Author: Kazhiyur Varadan

Swamy Embaar ( Govinda bhattar ) appeared during the year 1026 in the month of Makara ( Tamil Month of Thai ) under the the constellation of Punarvasu (  and swamy  is said he was the amsam of  Vaiynatheyan/Garudazhwar ) .

Embaars maternal uncle Thirumalai nambhi named him as Govinda Bhattar. Govinda was the first cousin of  JagathAcharyar Swami Ramanuja .Both of them attended the Academy of Yadhava Prakasha ( Yadhava Prakasha a  Advaitin ) at Thiruputkuzzi near Kancheepuram .

The  unfortunate  design planned  that need  not be discussed by their Guru Yadavaprakasha to eliminate  Swamy Ramanuja was foiled by  young Govinda by seeing an early opportunity .

More details of this divine pastime can be read  from the below url blog post

https://kmkvaradhan.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/lord-arrives-in-the-guise-of-hunter-couple-to-save-his-ardent-devotee-swamy-ramanuja/

Govinda bhattar  advises  Swamy Ramanujar  about the evil intentions of the troupe.   As advised by Govinda bhattar  , Ramanujar leaves them and by LORD’s will reaches  Kanchi ( We  cherish  how our  Swamy Ramanujar was saved by Lord Varadar  and his consort from getting lost in jungles and had safe passage to Kanchipuram) { Even to this day the same event is celebrated as Salai Kinaru Usthavam .

Yadhava Prakasha noticed Ramanujar missing and asked all the disciples to search for him ,and even our Govinda pretended to search so that he should not be doubted. Then unable to locate him ,  all concluded that Ramanuja must have lost his way in the wild jungle and must have been devoured by wild animals.

Inwardly happy they all continued the sojourn to Kashi.  On reaching Kashi , Govinda took  a dip in Ganges  and rose his palms .To his amazement , he notices  a Shiva Lingam in his hand . He immediately proceeds to  show the divinity it to his master .

His Guru  Yadavaprakashar commands  Govinda that as Paramasivan  was  pleased with Govinda he had the fortune to have his divinity and as it was  his direct blessings , he must worship the Siva Lingam.

Govinda  accepts his Master’s command.  He starts worshipping  the  Siva Lingam in Madhuramangalam ( even to this day we  can  have darshan of the Siva Lingam) .

Later , he  dreams  Paramasivan of Kalahasthi  advising  him to come to his divine abode .With directions from his Guru , he proceeds  to Kalahasthi . He joins in temple service  and remains there .

Years rolled on . Swami Ramanuja becomes the disciple of Thirukachi Nambhigal ,

Periya Nambhi, Thirukoshtiyur nambhi and had takes  sanyasa .

 Swamy Ramanuja  now remembers  Govinda , whose timely advice saved his life.

Knowing Govinda bhattar is at Kalahastee  he requests  his maternal uncle  Swamy Thirumalai Nambhi to explore the possibilities of bringing Govinda back to srivaishnava fold . Thirumalai Nambhi  proceeds  to Kalahasthi and  meets  Govinda bhattar  and quotes few verses of His Acharyar Alawandar’s Shostra Ratna Malai  elucidating the importance of the Supreme personality Lord Sriman Narayana .

He impresses  upon Govinda that worshipping Lord Sriman Narayana is the only way for path to salvation . Govinda bhattar gets all his questions answered and proceeds to the sanctum .

He  takes  permission from Paramasivan  for joining Swamy Ramanuja in his mission . Paramasivan pleased with his service advises him to remain with Swamy Ramanujar .Govinda bhatar now proceeds  along with his uncle to Thirumala to learn Divyaprabhandam under him.

Meanwhile Swamy Ramanuja  proceeds to Tirumala  for learning the inner secrets of Srimad Ramayana from his uncle Thirumalai Nambhi  at  Tirumala.

After learning the  inner secrets of the geat epic Srimad Ramayana from Swamy  Tirumalai Nambhi , Acharyar  wanted to gift something to his student and  felt sad  that he did not have anything to give.

https://video.wordpress.com/embed/MPhgt2Z9?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0

Seizing the wonderful  opportunity  Swamy Ramanuja   requests Acharyar to gift him with Govinda bhattar  who was  very obedient and a  true seeker of knowledge. Swamy Thirumala Nambhi understood Swamy Ramanujar’s future plan in spreading the Sri Vaishnava doctrine and hence  readily agrees .

Swami Ramanuja and Govinda return  back to Srirangam via Kanchipuram. Though he joins swamy Ramanujar , Govinda was always sad that he was missing his Acharyar and Uncle .

Seeing the sad plight,  Swamy Ramanuja immediately asks  him to go back to  Acharyar Thirumalai Nambhigals place . Overjoyed Govindar returns to Tirumala .

On reaching he understands  his  Acharyar is unhappy with his decision  After staying for a week ,. Acharyar  advises Govindar and tells  “Cow once sold or gifted in dhana cannot be taken back .

Govinda with humility seeks forgivance and  returns back to  Swamy Ramanuja , more refined, wiser and chastened.

https://video.wordpress.com/embed/fzSByjzr?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0

Now Swamy Ramanuja is   pleased with  his move .With  affection  he advises him to attend  all lectures, discourse, debates expositions and dispositions.  

Govindar gradually  becomes  a shadow of  Swamy Ramanuja and serve his master day and night.

Though Govinda bhattar  was married, he never lived a householders life,  and he remained like a Brahmachari . He wanted to take Sanyasa like his master Swamy  Ramanuja.

Much against his mothers wishes Swami Ramanuja agrees to give him Sanyasa after testing his sincerity to accept the sanyasa ashram He presents Govinda a Arch robe of an ascetic and  gives  his initiated  name  as “Emperumanar” .

Govindar bhattar feels humble and    informs  his master whether he  did  deserve this honor.   https://video.wordpress.com/embed/r9HtBq9k?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0

Swamy Ramanuja  joins  the first and last syllables of his name and gives the name   “EMBAR”and thus  Govinda got his name “EMBAR” our most revered Acharyar

As commanded by  Swamy Ramanuja , Embaar taught  his disciple Parasara Bhatta all that he learnt from his Acharyar   . He succeeded in making the Parasara Bhattar the worthy successor of  Swamy Ramanuja to carry on the  great Ramanuja Sidhantha to the future generation.

During the year 1137  when our beloved Swamy Ramanujar shed his mortal coil and proceeded to Srivaikuntam , Swamy rested himself  keeping his head in Embaars lap .

  Swamy Embaar composed the  great work called “VIJNAASTHUTHI”.

rAmanuja padhachchAya gOvindAhvAna pAyini |
thadAyattha svarUpAssA jeeyAnmadviSramasthali: ||

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Photos and videos : 

Courtesy great devotees of LORD who uploaded in  social media . 

Lord Sriman Narayana  incarnated in  different  avatharas in this world, for spreading the message of the liberation for the jeevatma  from this material bondage .

Unsatisfied ,  LORD summoned His serpent couch, the nitya-soori (eternally free soul) .

 Adisesha, and instructed,

My dear Adishesha !  

“Go down to the mortal world and live there for 200 years, and through your exhortations, empower the people with knowledge about their true nature and make them come to..

My world, so that they enjoy “eternal bliss” forever …….

Accordingly,  Adishesha appeared as “Swamy Ramanuja” in the age of Kali, where Adharma  was in the forefront due to the karmic vasanas .

Swamy Ramanuja followed LORD;s directives by spreading the divine message of  Azhwars  and the true knowledge to seek Lord’s mercy  and disappeared at the age of 120.

 The Lord was not satisfied  with the developments and felt the mission was incomplete Hence he once again advised  Swamy  Ramanuja  to complete the original assignment of remaining in this material world for complete  200 years and uplift the jivatmaas .

With implicit obedience, Adishesha  who appeared as Swamy Ramanuja once again appeared as Azhagiya Manavala Perumal Nayanar at Sikkil Kidaaram . 

In his early years he  was  trained by  his  father Tigazhaakkidanthan  on Vedas and the Divya Prabhandam .

He  moved from Sikkil Kidaaram to Azhvar Thirunagari to become the disciple of the revered  Acharyar  Thiruvaimozhipillai who was the disciple of Loka Acharyar Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar .

Thus our Saint Vara Vara Muni was the last of the poorvacharyas  amongst  the  grand galaxy of  preceptors of Srivaishnavam.

Check the appended blog post for more details

https://kmkvaradhan.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/thiruvaaimozhi-pillai-vaibhavam-parama-guru-of-lord-ranganathar-swamy-manavala-mamuni-attributing-everything-to-the-lotus-feet-of-his-legendary-acharyar/

It is believed , AdisEsha, in his previous incarnation as Swamy Ramanuja, was very much attracted to Nammazhvars’ s appearance and his divine outpouring (thiruvAimozhi), and hence, earned the appellation “mAran adipaNindhu Uynthavan”.

In keeping with this overwhelming love for Swamy  Nammazhvar, the second time AdisEsha selected Azhvar Thirunagari as the place most suited for his  appearance  and thus Swamy  appeared   in the month of Aipassi  under the  star Moola  which falls on November 1st 2019 ,  and was named “Azhakiya maNavALapperumAL nAyanAr by his parents  .

This was an year after Swami Desikar ascended to Srivaikuntam 

  Swami Azhakiya maNavALapperumAL nAyanAr   excelled as the disciple of Swamy Tiruvaimozhi pillai . 

One day  Swamy Tiruvaimozhi pillai  while meditating on the great qualities  of saint Ramanuja, pondered over those stanzas of Thiruvarangath-amudanar………….
depicting Swamy  Ramanuja as a staunch devotee of Saint  Nammazhvar  proclaiming to the inhabitants of this wide world, end to  end, the great glory of the Azhvar’s hymns.

Swamy Tiruvaimozhi pillai ( Srisailesar)  decided  for  raising a fitting memorial  for Swamy Ramanuja, right at  the  appearance  place  of Swamy  Nammazhvar (Azhvar Thirunagari).  This took concrete shape soon thereafter.

Tiruvaimozhi pillai  with the support of the villagers after clearing the wild vegetation at Azhvar-thirunagari  took all initiatives in bringing back the sacred deity which was lost during invasions . 

Swamy  thus  had  erected a temple at Azhvar-thirunagari for Swami Ramanuja and installed Sri Ramanuja’s deity ( Swamy Ramanuja’s Bhavishyad Acharaya vigraha ) which had been presented to Sri Madhurakavi Azhvar that  lay buried at the foot of the famous Tamarind tree few hundred years back .

The surrounding streets were  named  as Sri Ramanuja Chaturvedi Mangalam   and  were permanently inhabited, exclusively  by the ardent worshippers of  Swamy Ramanuja.

The zealous disciple, Azhakiya Manavala Nayanar, was called upon by Srisailesar  to stay in this new colony and look after the daily routine of the temple.

  Nayanar s extra-ordinary devotion to this great cause earned the unstinting  approbation of  his Acharyar 

Srisailesar, who started calling him a  Yateendra Pravanar  signifying the enormous love and devotion borne by him for Swamy  Ramanuja, the  Prince of ascetics  a name which became immortal .

Over a period of time , Swamy Tiruvaimozhi pillai  ordered his ardent disciple Azhakiya maNavALapperumAL nAyanAr who had learnt all sastras , to  propagate the divya prabandham ( azhvar’s 4000 hymns and their commentaries) to the world.

   He wished that living in Sri Rangam and propagating the true tenets of the Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya as given in the hoary aruLiccheyal (divya prabandham) was the need of the hour. Hence advised him to proceed .

The devoted disciple that he was, Azhakiya maNavALapperumAL nAyanAr   did act according to the commandments of his  Acharyar    Thus Azhakiya maNavALapperumAL nAyanAr  spent  his time in  giving divine discourses at Srirangam  .

Once during this period , few relatives passed a message about  some asowcham            ( impurity ) which was  coming in the way of service to the Lordships .

Not being able to be kept out of  service  even for few days,  Nayanar decided to take up sanyasam and requested  LORD’S  permission. 

After accepting sanyasa, Nayanar  offered benedictions   to namperumal for uninterrupted services forever . Pleased with nAyanar, NamperumAl blessed him with theertham, thirumAlai,   thiruparivattam, and Sri sadagopam and  gave him a  honorable name 

                                     AZHAGIYA    MANAVALA   JEEYER.

Thus the bonding between LORD and his disciple became  closer and closer .

Lord Ranganathar ( Peria Perumal ) had a desire to be accomplished through Azhagiya Manavala Jeeyer  in Srirangam.

He seized the golden opportunity  and  ordered him to give a public discourse on the Eedu (36000 padi), the super-commentary of Swami Nampillai on Thiruvaimozhi along with other commentaries, in  alluring style for having the good fortune of being trained by the esteemed  Acharyar  Thiruvaimozhip pillai .( Srisailer )

 In order to accommodate unhindered conduct for the  divine  discourses all festivities of the temple  was kept in abeyance . History  reveals   that for a whole year,  Namperumal had enjoined cessation of all festivals  which proves the  dedication of the disciple and the Acharyar .

On the final day of the discourse , and  uplifting event occurred ,  which was interestingly, by the “Ani thiru-moola”  star. 

And hence the  Sri Vaishnava-world attaches equal importance to this Ani moola star  auspicious day also, in a manner akin to the day of  Acharyar’s  “Aippasi Thirumoola” appearance  day.

 Lord appeared amidst the august assembly of Acharyar  and  galaxy of sri vaishnavas, in the guise of an archakar’s (priest) son by the name Aranga Naayakam and brushing aside the opposition getting  into proximate presence to Swami mAmunikaL’s seat

recited the following stanza in

His inimitable, majestic voice resembling the thunder of a rumbling cloud……………

“SriSailEsha dayA pAthram dheeibhakthyAdi guNarnavam
Yetheendra pravaNam vandE ramyajA mAtharam munim”

  LORD in the guise of an archakar’s (priest) a small boy   ( kept a palm leaf containing the above sloka on a golden plate full of flowers, fruits, coconuts and other sacred paraphernalia   of guru dakshiNa (token of appreciation) and after offering it at the holy feet of Swami mAmunikaL, walked towards the sanctum  & disappeared.

To add to this magnificent miracle, Periya Perumal, the Lord Ranganatha Himself, immediately ordered through the archaka……….

let this slOka be recited at the beginning of all divya prabhanda recitations  just as a Vedic recital begins and ends with the sacred

‘Om’

so also all recitals of the tamil veda, the divya prabhandam, shall commence and end with

‘srI SailESa dayA pAtram’.

adiyArgaL vAzha arangka nagar vAzha
sadakOpan thaNdamizh nUl vAzha * –

kadal sUzhndha mannulagam vAzha *

maNavALa mAmuniyE * innum oru nURRANdirum *

These holy verses extols Swamys contributions to continued existence and prosperity of Sri Vaishnavaism, the followers, their holy temples, scriptures, traditions, and the well being of the whole world, and concludes with the prayer, that the great  saint  Swamy Manavalamaamuni live for another hundred years for fulfilling  that purpose.

Swami mAmunikaL’s life was punctuated by many events that demonstrated that he was no ordinary person. In fact, authentic accounts of Sri Vaishnava literature and lineage, position Swami maNavALa mAmunikaL at the very pinnacle of the orthodox lineage of Sri Vaishnava AchAryas (called `OrAn vazhi’) and  with the above divine incident , identify him as the Acharya (guru) for Lord RanganAtha himself!!

The apparent conflict between 100 years and perpetuity is resolved, when one understands the key link of devoted Sri Vaishnava devotees, their ongoing practice of the prayer and traditions as a “Vaazhaydi Vaazhai”, for the perpetuation of the faith.

Thus the  100 and more number of years down the line there will be faithful chanting  of the divine  prayers  for the same for the  infinite future.

 Among several disciples  the foremost eight disciples  were very special . They are glorified as  as “Ashta Dhig Gajams”  or the mighty elephants guarding the eight directions of earth who are as below

(1) VaanamAmalai Jeeyar

(2) BhattarpirAn Jeeyar

(3) ThiruvEnkata RaamAnuja Jeeyar

(4) Koil aNNan

(5) PrathivAdhi Bhayankaram aNNan

(6) ErumpiappA

(7) aAppiLLai  and

(8) AppiLLAr .

 Swamy Erumbiappa, one of the astadiggajas  glorified   100  verses  adorning the divine qualities of  Swamy Manavalamamuni  .

In  Srivaishnava  sampradayam,  Azhvar it indicates to only nammAzhvar, the term swamy refers only to  Swamy Ramanuja  and Jeeyer is a special term indicating Periya Jeeyer, our  Sri Vara Vara Muni.

The  verses  of  Swamy erumbiappa are called as Vara Vara Muni sathakam .

Swamy   prathivAdi bayankaram annan  had  also  glorified the divine qualities of  his Acharyar .

 Swamy Maamuni had the highest regard for Swami Desikan and used to refer him  with great affection as ” ABHIYUKTHAR ” OR THE REVERED ONE  likewise Swami Desikar  had the highest regard for the Achaarya of  Swamy Maamuni’s own Achaarya, Swamy  Pillai LokAcharyar.

