Visit to Divya desams part X

[Guest guest]

Dear bhagavathas,

 

adiyen adiyen will cover the experiences of three divya desams in

this posting.

 

After visiting Thirunangur based divya desams, Sri Aalinadan and Sri

Veda rajan left for their respective places and myself, my father and

my friend santhanam continued our trip to Thiruvellakkulam and then

to Thalachchangadu divya desams. The other group with Smt Subashini

and her sister etc went to Mangaimadam and Kuraiyalur and came to

Thalachchangadu.

 

In divya prabandham the Azhvars do mangalasasanam for not only

perumal in that particular divya desam but also to the sacred tank

and sthala vruksham etc. Sri Nammazhvar is doing mangalasasanam to

the sacred tank at Thirumogur, at the begining of the last decad in

Thiruvaymozhi, stating "Thala thaamarai thadavayal thirumookur.."

Similarly, the tank in this divya desam has been sung by Sri Kaliyan

(thirumangai azhvar). The another beauty is that the name of the

divya desam itself Thiruvellakkulam.

 

It is believed that the dharma patni of Sri Thirumangai azhvar Sri

Kumudhavalli nachchiyar was incarnated in this tank. You all must be

aware of the story of Sri Thirumangai azhvar and adiyen is not going

to dwell into the story here for the sake of brevity. The pity thing

is there is not a single drop of water in the temple tank now. The

surrounding of the temple is so peaceful and calm.

 

This perumal, who is known as Annan perumal is considered as the elder

brother of Sri Thiruvenkatamudaiyan of Thiruppathi. Although, the

Oppiliappan and Sri Devanathan of Thiruvahendrapuram are also

considerd as elder brothers of Lord Balaji, there is strong reason

for calling Annan perumal as the elder brother of

Thiruvenkatamudaiyan. Consider this pasruam of Peria thirumozhi,

which is glorifying Thiruppathi,

 

kaNNaar kadalsoozh* ilangkaikku iRaivanthan*

 

thiNNaagam piLakkach* chalam sela uytthaay!*

 

viNNOr thozhum* vEngkada maamalai mEya*

 

aNNaa! adiyEn* idaraik kaLaiyaayE. 1.10.1

 

Now let us how Kaliyan is doing mangalasasanam to Annan perumal.

 

1308:##

 

kaNNaar kadalpOl* thirumEni kariyaay*

 

naNNaarmunai* venRiKoLvaar mannu naangoor*

 

thiNNaar mathiLchoozh* thiruveLLak kuLaththuL_aNNaa*

 

adiyEn idaraik kaLaiyaayE (4.7.1)

 

adiyen can keep on giving references, quoting all the ten pasurams of

Thiruvellakulam and Thiruppathi to emphasise the similarity of both

divya desams. Let us leave this for a later detailed discussion and

move on. Sri Kaliyan has addressed only the Thirupathi Srinivasar and

Annan perumal as aNNaa in his pasurams. This is the uniqueness of

this divya desam.

 

Here Sri Madhava bhattar is doing kaimkaryam to Perumal and this

temple is in better shape compared to other Thirunangur divya desams.

When we have visted the temple, the upanyasam of Sri Krisha premi on

Thiruvaymozhi was being played thru the audio system of the temple.

In that evening, it was no nice to listen to the mesmorising voice of

Sri Krishna premi. We had good darshan of the Perumal and Thayar and

Sri Madhava bhattar has made good booklets for guidance to visit the

divya desams around Thirunangur.

 

The nandavanam of this divya desam requires special mention. It was

huge and various types of flowers and tulasi are being grown. We are

blessed to participate in the maintenance of the nandavana

kaimkaryam. As we came back from our short visit the nandavanam, lots

of small children were marching to the temple and Sri Madhava bhattar

has explained that on every sunday around 6 PM all the local children

are invited for nama sankeerthan for an hour. He leads the goshti and

the children are encouraged with small gifts etc. They sing the

famous Hare rama sloka for an hour. We thanked Sri Madhava bhattar

and left for Thalachchangadu.

 

It was around 6.30PM and it has become dark by then. The roads are

poorly lit and one has to be very careful in driving, as the roads

are very narrow too. Thalachchangadu temple is in an isolated

location. But once you reach there you will love the surrounding. The

temple is in a groove, which is full of tall coconut trees and mango

trees. There are green paddy fields around the temple and one special

note about the water well in the temple. adiyen has never tasted

water which is as sweet as this well. Since the approach is bit

difficult this temple do not receive lots of devotees.

 

We are blessed to do nitya aradanam in this temple for quite some

time now. It was my friend Santhanam, who has visited the temple four

years back and he came by public transport and after a long walk he

reached the temple it seems. Seeing his camera, the village people

mistook him as a magazine reporter and took pains to go to the house

of the aged bhattar (age 80+) and called him. The bhattar came and

gave a good darshan to him and then enquired which magazine he is

attached to. My friend told that he is just an ordinary devotee and

not a reporter. This made him angry and murmured that had I known

this, I wouldn't have come. Hoping that if the temple gets good

exposure, the renovation can take place I came. My friend did not get

angry.

 

Given his age and condition of the temple, they must be really

looking for some publicity to improve the condition.

