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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00143 Oct 2003

 
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Dear bhagavathas,

adiyen  adiyen will cover the experiences of three divya desams in 
this posting.

After visiting Thirunangur based divya desams, Sri Aalinadan and Sri 
Veda rajan left for their respective places and myself, my father and 
my friend santhanam continued our trip to Thiruvellakkulam and then 
to Thalachchangadu divya desams. The other group with Smt Subashini 
and her sister etc went to Mangaimadam and Kuraiyalur and came to 
Thalachchangadu.

In divya prabandham the Azhvars do mangalasasanam for not only 
perumal in that particular divya desam  but also to the sacred tank 
and sthala vruksham etc. Sri Nammazhvar is doing mangalasasanam to 
the sacred tank at Thirumogur, at the begining of the last decad in 
Thiruvaymozhi, stating "Thala thaamarai thadavayal thirumookur.." 
Similarly, the tank in this divya desam has been sung by Sri Kaliyan 
(thirumangai azhvar). The another beauty is that the name of the 
divya desam itself Thiruvellakkulam.

It is believed that the dharma patni of Sri Thirumangai azhvar Sri
Kumudhavalli nachchiyar was incarnated in this tank. You all must be 
aware of the story of Sri Thirumangai azhvar and adiyen is not going 
to dwell into the story here for the sake of brevity. The pity thing 
is there is not a single drop of water in the temple tank now. The 
surrounding of the temple is so peaceful and calm.

This perumal, who is known as Annan perumal is considered as the elder
brother of Sri Thiruvenkatamudaiyan of Thiruppathi. Although, the 
Oppiliappan and Sri Devanathan of Thiruvahendrapuram are also 
considerd as elder brothers of Lord Balaji, there is strong reason 
for calling Annan perumal as the elder brother of 
Thiruvenkatamudaiyan. Consider this pasruam of Peria thirumozhi, 
which is glorifying Thiruppathi,

kaNNaar kadalsoozh* ilangkaikku iRaivanthan*

thiNNaagam piLakkach* chalam sela uytthaay!*

viNNOr thozhum* vEngkada maamalai mEya*

aNNaa! adiyEn* idaraik kaLaiyaayE. 1.10.1

Now let us how Kaliyan is doing mangalasasanam to Annan perumal.

1308:##

kaNNaar kadalpOl* thirumEni kariyaay*

naNNaarmunai* venRiKoLvaar mannu naangoor*

thiNNaar mathiLchoozh* thiruveLLak kuLaththuL_aNNaa*

adiyEn idaraik kaLaiyaayE (4.7.1)

adiyen can keep on giving references, quoting all the ten pasurams of
Thiruvellakulam and Thiruppathi to emphasise the similarity of both 
divya desams. Let us leave this for a later detailed discussion and 
move on. Sri Kaliyan has addressed only the Thirupathi Srinivasar and 
Annan perumal as aNNaa in his pasurams. This is the uniqueness of 
this divya desam.

Here Sri Madhava bhattar is doing kaimkaryam to Perumal and this 
temple is in better shape compared to other Thirunangur divya desams. 
When we have visted the temple, the upanyasam of Sri Krisha premi on 
Thiruvaymozhi was being played thru the audio system of the temple. 
In that evening, it was no nice to listen to the mesmorising voice of 
Sri Krishna premi. We had good darshan of the Perumal and Thayar and 
Sri Madhava bhattar has made good booklets for guidance to visit the 
divya desams around Thirunangur.

The nandavanam of this divya desam requires special mention. It was 
huge and various types of flowers and tulasi are being grown. We are 
blessed to participate in the maintenance of the nandavana 
kaimkaryam. As we came back from our short visit the nandavanam, lots 
of small children were marching to the temple and Sri Madhava bhattar 
has explained that on every sunday around 6 PM all the local children 
are invited for nama sankeerthan for an hour. He leads the goshti and 
the children are encouraged with small gifts etc. They sing the 
famous Hare rama sloka for an hour. We thanked Sri Madhava bhattar
and left for Thalachchangadu.

It was around 6.30PM and it has become dark by then. The roads are 
poorly lit and one has to be very careful in driving, as the roads 
are very narrow too. Thalachchangadu temple is in an isolated 
location. But once you reach there you will love the surrounding. The 
temple is in a groove, which is full of tall coconut trees and mango 
trees. There are green paddy fields around the temple and one special 
note about the water well in the temple. adiyen has never tasted 
water which is as sweet as this well. Since the approach is bit 
difficult this temple do not receive lots of devotees.

We are blessed to do nitya aradanam in this temple for quite some 
time now. It was my friend Santhanam, who has visited the temple four 
years back and he came by public transport and after a long walk he 
reached the temple it seems. Seeing his camera, the village people 
mistook him as a magazine reporter and took pains to go to the house 
of the aged bhattar (age 80+) and called him. The bhattar came and 
gave a good darshan to him and then enquired which magazine he is 
attached to. My friend told that he is just an ordinary devotee and 
not a reporter. This made him angry and murmured that had I known 
this, I wouldn't have come. Hoping that if the temple gets good
exposure, the renovation can take place I came. My friend did not get 
angry.

Given his age and condition of the temple, they must be really 
looking for some publicity to improve the condition.

