Visit to divya desams part 9

[Guest guest]

Dear bhagavathas,

 

pranamams. We will share the tour experiences at Thirunangur based

divya desams in this posting. (July 20th).Few bhagavathas have

blessed adiyen for not getting hurt in the train accident at

Chidambaram. adiyen was moved by their gesture and in fact it brought

tears in my eyes.

 

Let us continue our journey..

At this juncture, adiyen would like to share one more important

information and introduce one bhagavatha who is silently doing many

kaimkaryams in the Thirunangur based divya desams. He is Sri

Muralidhar guruji swami. He lives in a ashramam near Sri Perumbhuthur

and he is a charted accountant by profession. He preaches to sing the

glories of Lord Krishna and Radharani,but he is NOT attached to

ISKCON. He wears urdva pundram with gopi chandan like Sri Krishna

premi swami and he too have lots of followers it seems.

 

Sri Muralidhar guruji swami's interview came in the recent English

edition of Sri Nrusimhapriya also and he is firm in committing his

resources for maintenance of divya desams rather than making new

temples or even sannidhis. He has done lots of kaimkaryam to

Thirunangur temples and if you drive from Seerkazhi, you can spot

well written direction boards leading you to the Thirunangur temples,

which has been arranged by this group. He has been involved in

renovating and doing samprokshanam for Arimeya vinnagaram and other

few temples and Thiruththevanar thogai ( known as Keezhachchalai)

temple's Samprokshanam will be performed on 8th Sep 2003. He runs a

veda patashala in Thirunangur and the local bhagavathas have great

respect for him, which is natural. Adiyen feels that our Srivaishnava

scholars should take him as an example to serve divya desams rather

than concentrating to make new temples. This is my humble opinion. In

our sampradayam we lack concerted effort in any kaimkaryam. Every

group feels that their kaimkaryam is superior to others and so on.

 

Let us get back to our Kudamadum koothar who has been waiting for us

to bless us while undergoing thirumanjanam. Due to water shortage we

were told that the kainkaryaparas were arranging water from 4 AM and

what a pity. It seems that other materials like milk, curd etc can

easily be arranged but not water.

 

The utsavar along with Sri and Bhu devi thayars were brought to the

front mandapam and the arrangements were elaborate. Despite the water

shortage the thirumanjanam was performed in a grand manner. With the

recitation of pancha suktam and Taitiriiyopanishad the thirumanjanam

was performed at a slow pace giving plenty of time to the devotees to

enjoy HIS divya thirumeni from every angle and after each abhishekam

harati was performed. Sri Aalinadan swami and his aged father, Sri

Kannan swami (He is the dharmakartha for few temples in Thirunangur)

and his sons Chi Vedarajan and another (sorry for not getting his

name) were there and the Veda gosham was simply superb. Adiyen could

recite Pancha suktam at that pace and felt very happy about that. Smt

Subhashini has brought new vastrams for perumal and the utsavar was

all in smiles after his thirumanjanam and in new vastrams and

flowers. We were drinking his beauty with our eyes and knowing that

we can't do it enough we tried to take as many as 10 snaps from

various angles to hold this moment of joy in our heart for the years

to come. Instead of running to crowded temples one must go to these

temples and perform thirumanjanam and be with HIM from morning to

evening.

 

It was already nearing 12 O'clock and the divya prabandham recitation

was done in short style. One has to be thorough with the pasurams

even for this. After reciting the shorter version of pallandu,

thiruppalliyezhuchchi, thiruppavai and kanninun siruththambu and

first decad of Peria thirumozhi, they have recited the Peria

thirumozhi decad dedicated to Arimeya vinnagar in a pleasing style

with good rhythm and it was a treat to the ears. You may be aware

that the periathirumozhi pasurams of these divya desams were long and

and reciting it in a slow pace in musical tone is indeed difficult.

First we had the treat for the eyes witnessing the thirumanjanam. Now

the treat for ears. After this bhojyasanam was done and followed by

grand sarrumurai. Adiyen would like to mention here about our trust

member Smt Subhashini Narasimhan who is doing lots of kaimkaryams to

divya desams. She was keen in arranging this thirumanjanam and she

did good sambhavana to all the bhagavathas over there. After treating

our eyes and ears now it was time to treat the stomach with prasadam.

Adiyongal did not even have a cup of water since morning during our

long trip from Chidambaram. We were exhausted but enjoyed the visit

to various temples and totally engrossed into the thirumanjanam. Only

after partaking the prasadam we felt tired but the long list of

temples to be seen came to our mind and we have no time to relax.

Praying to Kudamadum koother to give us strength to complete our

yatra as scheduled, we left to other temples around.

