thiruch chERai - part 4 - mArkandEya maharishi mukthi kshEthram

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Saint mArkandEya was blessed with immortatlity by Lord Shiva at his

young age. However as yugams crossed, it is beleived that Saint

mArkandEya was seeking for the "patham" that is superior to this

immortality. He pleaded to Lord Shiva for the same. It is said that

Lord Shiva replied him that such padham is the only patham and is

known as "mOksham" and the *only* giver of such would be Lord Vishnu

and asked him to worship Lord Vishnu. Saint mArkandEya worshipped

Lord vishnu in 31 khsEthrams and finally Lord vishnu asked him to

worship in the kshEthram where "thai" poosam is celebrated for HIM.

Saint MArkkandEyaa came to this kavEri kshEthram where "thai

poosam" is celebrated every year for the Lord. Thai poosam is in

tradition considered a shaivaite function. This is the only

Srivaishnava kshEthram where "thai poosam" is celebrated every

year. Since thai poosam is a great shaivaite function the relation

that Saint mArkandEya is sent to this kshEthram can be derived by the

fact the Markandeya is an amsam of Lord Shiva. This is explained with

a little detour to thiru viNNagaram. Lord Oppiliappan co-appears

in thiru viNNAgaram "karuvarai" with booma devi thayaar (mother

earth) and maarkandEya maharishi both of whom worship Lord Oppiliappan

at the centre with folded hands. (MarkandEya's penance was answered by

thayaar in this thulasi vanam known as thiru viNNagaram and

Oppiliappan kOil. thirumangai delievered a paasuram on Lord

Oppiliappan in which he says "moovaa vaanavar tham mudhalvaa"

when he sees the moonRu uruvam in this sannidhi. The pasuram is

as follows.

 

"theevaay val vinaiyaar udan ninRu siRanthavar pOl

mEvaa ven nargath thida uRRu virainthu vanthaar

'moovaa' 'vaanavar tham mudhalvaa!' mathi kOL

viduththa dhEvaa ! nin nadainthEn - thiru viNNagar mEyavanE !

 

The meaning for these words are such that "You the three folded,

and You are the first of the three folded" meaning You are the Lord

who is "inside" (as antharyaamim) the Brahmaa and Govindhaa and

Haran as they are functioning in their delegated faculty. And you

are the first of all these three. By saying so he also says that

there is only one param at the begining and such was this thiru

viNNagran or Lord Vishnu (as per pancha ratra and as agreed by

all major schools including advaitham. The superior nature of

Lord Vishnu is established here by the other worshipping in this

sannidhi of thiru vinnagaraan. Ie When saint mArkandEya was saved

from "yama" by Lord Shiva Lord Shiva was in union with him. Thus

Saint mArkaNdEya was considered as an amsam of lord shiva. Booma

dEvi is the "provider" of necessary support for the jivans to

thrive in this material world and hence she is "equated" to the

creator Brahmaa. She is the "mother" earth and hence she is also

known as the creator. Thus it can be said that in this sannidhi

both Brahma and Shiva worships Lord Vishnu, through their

faculties and amsam thereby establishing the supremacy of Lord

Vishnu and validating that Lord Vishnu is the only "param"

pronounced by vedam. Thus the amsam of Lord Shiva finally came to

this kshEthram and attained mOkshma from this Lord as HE appeared

with his "padhmam" onhis right hand as similar tohow HE is seen

in parama patham or Srivaikundam. There are only a few kshEthrams

where the Lord is seen with this padhamam. Thiru anatha puram is

one and in thiruppathi piraati is seen with padhmam in both her

hands as padma aasani thaayaar. This kshEthram is popular for

"thai poosam" mainly because Lord appeared as a child and blessed

kaveri in this kshEthram on this "thai poosam" day.

 

Coming to the no 32, that the no. of kshEthrams Lord made

Saint mArkandEya visit, Sri Sadagopan had broached this subject on

"no.32" last year. I am not sure if this point was brought across

or not. The subject was why was the number 32 so important to

Vedanta Desikar as well as other Acharyas? There are 32 ways of

reaching God as well as 32 obstacles on the path of reaching God.

If one overcomes all 32 obstacles on the path of obtaining

Paramapadam, one is considered to have attained Moksha.

 

Experts say that the chief obstacle is Bhagavan's will to punish

the baddha jivatma for wrong doing. It is said that If this obstacle is

overcome by either Bhakti Yoga or Prapatti, the other 32 are overcome

relatively rapidly.

 

There are 32 brahma vidhdhai's one can perform. Swami dEsikan

wrote 32 padhdhathis in padhukaa sahasram to capture the essence

of these 32 brahma vidhdhais in terms of 32 foot steps of Lord

Arangan. Swami desikan also wrote srimath Rahasya thra saarma in

32 adhikkaarams. It is also considered that (the 32 no. of

kshEthrams Lord made Saint mArkandEya visit,)

visiting all these 32 kshEthrams (all are part of 108 DD) that will

clear all the 32 obstacles for moKhsam if one will visit the same and

seek for clearance of these 32 obstacles. It is said that Saint MarkaNdEya

was given mOksham at this kshEthram finally.

 

 

Sri Ranganaayikaa samEthara Sri Ranganathan thiruvadikaLE

charaNam

 

Sampath Rengarajan