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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00030 Dec 2004

 
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Dear all,
I had been to Thirumoozhikalam (locally called
Moozhikulam) located between Ernakulam and Aluva,
ThirukkatkArai (locally called Trikakara)located in
the Cochin University campus near Modern Engineering
college and Thiruvittuvakodu (locally called
Thirumittakodu) located between Shoranur and
Guruvayoor near Pattambi last week end. 
The temples are rather small, very old and dilapidated
in some portions. The third one is located in a very
remote place and one has to do a lot of searching to
find out the place. It's located on the banks of a
river called Bharatapuzha and even though the
atmosphere is calm and serene, it looks forlorn since
there are few people inhabiting this place. To my
utter surprise, the archakar (looking very modern with
crew cut hair and moustache) told me about the
mangalasasanam of this perumal by Sri Kulasekara
Azhwar. In the other two temples, the archakars did
not know anything about Sri Nammazhwar and his
mangalasasanam of the perumals.
It was a nice and satisfying experience since I had to
really go in search of HIM and getting the blissful
darshan of the Lord in all these three temples.

Regards,

VSrinivasan
--- sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Srimate Srivan Satakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra
Mahadesikaya nama:
                                     
Thirumoozhikkalam
What would you say is the most elusive commodity
these days? Though you search for it high and low
and labour hard to achieve it, it somehow keeps
slipping from your grasp. Like the proverbial
mirage, it appears almost at hand, but when you go
near with an outstretched hand, you realise that it
is not there. You are able to achieve success in
financial, social and other material parameters, but
this particular item remains beyond our grasp. Its
greatness can very well be understood, if almost all
the Upanishads begin with a prayer ("Shaanti:
Shaanti: Shaanti:") for the universal prevalence of
this phenomenon, viz., Peace. 
Though available in abundance in days of yore, Peace
has become a scarce thing these days. The growing
urbanisation of unspoilt areas, the concrete jungles
inhabited by financial predators and others, the
intolerable pressures of city life, with everyone
from the toddler to the doddering old being "pressed
for time", etc.-all these have served to rob us of
all Calm, Peace, Tranquillity and Serenity, leaving
us constantly on the edge of nervous breakdowns.
Strife, discord and consequent distress are rampant,
with people reacting with avoidable violence, verbal
and physical, at the least of provocations.
All this makes you want to run away from it all, at
least temporarily. You would like to leave behind
you the raucous blaring and ranting of the cities
and towns and travel "far from the madding crowd",
in search of Peace. It is thus that people escape to
hill stations, to verdant forests and to similar
places where nature, (or what is left unravaged of
it by man) reigns supreme. Though you can achieve
external peace through this strategy, you are still
unable to feel its effect inside you. For, you may
run away from your environment, from the pressures
of the cities: but go where you might, your thoughts
still accompany you, sticking tenaciously like
leeches to your mind, denying you Inner Peace. These
raging thoughts, battering and buffeting the mind
with a constant barrage of conflicting emotions,
still deny you the tranquillity within, in search of
which you have escaped from the earlier environment.
If this is the fix you are in, if you are in search
of both internal and external quietude and you want
to achieve it without undertaking a strenuous and
expensive trip to the Himalayas, the ideal solution
would be to visit a divya desam in Kerala. If I have
said it before, it merits repetition-the atmosphere
in these Malai Naadu temples is indeed beyond
compare-there is none of the jostling, pushing and
pummelling devotees have to undergo for a fleeting
eyeful of the Lord, there is none of the raucous
music blaring from loudspeakers assailing your ears
and mind, there is no soliciting for this cause or
that which detracts from your enjoyment of the
deity, there is no loud-voiced gossip or secular
talk that characterises crowds thronging other
temples. In short, these temples enable you to
concentrate on the business on hand, for which you
had made the trip viz., devotion and worship.
Another unique feature of these temples is the
lighting inside the sanctum sanctorum, which comes
solely from oil lamps. There are no halogen lights
focussed straight on the Lord's face, with absolute
lack of consideration and care. How would you feel
if someone constantly shone a bright torch into your
eyes? It would practically blind you, cause
irritation and pain in the eyes. Why should we do to
the Lord something, which we would hate to be done
to us? This way, the Malai Naadu temples show us the
way by having only soft, smooth light in the
sanctorum, emanating from wick lamps. In the
process, however, the devotee is unable to have a
full appreciation of the deity's beauty and
grandeur, especially since he has to view the Lord
from a distance. The oil lamps give us only a rough
idea of what the Lord looks like, leaving a lot to
our imagination. The lights and shadows cast by
these lamps throw up a tantalizing image of the
Lord, half seen and half unseen. It is as if these
lamps are telling us, "How can you hope to have a
full glimpse of Emperuman, whom the Upanishads
declare to be beyond our frail vision ("na sandrusE
tishthati roopam asya, na chakshushA pasyati kascha
nainam")?"  Sometimes a sudden flare up in the lamp
reveals a magnificent visage, just for a fleeting
second, and we consider our trip to have been
extremely fruitful.
Coming to Tirumoozhikkalam, this divya desam has the
distinction of having been sung by two Azhwars-apart
from Sri Nammazhwar, Sri Tirumangai Mannan too has
been attracted by this Lord to devote several
honourable mentions to this Lord-one each in Periya
Tirumozhi, TirnedumtAndakam and Periya Tirumadal.
Sri Nammazhwar, being the Chief Patron of Malainaadu
divyadesams, has devoted all of ten verses in praise
of this Emperuman, beginning with "em kAnal aham
kazhivAi". 
It is interesting to note, apropos of all the
aforesaid references to lamps, that Sri Kalian
refers to this Emperuman as a "ViLakku"
("TirumoozhikaLattu VilakkE!,  MoozhikaLatthu
ViLakkinai" etc). When we look into the relative
Tiruvaimozhi paasurams, we find Sri Nammazhwar too
predictably referring to this Lord as "oN sudar",
twice in the space of ten paasurams.