 Swamy has been glorified with several names  like  Varavaramuni,     Periya Jeer,   Vichatavak Shikhamani ,  Sowmyajamatrumuni,  ramyajamatra muni,   Sowmyopayanthrumuni, Sundarajamatrumuni, , YatheendraPravanar .

“Upadesa Ratinamala” is  a  wonderful work composed by   Swamy Mamunigal which  has 73 verses that  gives  the details of Azhwars  and  Acharyas appearance  & their  divine works.

Swamy  Erumbiappa composed the 74 th  verse and pleaded  Lord Ranganathar requesting  LORD  to accept them and hence as a result of Lord’s command, the following verse  was included in Upadesa Ratinamala.

The verse goes like

“mannuyir_kAL ingE maNavALa mAmunivan *  

senkamalappOthukaLai * –

unnis siraththAlE  theeNdil

 amAnavanum nammai *

karaththAlE  theeNdal kadan “

The   Meaning  of the above verse ………….

“Oh  my dear  devotees  who desire  for Moksha seeking Swamy  Mamunigal’s lotus Feet

listen …. taking refugee   at  the Lotus  feet of Swamy  Mamunigal will definitely lead us to the  blessings of “Amanavan” who allows us at the  entrance into  Sri Vaikuntam” as we are Swamy Manavala mamuni’s disciples …

Swami Manavala Mamunikal  is compared favorably with the kind of divinity exuded by Swami Ramanuja. After all, they were both the incarnation  of our Lord’s dear serpent servant Adi sEsha.

. Fortunate are the devotees who are at Srirangam and Azhwar Thirunagari celebrating  the grand  festival of Aani Thirumoolam

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Swamy Manavala maamunigaley thiruadigaley  sharanam

Pictures credits : Advanced devotees  serving Lord

videos : At Sri MudaliAndaans swamy Thirumaligai

Swamy Periyavaachan Pillai appeared in the same asterism as Lord Krishna namely Rohini star in tamil month of Aavani which happens today 10-09-2020

Periyavaachan Pillai elucidates about a revered venerated great teacher .

We have glories to Periya perumal ( Lord Ranganathar) Peria Azhwar ( Bhattarpiran ) Periya Jeeyar ( Swamy Manavalamamuni) and Periyavaachanpillai ( our great teacher) .

Thirumangai Azhwar, the last Azhwar was affectionately called as Kaliyan . He was the valiant army chief of the then Chola King. https://video.wordpress.com/embed/gmUye6fk?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0

For his valour the king gifted him with a small territory to rule over. Hence, he was known as Thirumangai Mannan .

Thirumangai Azwar had initiated lot of services to our LORD at Srirangam. The hundred pillar mandapam for the yearly festival adhyayana uthsavam was his contribution .

https://video.wordpress.com/embed/g35qfFcW?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0

He also built the north and south gopurams at Kulasekaran thiruveedhi ( streets ) the fourth compound wall ( Mathil suvar) which is called Maharlokam .

The outburst 1253 of HIS EMOTIONAL OUTPOURING BLISS was shared through the divine pasurams sung instantly during his sojourn to almost about 86 divyadesam temples.

His compositions were Periya thirumozhi ,Periya thirumadal , SiRiya thirumadal ,Thiru nedunthANdakam , Thiru KurunthANdakam , Thiru vezhuk kurrirukkai.

During his piligrimage to Divyadesams , one day Azhwar majestically marches to Thirukkanamangai a divine place located in Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu which is around 8 kms from Tiruvarur amidst a huge tank Darsha Pushkarini near Western banks.

This temple is 25 miles from Kumbakonam and is among the Pancha Krishnaraya kshetram. The others being Therazhandur, Thirukannapuram, Thirukanankudi, Thirukannamangai and Thiru kapisthalam. Few include Thirukolur.

https://video.wordpress.com/embed/3FNaChdJ?preloadContent=metadata&hd=1

This holy place is also called as “Sapthamirtha Kshetram”

Azhwar offers poetic glorifications to Lord Bhakthavatsala perumal .Azhwar keeps comparing the Lordships here to the sugarcane and also refers to the village as the place where blue lotuses bloom.

Azhwar swooned in the beauty of Lord and both exchange words …

Lord speaks … My dear Azhwar !!

How is that you instantly pour the nectarine pasurams …?

For which Azhwar humbly submits ..Lord !!

ven cengamon erndiya kanna

nin tanakkum kurippakil

karkalam kaviyin porul taaney… ( 7-10-10 )

meaning ..

Kanna ..the bearer of the white conch ..should you be so inclined …

You can also do that ….

This offer by Azhwar could not be accepted by Lord for the protocol of Archavatara ..

Thus after few years ,

Swamy Periyavaachan Pillai appeared in the same asterism as Lord Krishna namely Rohini star in tamil month of Aavani

and the illustrious Acharyar Swamy Nampillai appeared in the same asterism of Thirumangai Azhwar namely Krittika asterism in the tamil month karthikai.

Periyavaachan Pillai appeared at Chenganoor near Thiruvelliyangudi divyadesam. At a very young age he went to Tirumala on piligrimage .He was blessed by Lord by giving him a deity of Lord himself which he carried and worshiped all through out his life.

Later he moved to Srirangam and became a direct disciple of the illustrious Acharyar Swamy Nampillai . Under his Acharyars care , he learnt several commentaries of Srimad Ramayana and sastras. He thus inherited the widest and richest legacy of srivaishnava sampradayam from his Acharyar . The desire was thus fullfilled by Perumal himself.

Swamy Periya vachan pillai is the only Acharyar who had written commentaries of all the 24 compositions of Naalayiram DivyaPrabhandam.

Pacurappadi Ramayanam is a great work which has not a single word of his own.

With sentences , phrases and divine words recognisably found in DivyaPrabhandam , Acharyar had reconstructed the whole Ramayana in just two pages without omission of any important incident .

The legacy was carried further to his disciple named varadarajan who was very ordinary person serving Acharyar in all means . Once few disciples of the celebrated poet “Appaya Deekshittar” an advaitik scholar reached Swamy’s Ashram .

https://video.wordpress.com/embed/G2nyuNjT?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0

They started discussing about the incidents of Srimad Ramayanam . The discussions attracted Varadarajan to come out of the kitchen and find out what was the discussion about .

He approached a vedantin and requested him to share the content of the topic being discussed . The Vedantin looking at ignorant cook , with arrogance replied .

https://video.wordpress.com/embed/pQneg1JC?preloadContent=metadata&hd=1

Oh !! yeah … Its your content of work we are discussing …

Yes about Musalakisalayam…. ( The wooden pestle used for dehusking the grains )

The group left after meeting Acharyar .

Varadarajan was eager to know about the vedantin words .

He approached Acharyar and begged to know about the Musalakisalayam..

The Acharyar replied there was no book about Musalakisalayam .The group just made fun out of him . Varadarajan was deeply hurt. He wept and holding Acharyar’s feet seeked mercy to make him of some worth in understanding scriptures.

In course of time Acharyar with merciful attention taught him several topics and thus he became a revered scholar .

He was glorified as Vadikesari Azhagiyamanavalla Jeeyar .

Azhagiya Manavalla Jeeyar wrote commentaries on Thiruvamozhee called Pannirayarappadee which is an authority giving word by word meaning to the treasure given to us by Poorvacharyas ....

Swami also wrote a book naming it MUSALAKISALAYAM …

All glories to Acharyar Swami Periyavaachan Pillai

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pics credits : Advanced devotees who have uploaded in Facebook, Google pics

Few hundred years ago   Gangaikonda Chozhapuram a place  in Tamil Nadu ,  was ruled by the Cholas  who  were active patrons of the arts , poetry, drama, music and  dance .  The Chola kingdom grew  into an extensive and well-knit empire, efficiently organized and administered by the King .

One fine day  two courtesans from other kingdom  came  to meet the King for his generosity in encouraging their talents . One of them  could sing according to a  pattern  called deva‐gana (celestial mode) and  the other  could sing in the normal method   manushya gana (human mode). Each thought their music was the best  and   excelled the other. Their objective of having an audience with  the King was to settle the dispute  between them  as the King was well versed in those forms of art .

The king  summoned his  royal artists and ordered  the  council to meet, for them to  perform .  In the process ,  the council of royal artists agreed that the courtesan who sung with manushya gana was better than the deva gana  . Thus   the dispute was decided in favor of  the manushya gana .  Rich presents  was  bestowed on that performer with all the honours  while the other was considered to have failed.

The lady of the deva‐gana thought thus  “My method of singing, cannot be appreciated by normal  humans and hence  I shall  submit  the same to the Devas (celestial beings)” in all the temples . So with  deep concern ,  she went to the temples  from one Holy Shrine to another  displaying her art to the deity and seeking their blessings

 In due course  she reached Viranarayanapuram a place near to Kattumannar koil .  She went to the Shrine of  Lord Veeranarayana Perumal  and  sang her song  among  the  opulence audience of our great  Sage Nathamuni  the torch bearer of Srivaishnavam . Nathamuni  was pleased with her recitation  and as a mark of his appreciation  blessed  her   with the tirtha and prasada of  Perumal and encouraged her  with blessings .

The lady thanked  Swami Nathamuni for his  patience and accepting her song  and blessing  on her . Overjoyed ,  she then went to king Chola and said    Oh Highness !! Atlast  “there is one soul, at least in your kingdom , who can understand the inner truth  of my devaganam .  Swamy Nathamuni,  who is the blessed devotee of Lord Mannanar at Viranarayanapuram is the reason for your country’s prosperity .

The king was curious to know about the sage . He sent  his messengers to  Swamy Nathamuni, begging him to visit his  royal palace .  Swamy  Nathamuni ,  on receiving the invitation, thought  “We have set the blessed Divya  Prabhandhas to exquisite music. Let us visit the king’s court, and take this opportunity of making these holy hymns  known to the world. Thus he went to the king’s court taking it as Lord’s command .

On his arrival, the king rose and welcomed  the Sage with every mark of honor,  and offered him a suitable seat. Whereon the Sage blessed the king, and inquired as to his object in inviting him. The king  submitted  “Holy sage can you distinguish between the  two patterns of ragas sung by these courtesans  ? Can we be enlightened about this inner secret ?

Swamy Nathamuni  requested that the performance be given  once again before the audience .  When this was done, he addressed the king  and said  “You all have ears  to receive the flow of  the manushya‐gana only. 

The other one can be understood by  the Devas  only .

 “But”, the king respectfully asked, how can we be made to hear it? There upon  Swamy Nathamuni  directed that the 400 kinds of tala (rhythm) be marked, and explained to the king the rate of each. The king understood from this explanation the  harmonical progression and symphony  in which this  is composed  to the deva‐gana music, which produced in him a bliss never  experienced before  .

 A small demonstration was also shown among the elated arts lovers .A  pair of cymbals was placed near a consecrated post while  the deva‐ gana was sung. Over a period of time , it was found that the post began to melt. The singing was stopped  , and when an attempt was made to lift the cymbals, they stuck to the post  and when the music was once again played they came off.  

It is said that Nathamuni directed a number of bronze cymbals of different weights to be sounded together and forthwith described correctly their different weights from a perception of the acute differences in the pitches of the notes. The king went into raptures over this, and falling at the feet of the Sage proposed to reward him abundantly.

But the Sage, to whom even the offer of Lordship over worlds was no temptation, politely declined the presents offered and blessing the king, returned to Viranarayanapuram. Thus with this incident the King  became a disciple of Swamy Nathamuni and spent his time at Kattumannar learning the esoteric truths regularly .

Swamy  Nathamuni set the 4000  Divya prabhandam to tune and music and taught to his dear disciples  Melai agatthazhwAn and Keezhai agatthazhwAn (his nephews) and propagated the divine nectar  in various divya desams. Nathamuni re arranged 4000 into four parts and introduced the same as part of recitation in Divya Desams, as part of worship.  

Once , the King  got down  along with his wives to Viranarayanapuram temple . Looking at the Royal couple  in such great ornaments, crown, and silk cloth,  Nathamuni for a moment lost himself and thought  Lord Krishna with His devis have come from Dwarakai. He fell at the feet of the king to prostrate. The king was shocked and immediately sprung to lift  Nathamuni . The King realised the deep devotion of the Sage and submitted himself .

During  another occasion, the king had  just completed discussing with the Sage about Lordships and  took Acharya’s permission to leave. He started walking towards the chariot. When he was about to board, (as usual, the king used to call the chariot driver on whose shoulder he  used to set  his foot to jump into the chariot), the driver was there for the king to jump in.

After he jumped in, he saw below and it was  Nathamuni’s shoulder. The king was shocked . He got down to apologize  for his grave offence . He felt ashamed and said ! Swamin ….  “What have I done! Stepped on your shoulders! I have committed  a great apacharam!”

Nathamuni thought it  was Lord  Rama who had come by the chariot along with Sumanthrar. Hence, he offered his shoulders for Lord  to step into the chariot. That was  Nathamuni’s unalloyed devotion who was always in transcendental bliss always seeing LORDSHIPS everywhere .

One day  Nathamuni was in Samadhi Yoga. The  Chola  king  passed near Veeranarayanpura with his soldiers   after a hunting exercise.  The sage,  interrupted in his meditations by the attendant bustle, opened his eyes and, construing the party to be the divine Lord  Rama and his brother, on whom  his thoughts were wholly bent in meditation, followed the track of the party and walked with weary steps till the very gates of the Chola capital Gangaikondapuram  from Kattumannar Koil  and went searching ..

Nathamuni  already in that bliss  imagined that Lord Rama with his brother Lakshmana and  Mother  Sita is have come to  grace him .

He  fainted  at a place in a divine bliss  and  reached Lord’s abode  on an Ekadasi day.

More details about this great saint can be seen in the appended  linked post below

https://kmkvaradhan.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/lakshmi-natha-samarambham-nathayamuna-madhyamam/

All glories to Swamy Nathamunigal

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pics : Google images

Lord Sriman Narayana the Supreme lord created this universe starting from Brahma (who emerged from HIS navel ) along with innumerable species of birds,animals, humans etc. Appearing as kapila rishi, he gave Saankya yoga , practicing by which one would attain the final beatitude like Devahuti. As Lord Sri Rama, HE demonstrated to the world on living a righteous life and as Lord Sri Krishna , imparted the Bhagavad Gita.   The jivatmas who followed the lord and attained salvation were few. Also, the study of scriptures and Vedas which were in Sanskrit were limited to  only few people  who were authorized to read .  

So Perumal decided to depute HIS (weapons )ayudhams to the world for preaching the Vedas to all irrespective of caste,gender etc.. The various ayudhams of Perumal appeared as 12 azhwars during the end of Dwapara yuga and beginning of kali yuga.   The azhwars who were immersed in bhakti composed various  emotional outpourings known as pasurams which is glorified as “naalayira divya prabhandham”. The Azhwars were so much engrossed in LORDs thoughts that they could not impart knowledge to jivatmas and hence   these divine pasurams were lost to oblivion. 

 The compassionate LORD decided to instruct the nityasuris to appear as Acharyars to this world who would give the divine knowledge about the Supreme Lord and bring the jivatmas back to Godhead.Nityasuris do not descend from Vaikuntam but bestow their yogic powers to the jivatmas who were to be born in this material world.  Accordingly, Vishwaksenar (Senainayakar)-the chief Commander of Lord Sriman Narayana bestowed his mercy to Nammazhwar.  Vishwaksenar along with wife Sutravathi  had 8 attendants who guard the entrance of Sri Vaikuntam on either sides and the chief among them is known as “Gajanan” . The chief attendant of Vishwaksenar , “Gajanan” appeared as Nathamuni.After about 3500 years, With the blessings of Lord Sri Veera Narayanan perumal , Sri Nathamuni, the first acharyar in Srivaishnava Guruparamparai was born to Sri.Iswara bhattar at Veeranarayana puram (Kaatumannarugudi near Chidambaram)  in the Tamil year “Shobhakruth varusham” on pournami thithi ,Anusham star in the tamil month of Aani (june-july) in 823 A.D.  His parents named him”Ranganathan” but was fondly addressed as “Nathamuni”.  He instructed his son,Iswara muni to name his child as “Yamunai Thuraivan” who was famously known as Yamunacharyar.

srIshailEsha dayApAtram dhIbhaktyAdi guNArNavam |
yatIndra pravaNam vandE ramya jAmAtaram munim ||

lakshmI nAtha samArambhAm nAthayAmuna madhyamAm |
asmadAchArya paryantAm vandE guru paramparAm ||

The above sloka …. reverberates in all srivaishnava temples and homes glorifying the rich sampradaya we have inherited from our poorvacharyas …

Swamy  Nathamunigal and Swamy  Alavandar, the two great acharyas  have been pillars to Srivaishnava sampradayam, took their avatara at  the holy place Kattumannar koil, which is 25 kms from Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of Tamil nadu, South India.

Kattumannarkoil (situated on the banks of the vast Veeranam Lake) hallowed by the birth of these Acharyas is the only place with magnificent temples dedicated to Swamy Nathamunigal and Swamy  Alavandar.

Swamy Nathamunigal  was the  foremost Acharya  of Srivaishnava sampradaya .

Nathamuni mastered himself in Vedas at a  very young age.

