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Thiru maal irum sOlai - Part 21 - thiru maal adi sErvarkaLE (conclusion)

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • February 23, 1997 


Part   21  -   thiru maal adi sErvarkaLE (conclusion)

Logistics:

This place is 12 miles from the city of Madurai. One can go to
madurai by plane, train or bus. There are many town buses plying
to this place from Madurai. One can stay in Madurai and have darshan
of this Lord.


Moolavar  : azhagar, kaLLazhagar, Paramaswami, Sundara Rajan
maalaangaarar, maal irum sOlai nambi

Thaayaar : Sundara valli, Sridevi, (separate koil)

Facing : East Facing

theerththam : noobura gangai or silambARu

sthala vruksham: vrushaba giri, santhana vruksham

prathyaksham : malayathvaja pAndiyan, darma dEvathai

ursavar: parimEl azhagar, kaLLazhagar both Moolavar and ursavar
have pancha aayudhams.

ANDAL sannithi: This is the only temple ANDAL is seen in sitting posture.

vimaanam : soma chanda vimaanam

Similarities with Srirangam:
Sri Rangam and Thiru maal irum sOlai are similar in many ways.
Both the temples have fort type entrances and mathil suvar or compound walls.

Both temples have huge nel kuthir to store vast amount of nel (paddy) that
comes
from temple lands.

Both the pradhAna vaayil or prominent entrance to the temples are called as
"ayar pada vaasal".

The ahaara niyamanam for both temples are observed similarly by using ghee that
is  made as a separate ney or ghee that is separated uniquely in the process
for the Lord. (Remeber "selvar appam" of arangan !)

Thirumangai delivered on thiru aranga mathils and periazhwaar deleivered on
thiru maal irum sOlai mathil.

Thiru arangan blessed Sri Ramanujar and Thiru maal irum sOlai ninRaan nambi
blesses Sri koorath azhwaar

Both the Lords are excelling in their beauty. Thiru Arangan is the most
beautiful Lord in sayanak kOlam and thiru azhagar is the most beautiful lord in
ninRa kOlam.

Lord Arangan came here twice and was kept in th etemple well when Srirangam was
 attacked by the invaders. Since Arangan stayed here for sometime, it is
believed that this kshEthram gives the palan of srirangam too !

 Other features of this temple :

The saaligrama worship is offered everyday and the abishEka theerththam is
offered to bhakthaaLs as a prasAdham.


Some important ANDAL pasurams on Lord Azhagar and some insights:
In the path of ANDAL I have attempted to summarise the thala purAnam
in 21 parts which can be equated to the love on all the 21 births. (iRRaikkum
(7), EzhEzhu (7+7) piRavikkum). There are more specialities that one can
keep on writing on this lord for many more days. However some important aspects
include some of ANDAL's key pasurams.

The  itheeham is such that ANDAL's pAsurams are  the
essence  of the 3 charama slOkas and the  height  of
bhakti  one can dream to have on Lord. ANDAL who  is
also  the  incarnation of Boomidevi  naachiyaar  had
conveyed the varaha charama slOka avathAram's  inner
meanings  as per the concluding verse of the  decade
on   thiru  maal  irum  sOlai  as  per  sri   periya
vaachchaan pillai. That makes me take a closer  look
at  these ten songs. As I was *attempting* to  write
the "vyAkyAnam" or patha vurai for
the first pAsuram (taking into account
other vyAkyaanams and my own insights) of
this decade and started the series of  post
on thiru maal irum sOlai I wrote that I was seeking
ANDAL's blessing. The same night as
the post appeared  a close friend of
me and a very devout member of the group had a dream
in  which  ANDAL  appeared  and  had  conveyed  some
message.  This was conveyed to me ( as intended)  as
this  person  was not able to fully  realise  the
dream  and the message. However with the help  of  a
very senior member of this group and my own analysis
the  dream was understood and the insights  occurred
to  me more clearly. Incidentally in relation to  my
little combined attempt of insight   on
this first  pAsuram  my  mentor
called  me from Madras and initiated me with one  of  the
most   important  moola  mantram  of  Lord's  koorma
avathAram  as  conveyed  to this  "upAsakar".  What  a
coincidence  my attempted writing
earlier was containing  some  good
insights on koorma avataharam not knowing the future
that  came  through the dream and the mantram.  This
gave  me  the  drive  to go in  as  much  detail  as
possible for this kshEthram. This is not for a viLambaram
or self advertisement that
I shared this in this post. If mere starting to write on this koil
itself can bring many boons, dear BhakthaaLs you must visit this
temple one day in your life and seek more from the Lord.
Coming to ANDAL pasuram

santhodu kaarakilum sumanthu thdanGaL poruthu
vanth izhiyum silambArudai maal irun chOlai ninRa
sundaranaich curumbAr kuazhaR kOthai thoguththu uRaiththa
senthamizh paththum vallaar thiru maal adi sErvaargaLE.

