Near Tirunelveli -Thiruchendur route at the northern banks of the holy river Tambaraparani river , there is a glorious temple of Lord Vaikuntanathar .
Lord rests on Aadhishesha facing the east holding a wonderful mace in his divine lotus hand .
In this small village few hundred years ago there was a thief ,kaladhooshakan .
He was a nice devotee of the Lord .
He used to visit the temple in the day and pray Lord for a good booty in the night .
It was a one to one conversation. He made it a practice to offer fifty percent of his loot for some service to the Lord. Though it was always petty thefts , he wished he somehow looted the royal chambers .
He ardently prayed LORD for his mission to be accomplished .He meanwhile worked with a plan to navigate the royal chambers for the d-day in his looting expedition.
Days were passing and his prayers became more frequent.
It was Karthika Pournami day .
He went to temple and offered his obeisances to the great Lord.
He said , Lord ! Today I will be entering the royal chambers and with this loot , I would offer you a majestic diamond studded crown .Please be with me ..
You have always been with me all my life …
Very energetic and enthusiastic , he moved out of the temple .
He called his friends and said .
Friends …Today is very special day for us …With this royal loot we would be forever happy .
I want all of you to coordinate as per our plan and make this loot memorable and bounty full .
I am sure we will be successful as Lord has assured all the support as he is doing already . Lets all assemble before the temple tonight before we leave to the royal palace .
It was midnight .
The moon was glowing in full radiance . Kaaladhooshakan arrived in disguise .
He was at the temple doors .
Ardently praying , he looked at the temple top and with reverence bowed down seeking Lord’s permission to proceed .
His friends quickly joined him with all the tools needed for the challenging task.
Together they crawled in the dark night in different routes to reach the destined place as per their plan .
The royal palace was huge and the compound walls were strong .
Kaaladhooshakan was waiting for this day .It was an Olympics moment .
He waited for his friends to arrive meanwhile working out his mind how best can his mission can be accomplished .
As his friends approached , he said .. My dear friends !! This is a wonderful opportunity .
Just be with me I will make your lives happy forever without any one to do petty works . Just signal me If the guards are approaching me .
Each one of you will transmit some cheeky noise for me to be alert . I shall go there inside those royal chambers and all of you have to just keep a vigil no one comes while I am on my job.
All of them agreed to follow the plan meticulously .
Kaaladhooshakan managed to climb the compound wall with a strong rope . He looked around to see If their were any guards watching him .
Thus, managed to quickly reach the royal chambers .
Not having much problem with the darkness as the moon was always following him giving sufficient light to trace his jewellery destination he crawled into the dark night .
The huge balcony was unguarded . He managed to make his way into the room .
The room was full of ivory cupboards and had royal touch .
Kaaladhooshakan was stunned to see the opulence .
He quickly looked into the ivory cupboards that had precious jewellery.
Every jewellery he picked , his mind raced to adorn the Lord with them .
All the time he imagined each jewellery would have been more attractive had it been with our Lord . He started quickly pushing all those jewellery into his gunny bag .
The bag was full with the precious jewellery .His mission was accomplished .
Thanking LORD for his support , he quickly marched towards the compound walls for making his way back home.
The dogs looking at his friends who were waiting near the compound wall , started barking .
The guards immediately pounced on them and questioned .
Looking at their speech and body language the guards arrested them for further questioning .
At the royal chambers , the theft was noticed the next day .
The guards paraded Kaaladhooshakan friends before the King .
At the village , Kaaladhooshakan got nervous .
As the sun rose , He quickly rushed towards the temple and pleaded LORD to save him .
All compassionate Lord appeared before him as a Priest and assured him everything will be for his own good .
Kaaladhooshakan promptly left the temple with an assurance from Lord .
Meanwhile as per the directions of the friends who were already caught , the guards reached the temple to find about the whereabouts of Kaaladhooshakan .
Lord now appeared before the guards as Kaaladhooshakan and submitted before the King in all opulence .
The King was stunned to see Kaaladhooshakan .
The bewitching smile and the magnetic aura he carried made the entire court spellbound .The eyes carried a special effect.
The King was just watching his glowing face .Meanwhile , the minister questioned him for the reason his stealing .
The thief ( LORD ) said I have stole that part of the wealth which is as per dharma. Your majesty has not protected the dharma as a King and hence we had to interfere .
The King was shocked to hear Kaaladhooshakan quoting vedic scriptures and thus proving his innocence .
The spark in the eyes of Kaaladhooshakan made the King keep looking at him without any whisper .He realized he was not an ordinary thief but LORD himself who had come to enlighten him .
He immediately ordered his minister to renovate the temple and release Kaaladhooshan and his friends and ensure they had a decent living .
For the divine leela enacted ,Lord is glorified as Kallar –piran/Chora-nathar(head of thieves) A rare incident happens during the 6th day of Chithirai month .
Sun rays falls directly on the lotus feet of Lord Vaikuntanathar .
Lord is also glorified as Paal pandiyan as a token of acceptance from the pandyan king who had constructed this temple and arranged for daily milk abhishekam to the Lordships.
This temple Lordships is glorified by our Nammazhwar .The temple is one of the 108 srivaishnava divya desams .
The temple is also classified as a Navatirupathy , the nine temples revered by Nammazhwar located in the banks of Tambaraparani river.
There are as such Eight Divyadesam but nine temples called as Navathirupathi which are situated at north bank of tambarabarani river and last three divyadesams are situated at south bank
1. Srivaikuntam
2. Varagunamangai
3.Thirupuliyangkudi
4.Tholaivillimangalam(Irattai thirupathi,two temple)
5.Perungulam
6.Thenthiruperai
7.Thirukolur
8.Alwarthirunagari.
Nava Garuda sevai post appended below describing the grand event
https://kazhiyurvaradanblog.in/2016/05/16/nava-garuda-sevai-vaibhavam-at-azhwar-thirunagari/
The glory of Thirukkolur appended in the below post
https://kazhiyurvaradanblog.in/2015/06/14/the-glory-of-thirukkolur/
Adiyen Ramanuja dasan
Pics : Courtesy google images
