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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 Cause and the Paramapurusha" says 
Azhwar. The equation with three other exalted divya desams brings home to us 
the glory of TirumoozhikkaLam.

As I left TirumoozhikkaLam, rather unsatisfied with the Lord for not having 
revealed to me His glorious form in full due to the poor lighting within the 
sanctum, a sobering thought struck me. 

Both the Azhwars are emphatic that the Lord here is luminance personified ("oN 
sudar, sOdi, ViLakku" etc.). They confirm having witnessed Him in all His 
lustrous splendour, as a ball of brilliance. If this was so, why did the Lord 
fail to show Himself to me similarly? He could not have changed, despite the 
centuries between then and now! 

The answer, of course, was not far to seek-the difference lay in the eyes on 
the onlooker. Azhwars looked at Him with eyes filled with devotion and 
overwhelming love, eyes which had no place for anything other than His 
splendour, eyes which had ached with longing for a fleeting glimpse of Him. And 
as for my eyes, the less said the better! It struck me too that the darkness, 
preventing a full sight of the Lord's glorious form, was not in the sanctum 
sanctorum, but in my own mind. It was the darkness of sin and ignorance 
enveloping my mind that clouded my eyes too. Azhwars were able to perceive His 
splendour, as their minds were awash with the brilliance of Bhakti. I realised 
too that the words of Sri Kalian, "Pin AnAr vaNangum SOdi" had a special 
significance for myself and those like me. While Azhwar had referred only to 
those who were behind in time, I realised that I was way behind in devotion, 
wisdom, conduct and everything else that makes the difference between a saint 
and a sinner. 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrisimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana 
Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:
dasan, sadagopan



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






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