Thiru maal irum sOlai - part 9 - the gala festival at vagai aaRu for azhagar
From the Bhakti List Archives
• February 10, 1997
Thiru maal irum sOlai - part 10 - the gala festival at vagai aaRu for azhagar Once the Lord puts HIS feet into the river, sri Veera rAgava perumAL comes in front and receives HIM. Million and a half people comes to madurai to have their darshan from all over the state of Tamil Nadu. This is the most popular event in the whole of Tamil Nadu in terms of maximum attendance in a year. For mahAmaham in kumbakonam also more people come from all over India. TN govt. and madurai district authorities make elaborate arrangements to cover this festival. However it takes place once in 12 years. When azhagar reaches RamaRayar mandapam, the fire works and dances and music (both country music, real folk songs (researchers on contry music and folk songs of tamil, please note) and have a gala celebration of this holy occasion of azhagar stepping down in vaigai river with Sri ANDAL's garland. They dance around as they dress themselves in various bright and colorful dresses and carry the tail lamps (thiri viLLakku or a type of torch) all around and glorify this place and shout and chant loudly " gOvindA, gOvindA, gOvindA" and such "gOvinda nAmam" will be echoed in the sky and the air will be filled in this gOvinda smaranai. When I saw it first time my heart resonated and my eyes watered without my knowledge in deep emotion. This part of the festival is a real feast for the eyes and a "divine tune up" for the aathman and a holy touch for the bakhthi that is dwelling in us without any ego and complete with the nyAnam that Sriman nArAyanA is the param and seeking HIS holy feet is the ultimate illakku (aRivin payanE, - amuthE nammalwaar on thiruk kudanthai amuthan). Sri ANDAL samEtha Sri KaLLazhagar thiruvadikaLE charaNam Sampath Rengarajan