Yours Affectionately

[Guest guest]

Yours Affectionately

 

 

"ingu thamizil archanai seyyap padum" greets the board in some of the temples

in tamilnadu. 'Here the archanai will be performed in tamil' -what does it

mean? Traditionally, the archanai to the Lord is performed in sanskrit slOkAs

pertaining to the particular em-perumAn.

 

There is nothing wrong in performing tamil-archanai provided it is done with

single minded devotion and wholehearted affection but not for the sake of it.

 

This takes us to the thought of how should one worship the Lord? What should be

the words -when we go to the divya-dhEsam-s.

 

Let us take a leaf from one of the community in thirumAl irum-sOlai. What do we

do on festive days? We wear new clothes, eat sweets and request from Him "Oh!

Lord ! Take care of us" However, these community people pray the Lord for His

welfare.They prepare fresh items for Him as havis and present as offering for

Him and utter these words:

'Oh Lord ! Let Your Golden Feet be forever' . Unimaginable , but true.

This is from the periyAzhwAr thirumozhi

 

"puna-thiNaik kiLLi -pudhu avi kATTi-

vun-ponnadi vAzhga enRu-

inakk kuRavar pudhiyadhuNNum --ezhil mAl irum-sOlai endhAi" 5-3-3;

 

That Sri PeiryAzhwAr's pallANDu pallANdu is height of affection is well known.

Sri nam-AzhwAr opines that everyone worhsips Him with affection manifested into

words emanating as per their vocabulary and capacity. Swami nam-piLLai in EDu,

quoting an instance of Sri VangEpurathu nambi who worshipped standing in group

of woman, justifying his place there as there words of worshipping the Lord

were simple and affectionate, Sri nam-piLLai refers to ANDAn's reply for this.

ANDAn asks him what were there words of worship " ponnAlEA pUNul iduvEr; nURu

prAyam vAzhvEr and so on" --Oh! Lord, Be adorned with Golden yagjnOpavEtham;

You should go on for another hundred years and so on' These words spring out

from the affection overlooking the fact that all the wealth is His and He is

eternal.

 

"And what was your reaction?" was ANDAn's query for which Sri VangEpurathu nambi

replied 'vijayE bhavA;vijayE bhavA"

"Well; Even after going to that side you are not able to leave off the tough

sanskrit. Come over this side"

 

This episode is narrated to reiterate the fact that each and everyone spell out

the words towards the Lord as per their capability mixed with affection .

 

'thangaL anbArath thamadhu sol vaLathAl -thalaith thalai siRandhu pUsippa' thiruvoizhmozhi 9-2-8;

 

We are indeed fortunate to be in this world after AzhwAr-s periods as we are

having the treasure -aruLich cheyal. Whenever, we visit em-perumAn's abode,

these aruLich cheyal should be appropriate prayer and will suit any given

situation and place. One should of course, take care that this does not become

a ritual but is done with

 

'Yours Affectinately'

 

dAsan

vanamamalai padmanabhan