He was devoted to Lord  Veera Narayana Perumal and spent most of his time performing daily   ( aaradhanai) poojas for the Lord here.

One day, during his pilgrimage to Thirukudanthai ( present day Kumbakonam ) Temple  he was attracted to the Archakas chanting the divine nectarine verse …. Aaravamuthey song….

The  devotees ended  the song with the words… “ these 10 out of the 1000” verses .

“ Aaraavamudhe Adiyen Udalam,

Ninbaal Anbaaye

Neeraal Alainthu Karaiya Urukinra Nedumaale

Seeraar Sennel Cauvery Veesum,

SezhuNeerth ThiruKudanthai

EraarKolam Thigazhak Kidanthaai, Kanden Emmaane”

Swami Nathamuni was drawn to these songs and  pleaded them to sing the rest of the 990 verses.

However, they expressed ignorance and said they  knew only these 10 songs which they were reciting daily following their ancestors  .

Seeking to find  the remaining  of these  divine songs,  Swamy Nathamuni proceeded  from Kattu Mannar Koil and went to Kumbakonam, where Lord Aaravamudhan appeared before him and asked him to go to Thirukolur for  knowing more ..

Swamy proceeded to Thiru Kolur, where he got initiated with the great Acharyar  Madhura Kavi Azhvaar’s  holy verses of Kannin Siruthambinaal.

Madhurakavi Azhwar was a direct disciple of Swamy Nammazhwar .The divine pastime of Azhwar can be read in the below  appended post

https://kmkvaradhan.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/tevu-marrariyen-i-do-not-know-of-any-lord-other-than-my-acharyan-swamy-nammazhwar/

He came back to Thiru Kurugur and meditating  under the Tamarind tree,  recited these  divine verses 12000 times.  

On completion of which the all compassionate NammAzhvaar is said to have appeared before him and shared the entire 4000 songs the  “Divyaprabhandam” —Naalaayira Divya Prabandham which we are able to relish glorifying the LORDSHIPS .

Lord Veera Narayana Perumal is then said to have called Swami Nathamuni back to Kattu Mannar Koil where the Vaishnavite Saint  chanted and shared the “Naalayira Divya Prabandham”.

Thus, Nathamuni of Kattu Mannar Koil, was instrumental in bringing back to the world the 4000 verses of the Azhvaars.

He also initiated the Sri Vaishnava Sampradayam from here.

As Lord Narayana came here as ‘Mannan’ to wed  Mahalakshmi and  asked Nathamuni to share the Divya Prabandham and the Vaishnava Sampradayam to the world at large, he was referred to as ‘ Kattum’ ‘Mannan- Aanaar’ (the Lord who came aa kings and later presented the entire prabandham through Nathamuni).

Poorvacharyars glorify this place as “divya prabhandham vilaindha oor”-the place where Divya prabhandham came into existence.  the Lord KAatu Mannar(another thirunaamam of Veeranarayanan) came to be known as “KAatum mannar”

In course of time, Kattum Mannan-Aanaar became Kattu Mannar.

Nathamuni’s grandson was named as ‘Yamunai Thuraivan’(Alavandar) .

Born in Kattu Mannar Koil, Aalavanthar would travel to Srirangam and spread the message of SriVaishnavism. Swamy Ramanuja was nominated by him  as the ’to be’  next Acharyar of the great sampradhayam  after his disappearance .

Alavandar’s  disciples include Periya Nambi, ThiruKoshtiyur Nambi, Thiru Kachi Nambi and Srirangam Araiyar.

A clip was taken during our in which Bhattar elaborately explains in tamil about the glorious Srivaishnava Sampradayam.

Swamy  Nathamuni set the 4000  Divya prabhandam to tune and music and taught to his dear disciples  Melai agatthazhwAn and Keezhai agatthazhwAn (his nephews) and propagated the divine nectar  in various divya desams.

Nathamuni re arranged 4000  nectarine verses equivalent to Vedas  into four parts and introduced the same as part of recitation in Divya Desams, as part of worship in all temples

During the period ,once , the  Chozha  King  got down  along with his wives to  have darshan of Lord at Viranarayanapuram temple at Kattumannar  .

Looking at the Royal couple  in such great ornaments, crown, and silk cloth,  Nathamuni who was a transcendental devotee , for a moment lost himself and thought  Lord Krishna with His devis would  have come from Dwarakai.

He fell at the feet of the king seeing him as  Lord Krishna .

The king was shocked and immediately sprung to lift  Nathamuni and  realized the deep devotion  the Sage  had .He immediately  submitted himself for his offense .

During  another occasion, the king had  just completed discussing with the Sage about Lordships  divine pastimes. He took Acharya’s permission to leave.

He started walking towards the chariot. When he was about to board, (as usual, the king used to call the chariot driver on whose shoulder he  used to set  his foot to jump into the chariot), the driver was there for the king to jump in.

After he jumped in, he saw below and it was  Nathamuni’s shoulder.

The king was shocked . He got down to apologize  for his grave offense .

He felt ashamed and said ! Swamin ….  

“What have I done! Stepped on your shoulders! that too my Acharyar !!! 

I have committed  a great apacharam!”

Nathamuni thought it  was Lord  Rama who had come by the chariot along with Sumanthrar. 

Hence, he offered his shoulders for Lord  to step into the chariot.

That was  Nathamuni’s unalloyed devotion who was always in transcendental bliss always seeing LORDSHIPS everywhere .

One day   Swamy Nathamuni was in  deep meditation .

The  Chozha  king  passed near Veeranarayanpura with his soldiers   after a hunting exercise.  

The sage,  interrupted in his meditations by the attendant bustle, opened his eyes and, construing the party to be the divine Lord  Rama and his brother in the streets ,( on whom  his thoughts were wholly bent in meditation )  followed the track of the party and walked with weary steps till the very gates of the Chozha capital Gangaikondapuram  from Kattumannar Koil  and went searching ..

Nathamuni  already in that bliss  imagined ” Lord Rama with his brother Lakshmana and  Mother  Sita  have come to  grace him .

He  fainted  at a place in a divine bliss  and  reached Lord’s abode  on an Ekadasi day.

All glories to Swamy Nathamunigal

Swamy Natha Munigals appearance day is  being celebrated  on  2-07-2020                  ( Aaani Anusham ) in all Srivaishnava temples .

nama: achinthya adhbudha aklishta jnAna vairAgya rAsayE
nAthAya munayE agAdha bhagavadh bhakthi sindhavE

All glories to the devotees participating in all the temples 

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pics credits : Google images uploaded by several devotees

venkaTAdri samam sthAnam brahmANDe nAsti kincana;

venkateSa samo devo na bhUto na bhaviSyati

This sloka  taken from the Puranas  claims  …………

There is no place in the entire universe that equals Venkatadri, the place where the Lord resides and there is no God, neither in the past nor in the future who equals  Lord Venkateswara.

Everything begins and ends or is reduced to sunyam (nothingness) before him, while the infinite world pens to the sincere seeker with an infinitesimal offering.

This is because spiritual wealth through devotion is the basis of life .

TIRUMALA, the abode of Lord Srinivasar stands unique as an embodiment of man’s eternal quest for the divine and His infinite grace.

A piligrimage to the sacred Hills is a soul-stirring experience cherished by every devotee. The puranas say that soon after Dwaparayugam ended and Kaliyugam started, Lord Krishna, decided to stay back to protect one and all and chose TIRUMALA.

The Lord of the seven hills is the Lord of the universe. The special significance of Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala lies in the fact that it is the oldest religious institutions in the world where unbroken religious worship is being carried on for over 1,500 years by revered Acharyas and millions of pilgrims  reach the holy abode more than any other temple in the world. A pilgrimage to the sacred Hills is a soul-stirring experience cherished by every devotee. Even atheists and rationalists admit a sense of humility and the presence of the Lord here .

It was during 1781. the British army was camping at a station called Thakkolam, a place close to Vellore in Tamilnadu. The Nawabs of Arcot, ruled the Carnatic region of South India. They  had their capital at Arcot near Vellore  region  in Tamil Nadu .

The French army were advancing in the areas around Madras  with the Muslem kings . The British were responding to the French onslaught during the Carnatic wars .. Defending them , there was several days of battle going on . A British soldier by name Vellian, was lying down almost dead in his bed, for many days, after he was brutally injured by a bullet…

With no more hopes left Vellian was left to his fate by the British army doctor.

There was a temple nearby and the locals ardent devotees of Lord Venkateshwara used to visit the temple regularly .

Villian used to watch them going up the hills with some cloth bags over their head with reverberating chants

Govinda Govinda Govinda …

Invariably his mind got entangled to the holy name Govinda listening the chants frequently … and it became a routine for his mind to chant the holy name all the day when the pilgrims trekked the hills chanting the holy name GOVINDA ...

The craving to see the temple and the deity

G O V I N D A on the temple became more intense .

He prayed silently for curing his pain due to bullet injury ..

It was early morning … A twelve year old mystic Hindu boy came to serve tea in that army camp..

After serving tea to all the major officials in the camp, the boy then went straight to Vellian’s bunker and greeted him saying..

“..Good morning sir..”..

Vellian, who at that moment was still in great pain was in no mood to talk to any one..However, taking the soldier by surprise this was what the 12 year old mystic Hindu tea boy told Vellian..

Vellian said “Good morning” but with a little disinterest in his voice..

Transferring tea into a cup, the boy smiled and said,”Sir, with your kind permission may I tell you something..? ? ..”

“Sir, I know you are in pain for several days.. I also know that you lost all your hopes of any recovery..But sir..Please listen to me and offer your prayers to Lord Sri Venkateswara of Tirumala temple..Tirumala is a Temple very near to this place and Lord Sri Venkateswara is the most merciful God in this world…

Am sure He will save you from death..Trust me sir..”

With a little curiosity in his voice and a little dazzle in his eyes this time, Vellian then slowly turned towards the tea boy and said “..

Thanks my dear, but what do you want me to do for that..’..

With a smile,the boy replied”..Thanks for taking my words sir..

All that you have to do is to just offer your prayers to Lord Sri Venkateswara and request Him to heal you fully.. ”

And now with more hope in his voice,

Vellian asked the boy..”Okay my dear..I would certainly do.

.But how to offer my prayers ….

I have never done that before..You need to help me do that..

And this time Without seeking any permission from Vellian, the mystic boy walked with all the divine command in this world to the bedside of Vellian; held both his hands first; brought them close to each other…

And later bringing them together, by creating a traditional Hindu NAMASTE posture, raised Vellian’s hands and turned them towards the direction wherein the Tirumala temple was located and surprising Vellian further,very loudly chanted

GOVINDA

Amazingly , the boy holding a much surprised Vellian’s hands, closed his eyes for a few moments and silently offered his personal prayers to Lord Sri Venkateswara. .

“.. Vinaa Venkatesam Nanatho Nanathah..

Sadaa Venkatesam Smaraami Smaraami.

Hare Venkatesa Praseeda Praseedah..

Priyam Venkatesa Prayachcha Prayachchah. .”

“.. Aham Doora Tasthe Padaam Bhoja Yugmah.

. Pranamechcha Ya Gachcha Sevaam Karomi..

Sakrut Sevayaa Nitya Sevaa Phalantvam..

Prayachcha Prayachcha Prabho Venkatesaa..”

Furthermore amazed at the command with which the Hindu boy held both his hands and also at the ease with which he had chanted the intricate Sanskrit sloka, Vellian slowly got up in his bed; turned both his hands that were still held in a NAMASTE posture towards the smiling mystic boy and offered him his salutations.

Vellian who had lost all his hopes of any recovery from that near dead situation had quite miraculously regained a complete normalcy in just about a few days time..
This miraculous recovery of Vellian shocked the British Army Doctors who have by then had literally written him off as a medical ‘case of complete hopelessness beyond recovery’..

Much later,as he could not personally visit the Tirumala temple due to his job constraints, Vellian requested his friend,an Indian soldier by name Ramachandra Ganesh, to visit the Tirumala hill Shrine on his behalf and offer the holy Lord Sri Venkateswara what he promised to offer…EPILOGUE

“Vinaa Venkatesam” sloka although is an integral part of Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham, was however written and recited first by Sri Markandeya Maharshi,when He visited the Tirumala hills and offered this sloka to Lord Sri Venkateswara. .

In the later period, the story of Vellian’s miraculous recovery reached the governing authorities of the British Kingdom.

.In 1801, after having known the sanctity of Lord Sri Venkateswara temple, the British took over the administration of the Temple from the hands of the Nawabs of Arcot for lack of discipline and misappropriation of funds in the Temple..

Later in 1821, strictly in accordance with the norms of the Tirumala Temple,the British introduced what is called the Bruce Code..

This code has 42 provisions formulated in it with well defined customs and duties meant both for the Tirumala Temple as well as for the Hindu officials working there..

Quite surprisingly, the British, known for their iconoclastic nature, never interfered with the day to day affairs and rituals of the Tirumala Temple except taking care of it’s administration.

.After that divine incident, renowned British personalities like Sir Thomas Monroe and Colonel Geo Stratten went on to become great devotees of Lord Sri Venkateswara. .

During their tenure of office in India, they have never allowed the British army to camp anywhere close to the Tirumala Hill Shrine and also never allowed any British national enter the Tirumala Hills with footwear..

After that incident in the army camp, Vellian and the whole of British army had made a frantic search for that 12 year old mystic boy but they couldn’t find Him anywhere..

Who was HE..?? ..And where did He come from..??“.

.Sarva Avayava Soundaryaa Sampada Sarva Chetasam

Sada Sammohanayastu Sri Venkatesaya Mangalam..” .

The great saint poet Annamaya  of Tirumala in one of his sweet  composition sings about the  glory of  LORD  VENKATESHWARA which is truly divine …..

Oh Lord! Your devotees visualize You in many ways…

They want to see You in different forms and ways. However, the deeper one’s heart envisions You, the more shallower is Your grace felt!

Vaishnavites assume and believe You profoundly to be Lord Vishnu;
Vedantis envisage You as the ‘Supreme Lord’ or ‘Parambrahma’;
ShAivites and some others deem You as Lord Shiva;
Kaumalikas pray and revere You as Adi Bhairava;
Shaaktheyas presume You to be the incarnation of Shakthi;
You bless all of them in the form they desire You to be in !!

In this way, Your devotees revere and prostrate before You, giving you the form and shape they wish to see You in.

 To those devotees who see You in the tiniest form, You are the tiniest to them;
Likewise, those who revere you with high esteem, You are the greatest and all-in-all for them.

There is no dearth of anything in this world if only YOU  are beside me!

Just as a lotus plant creeps all over the span of water (in a pond/lake/river or wherever it is) leaving no space for anything else,

Just as the wells around the great Bhagirathi river never dry up (because the wells are always fed with water from this river beside)

(    I pray to You,     Oh Lord!        Please be beside me!     )
If YOU are the Lord incarnated on the Venkatadri mount, YOU are bound to be by my side!
It is You, Oh Lord, who have made me to become Your devotee;
It is You, Oh Lord, who have knocked my doors ~ only to grant me the Protective asylum under Your Lotus Feet;
You are the ONE who enlightened me;
This is the eternal bliss for me!
This is the Para-Tattvam for me!
This is my moksha-marga (and salvation)!

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pics credits : Google images

Source : Inspired from a post shared by ardent devotee of Lord Venkateshwara

 Kendubilva is a small village near to  LORD  Jagannatha Kshetram Puri , and 25 kms to Bhuvaneshwar .    This is the holy place  where the great devotee  Jayadevar appeared .

                   The village became  more prominent and famous by the presence of  the great devotee Jayadevar  for his devotion to the Supreme  Lord .

          Jayadevar learnt all the Vedic scriptures at an young age .  He was   complete into devotional services .Always immersed in Lord’s divine leela , he ignored  material wealth or associations.  When he came of marriageable age, his parents were searching for a bride  so as to bring him into family fold .

                             Jayadeva’s was  not keen in entering family life  . He  remained all  alone, always in  thoughts of the great  Lord Jagganatha  divine pastimes and avoided family commitments .

His parents pleaded him to get married  as they were getting old  . Jayadevar did not agree  as he felt that it  would hinder his dedication to Lord Jagganatha Days rolled by.     Jayadevar continued his devotional services  going places , His parents were getting old and  passed away.

Jayadevar was now all alone. He moved away and resided near to the temple  and was performing  srimad bhagavath  parayanam.  He  lived on Unchavrutti accepting what Lord Jaggantha sends him through his devotees  He was with niyama  performing his karmanustams and was steadfast in his activities.But  Lord Jagganatha  had other ideas.

Near to the village ,  there was another  devotee  by name Devasharma. Devasharma prayed Lord  that if he  had a son he would offer him to Lord  to perform  devotional  services  in the temple of  Lord Jagannatha at Puri..

  Lord , however  graced  him a  with girl child. The bubbly  child was named Padmavathi.  She was trained in all household chores and devotional service from her childhood.      Padmavathi came of marriageable age.He proceeded to  Sri Jagannathar temple  and prayed LORD  as to what he could do to fulfill the promise he made as he had a daughter who will not be allowed inside the temple for HIS service  .

He  prayed Lord !!!  I dont know the way, how will you take this girl, he asked with tearful eyes. Being tired he slept that night near the temple.

