Thirumoozhikkalam

[Guest guest]

Srimate Srivan Satakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Thirumoozhikkalam

 

What would you say is the most elusive commodity these days? Though you search

for it high and low and labour hard to achieve it, it somehow keeps slipping

from your grasp. Like the proverbial mirage, it appears almost at hand, but when

you go near with an outstretched hand, you realise that it is not there. You are

able to achieve success in financial, social and other material parameters, but

this particular item remains beyond our grasp. Its greatness can very well be

understood, if almost all the Upanishads begin with a prayer ("Shaanti: Shaanti:

Shaanti:") for the universal prevalence of this phenomenon, viz., Peace.

 

Though available in abundance in days of yore, Peace has become a scarce thing

these days. The growing urbanisation of unspoilt areas, the concrete jungles

inhabited by financial predators and others, the intolerable pressures of city

life, with everyone from the toddler to the doddering old being "pressed for

time", etc.-all these have served to rob us of all Calm, Peace, Tranquillity and

Serenity, leaving us constantly on the edge of nervous breakdowns. Strife,

discord and consequent distress are rampant, with people reacting with avoidable

violence, verbal and physical, at the least of provocations.

 

All this makes you want to run away from it all, at least temporarily. You would

like to leave behind you the raucous blaring and ranting of the cities and towns

and travel "far from the madding crowd", in search of Peace. It is thus that

people escape to hill stations, to verdant forests and to similar places where

nature, (or what is left unravaged of it by man) reigns supreme. Though you can

achieve external peace through this strategy, you are still unable to feel its

effect inside you. For, you may run away from your environment, from the

pressures of the cities: but go where you might, your thoughts still accompany

you, sticking tenaciously like leeches to your mind, denying you Inner Peace.

These raging thoughts, battering and buffeting the mind with a constant barrage

of conflicting emotions, still deny you the tranquillity within, in search of

which you have escaped from the earlier environment.

 

If this is the fix you are in, if you are in search of both internal and

external quietude and you want to achieve it without undertaking a strenuous and

expensive trip to the Himalayas, the ideal solution would be to visit a divya

desam in Kerala. If I have said it before, it merits repetition-the atmosphere

in these Malai Naadu temples is indeed beyond compare-there is none of the

jostling, pushing and pummelling devotees have to undergo for a fleeting eyeful

of the Lord, there is none of the raucous music blaring from loudspeakers

assailing your ears and mind, there is no soliciting for this cause or that

which detracts from your enjoyment of the deity, there is no loud-voiced gossip

or secular talk that characterises crowds thronging other temples. In short,

these temples enable you to concentrate on the business on hand, for which you

had made the trip viz., devotion and worship.

 

Another unique feature of these temples is the lighting inside the sanctum

sanctorum, which comes solely from oil lamps. There are no halogen lights

focussed straight on the Lord's face, with absolute lack of consideration and

care. How would you feel if someone constantly shone a bright torch into your

eyes? It would practically blind you, cause irritation and pain in the eyes. Why

should we do to the Lord something, which we would hate to be done to us? This

way, the Malai Naadu temples show us the way by having only soft, smooth light

in the sanctorum, emanating from wick lamps. In the process, however, the

devotee is unable to have a full appreciation of the deity's beauty and

grandeur, especially since he has to view the Lord from a distance. The oil

lamps give us only a rough idea of what the Lord looks like, leaving a lot to

our imagination. The lights and shadows cast by these lamps throw up a

tantalizing image of the Lord, half seen and half unseen. It is as if these

lamps are telling us, "How can you hope to have a full glimpse of Emperuman,

whom the Upanishads declare to be beyond our frail vision ("na sandrusE

tishthati roopam asya, na chakshushA pasyati kascha nainam")?" Sometimes a

sudden flare up in the lamp reveals a magnificent visage, just for a fleeting

second, and we consider our trip to have been extremely fruitful.

