Pilgrimage - I: Nava Thiruppathi

[Guest guest]

Pilgrimage - I: Nava Thiruppathi

 

 

Due to a change in our graduate curriculum it became possible for me last

year to bank teaching credits. Having taught overloads during Fall and

Spring I was looking at three months of summer with nothing that required

me to stay here in Chattanooga. Then this absurdly ambitious idea of

going to India and visiting all the 106 Dhivya Desams occurred to me. Such

an endeavor, for one like me bereft of any merit whatsoever, to have been

successful is clearly divine blessing. The odyssey began with a trip to

Azvaar Thirun^agari on May 12th where Srimad Azhgaiya Singar was camping

and ended with Thirunarayanapuram on July 5th. I am still a little awe

struck. The only regret I feel is that it was all too rushed. In the next

few weeks I shall write about my experiences. Due to limitation of

ability my narration is unlikely to be interesting. But with divine grace

I hope it contains some useful information.

 

My father joined me for almost the entire trip and my uncle joined us for

the Northern Divya Desams and the ones in and around Kanchi.

 

In this post I shall write about my visit to Azhvaar Thirun^agari where

Srimad Azhagiya Singar was camping for Nammaazhvaar utsavam. Reaching

Azhvaar Thirun^agari itself turned out to be an ordeal. The DKM government

had just named a bus transport corporation around Thirunelveli after a

Dalit leader. The dominant caste (Thevar I think) in that area did not

take this kindly. The Dalits are no push-overs these days. One thing had

apparently lead to another and there was violence. A few people were even

killed. The now ubiquitous Dr.Ambedkar statues were desecrated. That had

to be avenged. This chain of events was being repeated town after town.

Azhvaar Thirun^agari was one of the towns affected. Oblivious to any of

this my father and I took a late night train from Madras on May 12th, the

very day we reached Madras from here. Reaching Madurai at about 9:30 a.m.

the next day. We rented a railway retiring room and took our showers.

Then, we hired a taxi and proceeded to Thirunelveli. Only after reaching

Thirunelvei we found out that Azhvaar Thirun^agari was the focal point of

intense rioting the day before. No buses were plying. The taxi driver was

reluctant to go on. But after some coaxing we slowly proceeded further and

managed to follow a police jeep and reached Azhvaar Thirun^agari. Srimad

Azhgaiya Singar gave us an audience almost immediately and then readily

agreed to my request to perform Saranagathi the next day at the lotus feet

of Lord Sri Malolan.

 

The day we reached Azhvaar Thirun^agari was the second day of Nammaazhvaar

utsavam. In the evening Nammazhvaar with "Koravan Kondai" alangaram came

to Thirukkurungudi madam where Sri Malolan was also present. After

aradhanai and a moving Satrumurai, recognition was awarded to Srimad

Azhagiya Singar. It is a matter of tradition to offer the first

recognition to Sri Ahobila Mutt representative during the first three days

of the 10-day utsavam. This year the Jeeyar Himself was present to accept

it. For each ritual at the temple the Bhattars come in person to the Mutt

to invite Srimad Azhagiya Singar. HH then proceeded to the temple with His

retinue and participated in the rituals. The mutual respect between the

two kalais is a sight to behold. How wonderful would it be if such

cooperation exists in other Sri Vaishnava centers such as Sri Rangam,

Kanchi, and Thiruvahindrapuram.

 

In the next two days we visited all the nine temples known to Sampradayam

as Nava Thiruppathi. All the nine temples are undergoing massive

renovation at the expense of over Rs. 4 crores by TVS. Some are already

complete, some are in progress. We were fortunate to have the Bhattar of

ThenthiruppErai accompany us. (He is the present care-taker for the

AhObila Mutt at Azhvaar Thirun^agari.) The temples are generally open from

about 8:00 a.m. till 12:00 noon, and from about 4:00 p.m. till 8:00 p.m.

However, due to lack of sEvarthees the hours are not strictly followed. It

is better to get someone to accompany you. If your mode of transportation

is a taxi, there is always someone to oblige for a reasonable dhakshinai..

You need at least two days to complete dharsan of all the nine temples.