  Lord  appeared in his dream and said, “Oh Devasharma ..We  appreciate your bhakthi,  and  will  definitely take your daughter for our  services  and will tell you the way how. Me and my  devotee  are no different. As you only wanted to perform the service  , well………., you can do the same to my  devotee  for a long long time.

 Our adorable devotee  is Jayadevar who is living very near to  you . Please approach him and accept him as your bridegroom. Give Padmavathi in marriage to Jayadevar”. Having heard this  Devasharma was quite pleased that his prayers are  fulfilled. He returned to his village. Looking at his daughter he said   …. my dear child .. padma … LORD  has given his blessings and mentioned the name of her husband.  He proceeded  to the ashram of Jayadevar  and introduced himself  . He requested Jayadevar to accept his daughter as his wife .

 Jayadevar  a  sincere devotee   did not argue or answer him .  He  just left looking walking  towards temple . Devasharma however did not feel bad  as he had faith in LORD’s   instructions . He went home  called Padmavathi and told  My dear  child “Padma……Please come with me now …. He went towards Jayadevar’s ashram and showed the ashram of  Jayadevar and said …Look there ,  the effulgent face with divine look  who is walking towards the temple ....Yes  he is your husband henceforth . Its Lord Jagganthar’s sankalpam that you be married to him  for a divine cause . Serve him as you are serving the LORD himself . Its my final wish  my child …

Padmavathi obeyed her father’s instructions implicitly. Normally Jayadevar would rise early everyday, have his  bath  from the nearby stream . He would  perform japa  and walk back to his Ashram . Padma  would come  to his ashram  sweep the surroundings , water the plants , pluck flowers, clean the pooja vessels , clean the altar and leave the ashram before Jayadevar returns 

Jayadevar after finishing his japa would return  and see everything in the ashram transformed . Very much surprised , he believed some devotee is serving Lord . The services continued  and a month passed by.  Jayadevar  liked  his ashram being  kept clean and neat and  being a brahmachari he appreciated this very much.

He felt the need to inquire and find out all about this and once identified who it was he wanted to do something in return for the favor and if  she had any  desires  he wanted to bless her with that. Thinking thus one day he arrived a bit early to his ashram and saw Padmavathi

Jayadevar hardly had looked at her   He now inquired about her name and where she was from and what she wanted and the reason why she was serving this ashram. His questions were without any preamble just like Dasaratha had asked Vishwamitra. Padmavathi replied that she always wanted to do some service   to  Lord Jaggantahar  for a long long time and serving his devotee will make her LORD more  happy.

He then understood why such a question had been asked by him and why such an answer was received as probably the bhagawan‘s wish. He understood the divine motive of the Supreme Lord .  Jayadevar  went to Padmavathi’s father and requested his daughter to be given in marriage to him. Jayadevar’s coming was known to the brahmanan as he was sure that it was bhagawan’s sankalpam and it will definitely happen one day. Marriage happened between Padmavathi and Jayadevar. They both performed LORD JAGGANATHA service ( Krishna seva)  together. The ashram now became a Griham.

Sadhu seva, Bhagavath kainkaryam was being done as this is the main activity of a Grihasta.Jayadevar started to understand what Bhakthi fully was. Now as the Bhakthi became  more like a rasam, Jayadevar started to like it very much and he started to appreciate Padmavathis kainkaryam, he also started to like the various rasams described by padmavathi and his bhakthi started to blossom tenfold.

While performing abhishekam, Jayadevar would pour all of the abhishekam ingredients  at once on top of the  deity  of  Lord  Krishna . Watching this  Padmavathi would say   …Swami …..“Why dont you  offer  the milk , water  slowly as Sri Krishna would become breathless with your action.  Jayadevar would think, “Oh! Why did I not know this. He corrected himself and became more connected with deity worship…

While  performing archanas with flowers, padmavathi would tell  him not to put the flowers all over the  LORD and cover  instead   spread the fragrant  flowers  all around so that while doing the archana we could have the grace of the beauty of  our krishna and be able to see the  lotus feet  (thiruvadi )of the  Supreme Lord Thus, Jayadevar  started to like and understand the suggestions made by Padmavathi very much as he started learning the loving ways of performing kainkaryam to the bhagawan.

While adorning the dresses to the Lordships ( Vasthrams ) , Padmavathi would give some suggestions on how to tie the vastrams differently as she now said, ‘instead of the same blue black vastram, you can put the yellow one and the red one here on the top and see how nice it looks’.

Jayadevar started to think, ‘oh thats a good idea, why did I not think of that before’. He felt that Padmavathi was showing the way to him to bhakthi rasam and as Padmavathi started singing, Jayadevar, himself being a poet, his poetic instincts started to flower. Because of his poetic instincts, Krishna bhakthi and the  support from Padmavathi  his heart started to pour kavyams. This Kayvam in the form of Gita slokas started flowing and he started to teach Padmavathi how to dance. The young couple were more of Prema Bhakthas.

Jayadevar considered Padmavathi not as his better half but as a Krishna dasi. Padmavathi in turn feels herself as Jaya and Jayadevar as padma and they were like two sakhis for Sri Krishna. Both of them dancing in front of Sri Krishna, their shringaram was like Bhakthi shringaram. Not like the worldly shringaram.

In all his Krishna leelas, Brindavanam prasidha leela, Kandithaa Varnanam leela is most prominent Jayadevar thinks in his mind that Sri Krishna in order to pacify Radha rani  would request   to place  her lotus  feet on his head.

 Jayadevar  suddenly  doubts ….He  thinks this is not correct as ‘Radhai (jeevatma) keeping her feet on the head of the paramatma’ is incorrect  . Jayadevar is perplexed at this.

This poem is not Jayadevar’s, its just coming on its own  from his divine thoughts . Thus LORD  Krishna has put the seed in his thoughts Jayadevar  decides to write this,  but then he puts the pen down  confused . Thus he does many times not getting courage enough to write it.

He never thought of Radha as a separate but rather as a Bhaktha, Gopikai and thats Bhaktars anyway. For all the devotees ,  Lord Sri Krishna’s respect for their Bhakthi is also true . But Jayadevar had a little hesitation.

Jayadevar thinking so decided that in this part, ‘I need to modify with some other phrase’. Thinking thus, he went to perform his usual Thaila Snanam (oil bath). Padmavathi  who was  alone in the house ,  heard her name being called “Padma” and as she turned to see, she saw that he has already come back.

She  said …Swami you just left ..How is that you returned so quickly … Jayadevar who was looking so effulgent  said,I suddenly remembered a sentence, and hence  wanted to write in the poem  otherwise I would  forget it. That’s why i came so early.

Please bring that palm leaf’. He took the leaf and then in his beautiful handwriting started to write the  verse  he did not want to write initially.smara-garala-khandanam
mama sirasi mandanam
dehi pada-pallavam udaram roughly translated means The beautiful flower blossoms of Your feet counteract the deadly poison of amorous love. They extinguish the terrifying fire of the pain of that love, which rages within My heart. Therefore, please be kind and allow Your feet to decorate My head.”

Then returning the palm leaf to padma and asking her to keep it back, he left. Jayadevar went back  and after completing his shower and  japa  came to see that what he had not wanted to write had already been written by some one already … He was shocked and amazed to see the palm leaf which  had the verse he did not want to write …He asked Padmavathi,   my  dear   please tell me  ‘Who wrote this verse ?  She  expressed ignorance  and asked  Swami ….Why?

He replied  …dear   ……What I did not want to write, somebody has  already written that …Padmavathi asked,   Swami  ‘Did you tell your  feelings  to anyone else or me anytime’. Jayadevar said, ‘No! this should not be said, its  a divine secret . So I had kept it in my heart only.’  Padma replied,

Swami   ‘Whoever was in your heart only would have written this then’. The moment he realized what Padma was saying, tears flowed like torrent Oh Krishna …. he wept  like a child …

He saw the palm leaf repeatedly ..the  handwriting and the words written were  like pearls and he touched them with his eyes. Lord  had accepted his words for that sentence. Not only that, the entire Gita Govindam was accepted.

He then looked at Padmavathi and said, My dear  “Padmavathi,  you are blessed one! With tears he said ….Am blessed to have a devotee as my life partner … 

Your  devotion  is  flawless   and that’s the reason  LORD appeared .  Recollecting the divine incident  tears flowed down her face. LORD  blessed the coupleGita Govinda is  centered around  24 Ashtapadis (songs with 8 couplets). saturated with the flavour of the divine love of Krsna and Radha…

The Ashtapadis are about different moods  of  love between  Lord Krishna and Radha….

Some are almost  in form of hymns, listing  Lord Krishna’s achievements in his various incarnations ……..

Some are glimpses into Krishna’s and  Radha’s minds at times of separation, anger or reconciliation and   Some others are the words of messengers sent to each other, urging mercy and to swallow pride. 

ALL GLORIES TO JAYADEVAR for giving us KRISHNA BHAKTHI ..

.May my mind surrender to all the  great devotees of the Supreme LORD

 JAI JAI JAI JAGANNATHA

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pics & Video : Courtesy shared by devotees in social media 

Once  , Thirumisai Azhwar came to have a darsanam  of Lord  Aaraamudha perumal   near Kumbakonam at Tamilnadu.    Azhwar  was very much impressed by  Lord’s  beauty .

He instantaneously recited ..

Nadanda kalgal nondhavo nadunga gnala menamai

Idanthamei kulungavo vilangumaal varaichuram

Kadanda kaal parandha kavirikarai kudanthaiul

Kidanthava yezhundirundu pesu vazhi kesane

Meaning O lord !  your lotus  feet must be  feeling the pain walking  the worlds  covered  with  mountains,   thorns etc  .

Your lotus feet are very soft that even Mother Lakshmee  feels her  service may hurt  LORD if she touches them. 

AzhwAr then realizes that  as LORD  went to the pAtALa lOka to rescue Mother during varAha avatAra, perhaps  due to this   LORD  should be relaxing in this pose .

While Azhwar was enquiring ,  Lord casually  lifted up His head to get up and reply to  AzhwAr  as he said said ‘pESu’ in his divine verse  ( speak my LORD ) ..

  Azhwar did not  want  to disturb his yoganidra  and hence  prayed LORD   to remain in the same posture so as to bless each devotee  coming  to HIM praying  .

The Azhwar  thus requested  LORD  to remain in the reclining position as this posture of  LORD looked very attractive .

 The  divine pose of  LORD Aara Amudhan is called as Uthra Sayanam and he is thus called as Uthanasai. 

Lord Aramudhan like Sonnavanam saitha Perumaal of Thiruvekha Divya Desam  at Kancheepuram has also received credit for obeying His dear devotee Thirumisai Azhwar.

 Due to the above reason  LORD  is  glorified  as Aramudha Azhwan  and the Azhwar as Thirumahizai Piran.

The word Piran means Lord.

As Thirumahizai Azhwar asked Perumaal to get up from His  serpent bed, Azhwar was given the title of “Piran” by  LORD .

Aramudhan took the title “Azhwan” to show us HIS  love  towards  Azhwar.  Lord’s sparkling  darshanam  of his cheeks (so chubby )  pulls our soul to  just be there for ever .

 Lord’s coral lips   invites HIS devotee which has a   half-smile (“Punmuruval”) indicating  HIS mercy and  pleasure  seeing us.  Lord’s  broad forehead is adorned by a sparkling green gem, triangular in shape .

 Lord’s long thighs and then  legs, resembles  the trunk of a magnificent tusker,  encased in soft and supple silk, while the broad and beautiful chest sports several strands of gold and pearl necklaces ,  with goddess  Mahalakshmi.

Mother Sri Devi and Bhoodevi  grace us  on either side of the Lord, in postures of devotion.   As noticed in Thiruvellarai Divyadesam , similar  feature of this beautiful temple is that the sanctum sanctorum has two entrances, each with nine steps-one used during Dakshinaayanam and the other during Uttaraaayanam.

 Everything about the Lord  here is elixir .

check the videohttps://wpcomwidgets.com/render/

https://wpcomwidgets.com/render/

None  of the devotees will exclaim  “I have had enough of this Lord”, the desire to see Him and be with Him increases  with every  darshan .

Among the Azhwars seven  out of twelve have immersed there divine thoughts and glorified the boundless beauty of  Lord Aaraavamudan and devoted around 51 nectarine verses  in the DivyaPrabhandam .

This nectarine Lord is sweet not only to our external senses like the eye, ear and the nose, but provides an incomparably pleasurable sensation all over, inside and out and in the soul too-

 “Aaraavamudaai adiyen aavi agame tittippaai”. 

When we relish  something very sweet  we become sick eating the same  recipe  repeatedly . This is true for all material  and  worldly enjoyment all through in our lifestyle.  But once we engage  our senses towards the omnipotent LORD  we find that we can  relish HIM   continuously without  any hindrances and  not getting  bored.

 Once we follow the Nava Vidhi Bhakthi  as advised by Elders viz:   Shravanam  , Kirtanam  Smaranam ,  Pada sevanam , Archanam , Vandanam  Dasyam ,  Sakhyam and finally   Atma Nivedhanam  the purpose of our Life is realised . The more we  start enjoying  the nectar that is LORD HIMSELF , the more we want to continue enjoying this nectar as our desire for this nectar becomes insatiable .

 Aaramudhan means  “the pure nectar which can never produce satiety”.  NammAzhwar glorifies LORD as  “Ara Amude” and  expresses Oh Lord !! ,

‘When I  have your divine darshan !  my body melts in the love  and the separation from your divineself  means  am washed out   with a  torrent force of a  flood away .  

Oh Lord!  such  overflowing emotions……..  grace me  because of your  abundant mercy you have for me.

Lord Aramuda Perumaal compassion on HIS devotees is unlimited .  

When all of us celebrate Diwali in our houses , LORD  performed last rites for one of His  ardent devotees.

 The divine pastime goes like this .

There lived a devotee  named ” Lakshmi Narayana ”  in this holy place . Narayana spent his entire life doing  services to Lord Aramudhan. He was  the one who built the Rajagopuram  which is app  44-m tall, 11-tiered tower by collecting  small small donations from devotees and strived hard to finish the task  . 

He had surrendered all his wealth and everything in the noble service .Narayana swamy  who became old   ,passed away, on  a  Deepavali Amavasya day .

The  devotees  were worried about performing his last rites as he had no progeny and neither he adopted any one .  His entire life was serving the LORDSHIPS  with total surrender .

When the  Priest  entered the sanctum   of Lord Aramudhan he noticed that  Lord  was wearing the yagnopavithram in the direction worn while performing last rites. The Priest  thought that he had made a mistake while decorating LORD  on the previous day.

Therefore he corrected the direction of the yagnopavithram but to his utter amazement found that the yagnopavithram switched direction again. The Priest  realized that it was  Lord’s  way of saying that He was going to perform the last rite for his devotee  Narayana .

 And ever mindful of His duties, He continues to perform the annual shraaddham for this sincere  devotee , to this day.  Narayana’s  sculpture with folded hands adorns one of the pillars in the pradikshina marga .

 Lord performed the last rite for Jatayu during Rama Avataram and as  Lord Aaramudhan performed the rites for  his devotee Narayanaswamy.

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pics : Credits  Google images ( Thanks to all the devotees who uploaded them )

King Veerasikhamani was  one of the disciple of Swamy Parasara bhattar . He used to personally come to Srirangam and have darshan of Lord Ranganathar and  his Acharyar Swamy Parasara Bhattar  .

 Due to preoccupation with the state matters , he  arrived  to Srirangam after few months .

He was  feeling guilty and sad for he could not progress in his spiritual endeavors like listening to discourses , worshiping the Lord , seeking  satsangh etc  .  

 He humbly submitted to  Acharyar about his  poor commitment  in  spiritual progress .  The King pleaded Acharyar to advise him a simple method  for Lord realisation .

Swamy parasara bhattar out of abundant compassion ,  advised him to carry the image of LORD RAMACHANDRA always with him   in his  heart and cherish the divine pastimes . The King was curious to know that incident  of Lord Rama which swamy cherished .

Swamy Bhattar replied about that  time when Lord Ramachandra and the army of vanaras camped on Suvela mountains the sun  was about to  set .  

The army of  vanaras assembled and were discussing about their next plan .  

One leader announced  , dear friends !!!

You know  we are very near to Lanka  and  as  the night approaches  the Rakshasas become stronger  and possess enormous strength to attack  our Lord Rama .

 Hearing the leaders words ,the vanaras were very confused and upset as they knew that the Rakshasas will somehow create illusions  and  may create problems to Lord Rama and Lakshamana   .

The leader suggested that they will  take all measures to protect Lord Rama and Lakshamana  . For this they had to be awake shielding Lord Rama and Lakshmana .  The vanaras decided that they shall take turns and be on the sentry duty thus protecting Lord Rama  and lakshmana whole night .

They alloted the time and were guarding Lord and Lakshamana. However due to  the gentle cool breeze from the ocean  and their tiredness all the vanaras fell asleep .

As soon as all the vanaras fell asleep, Lord Rama and Lakshmana got up , took over the duties and ever on alert with their bow and arrows .

They created a magical illusion around vanaras  thus  the Rakshasas were able to see only Lord Rama and Lakshmana  and the vanaras were invisible .