 

Coming to Tirumoozhikkalam, this divya desam has the distinction of having been

sung by two Azhwars-apart from Sri Nammazhwar, Sri Tirumangai Mannan too has

been attracted by this Lord to devote several honourable mentions to this

Lord-one each in Periya Tirumozhi, TirnedumtAndakam and Periya Tirumadal. Sri

Nammazhwar, being the Chief Patron of Malainaadu divyadesams, has devoted all of

ten verses in praise of this Emperuman, beginning with "em kAnal aham kazhivAi".

 

It is interesting to note, apropos of all the aforesaid references to lamps,

that Sri Kalian refers to this Emperuman as a "ViLakku" ("TirumoozhikaLattu

VilakkE!, MoozhikaLatthu ViLakkinai" etc). When we look into the relative

Tiruvaimozhi paasurams, we find Sri Nammazhwar too predictably referring to this

Lord as "oN sudar", twice in the space of ten paasurams.

 

Sri Satakopa Muni's verses on this divya desam constitute an impassioned plea by

a Lady Love, pining away due to the separation from the beloved and entreating

all and sundry whom she encounters, to convey a message of love and pain to the

Lord of MoozhikkaLam. In turn, she tries the red-legged cranes ("sengAla mada

nArAi"), a pair of love birds belonging to the "Kurugu" species ("kAdal

kuruginangAL"), the beautiful, spongy and bright clouds inhabiting the skies

over TirumoozhikkaLam ("aNi mugilgAL"), the musical bees drunk on the honey of

flowers and the graceful swans walking away from the river with a worm or two in

their beaks ("men nadaya annangAL").

 

Azhwar depicts graphically the sad plight of a teenager plagued by separation

from her beloved-without the manly Lord of Moozhikkalam to fold her in a strong

embrace, the girl's body wastes away every day, with ornaments like the

"MEkhala"(worn around the midriff) falling down without the flesh to keep it in

place. The eyes never stop secreting a flood of tears, occasioned by the Lord's

non-appearance, despite impassioned pleas for His presence. Emperuman, who had

lavished all His love and affection on this girl in the previous decad devoted

to TirukkAtkarai, suddenly left Her without a word. If one is unused to

pleasures, it would not affect one that much. However, when one is given a taste

of nectar, only to have the cup rudely snatched away suddenly, the lack of it is

felt immensely. Similar is the plight of the lady, who had had her fill of the

Lord's sweetness at TirukkAtkarai and is denied the same at TirumoozhikkaLam.

The sight of birds in pairs generates intense jealousy in her, at their good

fortune to be with their beloved, when she herself is denied the pleasure. Thus

all the ten paasurams of Sri Nammazhwar convey an intense longing for the Lord

and the unrequited desire to be with Him always.

 

Sri Tirumangai Azhwar's tribute to this divya desam, though confined to a

handful of mentions vis-à-vis the whole decad of Sri Nammazhwar, is none the

less eloquent. Sri Kalian accords the Lord of Tirumoozhikkalam the unique

distinction of making Himself available to mortals like us, who were not around

when the Rama and Krishna avataaraas took place. In His infinite mercy, the Lord

stands at Moozhikkalam, affording us the same sort of enjoyment that the

inhabitants of Ayodhya and Gokulam must have experienced at the sight of Sri

Rama and Sri Krishna. This is why Sri Parakaala calls this Lord, "Pin aanaar

vaNangum sOthi", a reference to the Lord's arrcchaavataaram, the form in which

He is to be seen in various temples on earth now. Sri Kalian's paasuram is a

veritable gem and is worth quoting-

 

"Pon AnAi, pozhil Ezhum kAval pooNda pugazh AnAi, igazhvAya tondanEn nAn

en AnAi en AnAi ennal allAl en arivan EzhaiyEn, ulagam Etthum

ten AnAi, vadavAnAi, kudapAl AnAi, guNapAla mada yAnAi,

imayOrkku endrum

mun AnAi, pin AnAr vaNangum sOthi TirumoozhikkaLatthu AnAi, mudal AnAyE"

 

"To enable Your devotees, who were unfortunate not to have been around when You

took avataaraas, You stand in all splendour, Your Supremacy and independence

undiminished, at temples situated in the north, south, east and west-at

TiruvEnkatam, TirumAlirumsOlai, Srirangam and TirumoozhikkaLam, for every mortal

to feast his eyes on. Just as You show your magnificence to the permanent

residents of Sri Vaikunttam, You reveal Yourself to ardent devotees in this

mundane world too, as the Primordial Cause and the Paramapurusha" says Azhwar.

The equation with three other exalted divya desams brings home to us the glory

of TirumoozhikkaLam.

 

As I left TirumoozhikkaLam, rather unsatisfied with the Lord for not having

revealed to me His glorious form in full due to the poor lighting within the

sanctum, a sobering thought struck me.

 

Both the Azhwars are emphatic that the Lord here is luminance personified ("oN

sudar, sOdi, ViLakku" etc.). They confirm having witnessed Him in all His

lustrous splendour, as a ball of brilliance. If this was so, why did the Lord

fail to show Himself to me similarly? He could not have changed, despite the

centuries between then and now!

 

The answer, of course, was not far to seek-the difference lay in the eyes on the

onlooker. Azhwars looked at Him with eyes filled with devotion and overwhelming

love, eyes which had no place for anything other than His splendour, eyes which

had ached with longing for a fleeting glimpse of Him. And as for my eyes, the

less said the better! It struck me too that the darkness, preventing a full

sight of the Lord's glorious form, was not in the sanctum sanctorum, but in my

own mind. It was the darkness of sin and ignorance enveloping my mind that

clouded my eyes too. Azhwars were able to perceive His splendour, as their minds

were awash with the brilliance of Bhakti. I realised too that the words of Sri

Kalian, "Pin AnAr vaNangum SOdi" had a special significance for myself and those

like me. While Azhwar had referred only to those who were behind in time, I

realised that I was way behind in devotion, wisdom, conduct and everything else

that makes the difference between a saint and a sinner.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrisimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

dasan, sadagopan

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

I had been to Thirumoozhikalam (locally called

Moozhikulam) located between Ernakulam and Aluva,

ThirukkatkArai (locally called Trikakara)located in

the Cochin University campus near Modern Engineering

college and Thiruvittuvakodu (locally called

Thirumittakodu) located between Shoranur and

Guruvayoor near Pattambi last week end.

The temples are rather small, very old and dilapidated

in some portions. The third one is located in a very

remote place and one has to do a lot of searching to

find out the place. It's located on the banks of a

river called Bharatapuzha and even though the

atmosphere is calm and serene, it looks forlorn since

there are few people inhabiting this place. To my

utter surprise, the archakar (looking very modern with

crew cut hair and moustache) told me about the

mangalasasanam of this perumal by Sri Kulasekara

Azhwar. In the other two temples, the archakars did

not know anything about Sri Nammazhwar and his

mangalasasanam of the perumals.

It was a nice and satisfying experience since I had to

really go in search of HIM and getting the blissful

darshan of the Lord in all these three temples.

 

Regards,

 

VSrinivasan

--- sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar

wrote:

Srimate Srivan Satakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra

Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Thirumoozhikkalam

What would you say is the most elusive commodity

these days? Though you search for it high and low

and labour hard to achieve it, it somehow keeps

slipping from your grasp. Like the proverbial

mirage, it appears almost at hand, but when you go

near with an outstretched hand, you realise that it

is not there. You are able to achieve success in

financial, social and other material parameters, but

this particular item remains beyond our grasp. Its

greatness can very well be understood, if almost all

the Upanishads begin with a prayer ("Shaanti:

Shaanti: Shaanti:") for the universal prevalence of

this phenomenon, viz., Peace.

Though available in abundance in days of yore, Peace

has become a scarce thing these days. The growing

urbanisation of unspoilt areas, the concrete jungles

inhabited by financial predators and others, the

intolerable pressures of city life, with everyone

from the toddler to the doddering old being "pressed

for time", etc.-all these have served to rob us of

all Calm, Peace, Tranquillity and Serenity, leaving

us constantly on the edge of nervous breakdowns.

Strife, discord and consequent distress are rampant,

with people reacting with avoidable violence, verbal

and physical, at the least of provocations.

All this makes you want to run away from it all, at

least temporarily. You would like to leave behind

you the raucous blaring and ranting of the cities

and towns and travel "far from the madding crowd",

in search of Peace. It is thus that people escape to

hill stations, to verdant forests and to similar

places where nature, (or what is left unravaged of

it by man) reigns supreme. Though you can achieve

external peace through this strategy, you are still

unable to feel its effect inside you. For, you may

run away from your environment, from the pressures

of the cities: but go where you might, your thoughts

still accompany you, sticking tenaciously like

leeches to your mind, denying you Inner Peace. These

raging thoughts, battering and buffeting the mind

with a constant barrage of conflicting emotions,

still deny you the tranquillity within, in search of

which you have escaped from the earlier environment.

If this is the fix you are in, if you are in search

of both internal and external quietude and you want

to achieve it without undertaking a strenuous and

expensive trip to the Himalayas, the ideal solution

would be to visit a divya desam in Kerala. If I have

said it before, it merits repetition-the atmosphere

in these Malai Naadu temples is indeed beyond

compare-there is none of the jostling, pushing and

pummelling devotees have to undergo for a fleeting

eyeful of the Lord, there is none of the raucous

music blaring from loudspeakers assailing your ears

and mind, there is no soliciting for this cause or

that which detracts from your enjoyment of the

deity, there is no loud-voiced gossip or secular

talk that characterises crowds thronging other

temples. In short, these temples enable you to

concentrate on the business on hand, for which you

had made the trip viz., devotion and worship.

Another unique feature of these temples is the

lighting inside the sanctum sanctorum, which comes

solely from oil lamps. There are no halogen lights

focussed straight on the Lord's face, with absolute

lack of consideration and care. How would you feel

if someone constantly shone a bright torch into your

eyes? It would practically blind you, cause

irritation and pain in the eyes. Why should we do to

the Lord something, which we would hate to be done

to us? This way, the Malai Naadu temples show us the

way by having only soft, smooth light in the

sanctorum, emanating from wick lamps. In the

process, however, the devotee is unable to have a

full appreciation of the deity's beauty and

grandeur, especially since he has to view the Lord

from a distance. The oil lamps give us only a rough

idea of what the Lord looks like, leaving a lot to

our imagination. The lights and shadows cast by

these lamps throw up a tantalizing image of the

Lord, half seen and half unseen. It is as if these

lamps are telling us, "How can you hope to have a

full glimpse of Emperuman, whom the Upanishads

declare to be beyond our frail vision ("na sandrusE

tishthati roopam asya, na chakshushA pasyati kascha

nainam")?" Sometimes a sudden flare up in the lamp

reveals a magnificent visage, just for a fleeting

second, and we consider our trip to have been

extremely fruitful.

Coming to Tirumoozhikkalam, this divya desam has the

distinction of having been sung by two Azhwars-apart

from Sri Nammazhwar, Sri Tirumangai Mannan too has

been attracted by this Lord to devote several

honourable mentions to this Lord-one each in Periya

Tirumozhi, TirnedumtAndakam and Periya Tirumadal.

Sri Nammazhwar, being the Chief Patron of Malainaadu

divyadesams, has devoted all of ten verses in praise

of this Emperuman, beginning with "em kAnal aham

kazhivAi".

