Soorasamharam is the final day of Skanda Sashti dedicated to Lord Muruga. This is dedicated to the killing of the demon Soorapadman by Lord Muruga with his vel. In the year 2022, Soorasamharam is celebrated on October 30.
According to legend Soorapadman was a demon and had acquired tremendous powers and also had obtained the boon of immortality. However he started tormenting the Gods and this created havoc in the Universe. All the Gods approached Lord Shiva to help them. Then Lord Shiva created Lord Muruga with the flames emanating from his third eye. Muruga then received the Vel from Parvati. Then Muruga was ready to fight Soorapadman.
The demon fought for sometime and then sensing that his defeat was inevitable, he turned himself into a tree. Lord Muruga then split the tree into half with his Vel and the tree halves transformed into a cock and a peacock. Muruga made peacock as his vehicle and the image of the cock he embeded into his flag. This event is called Soorasamharam.
On the day of Soorasamharam, devotees gather in thousands in Muruga temples and offer puja to the Lord. This day is celebrated as the victory of the good over the evil.
Lord Muruga is very popular especially among the tamil community all over the world. Soorasamharam is observed in all the Muruga temples in South India, Malaysia and across the world.
This festival is widely celebrated in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka and in Kerala at the temples of Lord Murugan. This year the festival would be celebrated on 20th November 2020. During this festival event, Lord Murugan would be killing the demon Surapadman using his divine weapon Vel, a kind of spear. Pujas and Abhishekham would be done in all the Murugan Temples during the SooraSamharam day.
Large number of devotees would gather in Murugan temples to witness the division vision of Lord Muruga. Some Murugan devotees would even observe fasting on the day of SooraSamhaaram, and only after the completion of this festival event, they would break their fast, by consuming Murugan’s Holy Prasad Milk and Panchamirtham, a mixture of fruits.
In Palani, SooraSamharam is grandly celebrated and large number of devotees from all over Tamil Nadu would attend this wonderful function. At the time of this event, Lord Muruga would be dressed in costly garments, and he would be adorned with beautiful flower garlands. After the completion of the SooraSamhaaram event, Prasad items would be offered to all the devotees, and even in some Murugan temples, free wholesome meals would be provided to all the devotees.Lord Muruga is a warrior god, and by worshipping him, we would get braveness, and would be free from enemy related problems, problems from diseases and black magic etc.
“OM MURUGA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR