Musings on this Thai SravaNam day : 2 Sakkari Pongal Items

[Guest guest]

>"T.V.Venkatesh" <tvv

>Sakkarai Pongal and Triplicane

>Mon, 18 Jan 1999 10:12:08 +5:00

 

Today is the sacred day of Thai SravaNam ,

which is celebrated at ThiruviNNagar and

Thirumalai .Today is also the birth day of

a dear Bhagavathar of this list , who has adhyantha Bhakthi

for Sri BhUmi Devi samEtha ThiruviNNagarappan .

We are celebrating ANDAL , who is Bhumi Devi's avathAram

( SaakshAth KshamA ) in kali Yugam .

On behalf of all of us , I wish this dear BhakthA

all mangaLams and greater and greater growth

in Kaimkarya Sri in the coming year and thereafter.

 

I will now share the other thoughts of the day

arising from our discussions on the sweet

sunject of Sakkarai Pongal and Marghazhi Maasam .

 

> SrimathE NArAyaNAya namahA

 

( Sri Venaktesh's input )

>With regards to Sri Mani's question on Sakkarai Pongal and

>Triplicane, my two cents worth are as follows :-

>

>Regarding the Sakkarai Pongal on "KoodArai vellum" day, as pointed

>out by Mani, "Paal sORu" is actually not Sakkarai Pongal. It is

>called "ksheerAnnam" ( "ksheeram"-milk, "annam"- rice). Actually

>still in Triplicane, on "KoodArai vellum" day, ksheerannam is made.

>However, it is a costly affair. So only if any sponsorer is there,

>then, "ksheeraannam" is made, otherwise, the less costly, Sakkarai

>Pongal. My understanding may also be wrong. But the information that

>I have given here is what I heard from our locals.

 

Two points related to Sri Venaktesh's observations :

 

1. KshIrAnnam is the special daily naivEdhyam for

Thiruvanathapuram Sri Anantha PadnmanAbhan .

Sri Mutthuswamy Dikshithar refers to the local

custom of offering PayasAnnam to the Lord there by

the former MaharAjAs of Travancore , who ruled the land

as representatives of Lord Anantha PadmanAbhan .

In his charanam , Dikshithar refers to PaayasAnna

NaivEdhyam to Sri Anantha PadmanAbhan this way :

 

pAyasAnna priyakara ParasurAma KshEthra PrabhAkara

Parama Bhaktha prahlAdhithi vinutha----

--DaamOdhara DayAkara Varadha kara

 

This is the divya Desam , where AlavandhAr

lost track of time admiring the beauty of

the Lord there and did not return in time to the side of

his grandfather's sishyar Si Kurahaikkavalappan

to be iniitated into Yoga Rahasyam . This rahasyam was

taught by NammAzhwAr himself to AchArya Naatha Muni

and latter in turn entrusted that yogic secret

to one of his prime disciples , Thirukkuruhaikkavalappan . .

AlavandhArlft abruptly to Thiruvananthapuram, after

hearing an upanyAsam on NammAzhwAr's Thiruvantha Paasurams

( Thiruvaimozhi 10.2 decad )and was planning to return in time

before the following Thai month pushya nakshathram ,

Abhijin MuhUrtham ,a time selectd by Thirukkuruhaikkavalappan

to ascend to parama padham .On that Thai pushyam day ,

Alwandhaar was still at Thiruvananthapuram

enjoying the beauty of the Lord that he failed

to return home and the Yoga rahasyam disappeared

from anushtAnam .AlavandhAr went on to become

one of the greatest AchAryA and sampradhAya pravarthakar

with the anugraham of the KarumANIkkap perumAL

( Sri VaradarAjan of Kanchi) ,who lent Sri RaamAnujA

to Sri RanganathA to grow the Sri sampradhAyam

further along the lines established by

Natha Muni and ALavandhAr . AchArya RaamAnujA is

that PayasAnnam for us .

 

I will come back to the Yogic steps in another posting

that lead to the enjoyment of Sriamn NaarAyaNan in one's

sahasrAra Kamalm ( Bhagavath SaakshAthkAram ) , which are

incorporated in the special steps ( Risbha gathi, Sarpa gathi ,

VyAgra gathi et al and the loosening of the Rudra

granthi , etc at the different chakrAs of the body )

as witnessed at Srirangam during the MokshOthsavam/

Sri Vaikunta EkAdasi celebrations .These steps seen

even today at Srirangm are references to the Yogic

sadhAnA steps and the phalam .

 

(2) PayasAnnam at Thirumalai for Sri VenkatEsan :

At Thriuppathi , PayasAnnam is known as KalkaNDu

(sakkarai )Pongal. Rice here is cooked in JeerA

or KshIram along with abundant ghee ( mUDa ney

pozhinthu muzhankai vazhi vAra --) , Cashew ,

raisin , saffron et al . It is not offered every day .

When BhakthAs have a special request for SapthagirIsan

and coordinate it with His MatapaLLi KaimkaryaparALs

to offer this Thiruvamudhu , He welcomes it and enjoys it.

 

After attending SaatthumuRai at His sannidhi in

one morning with my respected father , we had the

good fortune of presenting this naivEdhyam to

Thriumalaiappan . This prasAdham was the blessed

one and the tastiest prasAdham that came our way

as parama Bhaagyam .This memory has reinforced my

desire to have KalkaNdu Sakkarai Pongal to Yengal

PerumAL at ThiruviNNagar on Panguni SravaNam day

and Iyppasi SravaNam days , which are very important

days related to ThriuviNNagarappan's ThriukkalyANam

with Sri BhUmi Devi at TuLasi vanam described movingly

by our Sri Sampath Rengaraajan in the sthala purANam

section of the home pages for Sri Oppiliappan .

 

Sri BhUmi Devi SamEtha Sri OppilAappan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam .

V.Sadagopan