With advance notice one can stay at Srimad Ahobila Mutt. For those who

need some privacy and/or comforts hotels with air- conditioned rooms are

only 30 KM (45 mintes by taxi) away at Thirun^elvEli. With a little bit

of advance notice the caretaker of Sri Ahobila Mutt will be more than happy

to prepare prasadams for 2 or 3 people.

 

Navathiruppathi turned out to be a most wonderful way to begin our

pilgrimage of the paadal peRRa sthalams. What was most appealing and

striking for me were the wonderful Tamil divine names for the nine

PerumaaLs. Here is a list.

 

Polindhu ninRapiraan (Azhvaar thirun^agari),

Vaiththamaan^ithi (ThirukkOLUr),

magara nedunkuzhaikkaathan (Then ThiruppErai),

maayakkooththan (ThirukkuLandhai)

senthaamaraikkaNNan and DhEvarpiraan (irattaiththiruppathi)

kaLLappiraan (SrivaiguNdam)

kaaysinavEndhan (ThiruppuLiyangudi)

em idar kadivaan (Thiru varaguNamangai (naththam))

 

On the fourth day of our stay was the fifth day of the utsavam. All the

nine perumaaLs came to Azhvaar Thirun^agari. Nammaazhvaar came out of the

temple to welcome them by going around the Lord in pradhakshanam. The nine

perumaaLs were staged in two maNdapams. Due to the law-and-order situation

it was not clear whether the PerumaaLs would be able to come to Azhvaar

Thirun^agari for the GarduasEvai. I believe this annual routine was broken

only once in recent memory when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. At that

time Lord MayakkUththan from PerunguLam, the farthest temple from Azhvaar

Thirun^agari, made the trek only to find the other closer perumaaLs could

not make it. (Hearing the aging temple guard narrate this was a moving

treat.) Thus people were relieved and happy that this time all nine

PerumaaLs made it to Azhvar Thirun^agari without any incidence.

 

The Lords were now getting prepared for the GarudavAgana sevai at night.

The Garudasevai starts at about 10 p.m. goes on all through the night.

Suffering from flu all day long I just could not stay up for this wonderful

sight. A prapanna having performed prapatthi according to sastras as

sAdhyOpAyA with its five angaas must be aware of his complete dependence

upon the grace of the Lord for everything. Trying to dwell on this thought

I tried to be content with the experiences our Lord had already allowed for

me.

 

We left for Madurai the next day. On the way we went to Srivillipuththoor

which was now in the grip of caste conflicts. Latter we learnt that a

Dalit was murdered on that day. However, we were able to have dharsan of

our Lord and Azhvaars, and proceed to Madurai. Madurai was also affected

by sporadic violence. There was police everywhere. Busses had stopped

plying. But we were able to go about without any trouble. We proceeded to

ThirumaaliruncOlai, about 45 minutes from Madurai. KaLLazhagar came out to

the vasantha MaNdapam in the evening. The alangaram was captivating. The

newly renovated temple Gopuram was wonderful. After a great dharsan there,

returned to Madurai, and took a train back to Madras.

 

(We had made train reservations well ahead of time. But we had to change

the reservation when we came to know about Nammaazhvaar utsavam. Travel

agents in Madurai helped us get the reservations changed, for a fee of

course.)

 

On the second day of our stay at Azhvaar Thriun^agari, Srimad Azhgiya

Singar gave upadesam just prior to the performance of my Saranagathi. A

free translation of parts of HH's upadesam shall be the topic for the next

post.

 

 

adiyEn, azhagiyasingar dhaasan

[Guest guest]

On Mon, 18 Aug 1997, Parthasarati Dileepan wrote:

> few weeks I shall write about my experiences. Due to limitation of

> ability my narration is unlikely to be interesting. But with divine grace

> I hope it contains some useful information.

>

It is wonderful to hear that you will be writing about

your visits to 106 divya desams. I am really looking

forward to reading them, and with His blessings, perhaps

one day will be able to visit them. Your experience

will be an invaluable guide to us (as was SrimAn Anbil

Ramaswamy's description of visit to Dwaraka). Thank

you very much.

 

adiyEn,

govind rengarajan