				naachiyaar thiru mozhi

In  concise meaning ANDAL assures that  if  one  can
thoroughly understand and chant these 10 pAsurams on
Lord Azhagar, they are sure to attain HIS holy feet.
In  detail, when a woman goes from her parents place
(piranthaa agam or poranthaam) to her inlaws  (manam
puguntha agam or  pukkaam) place, she always used to
take  seethanam  or  seer with  her.  Similarly  the
silambAru that originates in this hill and arrive at
her  puguntha  agam of this temple  carries  in  her
waves with her all the sandal woods and other forest
logs.  And  while coming so, she is running very fast such that
she  is eroding the banks and rushes to her pukkaam.
This  is similar to an elephant piercing the objects
using  its  tusk  (ie  the  veham  or  force).  This
silambARu  for  azhagar koil is  similar  to  viraja
nathi  for  parama patham. Thus the place  that  has
this  silmabaaRu  has  this sarvanga  sundaran  Lord
Azhagar  and this lady (ANDAL) who has her koonthal
or  her hair wherein vandugaL (bees) constantly come
and  would  like to stay (due to its manam or fragrance and  the
flower that is on it and the garlands on her)   sung
these  verses  on  this Lord. Thus  she  sung  these
verses  as  similar to making a garland  (thoguththu
uRaiththa) of rathnams and gems and stones. That  is
she compiled all the infinite  kalayAna gunas of the
lord  azhagar in these verses in these ("senthamizh"
)  romantic pAsurams that overflow with her love for
the   Lord.  ie  these  pasurams  became  the   most
enjoyable  tamil (sen thamaizh) due to the "love" conveyed  in  them.
Those who can do anusanthaanam or chant these verses
with  the  inner meanings in their mind will  attain
Lord's  holy  feet.  That is those who  want  to  do
irrend  or any other service or adimai sEvai at the feet of  holy
dampathis will not go through the pirivu that  ANDAL
herself is undergoing and they will get their desire
fulfilled.   ie   They  will   attain   the   parama
purushArtha kaimkaryam that they wanted  to  be  the
eternal  servant of the Lord.   Sri Periya  vaachaan
pillai compares this to

"aham sishyaa cha dhaasee cha bhakthaa cha purushOththama"

  in  varAha purAnam Booma Devi (currently as ANDAL)
says to Lord Varahar on her being rescued that
Oh  Lord purushOththamaa, I will be your sishyai and
dhaasi  and bhakthai. ie When she was boomi  piraati
she  wanted to be the dhaasi ie she wanted to be  an
irrend or a house servant when the Lord and periya piraati says
"pick this up keep this there etc" and she wanted to
just  do that service for them. She also wanted that
I  will  want  to  be born as the daughter  (valaRpu
magal)  and  sing in praise of you as your  bhakthAL
(Bhakti  is the message in all her pasurams and  she
is  the mother of all for bhakti maargam) . Can this
be  possible for boomi devi piraati to be  born as all
these   three and as  desired  by  her  during   vaRaha
avatharam  ? (yes) "Purushoththamaa, what ever extent  you
wanted   to   destroy  the  (samsAram  of  adiyaars)
adiyaars  from  their  bondage  and  they  also  get
destroyed to that extent.  Though when the water
from  the  river  flows all through  the  supporting
irrigation  canals and drainage, the end  amount  of
water that merge with the ocean when the river  ends
there  is never reduced. Similarly if one can  enjoy
the  Lord  as sishyai or as dhaasee or as  bhakthai,
the  pleaure  never diminishes and  only  grows  for
boomip  piraati.  ie  as per Sri  periya  vaachchaan
pillai  these 10 verses convey that ANDAL  fulfilled
her  own desire as sishyai and dhaasee and bhakthaaL
(height  of  bhakti is poured in these verses)  that
she  had  as boomi devi piraati in varaha  avatharam
just  by  delivering these immensely loving pasurams
on  lord ahzagar and it is implied for us that  such
ANDAL's  fulfilling  pasurams  are  the  essence  of
varaha charma slokam as well (the inner meanings  as
felt  by ANDAL) and those who would chant them  with
the undrstanding of complete meaning will undoubtedly attain Lord's
holy feet as similar to her ownself's fulfillment of
desire. ie  ANDAL have paved the shortest way for we
bhakthaaLS through these verses and is asking us  to
chant them and assuring us with her own experience.
ie thiru maal adi sErvarkaLE !

