through
daily worship and meditation. Set aside one room of
your home as God’s shrine. Offer fruit, fl owers or food
daily. Learn a simple puja and the chants. Meditate after
each puja. Visit your shrine before and after leaving the
house. Worship in heartfelt devotion, clearing the inner
channels to God, Gods and guru so their grace fl ows
toward you and loved ones.

Niyama 6 - Scriptural Listening, Siddhanta Shravana
Eagerly hear the scriptures,
study the teachings and listen to the wise of your
lineage. Choose a guru, follow his path and don’t waste
time exploring other ways. Read, study and, above all,
listen to readings and dissertations
by which wisdom fl ows from knower to seeker.
Avoid secondary texts that preach violence. Revere and
study the revealed scriptures, the Vedas and Agamas.

Niyama 7 - Cognition, Mati
Develop a spiritual will and
intellect with your satguru’s guidance. Strive for knowledge
of God, to awaken the light within. Discover the
hidden lesson in each experience
to develop a profound understanding of life and
yourself. Through meditation, cultivate intuition by
listening to the still, small voice within, by understanding
the subtle sciences, inner worlds and mystical texts.

Niyama 8 - Sacred Vows, Vrata
Embrace religious vows, rules
and observances and never waver in fulfi lling them.
Honor vows as spiritual contracts
with your soul, your community, with God, Gods
and guru. Take vows to harness
the instinctive nature. Fast periodically. Pilgrimage
yearly. Uphold your vows strictly, be they marriage,
monasticism, nonaddiction, tithing, loyalty to a lineage,
vegetarianism or nonsmoking.

Niyama 9 - Recitation, Japa
Chant your holy mantra daily,
reciting the sacred sound, word or phrase given by
your guru. Bathe fi rst, quiet the mind and concentrate
fully to let japa harmonize, purify and uplift you. Heed
your instructions and chant the prescribed repetitions
without fail. Live free of anger so that japa strengthens
your higher nature. Let japa quell emotions and
quiet the rivers of thought.

Niyama 10 - Austerity, Tapas
Practice austerity, serious
disciplines, pen ance and sacrifice. Be ardent in worship,
meditation and pilgrimage. Atone for misdeeds through
penance (prayashchitta), such as 108 prostrations or
fasting. Perform self-denial, giving up cherished possessions,
money or time. Fulfi ll severe aus terities at special
times, under a satguru’s guidance, to ignite the inner
fi res of self-transformation.

Hinduism’s Code of Conduct

How often do you see a professional team of people
misbehave on the job? You’re on a fl ight from San Francisco
to Singapore. Do the fl ight attendants bicker in the
aisle? Of course not. People at this level of business have
control of their minds and emotions. If they
didn’t, they would soon be replaced. When they are
on the job, at least, they follow a code of conduct
spelled out in detail by the corporation. It’s not unlike
the moral code of any religion, outlining sound
ethics for respect and harmony among humans.
Those seeking to be successful in life strive to fulfi
ll a moral code whether “on the job” or off. Does
Hinduism and its scriptures on yoga have such a
code? Yes: twenty ethical guidelines called yamas
and niyamas, “restraints and observances.” These
“do’s” and “don’ts” are found in the 6,000 to 8,000-
year-old Vedas, mankind’s oldest body of scripture,
and in other holy texts expounding the path of yoga.

The yamas and niyamas are a common-sense
code recorded in the fi nal section of the Vedas, called Upanishads,
namely the Shandilya and the Va ru ha. They are also
found in the Hatha Yoga Pra dipika by Gorakshanatha, the Tirumantiram
of Tirumular and in the Yoga Sutras of Pa tanjali. The
yamas and niyamas have been preserved through the centuries
as the foundation, the fi rst and second stage, of the eight-staged
practice of yoga. Yet, they are fundamental to all beings, expected
aims of everyone in society, and assumed to be fully intact for
anyone seeking life’s highest aim in the pursuit called yoga. Sage
Patanjali (ca 200 bce), raja yoga’s foremost propounder, told us,
“These yamas are not limited by class, country, time (past, present
or future) or situation. Hence they are called the
universal great vows.” Yogic scholar Swami Brahmananda
Saras wati revealed the inner science of
yama and niyama. They are the means, he said,
to control the vitarkas, the cruel mental waves or
thoughts, that when acted upon result in injury to
others, untruthfulness, hoarding, discontent, indolence
or selfi shness. He stated, “For each vitarka
you have, you can create its opposite through yama
and niyama, and make your life successful.”
The following paragraphs, with accompanying
illustrations by A. Manivel of Chennai, elucidate
the yamas and niyamas. Presented fi rst are the ten
yamas, the do not’s, which harness the instinctive
nature, with its governing impulses of fear, anger,
jealousy, selfi shness, greed and lust. Second are illustrated the
ten ni yamas, the do’s, the religious observances that cultivate
and bring forth the refi ned soul qualities, lifting awareness into
the consciousness of the higher chakras of love, compassion, selflessness,
intelligence and bliss. Together the yamas and niyamas
provide the foundation to support our yoga practice so that attainments
in higher consciousness can be sustained.


