divya dEsam support - thirumeyyam

From the Bhakti List Archives

• July 13, 2000


srImathE saTakOpAya namaha
srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha
srImathE anantArya mahA guravE namaha
srIman vara vara munayE namaha

July 13, 2000
vikrama, Ani, kEttai.

dear bhAgavathAs,

for the divya dEsam support project, adiyEn had committed to write
about the divya dEsams in the list. The following is a brief write 
up on thirumeyyam.

{Note: Most of the details are from the book "108 vaiNava divya dEsa
varalaaRU published bu srI vaiNava sidhdhAntha nUl padhipu kazhagam".
Any pAsuram paraphrasing/rough translation is adiyEn English rendering
of srI. prativAdi bayankaram aNNangarAchAriAr svAmi's divyArtha 
dIpikai - mostly the padavurais - Needless to say, any mistake in this
posting is adiyEn's and adiyEn's alone}

divya dEsam: thirumeyyam
mUlavar: satyagirinAthan, sathyamUrthi - east facing, standing
 	 also, paLLikoNda perumAL  - reclining posture
thAyAr : ujjeevana thAyAr, uyya vandha nAchiyAR
AzhvAr mangaLAsAsanam - thirumangai AzhvAr - 9 pAsurams
location: tamizhnAdu, about an hour from pudukkOttai, 
          on the way to kAraikkudi

*adiyEn's note* - This temple is in a very good shape as far as the
structure goes - a samprOkshaNam was performed recently. A big temple 
There are very few sEvArthis - day to day perumAL ArAdhanai is very 
very difficult. Some utsavams take place.kAri mAran kalaik kaapagam 
trust performs pavitra utsavam every year. This temple is part of 
the pudukkOttai district hindu temple board. very little support from 
the government for this temple since this temple is not in a major 
town like pudukOttai. permanant archakar exists, but adiyEn learnt
that he had not been paid even the regular measly govt. amount in 
quite a while.


sthala purANams:

brahmANda purANam has a lot of details about this sthalam. It has
10 chapters dedicated to this sthalam. In this sthalam, AdisEshan,
chandran and satya maharishi performed penance to perumAL.

AdisEshan:
AdisEsha, at one time, wanted to get satva guNa alone so that he
can perform pure kainkaryam to perumAL and he requested  perumAL for
the same. perumAL directed him to peform penance towards him and
obtain what he wanted. AdisEsha came out from the earth in the form
of a snake with 5 heads. The groove created by AdisEsha became
sarpa nadhi (currently called pAmbAru, in tamizh), and the location
where he came out of became satya vrata kshEtram. AdisEsha took
a ritual bath in the nearby satya pushkaraNi and started penance
on perumAL. Pleased with his penance, perumAL appeared in the form
of hayagrIva. AdisEsha performed ArAdhana to hayagrIva. perumAL
granted the satva guNAs that AdisEsha asked for and since He was
so pleased with the penance and ArAdhana of AdisEsha, asked him for
one more wish. AdisEsha requested that, just as in thiruppArkadal,
perumAL recline on him in this kshEtram too. perumAL did that and
that archAvatAram in currently paLLikoNda perumAL in this temple.

chandran:
there was a rishi nammed aTri. He and his wife anuSuyai performed
penance requesting that brahmA, siva and mahAvishNu be born to
them as sons. As a fruit of that successful penance, perumAL came as
their son dattAtrEya rishi, siva was born as durvAsA and chandra was
born as brahmA's amsam. When the sons reached a certain age, aTri
educated them and sent them to perform penance. dattAtrEya went to
the himAlayAs, durvAsA went to kailAsam and chandran went to
satavrata kshEtram. Since brahmA's day is spent performing penance
to perumAL, chandran, being brahmA's amsam performed penance to
perumAL in this kshEtram. perumAL appeared to chandran in the form
of vAmanA and asked for his wish. chandran requested perumAL to
come to chandramaNdalam and be there so that he can perform nitya
kainkaryam to perumAL. perumAL did the same and went to chandra
maNdalam.