It is interesting to note, apropos of all the

aforesaid references to lamps, that Sri Kalian

refers to this Emperuman as a "ViLakku"

("TirumoozhikaLattu VilakkE!, MoozhikaLatthu

ViLakkinai" etc). When we look into the relative

Tiruvaimozhi paasurams, we find Sri Nammazhwar too

predictably referring to this Lord as "oN sudar",

twice in the space of ten paasurams.

 

Sri Satakopa Muni's verses on this divya desam

constitute an impassioned plea by a Lady Love,

pining away due to the separation from the beloved

and entreating all and sundry whom she encounters,

to convey a message of love and pain to the Lord of

MoozhikkaLam. In turn, she tries the red-legged

cranes ("sengAla mada nArAi"), a pair of love birds

belonging to the "Kurugu" species ("kAdal

kuruginangAL"), the beautiful, spongy and bright

clouds inhabiting the skies over TirumoozhikkaLam

("aNi mugilgAL"), the musical bees drunk on the

honey of flowers and the graceful swans walking away

from the river with a worm or two in their beaks

("men nadaya annangAL").

 

Azhwar depicts graphically the sad plight of a

teenager plagued by separation from her

beloved-without the manly Lord of Moozhikkalam to

fold her in a strong embrace, the girl's body wastes

away every day, with ornaments like the

"MEkhala"(worn around the midriff) falling down

without the flesh to keep it in place. The eyes

never stop secreting a flood of tears, occasioned by

the Lord's non-appearance, despite impassioned pleas

for His presence. Emperuman, who had lavished all

His love and affection on this girl in the previous

decad devoted to TirukkAtkarai, suddenly left Her

without a word. If one is unused to pleasures, it

would not affect one that much. However, when one is

given a taste of nectar, only to have the cup rudely

snatched away suddenly, the lack of it is felt

immensely. Similar is the plight of the lady, who

had had her fill of the Lord's sweetness at

TirukkAtkarai and is denied the same at

TirumoozhikkaLam. The sight of birds in pairs

generates intense jealousy in her, at their good

fortune to be with their beloved, when she herself

is denied the pleasure. Thus all the ten paasurams

of Sri Nammazhwar convey an intense longing for the

Lord and the unrequited desire to be with Him

always.

 

Sri Tirumangai Azhwar's tribute to this divya desam,

though confined to a handful of mentions vis-à-vis

the whole decad of Sri Nammazhwar, is none the less

eloquent. Sri Kalian accords the Lord of

Tirumoozhikkalam the unique distinction of making

Himself available to mortals like us, who were not

around when the Rama and Krishna avataaraas took

place. In His infinite mercy, the Lord stands at

Moozhikkalam, affording us the same sort of

enjoyment that the inhabitants of Ayodhya and

Gokulam must have experienced at the sight of Sri

Rama and Sri Krishna. This is why Sri Parakaala

calls this Lord, "Pin aanaar vaNangum sOthi", a

reference to the Lord's arrcchaavataaram, the form

in which He is to be seen in various temples on

earth now. Sri Kalian's paasuram is a veritable gem

and is worth quoting-

"Pon AnAi, pozhil Ezhum kAval pooNda pugazh AnAi,

igazhvAya tondanEn nAn

en AnAi en AnAi ennal allAl en arivan EzhaiyEn,

ulagam Etthum

ten AnAi, vadavAnAi, kudapAl AnAi, guNapAla mada

yAnAi,

imayOrkku endrum

mun AnAi, pin AnAr vaNangum sOthi

TirumoozhikkaLatthu AnAi, mudal AnAyE"

"To enable Your devotees, who were unfortunate not

to have been around when You took avataaraas, You

stand in all splendour, Your Supremacy and

independence undiminished, at temples situated in

the north, south, east and west-at TiruvEnkatam,

TirumAlirumsOlai, Srirangam and TirumoozhikkaLam,

for every mortal to feast his eyes on. Just as You

show your magnificence to the permanent residents of

Sri Vaikunttam, You reveal Yourself to ardent

devotees in this mundane world too, as the

Primordial

 

 

 

 

 

 

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