There  are also 2 other pasurams of naachiyaar thiru
mozhi that has to be dealt in this post as they have
special and mantric significance. These were chanted
by  me at Buffalo conference in a note of thanks to ANDAL
for  having  sent the clouds promptly to  clear  the
snow during the clouds. Many may not have completely understood
the   significance  of  these  pasurams  that  time.
However I would provide a "brief" references to them
here.

MazhaiyE ! mazhaiyE ! maNpuRam poosi uLLAy ninRA
mezhuh OORRinAR pOl OORRu nal vEngadaththuL ninRa
azhagap piRAnAr thammai yen nenchaththu agappadath
thazuva nin(Ru) ennaith thaiththuk kONdu ooRRavum vallaiyE

				naachiyaar thiru mozhi

She  calls  the  clouds to pour and cool   her  down
mentally  and  unite her with the  Lord.  She  calls
mazhai twice as these clouds are hanging very high, up in the  sky
(cumulonimbus clouds that bring rains hang  high  in
sky  not  cirrus  clouds that bring the  snow  which
hangs  low in altitude) can hear her voice.  ie  she
compares  the process in which the candle  is  burnt
and  formed  and the sEru or wet sand is applied  at
the  outer  shell as a coating to keep the formation
inside in the statue or idol making procees. And she
pleads to rain that her heart is warm with love  for
Lord  Ahzgar  and let the rain form the coating  and
keep  her  formation in tact.ie Simialrly,  The Lord who makes  me
melt   inside  is  this  azhagar, who   is
standing  in vEngadam. (thirup paanazhwaar sung  that
it   was  arangan  who  stood  in  vEngadam).   Thus
HE appeared  in my heart and wished to embrace  me  but
didn't  (do so) get  to  me as I extended my arms  and  then
appeared  outside and made me hug HIM. ie  he  didn't
appear to her heart when she wanted but appeared  to
her  outside her heart in person. ( this  seems  like
the  clue as to who came "out" of Lord Arangan  when
ANDAL  merged  with  him  in  kalYAnam  at  arangan
sannithi. Refer to my previous post as to which lord
came out and accepted her hand during this holy  and
auspicious moment). Further the insight as  per  Sri
periya  vachchan pillai is that ANDAL wished to  the
rains that 'please keep me and the lord in a cell  as
similar  to  keeping  "ushaiyai"  the  daughter   of
baanAsura  and Lord krishna's grand son aniruththan.
And  during such occasion of beingf together the warmth is so high.
Can't  you  pour  then so that it  will  be  helpful
during  those warm moments to cool down?' ie  She  is
urging the rains not to pour now and  melt her  down
with  the  sights of the peacock dancing  and  other
surroundings cooling down but to pour down and  melt
her further when she is in union with the lord.

kadalE ! kadalE ! yunnaik kadainthu kalakkuRuththu
udaLuL pugunthu ninRooRal aRuththavarkku ennaiyum
udaluL pugunthu ninRooRal aRukkukinRa maayaRkku en
nadalikaL ellaam naagaNaikkE senRu uRaiththiyE

