thiruch chERai - part 4 - mArkandEya maharishi mukthi kshEthram
From the Bhakti List Archives
• December 24, 1996
Saint mArkandEya was blessed with immortatlity by Lord Shiva at his young age. However as yugams crossed, it is beleived that Saint mArkandEya was seeking for the "patham" that is superior to this immortality. He pleaded to Lord Shiva for the same. It is said that Lord Shiva replied him that such padham is the only patham and is known as "mOksham" and the *only* giver of such would be Lord Vishnu and asked him to worship Lord Vishnu. Saint mArkandEya worshipped Lord vishnu in 31 khsEthrams and finally Lord vishnu asked him to worship in the kshEthram where "thai" poosam is celebrated for HIM. Saint MArkkandEyaa came to this kavEri kshEthram where "thai poosam" is celebrated every year for the Lord. Thai poosam is in tradition considered a shaivaite function. This is the only Srivaishnava kshEthram where "thai poosam" is celebrated every year. Since thai poosam is a great shaivaite function the relation that Saint mArkandEya is sent to this kshEthram can be derived by the fact the Markandeya is an amsam of Lord Shiva. This is explained with a little detour to thiru viNNagaram. Lord Oppiliappan co-appears in thiru viNNAgaram "karuvarai" with booma devi thayaar (mother earth) and maarkandEya maharishi both of whom worship Lord Oppiliappan at the centre with folded hands. (MarkandEya's penance was answered by thayaar in this thulasi vanam known as thiru viNNagaram and Oppiliappan kOil. thirumangai delievered a paasuram on Lord Oppiliappan in which he says "moovaa vaanavar tham mudhalvaa" when he sees the moonRu uruvam in this sannidhi. The pasuram is as follows. "theevaay val vinaiyaar udan ninRu siRanthavar pOl mEvaa ven nargath thida uRRu virainthu vanthaar 'moovaa' 'vaanavar tham mudhalvaa!' mathi kOL viduththa dhEvaa ! nin nadainthEn - thiru viNNagar mEyavanE ! The meaning for these words are such that "You the three folded, and You are the first of the three folded" meaning You are the Lord who is "inside" (as antharyaamim) the Brahmaa and Govindhaa and Haran as they are functioning in their delegated faculty. And you are the first of all these three. By saying so he also says that there is only one param at the begining and such was this thiru viNNagran or Lord Vishnu (as per pancha ratra and as agreed by all major schools including advaitham. The superior nature of Lord Vishnu is established here by the other worshipping in this sannidhi of thiru vinnagaraan. Ie When saint mArkandEya was saved from "yama" by Lord Shiva Lord Shiva was in union with him. Thus Saint mArkaNdEya was considered as an amsam of lord shiva. Booma dEvi is the "provider" of necessary support for the jivans to thrive in this material world and hence she is "equated" to the creator Brahmaa. She is the "mother" earth and hence she is also known as the creator. Thus it can be said that in this sannidhi both Brahma and Shiva worships Lord Vishnu, through their faculties and amsam thereby establishing the supremacy of Lord Vishnu and validating that Lord Vishnu is the only "param" pronounced by vedam. Thus the amsam of Lord Shiva finally came to this kshEthram and attained mOkshma from this Lord as HE appeared with his "padhmam" onhis right hand as similar tohow HE is seen in parama patham or Srivaikundam. There are only a few kshEthrams where the Lord is seen with this padhamam. Thiru anatha puram is one and in thiruppathi piraati is seen with padhmam in both her hands as padma aasani thaayaar. This kshEthram is popular for "thai poosam" mainly because Lord appeared as a child and blessed kaveri in this kshEthram on this "thai poosam" day. Coming to the no 32, that the no. of kshEthrams Lord made Saint mArkandEya visit, Sri Sadagopan had broached this subject on "no.32" last year. I am not sure if this point was brought across or not. The subject was why was the number 32 so important to Vedanta Desikar as well as other Acharyas? There are 32 ways of reaching God as well as 32 obstacles on the path of reaching God. If one overcomes all 32 obstacles on the path of obtaining Paramapadam, one is considered to have attained Moksha. Experts say that the chief obstacle is Bhagavan's will to punish the baddha jivatma for wrong doing. It is said that If this obstacle is overcome by either Bhakti Yoga or Prapatti, the other 32 are overcome relatively rapidly. There are 32 brahma vidhdhai's one can perform. Swami dEsikan wrote 32 padhdhathis in padhukaa sahasram to capture the essence of these 32 brahma vidhdhais in terms of 32 foot steps of Lord Arangan. Swami desikan also wrote srimath Rahasya thra saarma in 32 adhikkaarams. It is also considered that (the 32 no. of kshEthrams Lord made Saint mArkandEya visit,) visiting all these 32 kshEthrams (all are part of 108 DD) that will clear all the 32 obstacles for moKhsam if one will visit the same and seek for clearance of these 32 obstacles. It is said that Saint MarkaNdEya was given mOksham at this kshEthram finally. Sri Ranganaayikaa samEthara Sri Ranganathan thiruvadikaLE charaNam Sampath Rengarajan
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