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thiru allik kENi - part 2 - vEnkata Krishna purANam

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • Mon Mar 03 1997 - 06:44:14 PST 


BrahmAnda purAnam describes this kshEthram in a chapter
known  as  "BrindArannya  mahAthmiyam".  Brindam  means
"thulasi" and aRanyam means "vanam" or kaadu or jungle.
Similar  to  Lord  Oppiliappan  kOil,  kn0wn  as  thiru
viNNagaram,  this  place  is  also  known  as  "thulasi
vanam".  A king by name "sumathi" once worshipped  Lord
Srinivasan in thiruvEngadam and did severe penance  and
sought  his  blessings  and darshan  of   the  Lord  as
Arjuna's   Sarathi.  (ie  as  geethA  Acharyan).   Lord
Venkadan  immediately blessed him and conveyed  to  the
king  through  an  asareeri ( divine  voice  from  deep
space)  that "I had already appeared at the same  thiru
uruvam   in  brinda  aranyam  that  has  the  kairavaNi
theerththam.  You may go there and have your  darshan".
Sumathi  followed Lord's instructions  and   worshipped
the Lord at this place.

      It  is  notable here that since the Lord said  to
sumathi  that he had already appeared there  existed  a
previous  account  for  this kshEthram  when  the  lord
appeared  here  first time. Veda vyAsar had  an  ardent
sishyAL by name "athrEya muni". Saint Veda vyAsar  gave
a  divya  mangaLa vigraham of Lord Krishna and  ordered
his  disciple to carry this vigraham to brinda  aranyam
and  worship HIM there. In many ways this idol is  much
like  the  seer vibheeshanaaazhwaar obtained from  Lord
Rama  which is Lord Ranganatha. (of course the original
idol and very prominet that Sri Krishan HIMself gave to
HIS  cousin  and  minister Udhdava is in  guruvaayoor).
This  idol in thiru allik kEni is prominent for  us  in
Sri  sampradaayam  and those who are taking  refuge  at
Lord's  feet  as  per HIS charaNagathi  slOkam.  It  is
becuase  of  the  fact that the feature  of  this  idol
represents  the  moment  the Lord  gave  us  Geetha  in
arjunas chariot. It is hard to find out the details  as
to  when  Saint  Veda  vyAsa obtained  this  from  Lord
Krishna. However as similar to Sri Ranganathar  of  Sri
Rangam,  this idol also had some very special  features
of  this avatharam (Sri Krishna avathAram) carried over
with  it.  The idol had a changam in hand  and  "dhAna"
muththirai on the other hand. DhAna muththirai  is  the
one  that  points to HIS thiruvadi and indirectly  says
that  take  refuge  there by surrendering  and  I  will
protect  you by all means and Bless you". Lord  krishna
accepted all the arrows of the opponent's chief  Bhisma
when  Lord was covering for Arjuna, as his saarathi  or
charioteer. These arrows made some scars on Lord's face
and  such scars are VISIBLE even today on the  face  of
this  ursavar that vyAsar did prathistai  here  as  his
(seethanam ?) or in memory of Sri Krishna avatharam. If one
can  go closer to the ursavar they can see these  scars
on  HIS  face  and at this moment one can realize  that
this  is the same Lord who stood on the chariot in  the
battle  filed  and one will get thrilled to  have  this
realization.  ie One can really feel HIS presence  here
if  they  can truly surrender and see this  Lord.  This
will make one to have an electrifying experience and  I
simply  cannot write about it, as each one has to  feel
it for themselves.

     Saint  athrEya  muni brought  this  idol  here  to
brinda AraNyam with him and was worshipping HIM here as
per  HIS  guru's  desire. At this  time  a  king  named
sumathi  met Saint athrEya muni here and was  surprised
and   enchanted  by  this  idol  and  wanted  the  idol be
installed here. AthrEya muni sought his guru's  consent
and finally It is conceived that Sage VyAsa himself did
prathistai  of  this  vigraham here  and  also  piraati
Rukmani at the right hand side of this perumaal at this
brindAranayam, Both the King sumathi and  athrEya  muni
performed aradhana and worshipped this Lord for a  very
long  time  and attained moksham here. This  being  the
previous account, the later day king sumathi came  here
from  thiruvengadam and the lord had appeared here  for
HIM  as  "Krishnan" (the moolavar),  he  conceived  and
established  the  truth that the Lord revealed  to  him
through the asareeri that it was lord of thiru vengadam
who  had  appeared here as "Sri krishnar"  earlier.  He
constructed a big temple for  the Lord. Since the  lord
of thiru vEnkadam appeared here as Krishna this lord is
known as "vEnkata krishnan".

Sri Rukminith thaayaar samEtha Sri Parthasarathy perumal
thirvadikaLE charaNam

Sampath Rengarajan