The Rakshasa seeing Lord Rama  tejas were terrified and fled away without any trace . Thus the army of vanaras were protected by the Karunamoorthy  .

Lord Rama is an ocean of mercy when protecting his devotees in distress . Lord Rama saved the very army which had formed only to save Rama .

One must never loose direction even in his thought about the abundant mercy of Lord always protecting us and ever to be with us as Antaryaamee .

So the best way is to hold him in our thoughts and deed always .

Jai Sree Ram

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pictures : Courtesy Google pics

Video clip :  Courtesy : vikrantchugh  1987

In Srimad Bhagavatha Mahapurana as part of a discussion between King Nimi and sage Karabhajana the advent of the Srivaishnava Azhwars appearance in the Kali age is revealed .

” In the Kali age men devoted to Lord Sriman Narayana will be born in large numbers near the Dravida territory where in the rivers Tamaraparni, Vaigai , Paalaar the most sacred Kaaveri flows
.” True to the epic , both Swamy Namaazhwar and Madhurakavi Azhwar appeared on the banks of Tambaraparni river .

It is said that just after 40 years of the disappearance of Lord Krishna , Nammazhwar appeared . Periyazhwar and Sri Andal appeared in a place close to river Vaigai , the Mudal Azhwars and Thirumazhisai Azhwar appeared near Paalaar and Thodaradippodi Azhwar, Thiruppaanaazhwar and Thirumangai Azhwar appeared near river Kaaveri.

The most holy place Thirukurugur “Alwar Tirunagari” is about 30kms east of Tirunelveli on the Tirunelveli-Tiruchendur highway off the Southern banks of Tamaraparani .Check this post for more details :https://kmkvaradhan.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/the-glory-of-thirukkolur/Thirukurugur Vaishnava divyadesam is located on the banks of the river Tamaraparani and is one of the 108 divya desams in Pandiya Nadu. This was later known as Alwar thirunagari after the great Nammazhwar’s appearance . Legends reveal there lived a pious devotee Kaariyaar an advanced bhaktha who was serving the devotees from his agriculture earnings .

Udaiya Nankaiyar from Thiruvanparisaram was his wife who was equally pious and served the devotees with all dedication . They had no progeny for a long time .

Their prayers were answered by the mercy of Lord of Thirukurungudi . Udaiya Nankai gave birth to a male child on Vaikasi month in Visakam star( who is considered to be the incarnation of Senai Mudaliyar the commander in chief of Lord Sriman Narayana) .

His parents named him Maran ( being different from others ) and he also had other names Parankusa and Satakopan .

The boy was not an ordinary kid nor did he have an ordinary life .

He displayed none of the usual characteristics of a baby, neither would he cry nor attempt to drink milk.

Looking at the strange behaviour of the divine child, the parents went to the temple for divine interference. All of a sudden the child crawled and went under a tamarind tree inside the temple where he remained almost for sixteen years in yogic trance under the trunk . The divine incident became the talk of the town.

After many years one day a elder Vaishnava who was on a pilgrimage to Ayodhya observed a shining light emanating from a far off place .He followed the light and reached Thurukurugoor. As he enquired around the place , he was directed into the temple . He was surprised looking at the divine aura being emitted from the young boy and attempted to go near him .

More details of Madhurakavi Azhwar can be read in this appended linked post

https://kmkvaradhan.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/tevu-marrariyen-i-do-not-know-of-any-lord-other-than-my-acharyan-swamy-nammazhwar/

He approached the divine boy who was meditating deeply with his legs crossed and hands in chin mudrai pose. Madhurakavi thought that the boy could be deaf and dumb. To draw his attention ,he took a small stone and threw it in the lotus pond nearby.

Lo presto !

the boy opened his eyes and Madhurakavi could see the divinity in his eyes with golden hue.

Madhurakavi wanted to test the boy further whether he could reply.

Thus he asked a question

“Seththathin vayitril siru kutti pirandhaal etrai thindru enge kidakum?

A divine voice was heard with a smile

“Atrai thindru ange kidakum”.

The answer to his question made the madhurakavi ponder about the divine presence of the boy and the esoteric reply.

The peripheral meaning of the question…

“If a small one is born into a dead thing, what will it do ? and where will it be”?

The reply was “It will eat that and stay there”.

Nothing could be understood if not for our great achaaryas who had provided us with the inner meaning of this important quote

The inner meaning of the question:

“Seththadhu” – body,

“siru kutti” – soul.

“vayiru” – stomach.

The inner meaning mentions that when a soul enters a body, the body gets life and the soul forgets its true nature , thus thinks that the body is everything

The soul enjoys and suffers everything through the body.

It eats and lives on whatever the body earns as sin and virtues . Once the body is dead, the soul departs. Till the time the soul is present, it has to suffer and enjoy all the feelings of the body.

But once the soul realizes its true nature that it is the servant of Lord Sriman Narayanan and surrenders , the soul gets liberated from the cycle of births and deaths.

Swami Madhurakavi azhwar was amazed by azhwar’s knowledge and fell at his feet and pleaded him to accept him as his disciple.

Azhwar agreed and asked him to help him in composing his divine works. Thus came out the fountain of divine out pouring of Lord’s kalyanagunas .

Madurakavi Azwar wrote all of them in Palm leaves which were called ‘ pattolai. The divine out pourings were

1. Thiruviruttam (100 verses)
2. Thiruvasiriyam (7 verses)
3. Periya ThiruvandhAdhi (87 verses)
4. Thiruvamozhi (1102 verses )

A grand festival is celebrated for ten days marking the appearance day of Azhwar …….

at this holy place every year ending with a holy bath ( Abhishekam ) and ‘Theertha vari’ on Vaikasi Visakam day .

The Vaikasi Visakam celebrations are being held past 500 years or more .

The temple at Thirukkurugoor was under the direct administration of our revered Acharyar Swamy Manavala Mamunigal.

Adiyen is recollecting the wonderful darshan we had few years back at Azhwar Thirunagari

The most important day for Srivaishnavas is Swami Nammazhwars Thirunakshatram ( Apperance day ) which happens to be on Saturday 21 ,2016 this year .

Nava Tirupathi is a cluster of Nine temples of Lord Sriman Narayana.

Nava Tirupathi is part of the 108 Divya Desam temples .

Located around the banks of the River Thamarap arani, the 9 temples of Nava Tirupathi are Thiruvaikundam,

Thiruvaragunamangai,

Thirupulinkudi,

North & South temples of Thirutholaivillimangalam,

Thirukkulanthai,

Thiruperai,

Thirukolur and

Thirugurukoor.

This otherwise a calm village is overcrowded with devotees for the 10 day grand festival.

Almost all the chathirams, Ramanujar koodams and houses were packed with devotees who come to witness the Nava garuda sevai from long distances .

A big mandapam in front of the main temple known as ‘PANDAL MANDAPAM” is decorated for the grand festival to happen .

This pandal was built by an ardent devotee Sri Pandala Ramaswamy Nayaakar during 1807 .

He took initiative in starting this wonderful Nava garuda Sevai utsavam and made arrangements for the mandapam and other paraphernalia .

In honour of his devotional service the mandapam is named Pandal Mandapam.

.

All the Perumals ( Lordships ) of the Nava Tirupatis come to

Thirunagari to grace our most beloved Nammazhwar .

Swamy Nammazhwar had darshanam of all the 108 Divya

desam perumal staying in Azhwar Thirunagari itself .

In the pandal “ Abhishekam for Azhwar is done with due honours by the recitation of vedic hymns being watched by a large groups of devotees .

Meanwhile ,there was an alert by the bhagavathas that the Nava Tirupathigal Perumal have already started from their temples “ Thirukolams “and after crossing the beautiful Tambaraparani River are arriving at Pandal Mandapam.

We rejoiced to see Perumals coming from different directions with a troupe of Nadaswaram goshti and the recitation of pasurams by Elders.

All Perumal started arriving to Pandal Mandapam. Every Divyadesam Perumal arrive in a well decorated palanquin with full temple honours.

Here Azhwar receives the Perumal and does Pradakshinam to Perumal thrice. Azhwar is then blessed with satari, peedambaram and prasadam which were offered to the Perumal.

After this, managala haarathi is given to Perumal and Azhwar and Perumal enter the main temple.

This procedure is followed for all the Perumals. This function takes place for about 2 to 3 hours.

All the Perumals alight inside a huge mandapam inside the temple. Parallel arrangements like decorating Peria Thiruvadi ( Garudazhwan ) for the evening function is done for the Garuda sevai.

The villagers share a wonderful hospitality inquiring about the details of stay, food etc of all the visitors . Most of the Thirumalagais are eager to serve the devotees with Prasadam.

The same evening around 5 P.M., Thirumanjanam ( Abhishekam ) would start for all the Perumals. Several groups of devotees coming from far off places assemble and chant azhwar pasurams with music. At 5 P.M the Vedic Pundits carrying silver kudams filled with holy water arrive . The water for Neeratam is brought from the river Thamparaparani with full honours (an umbrella, Nadaswaram)

The holy abhishekam “ Thirumanjanam” for all the Perumals are performed at the same time. Thirumanjanam is performed for all the Perumals inside the mandapam. It takes about 2 to 3 hours for the alankaranam to get completed.

Around 8 P.M. the much awaited garuda sevai starts

In the Nava Garuda Sevai, the lordships ( Perumals ) are seated on Garuda vaahanam. Azhwar is seated on a Hamsa vaahanam and his dearest devotee, Madurakavi Azhwar is seated on Pirangi Naarkaali (a chair)

Azhwar waits just outside the Maha dwaaram of the temple to receive the Perumals from all the Nine Divya desams .

The temple doors are closed and Azhwar along with his favourite devotee Madurakavi Alwar wait for the Garudaseva Utsavam to happen.The Mahadwaram doors are opened amidst the mangala Nadaswarams .

Azhwar is the first to have darsanam of Perumal. Perumal is given Mangala karpoora aarthi and managalasaasanam done to the particular Perumal by the Azhwar . The recitation of the Mangalaasanams with the divyadesam pasurams by Elders drives one to spiritual ecstasy. Similar to Srirangam, Araiyar sevai is followed tradition here

The sevai is a special treat to the eyes and fill LORDs grace unlimited . And being among-st our Azhwars and the advanced srivaishnavas its sheer bliss

The order in which the Perumals appear in Garuda vaahanam along with the paasuram number is mentioned for devotees sung by Azhwar is given below:

PERUMAL PASURAM NOS.

1) Sri Adinatha Perumal of Thirukurugoor 3106,3116
2) Sri Vaikuntanatha Perumal of Srivaikuntam 3571,3575
3) Sri Vijayasanar Perumal of Natham (varagunamangai) 3571
4) Sri Kaichinavendan of Thirupulingudi 3473,3568-78
5) Sri Mayakoothan of Perungulam(Thiuukulandhai) 3561
6) Sri Devapiran of Irattai Tirupati }
7) Sri Aravinda Lochanan of Irattai Tirupati } 3271-3281
8) Sri Bhoomipalar of Then Thirupperai 3359-3369
9) Sri Vaithamanidhi of Thirukolur along with Madurakavi Azhwar 3293-3303,3473

After this, neivedyam is offered to Perumal, Azhwar and Madurakavi Azhwar and Perumal leaves the place . All the Perumals assemble at East Mada street and from here all the Nava tirupathi Perumal are taken in procession in the 4 mada streets of Thirunagari with the Nadaswaram troups for each perumal , Veda goshti .

The devotees burst crackers and lit the roads with dazzling light. The local residents receive Perumal by sweeping the roads and decorating the roads with kollams etc.The zeal in their offering fruits and karpooram at the time of Perumal’s oorvalam is a great blessing. Almost the entire village are well versed with Perumals arrival. This procedure of waiting near the entrance, offering karpoora aarthi and rendering mangalasaasanam on that particular Perumal is followed for all the Perumals.

By the time the ninth Perumal Sri Vaithamanidhi of Thirukolur leaves the place, Adinatha Perumal of Thirukurugoor who left first comes back to the temple. After all the nine Perumals assemble, Azhwar pays his deep respects to all the Perumals and all the Perumals get inside the mandapam. Madurakavi Azhwar who has organized this function, payshis respects to Nammazwar who is pleased with his disciple.

The function concludes around 4 A.M. The next day morning, all the Perumals leave to their respective temples gracing all the devotees and Nammazwar accompanies them till the entrance of the temple as a Royal guest . Nammazwar ‘s hamsa vaahanam is placed in such a manner that he looks at the proceedings until Perumal leaves the temple street

The Perumals leave the Mandapam around 7.00 –7.30 AM . Only after the sight of Perumal completely disappears, Nammazhwar leaves inside a bit sad due to the departure of the perumals to their respective divyadesams.

All glories to the devotees who are at Thirukurogoor seeking the grace of Azhwar and Perumal ….

Prostrating vaishnavas ,Azhwar and Lordships for their abundant grace adiyen …..

silently walk behind Azhwars Palanquin asking for forgiveness and his grace in attending many more Satsangs…

Adiyen Ramanuja dasanPics courtesy : Google images , web site ; heritagetown .orgVideos : Thanks to Sri Govindarajan

The most revered Acharyar in Srivaishnava sampradayam was Swamy Srisailesar . Srisailer was disciple of the legendary revered  saint Swamy Pillai Loka Acharyar.

( The most respected and adored saint who played a very important role in Lord Ranganathar’s safety during the Turks invasion few hundred years back )

Check the appended post for more details ..

https://kmkvaradhan.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/the-devoted-srivaishnava-acharyas-at-srirangam-2/

Swami Srisailesar appeared in a illustrious village kunthinagaram   near  Madurai.        His parents named him as “Thirumalai azhwaar”.

A very intelligent and highly talented young lad who assimilated all types of knowledge including administration with dedication was loved by one and all . He had samashrayanam (initiation ) done from his Acharyar Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar and was given a name as Satagopa dasar.

Those were the times when the illustrious Pandyan Kings were ruling Madurai. King Kulasekhara Pandyan had two sons Sundara Pandyan and Veera Pandyan.

Contrary to tradition, the king proclaimed that his younger son would succeed him. Sundara Pandyan was agitated and by a coup occupied the throne .

The local chieftains swore allegiance to younger brother Veera Pandian and thus a civil war broke out .

Sundara Pandyan was defeated and was forced out of the country. He sought help from Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji who entrusted the task to General Malik Kafur to handle the problem .

With Sundara Pandyan’s assistance, the army entered Madurai and looted the city for their benefit . They plundered the wealth from all the temples .

The citizens were in fear and the threat of being killed by these ruthless invaders .

To their worst nightmare Sundhara Paandyan passed away . It was chaos all around the whole city of Madurai as the invaders looted the nearby areas and the people had to suffer in the enemy’s hands .

Sundhara Pandyan legal heir “Paraakrama Pandya” who was very young occupied the throne . It was a tough task managing the kingdom in such a deep crisis . As the prince was too young to take up the responsibilities , the queen requested the learned Swami Srisailesar  to take care of the administration of the kingdom . 

Swami Srisailesar  understood it was need of the hour to protect the Kingdom. He took over the responsibilities as defacto King and as an able administrator was managing the show with long sighted acumen thus protecting the prince and the kingdom.

Years passed , Thirumalai azhwar was missing his favorite service of attending to the revered saints and Acharyas association in learning true knowledge . He developed deep interest in sampradayam and quenched his thirst by knowing several esoteric truths from scholars regularly by inviting them to the royal chambers .

Day by the day the thoughts to resign from the assignment given to him became stronger and love to the Lordships increased manifold. Over a period of time as things settled down , he decided to quit the job and seek Acharyar’s lotus feet once for all .

In the other part of the kingdom , Swamy Pillai lokacharyar instructed his chief disciple, Sri Koorakulothamadasar to enlighten Srisailesar by teaching our sampradayam who would be succeeding him in Acharya parampara.

(Similar to how Manakal nambi based on Nathamunigal’s instructions personally interacted with Yamunacharyar who was a king and taught him about our sampradaya and made him a prominent Vaishnava acharyar) .

Due to his advanced age, Sri Pillai Lokacharyar  attained Acharyar’s  lotus feet  ( leaving his mortal coils at Jyotishkudi near Madurai .

( The divine pastime is appended in the blog post url ..

https://kmkvaradhan.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/lokacharya-compassion/

       During the plundering expedition of Malik Kafur, one of the worst period in Srirangam, Sri Pillailokacharyar’s disciples took our adorable Lord Azhagiya Manavalan ( Namperumal ) to Thenaikidambai, a village near Kozhikode, Kerala from Jyotishkudi after Swamy PillaiLokacharyar’s heavenly sojourn.

In other part of the Kingdom , due to the invaders torture ,parallel y to protect saint Nammazhwar’s deity , few devotees from Azhwar Thirunagari carried the Lordships and reached this place carrying swamy Nammazhwar…   

May be It was Lord’s arrangement !!!

Lord Namperumal and Swamy Nammazhwar met at this very holy place .What else can be the divine plan when both the Lord and his dearest devotee move out from their respective abodes and purify the nearby places by giving opportunities to his dearest disciples to carry them .