 

Have you been to Thirunangur? Adiyen don't know how it looks during

the utsavam of garuda seva or vedupari utsavam. During this visit, we

could not believe the calmness of the village and despite many

temples are around you can hardly locate a flower shop or a shop

selling pooja materials. The village is surrounded by green fields

and the transport facilities are limited it appears. One would love

to live here enjoying the nature and of course visiting the divya

desams, which are at a walking distance.

 

>From here we went to the following temples in the same order. You may

wonder how adiyen remember the sequence. It is because of my friend

Sri Santhanam. He keeps a notepad and keeps writing immediately after

the visit. After coming to chennai, adiyen have to seek his help to

organise my photo album too.

 

Thiruththerriyambalam

 

Thiru vaN purushottamam

 

Thiru Vaikuntha vinnagaram

 

Thiru semponsey koil

 

Thiru manimadakkoil

 

Thiru thevanor thogai

 

Thirukkavalam padi

 

Thiru parthan palli

 

Thiru manikkodam

 

All these temples are grouped under Thirunangur based divya desams.

The perumal here is so beautiful and one must visit these temples and

feel for them selves. There is no Dwajasthambam in any of these

temples. Similarly there is no separate thayar sannidhi. With the

efforts of Sri Muralidhar guruji, some temples are looking good after

samprokshanam. Sri Thirukkoshtiyur madhavan swami has also done some

kaimkaryams in renovating these temples. Chi Vedarajan and Sri

Aalinadan were with us throughout our trip explaining the background

of these temples and Vedarajan needs a special mention here.

 

He is a +2 student but spends his time only in learning divya

prabandham and other temple kaimkaryams. He says that if he pass the

exam that is good enough. He was explaining the mercy of Perumal who

made him to pass the 10th exam esp in Tamil, as he did not perform

well due to ongoing utsavams there. Somehow Perumal has made him to

score the needed marks and he is happy about that. You may wonder why

adiyen is writing this. The innocence with which he explained this

incident made me to mention it. He is not wasting his days. He has

learnt Suktams and first prashnam of T.Upanishad plus 500 pasurams of

divya prabandham. He is actively involved in temple kaimkaryams

helping his father and he is doing it with lots of interest. Like the

Sriram of Vaduvoor, Chi Vedarajan is another gem of a youth, willing

to dedicate him for bhagavath kaimkaryam. He wants to continue his

education only by correspondence and probably he will opt for B.Com

or B.A and try to do by studying at home only. He is very open and

free in expressing his ideas and the innocence is pretty clear on his

face. But once he gets in to the temple and goes to perumal for

harathi, you can see a different Vedarajan there. Like a seasoned

archaka, he will loudly recite the key verse from the decad of Peria

thirumozhi, and explain the importance and speciality of that

particular temple. Adiyen wonder how this is possible. Each temple

has its own uniqueness and when it is told we feel it.

 

Since there are no regular sevarthis, only dry turmeric powder is

given as prasadam in these temples unlike the turmeric paste (manjal

kappu) which is common in Srirangam or Srivilliputtur temples. Only

during weekends devotees are coming in an arranged tour. Otherwise

these temples are mostly deserted. Adiyen has images of utsavars of

all these temples and after this write up adiyen will scan them and

include it in the web.

 

At Kavalampadi the perumal is Gopalakrishna and he is seen with a

calf behind like in Raja mannargudi. It seems that Sri Muralidhar

swamji has arranged for a pancha loka calf as the earlier one was

made of wood, which was also huge in size. Similarly renovation was

going on at Thiru thevanar thogai and still we could have the darshan

of moolavar and utsavar as the sannidhi was shifted to a temporary

place.

 

The experiences at Parthanpalli needs to be mentioned. Here the

bhattar is staying close to the temple and he is old too. He came to

temple and gave us very good darshan. He explained how srimad

Azhagiya singar and Srimad Andavam enjoyed their mangalasasanams and

he felt very happy about their visits. This temple is also in need of

support and interested bhagavathas can extend their help either thru

our trust or directly to him (Sri V S Lakshmana Deekshithar tel 04364

2275478). He is requesting help for maintenance of nandavanam for

tulasi and flowers and for nitya aradanai.

 

After completing our trip of all Thirunangur divya desams, Sri

Aalinadan swami and Chi Vedarajan left us to their respective places

to get ready for evening pooja. Sri Aalinadan wanted to be in

Thirunagari as his father is old and can't go to temple after a long

trip to Arimeya vinnagaram. No words can express our gratitude for

all their kindness and help. We thanked them and left for annan koil.

Smt Subha and others who has already visited Annan koil went to

Mangaimadam and Thirukkuraiyalur temples.

 

Adiyen will continue the experiences at Annankoil and Thalachchangadu

in the next posting.

 

regards

 

dasan venkat