 

Santhanam mentioned it to me and he felt bad about the condition of

the temples. adiyen then asked my father to visit this temple. In the

meantime, the temple got a facelift with renovation with the help of

various asthikas and when my father has visited the temple the local

bhagavathas have requested him for help for doing nitya aradanam. By

bhagavath sankalpam, we could take up the nitya aradana kaimkaryam in

this temple.

 

Parakalan kainkarya sabha is co ordinating the temple activities. Sri

Thiruvenkatam who is working in Neyveli commutes on every weekend to

oversee the temple matters. Sri Narayanan, who is the dharmakartha

and he is also actively interested in doing kaimkaryam for the

perumal. They were all waiting for us for a long time. We aplogosied

for the delay and they have even brought different kinds of fruits

for offering to Perumal. The bhattar is very old and his eyesight is

very poor due to his age. Still with great enthusiasm, he explained

the puranic background of the temple and even shown the artha chandra

on the head of the Utsavar. Since the Lord is keeping the chandra on

his head, he is called Thalachchanga naaN madhiyapperumal. The

andal vigraham in this temple is so beautiful and even the Lifco book

on 108 divya desam has mentioned about this.

 

After having a good darshan, we sat down and Sri Thiruvenkatam and Sri

Narayanan have mentioned in detail about the various expenses

associated with the nitya aradana kaimkaryam and they were so

thankful for our humle help. adiyen was really wondering whether such

a small help and little financial assistance could make great

difference to these temples. The bhattar in the mean time brought hot

milk and requested us to help ourselves to add sugar as he can't do a

proper job due to his poor eyesight. adiyen was in tears to see his

affection and they felt sorry for not providing anyother prasadam due

to the present conditon. We were indeed moved by their love and

gesture.

 

After a while, Smt Subha and others reached the temple and the

bhattar was once again busy. Smt Subha has provided vastrams and

vessels to this temple and during this trip she had agreed to provide

vessels worth Rs 5000/ to Thirunangur temples. If every one of us

start visiting these temples and extending our little assistance for

vastrams and inexpensive ornaments (no need to be in pure gold) and

other needs these temples will look far better than they are today.

It is the intention with which adiyen is writing in detail about our

trip.

 

We contiuned our yatra to Mayiladuthurai to have darshan of Sri

Parimala rangan at Thiruindhalur while Subha and others went to

Thirukkannapuram.

 

It is not easy to have darshan of Sri Parimala rangan at

Thiruindhalur. When Sri Thirumangai azhvar came to this divya desam,

it was late in the night and the temple was closed for the day. Sri

Thirumangai azhvar was upset and he was desparate to have darshan of

the Lord. The perumal gave HIS darshan as he appeared in kretha yuga

and thretha yuga but Azhvar was insisting that he want to see HIM as

he is inside the temple in archavatara. Perumal was helpless in this

case, as only the bhattar or archaka have to come to give darshan of

HIM in archavatara. This made Azhvar angry and he was prepared to

even leave the place without having darshan of Perumal. Now Perumal is

worried and quickly made the archaka to come back to the temple to

satisfy the Azhvar. Please read the wonderful ten pasurams of Peria

thirumozhi associated with this divya desam.

 

The above is the history but my friend santhanam told me that he has

come twice to this divya desam at differnt timings and on both the

occasions he has to return without darshan of the Perumal. He could

not stay back due to other commitments and he was very eager to see

the perumal atleast this time.

 

By 8 PM, we have reached the temple and straight went to main

sannidhi for darshan. For a moment we were very happy as there was

not much crowd also at that time. Believe me, we were asked to come

out of the sannidhi by a group of bhagavathas who were standing over

there. We were surprised and worried too. Is that mean that we can't

have darshan now?

 

We understood that some one in the agraharam has passed away that day

and due to the theetu the temple was closed for some time. Now the

proceedings are being resumed with all the poojas starting from the

morning after punyavachanam etc. All the rituals starting from the

morning till the evening was done at 8PM as a shorter version and

then we had darshan of the Lord. Then we went to Thayar sannidhi and

Sudarshana azhvar sannidhi and came out around 9 PM. We were glad to

come at the right time. Even if we had come earlier in the day, we

couldn't have had darshan. It was HE who brought us in the correct

time and it reminded me the pasuram of Sri Thirumazhisai azhvar in

Thiruchchandha vruththam " ninna padham ninaippadhathaka nee

ninaikka vendume" meaning YOU should resolve that I should be able to

think about your lotus feet". What a brilliant expression!

 

After a tiring day we finally travelled to Oppiliappankoil as our

next day yatra was commencing from there after visvaroopa darshan of

Lord Oppiliappan. We have made arrangements for stay at Sri Andavan

ashramam and by 10 PM we have reached there. appa told that we have

to get us early to bathe in the Pushkarani and for visvaroopa

darshan. We were exhausted after a long journey visiting 17 divya

desams starting Seerkazhi and ending with Thiruindhalur. We prayed to

Oppiliappan to wake us early enough for his morning darshan as we did

not bring any alarm clock with us.

 

Our trip to Nathan koil, Adhanur, Pullambhuthangudi, Thirumandangudi

etc will be in the next posting.

 

regards

 

dasan venkat