T H E 10 V E D I C R E ST R A I N TS , YA M A


Yama 1 - Noninjury, Ahimsa
Practice noninjury, not harming others by thought, word
or deed, even in your dreams. Live a kindly life, revering
all beings as expressions of the One Divine energy. Let
go of fear and insecurity, the sources of abuse. Knowing
that harm caused to others unfailingly returns to oneself,
live peacefully with God’s creation. Never be a source
of dread, pain or injury. Follow a vegetarian diet.

Yama 2 - Truthfulness, Satya
Adhere to truthfulness, refraining from lying and
betraying promises. Speak only that which is true, kind,
helpful and necessary. Knowing that deception creates
distance, don’t keep secrets from family or loved ones.
Be fair, accurate and frank in discussions, a stranger to
deceit. Admit your failings. Do not engage in slander, gossip
or backbiting. Do not bear false witness against another.

Yama 3 - Nonstealing, Asteya
Uphold the virtue of nonstealing, neither thieving, coveting
nor failing to repay debt. Control your desires and
live within your means. Do not use borrowed resources
for unintended purposes or keep them past due.
Do not gamble or defraud others. Do not renege on
promises. Do not use others’ names, words, resources or
rights without permission and acknowledgement.

Yama 4 - Divine Conduct, Brahmacharya
Practice divine conduct, controlling lust by remaining
celibate when single and faithful in marriage. Before
marriage, use vital energies in study, and after marriage in
creating family success. Don’t waste the sacred force by
promiscuity in thought, word r deed. Be restrained with
the opposite sex. Seek holy ompany. Dress and speak
modestly. Shun pornography, exual humor and violence.

Yama 5 - Patience, Kshama
Exercise patience, restraining ntolerance with people
and impatience with circumstances.
Be agreeable. Let others behave according
to their nature, without adjusting to you. Don’t argue,
dominate conversations or interrupt others. Don’t be in
a hurry. Be patient with children
and the elderly. Minimize stress by keeping worries
at bay. Remain poised in good times and bad.

Yama 6 - Steadfastness, Dhriti
Foster steadfastness, overcoming
nonperseverance, fear, indecision and changeableness.
Achieve your goals with a prayer, purpose, plan,
persistence and push. Be fi rm in your decisions. Avoid
sloth and procrastination. Develop willpower, courage
and industriousness. Overcome obstacles. Never
carp or complain. Do not let
opposition or fear of failure result in changing strategies.

Yama 7 - Compassion, Daya
Practice compassion, conquering
callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all
beings. See God ev erywhere. Be kind to people, animals,
plants and the Earth itself.
Forgive those who apologize and show true remorse.
Foster sympathy for others’ needs and suffering. Honor
and assist those who are weak, impoverished, aged
or in pain. Oppose family abuse and other cruelties.

Yama 8 - Honesty, Arjava
Maintain honesty, renouncing
deception and wrongdoing. Act honorably even in
hard times. Obey the laws of your nation and locale.
Pay your taxes. Be straightforward in business. Do an
honest day’s work. Do not bribe or accept bribes. Do
not cheat, deceive or circumvent
to achieve an end. Be frank with yourself. Face
and accept your faults without blaming them on others.

Yama 9 - Moderate Appetite, Mitahara
Be moderate in appetite,
neither eating too much nor consuming meat, fi sh,
shellfi sh, fowl or eggs. Enjoy fresh, wholesome vegetarian
foods that vitalize the body. Avoid junk food. Drink in
moderation. Eat at regular times, only when hungry,
at a moderate pace, never between meals, in a disturbed
atmosphere or when upset. Follow a simple diet,
avoiding rich or fancy fare.

Yama 10 - Purity, Saucha
Uphold the ethic of purity, avoiding impurity in mind,
body and speech. Maintain a clean, healthy body. Keep
a pure, uncluttered home and workplace. Act virtuously.
Keep good company, never mixing with adulterers,
thieves or other impure
people. Keep away from pornography and violence.
Never use harsh, angered or indecent language. Worship
devoutly. Meditate daily.