On the day we visit the temple, the Lord appears in a dancing pose, the Ananda Tandavam—the Blissful Dance. I am fulfilling my dream of seeing the Chidambaram “Rahasyam,” the secret. My mother has spoken of this secret several times, but she would never tell us what it was all about.

My heart is thumping like a child seeing rain for the first time. We see bronze idols of Lord Shiva with his consort Parvathi. Behind them hangs a curtain, symbolically showing darkness outside, representing ignorance, and bright red inside, indicating wisdom and bliss. Behind the curtain is the Akasa Lingam, or Lingam in Space. A Lingam is a smooth cylindrical structure, supposedly representing Shiva’s phallus. It rests in the centre of a disk—the Yoni—a symbol of divine procreative energy, the gateway of all births, and the emblem of the goddess Shakti.

When the priest opens the curtain, there is no Lingam. We are made to believe there is an invisible Lingam, with golden bilva garlands. This is where Lord Shiva and Parvathi reside—but they are invisible to the naked eye. That everything exists in nothing, is the famous secret.

ahhhh

Kala Ramesh

is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, a mentor, an editor and anthologist, an artist, and a renowned pioneer in the field of haikai literature in India. She is the Founder/Director of Triveni Haikai India, the Founder/Managing Editor of haikuKATHA Journal, and haiku editor of Under the Bashō.

For details, please see Author’s Bio at Writers Edition: Kala Ramesh: Championing the Haikai Tradition in India and Beyond.