Nammazhwar was duly honored with Lord’s (Perumal’s parivatam) royal clothes , (kavacham made of pearls) . Both the teams discussed about the future plans in protecting the Lordships . They had to part ways for further safety .

From this holy place the disciples carried Lord Namperumal towards Melkote and later to Tirumala…..

Lord Ranganathar enjoyed the company of Lord Venkateshwara for almost 40 years .

We can have the darshan of the divine abode Of that mandapa where Lord Ranganathar stayed at Tirumala .

The devotees led by Swamy Thozhappar carried Swamy Nammazhwar diety and proceeded towards Kerala and halted at a place ” Munthirupu” .

The revered Acharyar Thozhappar was carrying out the divine service for months traveling avoiding eye contact with the ruthless invaders carefully avoiding the army who were looting the temples and the Priests .

As it was too hectic and difficult to face the invaders they carefully had Azhwar’s diety put inside a well covered box hid the same in a valley.

In the tough task being carried out by the team , Thozhapar attained Acharyar’s lotus feet .

With no other option left out , the disciples slowly proceeded towards  Madurai  to seek  Srisailesar’s help in safeguarding the deity .

 At  Madhurai  , Srisailesar  by Azhwar’s grace,  was now detached from the royal affairs Srisailer who had resigned from the ministerial post approached his Sri Koorakulothamadasa for receiving the instructions from Acharyar ….

As per Acharyar Swamy Pillailokacharyar’s orders and Koorakulothamadasar’s instructions, Srisailer approached Swamy  Pillailokacharyar disciples.

As similar how Swamy Ramanujar approached five Acharyas , Srisailesar also approached   .

                    Swamy Vilaancholai Pillai taught him the intricate meanings of Srivachana bhooshanam the magnum opus work by Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar at Thiruvananthapuram.

Swamy Thirukannangudi Pillai taught him the divine pasurams of Thiruvaimozhi .

Swamy Nalloor Pillai taught him the intricate meanings of 3000 vyakhyanam

Swamy Thiruputkuzhi Jeeyar taught him the intricate meanings Thiruvaimozhi

Nallooraachan pillai-the illustrious son of Nalloor pillai continued to teach him the meanings Eedu 36000 .

Thus another versatile Acharyar was guiding the sampradayam .

Thozhappar’s disciples reached Madurai  and approached Srisailer .

The mission was divine . Srisailer was eager to have darshan of Azhwar .He  along with the disciples proceeded to Munthirupu and located the valley .

With Azhwars grace , they were able to locate the deity .With all honors, the deity was safely kept at Thirukannambi.

  Time passed quickly , and one fine day, Lord appeared in Srisailer’s dreams and advised ,

My dear Thirumalai aazhwar , the temple near Thirukurugoor is in a dilapidated condition which needs to be attended immediately .

I am sure you would initiate action

Thirumalai azhwar understood Lord’s divine command …

He immediately started towards Thirukurugoor along with few disciples .Praying Lord for his mercy he started searching the village .

Somewhere far , he felt there could be Perumal sannidhi and Nammazhwar sannidhi.

But was not sure if he was at the right place. A barren and waste land nearby made him go closer . He was confused thoroughly because he did not even expect the place to be in such a poor condition.

He met the villagers and requested them to guide him in locating the temple of Azhwar and Perumal . The villagers were also in poor memory .They informed that due to the Moslem invasion in the Pandyan kingdom all of them were scattered and they were also cognizant of the poor state of azhwar and Perumal sannidhi.

They feared that due to invasion, the whole area became like a waste and barren land . One old villager came running and offering obesiances said ,

Revered swamin …….

From childhood I have been going to Azhwars temple for serving the Acharyas . I remember during the looting expedition by the invaders , the brahmins keeping the security of Swami Nammazhwar in mind, carried Lordships and Swamy Nammazhwar deity to a place in Kerala that was engulfed by forests.

I was told by my elders that they had kept azhwar’s vigraham in a cave in that forest.    Srisailer was overjoyed . Thanking Swamy Nammazhwar for his mercy he proceeded to Thiruvananthapuram (capital city of Kerala) and approached the king there.

The King was kind to receive the saint . He ordered his minister to extend all the help to Srisailer . Using their help,  he located the place where Swami Nammazhwar resided  The place was called “Thirukanaambi”.

        The entire group was overjoyed having darshan of Swamy Nammazhwar who was safely residing in a small box inside a valley . Glorifying the Lordships and Azhwar the group lead by  Swamy Srisailer  proceeded towards Thirukurugoor.

         Now the task as allotted by Lord himself was taken up enthusiastically . All the villagers started to clear off the engulfed forest like area. One day ,while  Srisailer  was passing on pitch dark night, with a small lamp in his hand, he saw the ( Tamarind ) “Urangaapuli” tree and also the surrounding vimanam around it .

  He was overjoyed . Realizing the importance of the holy place recollecting those divine pastimes of Swamy Nammazhwar and dear disciple Swamy Madhurakavi Azhwar, he called the villagers and explained the glory of the holy place . The mission was to make the divine place just like place it was during the heydays of Swamy Madhurakavi azhwar.

With the abundant grace of Ahzwar’s and Lord Polindha nindra piraan’s anugraham, the mission of renovating the temple was accomplished in grand scale .

Glad with the service of Srisailer’s services  and his recitation along with nectarine explanation of Thiruvaaimozhi, Swami Nammazhwar himself christened the name of “Thiruvaaimozhi pillai”.

Now , Thiruvaaimozhi pillai started to revive all the lost and hidden traditions of the great place called “Thirukurugoor” ( “Aazhwar Thirunagari”). He took interest in educating the villagers.

With their active cooperation he got  the forest area cleared  and constructed a temple for Swamy Ramanujar who is worshipped as “Bhavishyad Acharyar” which is know glorified as Chaturvedi mangalam (called “Raamanuja chaturvedhi mangalam” ).

Thiruvaaimozhi Pillai  used to contemplate on the divine pasurams of Thiruvaimozhi explanations always given in Eedu . 

His attachment to Thiruvaimozhi was so much that he instructed his prominent disciple, Sri Manavala Mamunigal to always contemplate on Thiruvaimozhi .

.

Sri Azhagiya Manavala Perumal (Manavala mamunigal) belonged to Azhwar thirunagari and  was  direct  disciple .He got his initiation from Srisailesar. Sri Azhagiya Manavala Perumal was Srisailesar’s favourite student who later on took sanyasam and came to be known as  Swamy “Manavala Maamunigal” who rendered EEdu vyakhyanam in the presence of the processional deities in Srirangam  (Azhagiya Manavalan/Namperuamal) for one full year .

The famous invocatory sloka rendered Supreme Lord Sriman Narayana residing as Sri Ranganathar in Srirangam which every Srivaishnava recites daily at the beginning and end of Thiruvaraadhanam starts with the words

SriSailesa Daya patram DhiBhakti Adi Gunarnavam

Yatindra pravanam Vande Ramyaja Mataram Munim

This invocatory verse was given to Swami Manavala maamunigal by Lord Ranganathar himself .

The Lord addresses Acharyar Mamunigal as “Srisailesa Dayaa paathram”-one who is the recipient of Srisailesa’s mercy.

Among-st the august gathering ,the Lord disguised as a boy came forward and gave the  glorification  verse (thanian.) ….through the Archaka .

He accepted  Swamy Manavala Mamunigal as HIS acharyar. The Lord also gave HIS serpent bed, Adiseshan to Swamy Manavala Mamunigal as aasanam.

The kalakshepa mandapam in Manavala Mamunigal’s Thirumaligai at Srirangam is called as “Thiruvaimozhi Pillai mandapam”

Swamy Manavala Mamunigal in his wonderful  work “Upadesa Ratnamala” starts the invocation verse ( thanian) as

“Yendhai Thiruvaimozhi Pillai Inn arulaal……”

He attributes everything to the lotus feet of his acharyar.

Upadesarathinamalai,’ has 74 verses.

As the name indicates it is a jewel of noble precept – gems, a treasure house of essential knowledge for Srivaishnavas. These verses are chanted by the congregation (goshti) in temples and all vaishnava homes .

Swamy  Mamunigal states in the very first verse that these essential precepts were received by the grace of Thiruvoimozhi Pillai, his preceptor-Acharya.

After explaining an authoritative chronology of the appearance of revered Azhwars into this world with their appearance day details and places of birth, the hymn introduces the greatest of our acharyas, Swamy Ramanujar..

Elucidating further the commentaries by our acharyas on the hymns of the Azhwars, the importance of Nammazhwar’s Thiruvoimozhi is brought out by an enumeration of the five commentaries, of different lengths, that have appeared for these eleven hundred verses and how the ‘Eedu’ (36,000) commentary came to be written and propagated.More emphasis on the precious jewel, ‘Srivachana Bhushanam’ and the greatness of this ‘secret’ document is glorified .

The conclusion of this great treatise is that the grace of the preceptor-Acharya is the surest-gateway to salvation .

The sacred verses concludes  that  a reverent study of ‘Upadesarathinamalai’ is certain to beget the generous grace of Swamy Ramanuja.

                    The final (74) verse  was an  addition by Erumbiappa disciple of Swamy Mamuni  that  the fortunates  heads who   seek the holy feet (Sandals) of Sri Manavala Mamunigal are certain to be touched by Amanava at Srivaikuntam .

This contact would cleanse the emancipated soul of the last traces of karma and render it pure to enter the land of Bliss.

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Inspired from a discourse rendered by a revered   Acharyar

Pictures : Courtesy Google images and the all the great devotees who had uploaded in various social media sites

The holy place Alwar Thirunagari  is  located  in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu…..

. Those were the days when our most respected Azhwar , Swami Nammazhwar was meditating  near the  southern banks of the holy Tambaraparani river .  

There was a  yogi   who was staying  near the northern bank of the same river along with his dog . The dog used to daily leave the northern bank of the river and reach southern bank .

It would eat the remnants of the food honored by the srivaishnavas  near the temple .  It would return daily by sun set back to wait near the tree along with the Yogi .This became a routine for the dog  .

One day as usual the dog left in the morning but did not return as per the expected time . There was a change in weather and the weather was too cloudy for a heavy downpour . The yogi was feeling lonely without his company .

He  went in search of his companion in the pouring rain .

He could see  the dog which was swimming against the current and somehow  he was not able to succeed .

In the struggle the dog had to leave his body .

The Yogi was amazed to see another event . The head burst  out from the dog  and a shining light emanated  that  was going upwards to the heavens .

This made the Yogi wonder about the holy place .

He observed that when a dog  who just took the remnants of the pious sri vaishnavas could  get salvation what can be told about this holy place where our Nammazhwar  had graced this place with his divine darshan .

The great Sri Kamban azhwan had  quoted this incident of the dog attaining moksha in his works Satagopar Anthadhee.. 

This incident of the dog attaining moksha is  also sculpted in a stone on the banks of Tambaraparani river near Azhwar Theerthavari mandapam …

Blessed are those devotees who will be attending Swami Nammazhwars Apperance day  at Thirukurugoor very soon  .

Adiyen Ramanuja dasan

Pictures : Courtesy Google images

Srimathey Ramanujaya namah

Sri Kumudavalli sametha Thirumangai Azhwar Thiruvadigaley saranam

Sri Aravindavalli Nayika sametha Sri Badri Narayanaya namah :

—————————————————————— Saptha BAdri are a a group of seven temples dedicated to Lord Maha Vishnu which are  located in the Garhwal Himalayas. (Some consider ARdha Badri as one of the Sapta Badri and omit Narsing Badri) . However , the entire Garhwal Himalayas are BhadriNarayana Kshetram. The area spreading from Satopanth 24 kms above Badrinath to Nand Prayag is known as Badri Kshetram as this area was once Badri vanam and as these temples of Lord  Maha Vishnu are in this area, they are popularly known as Sapta Badri Kshetram.

The Seven  temples  are listed as below •

Badri Vishal- the main temple which is located at 3133 mtrs.-23 kms from Yogdhyan Badri

• Yogdhyan Badri – enroute from Joshirmutt to Badri Vishal at Pandukeshwar at an atltitude of 1920 mtrs.

• Narasing Badri- also known as Thirupiridhi  vaishnava divya desam.

Some consider this as one of the Sapta Badri kshetrams

. • Vridha Badri- located at Animath village between JOshirmutt and Helang. About 7 kms from Joshirmutt on the way to Urgam

• Dhyan Badri-located 1 km from Urgam village.

• Bhavishya Badri- 20 kms from Joshirmutt near Tapovan by vehicle and from there 6 kms trek up the hill at an altitude of 2744 mtrs. THE FUTURE BHADRINATH temple will be at this place . •

Adi Badri is located 17 kms from Karna Prayag. The cluster of 16 temples constructed by Adi Sankaracharyar. Dhyan Badri and Narasing Badri(Joshirmutt) are not included in Pancha Badri kshetrams. Yogdhyan Badri,Vridha Badri,Dhayan Badri, Bhavishya Badri can be accessed from Joshirmutt as base.

Badrikshetram also has Theertha mahimai as the Pancha Prayags –confluence of holy rivers are located in this area. An important information is except for the main temple, Badri Vishal the other temples scattered in remote villages remain open all through the year because they are at a lesser altitude.

Badrinath is one of the eight swayam vyakta kshetrams located in Garhwal Himalyas , referred as Gandha Madhana Parvatham in our scriptures like Srimad Bhagavatam.

It is also one of the 108 vaishnava divya desams glorified by Thirumangai Azhwar in his 20 pasurams .

          In one of the pasuram ,   Azhwar advises us to  seek  and have a darshan of  Lord Bhadri Vishaal in  our youth itself , as

later the KALA (TIME) swallows our  age invisibly 

thus it will be  too late   for an old person  to visit   the holy bhadri   

associated  knee pain , joint pains and  the body does not cooperate making a mockery of ones self for wasting ones  precious life .

Here Lord  incarnated as Narayanan and graced the sacred ashtakshara mantram upadesam to Naran. Naran and Narayanan are believed to be meditating at this place for the welfare of the world.

The temple is situated on Urvashi peetam between Nara and Narayanan mountains on the banks of River Alakananda.

The temple is open during April-October (starting from Akshaya thrithiyai and closed during Deepavali) and is closed during peak winter. Ganesh Gufa, Vyas Gufa, Mata murthi temple, Vasudhaara Falls, Satopanth,Bhim pool, origin of River Saraswathi are near Badrinath.

There are jeeps and cars plying from Badrinath temple to visit the above places which are situated in Mana village-the last village on Indo-China Border. It takes 3 hours to and fro to visit Mana village. There is a Mata Murthi temple is on the way to Mana village.

As per legend, Dharma and Murthi were the parents of Naran and Narayanan (who were the incarnations of Lord Vishnu).

They transformed themselves into mountains to avoid distraction. To fulfill the desire of HIS mother Mata Murthi, once in a year, the Lord visits this temple. Uddhavar who is considered as the utsava murthi in the temple is brought to this place with paraphernalia.

The famous Vyas Gufa is the place where Sage Vyasar compiled the four Vedas, recited Mahabharatam while Yaanai Mugathaan(Lord Ganesha) penned the same while the former dictated. Ganesh Gufa is beside Vyas Gufa. Nearby, we can find the origin of River Saraswathi who flows as Antharvahini till she reaches Triveni Sangamam. River Saraswathi darshanam can be had here only .

There is a small temple dedicated to the River Goddess. The flow with which she appears on this earth in inexplicable.

Near to Badrinath temple , Bheem Phool and Satopanth are places associated with Pandavas . Pandukeshwar,also known as Yogdhyan Badri is on the way to Badrinath is the birth place of Pandavas. Vyas Gufa and Ganesh Gufa are related to Mahabharatam. Pandavas along with Draupadi on their way to Swargam (satopanth) reached this place and when Draupadi could not cross River Saraswathi, Bheem is belived to have thrown a boulder across the river to enable her to cross over.

This is Bheem pool. This is located on the way to Satopanth- Draupadi,Sahadeva,Nakula, Arjuna, Bheema left their bodies on the way whereas Dharmaraja Yudhistira was able to go to Swargam from Satopanth. VAsudhaara Falls is about 3-4 kms from Mana village on a higher altitude. Villagers believe that if a drop of water falls on us, we get redeemed from all our sins. It will take about 4-5 hours to go to Vasudhaara Falls and return to Mana village due to the altitude and climatic conditions.

To visit Vasudhaara Falls, we must allocate one full day.WE planned to visit Vasudhaara Falls from Badri but due to time constraint,we couldn’t visit. But the ever merciful compassionate Perumal blessed us by giving HIS darshan in the evening and to watch (Abhisheka seva) Thirumanjana seva.

Our pilgrimage  lasted for  about  five  days

First day :- Entire day driving from Haridwar to Joshirmutt-Night stay at Joshirmutt

Second day :- Entire day at BAdrinath

Third day – Visited Badri Vishal, Yogadhyan Badri, Vridha Badri,Dhyan Badri, Narasing Badri, Vishnu Prayag-Temples

Fourth day :- Visited Bhavishya Badri, Karna Prayag Temples-night stay at Karna Prayag

Fifth day – Visited Adi Badri, Nand Prayag, Dev Prayag  temples and reached Haridwar –

INTRODUCTION

We had darshan of Sri Bhadri Narayana Perumal during 2003 but were not conversant with the other temples . The travel details was done in pdf format for piligrims convenience and is available in the below link

http://www.srivaishnavam.com/divyadesam108/badri_trip.pdf

TRAVEL DETAILS

We boarded the evening flight to New Delhi and reached Delhi at 10 P.M. The flight was delayed by half an hour. From airport, we took a Metro to New Delhi railway station to board Dehradun AC train at 2355 hours. Reached Haridwar at 4 .M. Our cab driver , Narendra was waiting to pick us up at Haridwar station.

