Muneeswarar or Karuppar.........

Aum Namah Shivaya.......

No Karuppar discussion is complete without mentioning his illustrious counterpart , The Great Muneeswaran.These two great guardian gods are as similar as they are different and if you dig deep into their character and history , it will be easy to find out why.

Karuppargal are an araka/asura amsam , extremely fierce in their martial arts and fighting ways , very dedicated in bhakti and meditation but also having very similar emotions to us humans. It is the reason that human beings can relate so much to them, for they understand human emotions and logic pretty well.

The Muneeswarargal on the other hand are a Deiva amsam , holding the name of eeswaran in their name itself. Only two other legendary figures in history had that pathavi , Lord Saneeswaran , the one who judges us all , and Lord Ravaneeswaran , one of Lord Shiva’s greatest devotees at one time.

The difference between Karuppars and Muneeswarars is further illustrated in this famous short story.

A man went to see Muniswaran and Karuppar for a problem regarding his workplace. He first went to muneeswaran , who asked him , what wrong you did at the workplace first? He then went to karuppar who settled the issue by giving problem to the guy at the workplace giving problem to the man, thereby solving the man’s problem.

As you can see, they both have different styles of working. Karuppar being an asura amsam having human tendencies , feels for us more and tries to settle our base problems as quickly as possible. Muneeswaran , being a deiva amsam, tries to fix our own flaws and push us past our human tendencies.

Though they have different styles of working , they respect each other for their specialities greatly.There is a reason why Muneeswaran worship was first established in The Malaysian and Singapore region. And that worship brought along the Karuppar worship here.

Years ago , karuppar was worshipped as an extra deity to those who worshipped Munis. But now , Karuppar worship is going even past that of the munis. The munis had a reason for bringing the karuppargal here , and establishing their worship, which will be revealed to devotees in the near future.

Getting back to muneeswaran worship , a very sad scene has developed in the worship tradition that i would like to talk about today. A great myth has been perpetuated and spread all over. They have an illustrious history that has been hidden and a fake story has been given prominence.

Many are familiar with the Dhakshan story , the father of Shakti , who humiliated her during a yagam by not inviting Lord Shiva , and for that Mother Shakti gave her life up. The yagam was then ended by Lord Shiva’s army led by the fierce Maha Kali and Veerabhadran, who cut off Dhakshan’s head and threw it into the sacrificial fire.

That is a great story from our ancient history.

But people have modified that story for their own purposes.

There is a famous myth going around our region that the Munis history came from that legend too. That is a great lie.

If one searches the puranas and other ancient text that mention’s the Dhakshan story , no where is muneeswaran mentioned there.

So why did this myth came about?

Certain sects of ayyars (priests), wanting to structure Muneeswaran worship as Shivan worship created this story. They use Lord Shiva’s mantras in temple worship place of the true Muneeswaran mantras that can be found in the many villages in India.

Of course Muneeswaran accepts Shiva mantras. He himself is a devotee of Lord Shiva. But wouldnt it be better if we gave our great warrior god his own mantra , that are already around in India?

Muneeswaran is From Shivan. But Shivan Is Not Muneeswaran. Muneeswaran is a drop from the Great Lord Shiva. But even he will be the first to say he is different from him.

The muni clan is vast , with over 108 Munis. They came from the Pandi Muniyaandi vamsam. In fact , in ancient days , nobody knew the name muneeswaran , they were all called as Muniyaandi rather than muniswaran. Later on , due to a request to Lord Shiva , they were allowed to adopt the name Eeswaran into their back of their true name.

Most of the Muneeswarans came from the various parts of the Great Lord Shiva himself. The very famous Jada Muniandi ( now prayed to as jada muni or sada muni ) came from the Jadai (hair) of Eesan himself. He is the great shadow that is always behind Lord Shiva, so you can imagine how great a power he really is.

Raja muni , one of the munis holding the highest pathavi at the moment among muneeswarans (muniyaandis) also came directly from Shiva. There is a famous portrait of him seated in a yogic post , with black hair and gold moustache. In fact he has white hair and gold moustache , and in many trance sessions , you can see other gods calling him the “kelaivan” (old man) .