thiruk kaNNan kudi - part 7 - thiru neer Ani vizhA

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There are popular festivals that are celebrated commonly

among SriKrishna AraNyak kshEthrams. However, in this divya

dEsam, a festival known as "thiru neeru aNi vizhA" ie., festival

of wearing thiruneeru or "vibuthi" is celebrated. The specialty is

such that the Lord wears thiruneer for 3 hours ie., 3.75 nAzhigai

as per the request of King ubarisaravasu. This was promoted by

many chola kings for Shaiva and Sri Vaishnava oRRumai or for

harmony between shaivite and Srivaishnavite followers. PerumAL's

acceptance of the prayers of the king ubarisaravasu was to

demonstrate HIS neermai gunam.

 

Neermai - an explanation: The tamil word neermai has no parallel

in sanskrit as this one word replaces many kalyAna gunAs of the

Lord that are addressed by many single words. i.e., Neermai is a

composite in nature of many kalyAna gunAs of the Lord put

together. Neermai means "neeraip pOnRa thaNmai". That is "the

charecteristics of water". There are so many charecteristics that

water has. Of which five important are adaptability to fill in

any form or shape (the wearing of thiru neer here symbolize that),

cooling nature (i.e., the mercy or compassion to ease the pains of

the sufferings of the bhakthALs and make their life comfortable)

easy availability everywhere, life saving, and life supporting,

 

 

The unique feature of this festival is such that all bhakthALs of

the Lord also wear thiru neeru on this day and come to the temple

to have darshan of the Lord who displays His neermai exclusively

during this time. This is very very uncommon and is something

that is not seen elsewhere in anyother divya dEsam that has some

type of similar festival. There are also other festivals that are

celebrated to promote unity (*) in few other divya dEsams.

 

One such other place among the divya dEsams which is also a

SriKrishna aarAnyAk ksEthram is thiruk kaNNa puram. In this

ashtAkshra mantra siddhi kshEthram, Lord appears as mumoorthy on

the 7 th day of the brahmOrsavam festival during vaikaasi

(approximately between May 15 - Jun 15) month. HE appears as Lord

Sri Vishnu who protects the universe all day. During night, HE is

dressed up with dharbam and appears in the middle of the Lotus

flower as Lord Brahma. And the same day HE appears as Lord Shiva

during early morning for 3 hours and 45 minutes. In thiru

vaheenthi puram Lord Deva nAthan appears with the lotus in one

hand and have his third eye that is popularly known as neRRik kaN

for Lord Shiva and also have "sadai mudi" i.e. uncombed long hair

as similar to Lord Shiva. This Lord is also addressed by Sri

thirumangai Azhwar as "muthalaam thiru uruvam mooNrenbar".

 

pEy AzwhAr pAsuram 63 of moonRAm thiru anthAthi, on lord thiru

VEnkatan has drawn much attention from all faith. Each one derive

their own conclusion from that. We as Srivaishnavas draw the

conclusions from our poorvachAryAL Sri periya vaacchAn pillai whom

we consider as incarnation of thiruk kaNNa mangai Lord HIMself.

 

pAsuram:

thaazh sadaiyum neeN mudiyum ON mazhuvum sakkaramum

soozh aravum pon Naanum thONRumAl soozhum

thiraNdu aruvi pAyum thiru malai mEl enthaikku

irAndu uruvum ONRAy isainthu

 

meaning:In the previous pasuram (ie 62) AzhwAr delivered that the

Lord showed his most important kalyAna gunA ie., neermai or

simplicity. ie., the Lord shrunk HIS thiru uruvam (HIS cosmic

body) of thiru vikkarama avathAram to appear as Lord vAmanan, and

is present in many thirup pathis such as Oppiliappan kOil, thiru

vEnkatam, Thiru vahhA and thiru vELukkai. In the next pasursm

ie., stated above as 63rd pasuram, AzhwAr delivers that the same

Lord is showing his sowseelya gunam in thiruvEnkatam as simialr to

how he exihibited during His sankara nArayana avatharam. There

are more than 30 avathArams that take place during every kalpam.

Among that the prominent are the 10 known as dasaavatharam.

 

PV pillai vyaakyaanam: This was presented by adiyEn in a

discussion with one of the member on annya dEvatha aaradhana.

Please read them from the archives. If more clarifications are

needed on that adiyEn will be pleased to deliver the same.

 

Sri lOka nAyaki samEtha Sri lOka nAyakan thiru vadikaLE

saraNam

Sampath Rengarajan

 

 

note: (*) In Srimushnam near chidambaram, perumAL goes to killai

for kanu festival

every year. During this 12 mile procession, perumAL halts near to

a mosque situated enroute. Prayers are offered to perumAL from

the mosque according to the customs of the mosque and the Lord

accepts this. This festival is taking place for more than a

century and lately under one of the previous regimes, it is

believed that the Govt. adopted this festival as a govt.

festival to promote some unity. In madurai the chithrai festival

was also promoted for Shaiva Sri Vaishnava oRRumai (read from

adiyEn's thala purAnam on thiru maal irum sOlai).