 We had already booked a cab and fixed the tour plan. We drove to ISKCON, Haridwar where we had actually planned to check in and then go to Hari Ki Pauri for purification .  Being a small ashram and as there was no response from ISKCON, we straightaway drove to Hari KI Pauri which was already crowded.. After purification and cow_puja, we drove to Rishikesh as we wanted to have darshan of Lord Venkateswara Swamy before proceeding further.

Wayback in 2003, only after praying to Lord Srinivasar, we could get bus tickets to go to Badrinath and on our return, we stayed at Andhra Bhavan for 2 days and participated in all the sevas. So, this time also we wanted to take the Lord’s darshan. Reached the temple at about 9 A.M., performed archanai and paid for the next day’s abhishekam to the Lord. On the way, we stopped at Lakshman Jhoola to take printouts of our accommodation and for recharging Airtel mobile as BSNL network connectivity was poor.

Hari Naam sankirtan was continuously played in the car all through our journey. Chanting the holy names of the Lord and contemplating on the Lord while admiring the nature’s beauty-the tall peaks covered with thick trees trying to touch the sky and the gentle flowing Alakananda on the other side as if guiding us to her place of origin…. I wish I were a poet to describe the scenic beauty.

WE were happy to note the developments in this lORD’s holy land –construction of Hydel Power projects, dams etc….We learnt from our driver that only experienced and specially qualified persons to drive in the ghat region would be permitted to drive and they are strictly supposed to wear uniform and carry their permit with them always.

After driving for about 2 hours , we reached Dev Prayag about 70 kms away from Rishikesh located at an altitude of 618 m at mid-noon. As the temple would be closed, we proceeded to Rudra Prayag which is about 2 hours drive from Dev Prayag, stopping for a while at Srinagar to fuel our car. GHMVNL has guest houses at all important places.

We had to turn on the AC becoz we couldn’t withstand the sweltering heat . We thought the drive would be pleasant as we were in Himalayas but it turned out to be otherwise. Added to this, construction work was going on all through the way and so there was pollution. Enroute we halted for a while at Rudra Prayag to have lunch and then proceeded with our journey. Reached Joshirmutt and checked in at GMVNL Guest House located in Main Bazaar at about 6.30 p.m..From Rishikesh upto Rudra Prayag , the route to chardham is the same .

The route to Badrinath diverges at Rudra Prayag. Joshirmutt always has floating population of pilgrims and mostly pilgrims halt at this place. So, we can find innumerable lodges in this congested area . As we had prior booking, we checked into this guest house where we were allotted a compact deluxe room which had no ventilation and fan.

WE wanted to have a bigger and better room but as the rooms were not available, we had no option and retired for the night. Joshirmutt is basically a cold place and the rooms are constructed in such a way out of wood with limited or no ventilation so that the room is kept warm. There is no provision for ceiling fans as there is no requirement. The room rates are high during the peak season depending upon the demand. The minimum rent is about Rs.1000/-per day. We can find the room tariffs displayed in the reception mentioning the room rents during various seasons. We practically experienced the impact of global warming. We didn’t have any choice other than having dinner in the restaurant itself. On 15th June, we started our journey to Badrinath at 7 A.M . Had to wait for sometime for the gates to open . Reached Badrinath via Pandukeshwar , Deva Darshani. The snow clad mountains were shining when the sun rays touched them which is a feast to the eyes. We went to Chinna Jeeyar Swami Mutt which is near Ambani’s guest house where we were allotted 2 rooms for Rs.450/- each.

We met Sridhar Swami who was referred by our friend and expressed our desire to go to Vasudhaara Falls after having darshan of Lord Badrinath. Sridhar Swami informed that it would take minimum 2 hours to have darshan in the temple due to heavy crowd and it would not be possible for us to go to Vasudhaara Falls which is 4 kms beyond Mana Village as the weather there was unpredictable and it would get dark by 5 P.M.

He said that it would take one full day to go to Vasudhaara Falls and return. So, we dropped the idea of going to Vasudhaara Falls with a heavy heart thinking that he was trying to demotivate us.

With a set of clothes for changeover, we left the Mutt at about 11 A.M. and went to Tapta KUnd in our vehicle to have bath. It is customary to purify ourselves in the hot springs of Tapta Kund before getting inside the temple for darshan. There are separate bathing places for ladies and gents and separate rooms but the entire place was over crowded. Seeing the crowd, we felt as if we were in Tirumala during Brahmotsavam!. We were shocked to see serpentine queue for darshan. While adiyen went to buy some seva ticket, my daughters joined the queue. WE learnt from the authorities that during day time, there is no special ticket and darshan is common for everyone and that the temple would close by 12.30 and everyone would get a chance to take darshan of the Lord. We joined the queue and finally had darshan of Lord Badrinarayanan for few minutes who was beautifully decorated with flowers. One of the pujaris looking at the tilak on adiyen’s daughter’s forehead, allowed her inside for darshan. How fortunate!!!

While we were reciting Sahasranamam, a saintly person whose dressing resembled that of Jada Bharathan(he had jadai and was wearing soiled clothes but his face was glowing ) approached us and advised us to have the Maha Prashadam which would be distributed shortly. WE purchased 2 paper plates for Rs.2/-each and joined the queue . We realized the Lord’s ever compassionate quality when we ,the most fallen souls, were given the mahaprasadam comprising of rice, dal , curry.

With tear filled eyes, all five of us partook the prasadam. Adiyen approached the nearby counter where tickets were being issued for special sevas. Tickets for Gita Paat and Nirmalaya darshan were already sold out but only one ticket for Abhishekam for next day morning was available. We booked abhishekam ticket for next day morning seva in which 2 persons are allowed and Sahasranama Archanai Seva for children in the evening. Went back to Chinna Jeeyar Mutt at 2 p.m. and had prasadam. The reporting time for Sahasranama archanai seva was 5 p.m. and hence we didn’t visit Mana Village Instead , we Went to the temple at 5 P.M. for darshan.

There were long queues for various sevas to be conducted in the evening. While our children joined the queue, aidyongal sat in front of the utsavar sannidhi and took a sankalpam to recite Vishnu Sahasranamam atleast 11 times. The utsava murthi who is a replica of the moolavar is made of silver with chatur bhujam. The temple management has recently constructed a separate sannidhi for the utsava murthi within the temple precincts . The new clothes given by devotees to the diety as part of their offering are hung in the sannidhi. Hardly we completed 6 rounds, a group of ISKCON devotees from Delhi entered the temple singing Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. The electrifying kirtan went on for about one hour while everyone present was dancing and chanting in ecstasy the holy names of the Lord . We profusely thanked Perumal for this association to chant the holy names at the holiest place on the holiest day,Ekadasi. After making few purchases, we retired for the night.

On 16th June, at 2 A.M. adiyongal went to Tapta Kund and entered the temple for participating in Thirumanjana seva . The reporting time for the seva is 4 a.m. and we joined the organized queue.

As per the ticket number printed, the incharge allowed us to enter into the temple. The darsana mantapam was jam packed with devotees and we didn’t even get place to sit. After the devotees settled down, adiyen somehow managed to squeeze through and got place to sit right in the centre while my wife was comfortable standing and having darshan of the Lordships. WE felt blessed to be in one of the eight swayam vyakta kshetrams (where the Lord’s image is not sculpted by anyone but Lord out of HIS free WILL manifested in this place) Perumal appeared in this place in Padmasanam posture with chatur bhujam- the two lower hands resting on HIS lap and the remaining 2 hands holding sankhu and chakram. And as he was in meditation, the ever inseparable Thayar (Agalagillene Irayium Endru…) appeared as a badri vruksham to protect Perumal from the harsh weather. Hence, Perumal is known as Badri Narayanan.

Lord descended from Sri Vaikuntam to the bhooloka to give mantropadesam to naran(human) at this place. Shiva who was meditating at this place moved to Kedarnath. Lord bestowed a boon upon him that a devotee visiting this place must first have darshan of Siva and then take HIS darshan. Hence , we find a small Siva lingam in front of the temple. This idol of Badri Narayanan was recovered by Adi Sankaracharyar in 8th century from Tapta Kund and was duly installed by him. Also, there is a sannidhi for Adi Sankaracharyar as he retrieved the vigraham.

Before entering the temple, we visited these shrines . Vaikuntanathan resolved to preach the sacred Ashtakshari Thirumantiram to the mortals (Naran) and appeared as Naran and Narayanan- the sons of Dharma Devathai(Yaman) and his wife (Murthi). As they didn’t want to get disturbed and distracted by anyone , they assumed the form of 2 mountains and meditated on the banks of River Alakananda. Indra tried to disturb the penance and sent apsaras from Devalokam little realizing that Perumal is beyond all such illusion. Out of Perumal’s will, a beautiful lady emerged from HIS thigh who surpassed everyone’s beauty and presented her to Indra. As the damsel appeared from Perumal’s thigh, she was known as Urvashi and the place where Perumal meditated is known as “Urvashi Peetam” on which the present day temple is existing .

AS Lord Krishna mentioned in Bhagavad Gita, Lord Narayanan imparted the sacred Tirumantram to Naran at this place. Hence this place is renowned as Ashtakshari kshetram and chanting of the mantram give thousand fold benefit. Contemplating on the Lord and reciting Tirumantram, we waited in the queue until we were ushered in by the authorities. There are about 15 deities inside the garbagriham. All through the day, the beauty of the Lord is hidden as HE is fully bedecked with jewellery and flowers . Only during Nirmalya darsanam and during Thirumanjanam , the Lord’s pristine beauty can be enjoyed. During Nirmalaya darsanam which is the last seva in the night, jewellery is removed and Lord is adorned with fresh chandan and flowers. During thirumanjanam, even those are removed and the dhivya mangala swaroopam of Perumal can be enjoyed. Devotees throng to have these darshans.

 At the Centre we can have darshan of  Lord Badri Narayanan in meditative posture. As HE is a tapasvi, Thayar is not physically present but is present as Badri Vruksham which cannot be perceived by mortal eyes  On    HIS right, we  have darshan of  Garudar-  Kuberan on HIS right – the demigod incharge of wealth. Kubera’s capital is Alakapuri which is beyond Badrinath. The materialists usually place few coins in front of Kubera and bring them back for worship. He is predominant amongst others as he is decorated in silver.ON the left side in the front, we can have darisanam of Uddhavar who is treated as Utsava murthi in this temple.

He is taken in palanquin to Maata Murthi temple once in a year as Perumal’s representative. In Srimad Bhagavatam, it is mentioned that Lord Krishna instructs Uddhavar to go to Gandhana madhana parvatam (the present Badri Kshetram) and do penance.On the left side, behind Uddhavar , we have Deva rishi Naradar ‘sidol who appeared in the nearby Narada Kund. It is believed that Sage Naradar eternally lives in this place always contemplating on the Lord.Nara- Narayanan –becoz of whom this place became sacred. Lord Narayanan gives darshan with naachiyars- Sridevi, Bhudevi,Niladevi, The deva loka damsel Urvashi who appeared from Lord Narayanan’s thigh is beside Niladevi.

Rewal, the celibate  Keralite Namboodri head priest  is the only person who is allowed inside the garbagriham. (He is like Ekaangi in Tirumala , the bachelor who alone is allowed to touch the divine Thirumeni of Perumal). The Rewal draped in a dhoti and black long thick Kurta and with his mouth covered with a cloth is the only eligible person to touch the divine idol of the Lord.

He removed carefully the flowers from the Lord’s thirumeni and carefully removed the chandana kaapu from the Lord’s thirumeni and gave it to his assistant. We were fortunate to get some chandan from him. Thirumanjanam to the swayambhu Perumal and HIS associates started amidst chanting of Pancha Suktham by the pundits who were sitting on either sides near the entrance on an elevated seat .

The Rewal , ( priest) who was now playing the role of an affectionate mother Yasodha, gently anointed Til oil to the divya Thirumeni of Perumal and others. Later holy water was poured through sankhu followed by milk ,curd, honey . The dhivya mangala swaroopam of Perumal can be clearly seen doing milk thirumanjanam. Adiyongal recited softly Neeratam pasurams after the priests completed Pancha Suktam recitation .The REwal gently pressed a silk cloth to wipe the Lordships. During alankaram, the priests recited Vishnu Sahasranamam while the Rewal applied sandal oil to the Tirumeni of the Lord and dressed them in new silk clothes. Within no time, the Lord was beautifully bedecked with fine jewellery. The Lord was smeared with chandana kaapu and decorated with flowers. All this is done in the devotees presence .

The holy water was later distributed to the assembled devotees and a small prasadam pack comprising of few sweets, tulasi , chandan etc were given to the participants. The entire process takes about 60-90 minutes. While doing pradakshinam, we purchased a small bottle of holy water for Rs.20/- which is being sold inside the temple . We Came back to Chinna Jeeyar Mutt and after honouring prashadam, left the holy abode with an intense desire to revisit the dhaam in the near future. Sridhar Swamy was very kind to pack lunch for us. Left Badri Vishal at about 8A.M. and drove to Pandukeshwar which is 20 kms away from Badrinath on the way to Joshirmutt. Yogadhyan Badri –one of the Sapta Badri Kshetrams is located in Pandukeshwar at an altitude of 1829 mtrs. .

To reach the temple, we need to get down off the main road , and climb down the steps to reach the temple. This is the place where King Pandu along with his wives,Kunti and Madri did penance and is the birthplace of Pandavas. Pandu who was cursed attained salvation here and after Mahabharata war, the Pandavas after handing over their kingdom to Parishit ,did penance at this place to atone for their sins. This temple was constructed by Pandavas. In the sanctum sanctorum, Lord Lakshmi Narayanan is in the centre with Sridevi towards HIS right and Bhudevi on the left. To the left of Bhudevi is Madri’s idol. We were told that there is a Shiva linga worshipped by Pandu beneath inside the garbagriham.

From there, we visited Vishnu Prayag- the confluence of Alakananda and Dhauli Ganga.

This is on Badrinath-Joshirmutt route in Chamoli district at an altitude of 1372 mtrs. As per legend, Sage Narada did penance and Lord appeared at this place. After having darshan of Lord Vishnu, Goddess Mahalakshmi and Kubera who is on the left side of Perumal , we went down few steep steps to the actual place of confluence to collect the holy water but in vain as the force was more.

Driving past Joshirmutt, on the Joshirmutt –Rishikesh Road, between Joshirmutt and Helang near Pipalkote , we reached Animath village which is about 7 kms from Joshirmutt to visit Vridha Badri at an altitude of 1380 mtrs.. This is on the way to Urgam, our next destination. We had to trek down few steep steps and occasionally climb and get down to reach Vridha Badri.

It takes about 15-20 minutes to walk down from the main road. This temple is neatly maintained surrounded by beautiful garden tended with great care by the priest family. We could see a wide range of beautiful flowers which are used for worshipping the Lord. Lord Vishnu appeared to Sage Narada as an old man and hence this place is known as Vridha Badri. We offered dry fruits to the Lord and the pujari honoured us with tulasi leaves . The serenity induces everyone to meditate on the Lord calmly without any distraction. Here Lord Badrinarayanan is alone in standing posture holding Sankhu, Chakra,Gada Padmam .

We proceeded to Helang and from there drove to Urgam village at an altitude of 2135 mtrs. The roads on the regular route from Rishikesh to Badrinath via Dev Prayag, Srinagar,Chamoli, Joshirmutt are broad, well maintained and secure but the roads on the other parts are not yet developed to that extent. This can be seen while going to Dhyan Badri. One needs to take a diversion from Joshirmutt-Rishikesh road to visit Dhyan  Badri.

Here the muddy ghat roads pose threat and driving is challenging due to unleveled roads and obstructions caused due to landslides like boulders on the sides. There are no “taar roads” and a strong wind is enough to engulf the glass with dust and thus obstruct our view fully. The roads get blocked due to the debris caused by landslides which are not immediately attended to by BSFs as there is not much traffic. Occasionally, jeeps and local buses ply from this village to Joshirmutt and nearby villages .Like in Nepal, these buses are over packed with people literally sitting on the bus.

The bus tilts towards one side unable to bear the weight. From Urgam , we can visit Dhyan Badri , ARdha Badri which is about 2 kms from Dhyan Badri and beyond 5 kms is Kalpeshwar-one of the Pancha Kedar temples. The drive was really challenging . Our hearts nearly skipped a beat when our driver had to put a sudden break while turning. A chill ran through my spine when the driver pointed to a six seater white car which had a fatal end just recently claiming lives of 5 people. The Lord’s holy names were constantly on our lips which eased out our tension .