			Naachiyaar thiru mozhi

ie  she saw the kadal or ocean and the alai or waves
that  starts back in the shore and request  them  to
reach  the nAgaNai ie the Lord's aNai made of  nagam
ie  thirup  pArkadal and asks the wave to  goto  the
lord  in this naganai or thirup paaRk kadal and tell
HIM  her  plight. Similar to mazhaiyE  mazhaiyE,  the
(twice) repeated  calling here is said
to be felt necessary by  ANDAL
because  the muzhakkam or sound of the alai  was  so
noisy  and loud that they may not hear with  just  a
one  time call. And hence she makes a sound that  is
higher in decibels than these waves the second  time
(through her athman) so  that they can
really listen to her now. She says
HE  is using you the ocean as HIS bed but HE churned
you too  in  koorma avathaaram. You
sincerely helped  HIM only by
being   HIS   bed.  Like  those  who  destroys   the
opponent's  war  machinery  with  the  first  strike
itself, (that is the force of churning by Lord Koorma)
 HE churned you in his very first  prominent avatharam
(very  first prominent for  us
Srivaishnavas in Sri sampradaayam
because it is  now  that   Sri
joined HIM). HE didn't even think that this is HIS bed.
Since  HE  put the kal or stone or malai into the  heart  (ie
here  it is centre of universe where the mEru  malai
was  placed to churn) of those who gave HIM a  place
to sleep and churned and extracted (Sri) the essence
from their heart. Thus you also were churned by  HIM
as similar to me and what should I do ? ie the inner
meaning  is  that when thirup paaRkadal was  churned
Lord  attained Sri and it was a lesson to dEvas that
what ever one will do it was for the benefit of Lord
only  that one will do anyhthing. ie the purpose  of
life  is  to serve sriman narayana only. Though  the
dEvas thought the churning was done to get them  the
amirtham the main purpose of churning was to get Sri
to  the  Lord  !  Similarly when  ANDAL's  heart  is
churned  by the Lord the essence of purushaarthatham
(as  simialr to Sri's patham at HIS lotus feet)   is
brought out by this churning through these verses of
ANDAL  !  ANDAL  first calls mazhai  the  rains  and
subsequenly calls the ocean where these  rain  water
merge.   This   itself  symbolizes   what   is   the
purushaarththam (rains) for us (ie we are simialr to rains)
ie to merge  with  the
Lord  (the  ocean)  (ie th eLord is the ocean of mercy)
and that her  pasurams  are  the
rivers of love that can take us to such ocean simply !


It  is  said  that Sri thirumalai nambi used  to  be
immersed in these two pasurams. *Since* then  all  our
poorvaach  chaaryaaLs also were very  much  involved
with  these 2 paasurams. Sri thiru malai nambi  will
do anusanthaanam of these 2 paasurams and water down
through his eyes (immersed in deep bhakti) (ie kaNNerum kambalumaaka
thEngi mownamaaka nirpaaraam) and  will
not  utter  even  a single word and stay  like  that
untill  the end of the vyaakyaanam. Thus even  today
in   ANDAL   kaalalkshEbams  it  is   best   to   do
anusanthaanam  of these 2 songs at the end and complete the
session itself with that. That was the reason I  did
chant  these 2 verses in Buffalo during my talk.  It
is   also  *believed*  from  the  anubavam  of   Sri
thirumalai nambi that one need not dwell on anyother
pasuram  of  ANDAL  if they can do anusanthaanam  of
these   2  paasurams  with  the  understanding   and
realisation of complete meaning and stay muted  with
the bhakti alone. ie It can be derived that these  2
paasurams alone convey the complete essence  of  all
ANDAL's  paasurams  of  naachiyaar  thirumozhi   and
thirup paavai when chanted with realisaton and bhakti
and  that one will attain the same patham that ANDAL
desired  to,  both as ANDAL and as well as Boomi  devi
during koorma avathaaram.

Having said  all these, I would like to conclude  my
serial on Lord Azhagar by offering my prayers to HIM
through a simple tamil pAsuram  that I wrote on Lord
Azhagar.  The  meaning of this slOkam transpires  my
insights  on the ANDAL pasurams and my own state  of
bhakti on Lord. I will leave to the tamil friends to
translate   this.  I  encourage  all   the   readers
including  the  non tamil readers  to  simply  chant
these 2 pasurams of ANDAL (ANDAL's message) atleast once and think  of
azhagar malai (nammazhwaar's message).

My simple pasuram on Lord azhagar:

mazhalaith thamizh koNdu maalai onRu thoduththEn
kazhal thannaik kaNdu kaalam kanRu kazhiththEn
uzhal aadu nenchE ! unaik kadainthEn varanE !
nizhal tharum nedumaalE ninadainthEn saraNE !


Sri   SridEvith  thaayaar  Sri  ANDAL  samEtha   Sri
kaLLazhagar   paramswami   sundara   raaja   perumaal
thiruvadikaLE saraNam

Sampath Rengarajan

note: Please forgive me for some typos and ommissions in all the articles.
I will try to revisit this topic with some small notes when desired by Lord.