Jaya Jaya Kaamaakshi, Jaya Jayaadhri Suthae
Jaya Jaya Mahesha Dhayithae
Jaya Jaya chidh gagana kaumudhee dhaarae
Goddess Kaamaakshi is an incarnation of the divine mother Parvathi, who turned black upon accepting all the sins of the earthly humans and relieving their sufferings. She could not bear the load of the sins and prayed to Lord shiva, who asked her to perform meditation and the goddess descended upon earth and chose Kanchi as the centre or navel of the earth as her abode to propitiate Lord Shiva.
She built a sand idol of the shiva linga and began her prayers, she meditated upon him for years and one day there was flood that was fast approaching like a huge wave, upon seeing this, the Goddess did not think about her, but, about her loving shiva linga made of mud and she hugged the linga to protect it. The flood waters went all around her, but, the linga remained intact. Lord Shiva became pleased with Parvathi's (Kaamaakshi) devotion and blessed her, which turned her back into her golden form. The Goddess sat there in front of the linga with sugarcane in her hands wearing a red saree, with paashaankusha in other hands with a chandhra bimba on her crowned head, looking glorious and divine in all her splendour.
Several years back, when the devas and asuras churned the ocean, the divine amritha (nectar) had emerged from the ocean, with Lord dhanvanthri holding the amrit in his hands. After this divine episode, all the trinities and the devas returned to their abodes, when sri lakshmi was laughing loudly at maha vishnu's doings at the milk ocean churning. She made fun of vishnu and said that he looks good only as mohini, otherwise, she herself does not know how she ended up marrying the blue lord vishnu. This enraged vishnu and cursed sri lakshmi which turned her black. She immediately felt the sufferings of the black form, the human sufferings borne by her now, and she began pleading lord vishnu to forgive her for her sarcastic remarks. Lord Vishnu asked Lakshmi to goto Kanchi and perform meditation and pray to Kaamaakshi who is in her golden form and propitiate her. When lakshmi arrived to propitiate her, Kaamaakshi asked her to stand by her left side, and Lakshmi performed all her prayers sincerely, soon, she also turned into her golden form. Both Kaamaakshi and Lakshmi invited Goddess Saraswathi to join them, who stood on their right in golden form.
All the three trinitiy goddesses shone in all splendour at Kanchi, the devas, the rishis, yakshas, gandharvas, naagas arrived there to shower flowers. The three trinities arrived, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva, Shiva came in the form of Ekaamranaatha and the gods asked Ekaamranaatha to accept Kaamaakshi as his wife and take her back to her abode in the Kailash, and a divine marriage once again took place in all glory.
It is believed that the power of Kaamaakshi is still prevailing at Kanchi in her idols and being served with fervent faith, even today. The Adi Shankara was the 1st guru in this kaliyuga to propitiate Kaamaakshi.
When the 7th guru was the head of the mutt, there used to be a deaf and dumb man, who mostly cleaned the insides of the Kaamaakshi temple, cleared the previous pooja nirmaalyams, fetched water and flowers for daily worship and cooked food for the 7th guru and his disciples and took care of the temple surroundings every day sincerely. Several years passed and the deaf and dumb man did his duties sincerely without fail.
One day, the 7th guru and his disciples left for yatra and there was no one in the temple, the dumb and deaf man, did his duties as usual, arranged for fresh pooja, fetched water and flowers, filled the pooja bowls with turmeric and kumkums and rose water. He got everything in place as usual and there was no one to do pooja in the temple. The man sat in a corner after everything is ready and was watching the goddess silently, it was evening time after sunset ( samayaa sandhyaa mayookai hi), the 7th guru and his disciples had not arrived back yet.
Suddenly, the man saw Goddess Kaamaakshi's lips moving, he became surprised and curious, and moved forward to see more closely, when the goddess appeared before him in her golden form, the idol turned live, the Goddess Kaamaakshi sat there wearing a red saree, holding paashaankusha in her hands, holding a sugarcane, with parrot perched on her right shoulders, (paashaankusha dhara hastha pushpa baanae) wearing a kanakamani maala on her neck, with chandhra bimba on her crowned head (sharanae chandhra aabharanae), looking pious, divine, compassionate, loving, caring (dhaya maana mukham kaanchi maya maanam), with red paan juice coming out of her mouth, the man was filled with ecstasy beyond description, his eyes poured tears of joy, folded his hands and kneeled down before the goddess. Goddess Kaamaakshi took the paan juice out of her mouth and stretched her hands towards the man's mouth, he opened his mouth and the goddess put the paan juice in his tongue. The man accepted it happily and touched the feet of the divine mother and washed her feet with his tears.
When he lifted his head to look at the goddess again, he realized that he just received divine energy that has filled his being, he opened his mouth to talk for the first time in his life. He heard divine bells and conches blowing for the first time in his life, the man realized that he is now able to speak and hear.
There outpoured 500 verses or slokas out of his mouth in praise of the Goddess Kaamaakshi, in different vedic metres, poetic verses, words that are so hard to speak without stammering or stuttering, now came out of his mouth with such ease, divine knowledge has been attained by the man upon praising the goddess kaamaakshi, he touched the goddess's feet and thanked her for granting him a new life.
He completed that evening pooja with all traditions and vedic rites, with all his new divine blessed knowledge, he showered the turmeric and the kumkums on the Goddess and showered flowers on her praising the divine mother (jaya jaya jaga dhamba shivae, jaya jaya kaamaakshi).
The next day, the 7th guru arrived with his disciples and was stunned to see the deaf and dumb man speak eloquently and recite divine vedic verses, he closed his eyes for a moment and realized in his inner mind that this man has been blessed by goddess kaamaakshi herself, he immediately decided to crown the man as the head of the mutt, thereby, the man came to be known as the 8th guru of the shankara mutt, known popularly as the mooka shankara.
The legend is said to have occurred during 385 A.D to 425 A.D, at the sametime as the great poet Mahaa Kavi Kaalidhaasa, who is also blessed by the same divine mother, in the form of Shyamala devi, when Kaalidhaasa composed the Shyamala Dhandakam.
The 500 verses or slokas are known as Sri Mooka Panchashathi and are divided into 5 chapters or Shatakams with each chapter containing around 100-103 slokas, beginning with Aryaa shatakam(101 slokas), then, Paadhaaravindha shatakam(103 slokas), Sthuthi shatakam(102 slokas), Kataaksha shatakam(101 slokas) and Mandhasmitha shatakam(103 slokas).
The 500 verses or slokas are known as Sri Mooka Panchashathi and are divided into 5 chapters or Shatakams with each chapter containing around 100-103 slokas, beginning with Aryaa shatakam(101 slokas), then, Paadhaaravindha shatakam(103 slokas), Sthuthi shatakam(102 slokas), Kataaksha shatakam(101 slokas) and Mandhasmitha shatakam(103 slokas).
Till date, it is believed that whoever chants these slokas with utmost faith, hopes and devotion, their clan, kith and kin will never suffer from loss of speech and hearing. If there is someone already with speech and hearing loss, they will be cured miraculously by the grace of Goddess Kaamaakshi.