We reached Urgam at about 1 P.M. We relaxed in a nearby tea stall . The inmates made some hot rotis for us to have along with puihora prasadam given by Sridhar Swamy, At about 2 P.M., started walking down amidst green fields for about 15 to 20 minutes to reach Dhyan Badri temple which is about 1-1.5 kms from Urgam. The stony path is well laid though it is narrow.

Watching the green fields surrounded by peaked mountains, we reached the temple which was closed. There is a very small pond inside the temple compound which reminded us of the holy Saligramam pond near Melkote which was sanctified by our Acharyar.

  A teenage boy who happens to be the pujari’s son opened the temple doors to enable us to have darshanam.

The garbagriham houses the main diety of Lord Narayanan in sitting posture in the centre. There are also vigrahams of Lakshmi Narayanan, Kubera and Siva lingam. Beneath we can find small idols of Lord Ranganatha with Sridevi and Bhudevi. Perumal appeared to Shiva who was meditating at this place. Perumal also did penance (dhyan) at this place before manifesting HIMSELF at Badri Vishal. Hence, this place is known as Dhyan Badri.

On enquiry, we learnt that Ardha Badri is a small temple which would be closed for darshan now and hence we returned to Urgam. As we were tired, we didn’t visit Kalpeshwar. WE came back to Urgam and drove back to Joshirmutt and reached the temple at 5 P.M. Joshirmutt is considered as one of the 108 divya desams , known as” Thirupiridhi”. Some count this as one of the sapta badri Kshetrams instead of Ardha Badri where there is only half figure ). Whatever it is , we wanted to have Lord Narasimhar’s darsanam .

Fortunately, the temple was open and the priest offered our dry fruits to Perumal. Here, Lord Narasimhar is in sitting posture and it is believed that when HIS left wrist wanes , the Badri temple would be permanently closed for darshan and Lord would manifest HIMSELF at Bhavishya Badri near Joshirmutt in near future. There are various idols in the sanctum.

From right, we can find Chamundi,Kubera,Udhavar, Badri Narayanana, Narasimhar in the centre, on the left is Garudar, Lakshmana, Rama , Sita . Lakshmana and Goddess Sita are in white whereas the thirumeni of Lord Rama is in black(shyamaa sundaran). The utsava murthi is Narasimhar Hanumar. During winter, when the main shrine at Badri Vishal remains closed for 6 months, the utsava murthi is brought down to this temple. This temple remains open all through the year. We then visited Vasudevar sannidhi who is believed to be the divya desa Perumal. Lord Vasudevar is in Nindra Thirukolam (Standing posture) holding Lotus and Gadam in HIS upper right and left hands and sankhu and chakram in HIS lower hands. There are also sannidhis for Sankarshana, Shiva, asthabhuja Ganesh, Kali and Bharivan around the temple. We were happy to note that one of the pasurams from naalayira divya prabhandham about this divya desam is written in Tamil and hung at the temple entrance. While we were coming out, we happened to have darshan of one of the Shankaracharyars appointed by Adi Sankaracharyar to take care of these temples. WE checked into GMVNL guest house at Main Bazar and fortunately this time we were provided a better accommodation. Thanking Perumal for allowing us to have HIS darshan at 5 places in Badri kshetram, we retired for the night. ON 17th we checked out by 7 .A.M. and drove to Saldhar which is about 19 kms from Joshirmutt. The weather was pleasant and chilly and we were reminded of Tirumala ghat road.. We saw an arc mentioned as Tapovan. This is a serene place for meditation. Driving ahead, we reached the starting point of our trekking. Bhavishya Badri is located in Subhain village and one has to trek the hill for 6 kms in a lonely path . We just found a small arch mentioning Bhavishya Badri.

BHAVISHYA BADRI ENTRANCE

We five of us were in a lonely place. Initially there were few steep steps laid as a pathway for about a kilometer. Singing Annamacharyar keerthanas and chanting the Tirumantram, we prayed God for HIS darshan in this lonely place and started trekking. There are no sign boards, no indication about the route . The Lord seated as Antharyaami was guiding us..

We didn’t even know whether the route taken by us was right or not. We were enthralled to see a villager from whom we enquired about the route. Felt happy to note that we were on the correct path and as per his directions, we continued our way. Beyond the first settlement, there is no pathway at all. There was greenery everywhere and the different varieties of wild flowers which had blossomed were so colourful and pleasing to our eyes impelling the children to burst into some song. WE could see chameleons, colourful butterflies, squirrels , forest ants and humming sound of bees from far. However, we realized that the forest shrubs and plants which were growing on either sides of this so called tiny footpath was hostile. The leaves were sharp and accidentally if our hands touched the leaves, that part in our hand which came in contact with the leaf would get swollen immediately. WE had to be cautious while trodding the path so as to avoid stamping on some forest snail/snake/ant etc. The path is slippery and my daughter who made a wrong choice of wearing heels had to remove her slippers and walk bare footed all through the way. Of course all these didn’t matter because we were focused on our destination. Once in a while, when we came across some passerby , we used to take directions from him and proceed on our adventurous trip. As we are not used to altitudes, we treaded slowly taking occasional rests . Somehow we were all energetic singing the glories of the Lord and enjoying nature’s beauty. In lighter moments, cracking jokes on each other once in a while to ease out the stress, we kept on ascending the hill. While trekking so, we suddenly got confused as the so called footpath was leading to two ways and we didn’t know which one to take. My niece found a Lays wrapper and suggested that the path would be inhabited. Children were enjoying the adventure guessing the route,pulling each other….It was a real holiday for them. We were imagining as to how Thirumangai Azhwar would have reached Badri Vishal which would have been unexplored like this at that time. There was no one to enquire and we were getting nervous as to whether the path taken by us was right or not. After walking for about half an hour, we met a lady who said that the route taken by us was wrong and she volunterred to take us to the correct path. We felt that it was God in disguise who appeared to help us out. We were once again left to ourselves and continued with our journey. After trekking for about 2 hours, we were exhausted and were searching for a place to relax. Luckily, we found a shop on the way . As we wished to remain light while trekking, we didn’t have breakfast and now the children badly needed something to re-energise themselves. The shop provided all sorts of snacks, cool drinks , medicines, water etc.

After replenishing ourselves, we continued onwards our 2 kms trek journey. This particular settlement was much better compared to other isolated places. We continued trekking and once again left with no one around. WE could not locate any path way and didn’t know which side to take-left or right!! WE took the wrong path and after some time, we saw a person down the hill and screamed for help. He informed that he is the temple priest and he was also going to Bhavishya Badri. Our joy knew no bounds. He accompanied us for some time, and as we couldn’t cope up with his lightning speed, he gave us directions and left. He said that the temple was only one km away . WE were now on a bigger plain surface. Surrounded by snow clad high mountain peaks on all sides, sun rays falling through the tall eucalyptus trees and gentle breeze full of medicinal properties accompanied by Dhauli Ganga flowing as a small stream , green vegetation in the surrounding places and the sound of cuckoos as if welcoming us , we were in ecstasy looking at the marvelous creation of the Lord. We have seen this in movies but now we are here experiencing them with our own eyes but for deers and peacocks.

Even after trekking for hours, we were still energetic and bubbling with joy as we were near to our destination. Two local women farmers were passing by us suggested us to taste the crystal clear cold water from the Dhauli Ganga stream. Pure unadultered tasty water was like nectar. They accompanied us to the temple. We reached the temple past noon.

AS the pujari met us on the way, he was waiting for us.

All of us had very good darshan of the Lord. The pujari explained to us that 10 years ago, there was only a sketch mark on the rock but now we can see the Lord’s figure emerging out of the cave.

The Lord is in the form of Narasimha bhagavan. The pujari pointed us to the various features in the half emerged idol attributing its form to that of Lord Narasimha. How fortunate and blessed we are to have Lord Narasimhar as Bhavishya Badri Narayanan. In the present Badri Vishal, the Lord is in the form of Narayanan whereas here HE is going to assume the form of Bhakthavatsalan, Lord Narasimhar whose avataram is for the sake of devotee. JAI NARASING DEV!! WE offered our dry fruits to the deities and did kirtan for about half an hour.

ADIYEN& FAMILY PERFORMING KIRTAN AT BHAVISHYA BHADRI TEMPLE

 A mahamantra sticker is at the entrance which was pasted by ISKCON PAADAYATRA troup who visited this temple some time ago. WE were imagining that when Thirumangai Azhwar visited Badri Vishal few thousands of years ago, that place would have been similar to this one now.

After spending about an hour, we started our return journey which as per the locals would take half the time, but for us it took almost 3 hours to return. WE came down at about 5 P.M. and proceeded to Karna Prayag which is about 3 hours from Saldhar at an elevation of 1450 mtrs.. Checked into GMVNL guest house located near the confluence itself and retired for the night. Excellent room . This was the best guest house where we stayed in our trip. On 18th morning, after witnessing the confluence of River Alakananda with Pindar river , proceeded to Adi Badri which is about 19 kms from Karna Prayag and takes about one hour drive. Adi Badri is not on Rishikesh-Badri route , one needs to visit Adi Badri via Karna Prayag. Adi Badri is the oldest temple comprising of 16 temples . While Adi Sankaracharyar was residing in Himalayas ,somewhere near Karna Prayag, the Lord appeared in his dream and told him about HIS whereabouts and ordered him to construct a temple for him. The place where the Lord appeared to Adi Sankaracharyar is presently known as Adi Badri and is considered as one of the Sapta Badri Kshetrams.

Adi Sankaracharyar spread Hinduism from this place and built a temple. Out of the cluster of 16 temples, many were built under the guidance of Sankaracharyar and about 5 temple were built later during Gupta era. In the olden days, when approach to Badri Vishal was tough, people worshipped Lord Vishnu here. It is believed that in future when Badri Vishal becomes inaccessible and Lord manifests in Bhavishya Badri, Bhavishya Badri would be known as Badri, Badri Vishal would be known as Adi Badri and the present Adi Badri would be known as Yog Badri. The temple is on the main road itself and it is easily approachable. All the temples look similar.

From there, we drove to Dev Prayag and reached the place at about 5 P.M.

We visited Raghunathji temple at Dev Prayag which is one of the 108 divya desams. While ascending the 100+ steps, we recollected our earlier visit to this kshetram along with my father and shared the Lord’s pastimes. Had darshanam of the mantapam where the utsava murthis are placed for public darshan, the banyan tree which is considered to be the one not affected by Pralayam and after thanking Perumal for enabling us to visit Saptha Badri kshetrams , especially Bhavishya Badri , we left the place. The confluence of Alakananda with Bhagirathi at Dev Prayag is eye captivating.

Reached Haridwar at 10 P.M., and after settling the accounts with the car driver, we had our dinner in a nearby Jain hotel and were waiting for our train recollecting our trip to the holy abodes. It was like a dream come true. Boarded Dehradun-New Delhi AC train in the wee hours 0040 hours which was supposed to reach New Delhi at 5 A.M. and take the onward flight to Srinagar at 9 A.M. and return back to Delhi by 3P.M. flight and take the connecting flight to Hyderabad at 7 p.m. Due to technical snag in the train, it was delayed by almost 3.5 hours. WE landed in New Delhi railway station at 08.30 a.m. and rushed to the nearby Metro station to take the train to airport. Reached airport at 9 a.m. and by the time the formalities were completed, we missed the flight . As we availed LTC, it was mandatory to produce Delhi-Srinagar-Delhi boarding passes and hence we had to be in Srinagar at any cost. WE were left with no other option than cancelling this ticket and book in the next flight. The scheduled departure of AI flight was at 11 hours and it takes about 2 hours to reach Srinagar. As we had a breather of an extra hour, we booked the tickets. To add to our dismay, this flight got delayed by 2 hours and now we were really perplexed because if we miss the Delhi bound Srinagar flight at 1500 hours which was the last one, we would miss our connecting flight to Hyderabad!!. Tickets were not available for the next 4-5 days as it was end of LTC season..!!The authorities were surprised to note that we wished to return on the same day without visiting Srinagar. Had to inform that we had visited Kashmir earlier and as there was an emergency, we were constrained to leave on the same day. They informed that it would not be possible for us to take the 3p.m. flight as the formalities would not get completed. I literally pleaded with the top most authority to help me out . He was kind enough to issue a Delhi Boarding pass (which would be issued at Srinagar) from Delhi itself which is against rules using his power. Thanked him for his gesture. Reached Srinagar at 3 p.m. . The scheduled departure of the 3’o clock flight was delayed by half and hour because the same flight returns.

Within this 30 minutes, we had to compulsorily go through all the formalities (especially in Srinagar, there is strict security norms which cannot be skipped)-we had to come out and again get into the airport. We were stopped at the entrance because the time was up and were informed that the time for taking boarding pass was over. When we produced the Boarding Pass, the authorities were surprised and doubted us. Meanwhile,we could hear our names being announced to board the flight as it was about to depart… We were quickly frisked by the authorities and our luggages were put in a hand driven trolley . An official took me aside to enquire as to who issued the boarding pass which was against the rules and I had to request him that due to an emergency , I had to rush back while my perplexed wife was eagerly waiting to join me. The flight didn’t take off for 20 minutes until we boarded it. We safely reached Delhi by 5.30 p.m. and boarded the Hyderabad bound flight at 7 p.m. without any hurdles. Reached our home Thiruvengadam at midnight and the first thing what we did was to open the altar and fall at Divya Dampadhigal and Acharyars’feet for making this possible.

JAI JAI SHRI BADRI VISHAL

Please check all the clips for a clear darshanam of the holy dhaam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan

 Today 06.05.2020  is  the most auspicious day as is the

Appearance day of  Madhurakavi Azhwar …………………..

Swamy Ananthazhwan …………………

and  Acharyar Nadadoor Ammal

Let us recollect their  devotion to Acharyar  and the great Lordships on this wonderful day .

                Acharyar Varadaguru   the  great  Acharya had the deepest bhakti to Lord Varadaraja of Kanchipuram   One night when he was serving  ” LORD”  in an ecstatic mood, the priest brought very hot milk to the Lord as offering .

 Acharyar Varadaguru was deeply distressed that such hot milk would burn the tender tongue of the Lord! He stopped the priest from offering the hot milk and began cooling it down until it was warms enough to be offered.

The Lord himself was moved by the Vatsalya bhava of Varadaguru  and called him ‘Amma’ – my mother!

 From then onwards Varadaguru became Nadadoor Ammal.  

 After this episode, in a dream one night, Lord Varadaraja commanded Ammal to erect a Mantapam for His Vasantotsavam.

Accordingly Ammal fulfilled the Lord’s desire, just as a mother would fulfill the wishes of her son in spite of difficulties.

Another glorious pastime remains to be cherished .

Once Ammal and his disciples undertook a pilgrimage to Tirumalai hills.

The  graceful personality and humility  of Acharyar attracted the people there..

A Chieftain Kandavaran was the leader of that Lada  race .

He was annoyed and irritated to see the crowd falling the the feet of Acharyar.   

He decided to disturb them.

With his mantric power he made the disciples unconscious.

Ammal meditated and chanted the Sudarsana maha mantra  and his own composition ‘Hetipungavastotram’ and broke the spell.

 The angry Kandavaran called Ammal for a debate and when defeated surrendered to the Acharya himself.

The benevolent guru not only excused him but also made him a Srivaishnava by offering him Panchasamskaras.

With the money offered by Kandavaran, Ammal established a beautiful village and named it ‘Ladagraharam’ and continued his journey.  

On the way, the Lord himself came as a young brahmachari and appeased the hunger of the pilgrims with curd and rice.

At the same time, there was a big commotion in the temple as the silver vessel with the naivedyam had suddenly disappeared.

 Lord Venkateswara Himself announced to the temple authorities that He Himself fed his dear Ammal and his disciples and that they should receive Ammal with all temple honours who will be arriving shortly . 

Swami Engalazhwan was  Acharya of Nadathur Ammal ,  who was the direct disciple  of Thirukkurukaippiran Pillan . All glories to our Acharyar

Acharya Nadadoor Thiruvadigale sharanam

Let us cherish the great devotee and most revered disciple of                                     Swamy Ramanuja ………………….

Ananthazhwan vaibhavam now 

The sacred TIRUMALA Hills consisting of seven peaks is considered to be seven-hooded. Blessed are the devotees who are fortunate to have his darshan .

There are countless devotees who have served the LORD since ages .

One such great devotee was Swamy Ananthazhwan an ardent disciple of Swamy Ramanuja .

As per Swamy Ramanuja’s directives he served the LORD few hundred years ago .There are several pastimes of Swamy Anathazhwan with Lord Srinivasa .

One divine pastime is memorable as Lord himself accepts to become Swamy Anathazhwans disciple .

      Knowing about the initiatives taken by Swamy Anathazhwan in organising the temple rituals with religious fervor few devotees decided to trek the hills and have darshanam of Lord and seek the blessings of his dear devotee too .

The  Srivaishnavites were walking from Srirangam and it was a very long journey . While  ascending the Hills, coming from they were feeling tired and had to take some rest .

Completely exhausted  they were perplexed how could they complete their pilgrimage. All of a sudden a young lad  appeared before them .

The boy was appearing with divine tejas .

With  srivaishna Urdhva pundram he was almost looking like vamana avatara  brahmachari .