key points about the temple:

1. when garuda needed to bring amrtam for his mother (for freeing his
mother from slavery), it is said that the balam and shakti needed
was given to him by perumAL after he performed penance in this kshEtram.
2. the vAmana mUrthi that chandran performed ArAdhana to is on the south
side of satya pushkarini even today
3. the sayana mUrthi, paLLikoNda perumAL is the perumAL that AdisEsha
performed ArAdhana to and requested to rest on him
4. It is said that once asurAs wanted to take the perumAL resting on
AdisEsha here. To save perumAL AdisEsha emmitted poisonous fumes from 
his 5 mouths and killed the asurAs. Even today, the AdisEsha here
gives us darsanam like that. We can see the fumes coming out of 
AdisEshA's mouths.
5. the paLLikoNda perumAL here is longer than srIrangam/thirukkudanthai.
6. on the top of the meyya malai, there is a statue that is said to be
perumAL, as done pratishtai by garudA.
7.since AdisEsha obtained sattva guNa and the knowledge from vEdAs, 
this kshEtram is ideal for mumUkshUs.
8. The temple is at the base of a huge mountain and in fact the paLLi
koNda perumAL sannadhi is in a cave at the base.
9. thirmangai AzhvAr's anubhavam of this perumAL is very sweet to read
and hear - he calls this perumAL as (i) meyyam ennum thadavari mEL
kidandhAnai (ii)thirumeyyaththu innamudha veLLAththai (iii) thiru
meyya malayaaLaa (iv) meyyam amarNdha perumAL (v)meyya maNaaLar etc..

AzhvAr pAsurams:
thirumangai AzhvAR, periya thirumozhi: 2-5-8,3-6-9,6-8-7,8-2-3,9-2-3,
10-1-5,11-7-5,thirukkuRunthAndagam 19,periya thirumadal 126 - total of
9.

periya thirumozhi 11-7-5:
mayAr kadalum maNivaraiyum maamukilum
koyyaar kuvaLaiyum, kaayaavum pONru iruNda
meyyaanai, meyya malaiyaanaich sangEndhum
kayyaanai, kai thozhaak kaiyalla kaNdOmE!

In this 11-7 thirumozhi, AzhvAR says that our organs - hands, mouth,
ear, nose etc..were given by perumAL ONLY to use for bhagavad anubhavam
and nothing else and the if the organs are used differently, then they
really are not organs.
In this specific pAsuram, he says  -
The hands that do not worship the perumAL whose thirumEni is like 
the karunkadal (dark sea), the huge mountain, like the dark rainbearing
clouds, the one who has the meyyam malai as His abode and the one who
has the beautiful hands that hold the divine conch, are really not
hands. -  **meyya malaiyaanai**

periya thirumozhi 10-1-5 - *vidalaich senRu kaaNdum meyyaththuLLE*
periya thirumozhi 9-2-3 - *meyya maNaaLar ivv vayyam ellaam**
periya thirumozhi 8-2-3 - *meyyam vinavi irukkinRaaL*
periya thirumozhi 6-8-7 - *meyyam amarndha perumaanai*
periya thirumozhi 3-6-9 - *thiru meyya malaiyaaLaa*
periya thirumozhi 2-5-3 - *meyyam ennum thadavarai meL kidandhaanai*
thirukkuRundhaaNdagam 19 - *ulagamEththum kaNdiyUr arangam meyyam
kachchi*
periya thirumadal 126 - *thirumeyyaththu innamudha veLLaththai*


AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLe saraNam,
adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,
Thirumalai anandAnpiLLai varadhan.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your old buddies are not out of range anymore. Free search with
Military.com's Personnel Locator.
http://click.egroups.com/1/4158/5/_/716111/_/963552354/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@eGroups.com
Visit http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/ for more information