Lord Ayyappa Mantras

When the demoness Mahishi won a boon that she could be slain only by a child born of both Shiva and Vishnu, the gods were helpless — for how could two gods have a son? So Lord Vishnu took the enchanting form of Mohini, and from his union with Shiva was born a radiant boy: Hari-Hara-putra, the son of both. The divine child was laid on a riverbank, a golden bell (mani) about his neck.

There the childless King Rajashekhara of Pandalam found him and, naming him Manikandan, raised him as his own beloved son. But when a younger prince was born, the jealous queen schemed to be rid of him; feigning illness, she demanded the milk of a tigress as her only cure. Fearless, the boy went into the forest — and returned riding upon a tigress, with the gods themselves as her cubs, revealing his divine nature to all.

On the way he had slain the demoness Mahishi, fulfilling the purpose of his birth. Revealed as Lord Ayyappa, he blessed the king and asked that a temple be raised where his arrow fell — atop the hill of Sabarimala. To this day millions of devotees, after forty-one days of austerity, climb the eighteen sacred steps to his shrine with the cry of "Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa".