thiru allik kENi - part 2 - vEnkata Krishna purANam

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BrahmAnda purAnam describes this kshEthram in a chapter

known as "BrindArannya mahAthmiyam". Brindam means

"thulasi" and aRanyam means "vanam" or kaadu or jungle.

Similar to Lord Oppiliappan kOil, kn0wn as thiru

viNNagaram, this place is also known as "thulasi

vanam". A king by name "sumathi" once worshipped Lord

Srinivasan in thiruvEngadam and did severe penance and

sought his blessings and darshan of the Lord as

Arjuna's Sarathi. (ie as geethA Acharyan). Lord

Venkadan immediately blessed him and conveyed to the

king through an asareeri ( divine voice from deep

space) that "I had already appeared at the same thiru

uruvam in brinda aranyam that has the kairavaNi

theerththam. You may go there and have your darshan".

Sumathi followed Lord's instructions and worshipped

the Lord at this place.

 

It is notable here that since the Lord said to

sumathi that he had already appeared there existed a

previous account for this kshEthram when the lord

appeared here first time. Veda vyAsar had an ardent

sishyAL by name "athrEya muni". Saint Veda vyAsar gave

a divya mangaLa vigraham of Lord Krishna and ordered

his disciple to carry this vigraham to brinda aranyam

and worship HIM there. In many ways this idol is much

like the seer vibheeshanaaazhwaar obtained from Lord

Rama which is Lord Ranganatha. (of course the original

idol and very prominet that Sri Krishan HIMself gave to

HIS cousin and minister Udhdava is in guruvaayoor).

This idol in thiru allik kEni is prominent for us in

Sri sampradaayam and those who are taking refuge at

Lord's feet as per HIS charaNagathi slOkam. It is

becuase of the fact that the feature of this idol

represents the moment the Lord gave us Geetha in

arjunas chariot. It is hard to find out the details as

to when Saint Veda vyAsa obtained this from Lord

Krishna. However as similar to Sri Ranganathar of Sri

Rangam, this idol also had some very special features

of this avatharam (Sri Krishna avathAram) carried over

with it. The idol had a changam in hand and "dhAna"

muththirai on the other hand. DhAna muththirai is the

one that points to HIS thiruvadi and indirectly says

that take refuge there by surrendering and I will

protect you by all means and Bless you". Lord krishna

accepted all the arrows of the opponent's chief Bhisma

when Lord was covering for Arjuna, as his saarathi or

charioteer. These arrows made some scars on Lord's face

and such scars are VISIBLE even today on the face of

this ursavar that vyAsar did prathistai here as his

(seethanam ?) or in memory of Sri Krishna avatharam. If one

can go closer to the ursavar they can see these scars

on HIS face and at this moment one can realize that

this is the same Lord who stood on the chariot in the

battle filed and one will get thrilled to have this

realization. ie One can really feel HIS presence here

if they can truly surrender and see this Lord. This

will make one to have an electrifying experience and I

simply cannot write about it, as each one has to feel

it for themselves.

 

Saint athrEya muni brought this idol here to

brinda AraNyam with him and was worshipping HIM here as

per HIS guru's desire. At this time a king named

sumathi met Saint athrEya muni here and was surprised

and enchanted by this idol and wanted the idol be

installed here. AthrEya muni sought his guru's consent

and finally It is conceived that Sage VyAsa himself did

prathistai of this vigraham here and also piraati

Rukmani at the right hand side of this perumaal at this

brindAranayam, Both the King sumathi and athrEya muni

performed aradhana and worshipped this Lord for a very

long time and attained moksham here. This being the

previous account, the later day king sumathi came here

from thiruvengadam and the lord had appeared here for

HIM as "Krishnan" (the moolavar), he conceived and

established the truth that the Lord revealed to him

through the asareeri that it was lord of thiru vengadam

who had appeared here as "Sri krishnar" earlier. He

constructed a big temple for the Lord. Since the lord

of thiru vEnkadam appeared here as Krishna this lord is

known as "vEnkata krishnan".

 

Sri Rukminith thaayaar samEtha Sri Parthasarathy perumal

thirvadikaLE charaNam

 

Sampath Rengarajan