Santhanam mentioned it to me and he felt bad about the condition of 
the temples. adiyen then asked my father to visit this temple. In the 
meantime, the temple got a facelift with renovation with the help of 
various asthikas and when my father has visited the temple the local 
bhagavathas have requested him for help for doing nitya aradanam. By 
bhagavath sankalpam, we could take up the nitya aradana kaimkaryam in 
this temple.

Parakalan kainkarya sabha is co ordinating the temple activities. Sri
Thiruvenkatam who is working in Neyveli commutes on every weekend to 
oversee the temple matters. Sri Narayanan, who is the dharmakartha 
and he is also actively interested in doing kaimkaryam for the 
perumal. They were all waiting for us for a long time. We aplogosied 
for the delay and they have even brought different kinds of fruits 
for offering to Perumal. The bhattar is very old and his eyesight is 
very poor due to his age. Still with  great enthusiasm, he explained 
the puranic background of the temple and even shown the artha chandra 
on the head of the Utsavar. Since the Lord is keeping the chandra on 
his head, he is called Thalachchanga naaN madhiyapperumal. The
andal vigraham in this temple is so beautiful and even the Lifco book 
on 108 divya desam has mentioned about this.

After having a good darshan, we sat down and Sri Thiruvenkatam and Sri
Narayanan have mentioned in detail about the various expenses 
associated with the nitya aradana kaimkaryam and they were so 
thankful for our humle help. adiyen was really wondering whether such 
a small help and little financial assistance could make great 
difference to these temples. The bhattar in the mean time brought hot 
milk and requested us to help ourselves to add sugar as he can't do a 
proper job due to his poor eyesight. adiyen was in tears to see his 
affection and they felt sorry for not providing anyother prasadam due 
to the present conditon. We were indeed moved by their love and 
gesture.

After a while, Smt Subha and others reached the temple and the 
bhattar was once again busy. Smt Subha has provided vastrams and 
vessels to this temple and during this trip she had agreed to provide 
vessels worth Rs 5000/ to Thirunangur temples. If every one of us 
start visiting these temples and extending our little assistance for 
vastrams and inexpensive  ornaments (no need to be in pure gold) and 
other needs these temples will look far better than they are today. 
It is the intention with which adiyen is writing in detail about our 
trip.

We contiuned our yatra to Mayiladuthurai to have darshan of Sri 
Parimala rangan at Thiruindhalur while Subha and others went to 
Thirukkannapuram.

It is not easy to have darshan of Sri Parimala rangan at 
Thiruindhalur. When Sri Thirumangai azhvar came to this divya desam, 
it was late in the night and the temple was closed for the day. Sri 
Thirumangai azhvar was upset and he was desparate to have darshan of 
the Lord. The perumal gave HIS darshan as he appeared in kretha yuga 
and thretha yuga but Azhvar was insisting that he want to see HIM as 
he is inside the temple in archavatara. Perumal was helpless in this 
case, as only the bhattar or archaka have to come to give darshan of 
HIM in archavatara. This made Azhvar angry and he was prepared to
even leave the place without having darshan of Perumal. Now Perumal is
worried and quickly made the archaka to come back to the temple to 
satisfy the Azhvar. Please read the wonderful ten pasurams of Peria 
thirumozhi associated with this divya desam.

The above is the history but my friend santhanam told me that he has 
come twice to this divya desam at differnt timings and on both the 
occasions he has to return without darshan of the Perumal. He could 
not stay back due to other commitments and he was very eager to see 
the perumal atleast this time.

By 8 PM, we have reached the temple and straight went to main 
sannidhi for darshan. For a moment we were very happy as there was 
not much crowd also at that time. Believe me, we were asked to come 
out of the sannidhi by a group of bhagavathas who were standing over 
there. We were surprised and worried too. Is that mean that we can't 
have darshan now?

We understood that some one in the agraharam has passed away that day 
and due to the theetu the temple was closed for some time. Now the 
proceedings are being resumed with all the poojas starting from the 
morning after punyavachanam etc. All the rituals starting from the 
morning till the evening was done at 8PM as a shorter version and 
then we had darshan of the Lord. Then we went to Thayar sannidhi and 
Sudarshana azhvar sannidhi and came out around 9 PM. We were glad to 
come at the right time. Even if we had come earlier in the day, we 
couldn't have had darshan. It was HE who brought us in the correct 
time and it reminded me the pasuram of Sri Thirumazhisai azhvar in 
Thiruchchandha vruththam " ninna padham ninaippadhathaka nee
ninaikka vendume" meaning YOU should resolve that I should be able to 
think about your lotus feet". What a brilliant expression!

After a tiring day we finally travelled to Oppiliappankoil as our 
next day yatra was commencing from there after visvaroopa darshan of 
Lord Oppiliappan. We have made arrangements for stay at Sri Andavan 
ashramam and by 10 PM we have reached there. appa told that we have 
to get us early to bathe in the Pushkarani and for visvaroopa 
darshan. We were exhausted after a long journey visiting 17 divya 
desams starting Seerkazhi and ending with Thiruindhalur. We prayed to 
Oppiliappan to wake us early enough for his morning darshan as we did 
not bring any alarm clock with us.

Our trip to Nathan koil, Adhanur, Pullambhuthangudi, Thirumandangudi 
etc will be in the next posting.

regards

dasan venkat
 




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