Sri Satakopa Muni's verses on this divya desam
constitute an impassioned plea by a Lady Love,
pining away due to the separation from the beloved
and entreating all and sundry whom she encounters,
to convey a message of love and pain to the Lord of
MoozhikkaLam. In turn, she tries the red-legged
cranes ("sengAla mada nArAi"), a pair of love birds
belonging to the "Kurugu" species ("kAdal
kuruginangAL"), the beautiful, spongy and bright
clouds inhabiting the skies over TirumoozhikkaLam
("aNi mugilgAL"), the musical bees drunk on the
honey of flowers and the graceful swans walking away
from the river with a worm or two in their beaks
("men nadaya annangAL").

Azhwar depicts graphically the sad plight of a
teenager plagued by separation from her
beloved-without the manly Lord of Moozhikkalam to
fold her in a strong embrace, the girl's body wastes
away every day, with ornaments like the
"MEkhala"(worn around the midriff) falling down
without the flesh to keep it in place. The eyes
never stop secreting a flood of tears, occasioned by
the Lord's non-appearance, despite impassioned pleas
for His presence. Emperuman, who had lavished all
His love and affection on this girl in the previous
decad devoted to TirukkAtkarai, suddenly left Her
without a word. If one is unused to pleasures, it
would not affect one that much. However, when one is
given a taste of nectar, only to have the cup rudely
snatched away suddenly, the lack of it is felt
immensely. Similar is the plight of the lady, who
had had her fill of the Lord's sweetness at
TirukkAtkarai and is denied the same at
TirumoozhikkaLam. The sight of birds in pairs
generates intense jealousy in her, at their good
fortune to be with their beloved, when she herself
is denied the pleasure. Thus all the ten paasurams
of Sri Nammazhwar convey an intense longing for the
Lord and the unrequited desire to be with Him
always.
 
Sri Tirumangai Azhwar's tribute to this divya desam,
though confined to a handful of mentions vis-à-vis
the whole decad of Sri Nammazhwar, is none the less
eloquent. Sri Kalian accords the Lord of
Tirumoozhikkalam the unique distinction of making
Himself available to mortals like us, who were not
around when the Rama and Krishna avataaraas took
place. In His infinite mercy, the Lord stands at
Moozhikkalam, affording us the same sort of
enjoyment that the inhabitants of Ayodhya and
Gokulam must have experienced at the sight of Sri
Rama and Sri Krishna. This is why Sri Parakaala
calls this Lord, "Pin aanaar vaNangum sOthi", a
reference to the Lord's arrcchaavataaram, the form
in which He is to be seen in various temples on
earth now. Sri Kalian's paasuram is a veritable gem
and is worth quoting-
"Pon AnAi, pozhil Ezhum kAval pooNda  pugazh AnAi,
igazhvAya tondanEn nAn
en AnAi en AnAi ennal allAl en arivan EzhaiyEn,
ulagam Etthum
ten AnAi, vadavAnAi, kudapAl AnAi, guNapAla mada
yAnAi, 
imayOrkku endrum
 mun AnAi, pin AnAr vaNangum sOthi
TirumoozhikkaLatthu AnAi, mudal AnAyE"
"To enable Your devotees, who were unfortunate not
to have been around when You took avataaraas, You
stand in all splendour, Your Supremacy and
independence undiminished, at temples situated in
the north, south, east and west-at TiruvEnkatam,
TirumAlirumsOlai, Srirangam and TirumoozhikkaLam,
for every mortal to feast his eyes on. Just as You
show your magnificence to the permanent residents of
Sri Vaikunttam, You reveal Yourself to ardent
devotees in this mundane world too, as the
Primordial 



                
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