Search:
Bhakti List Archives

thiruk kaNNan kudi - part 7 - thiru neer Ani vizhA

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sampath Rengarajan • May 14, 1998 


	There are popular  festivals that are celebrated  commonly
among  SriKrishna  AraNyak  kshEthrams.  However,  in  this  divya
dEsam, a festival  known as "thiru neeru aNi vizhA" ie.,  festival
of wearing thiruneeru or "vibuthi" is celebrated. The specialty is
such that the Lord wears  thiruneer for 3 hours ie., 3.75 nAzhigai
as per the  request of King  ubarisaravasu.  This was  promoted by
many chola  kings for  Shaiva  and Sri  Vaishnava  oRRumai  or for
harmony between shaivite and Srivaishnavite  followers.  PerumAL's
acceptance  of the  prayers  of  the  king  ubarisaravasu  was  to
demonstrate HIS neermai gunam.

Neermai - an  explanation:  The tamil word neermai has no parallel
in sanskrit as this one word  replaces  many kalyAna  gunAs of the
Lord that are addressed by many single words. i.e.,  Neermai  is a
composite  in  nature  of  many  kalyAna  gunAs  of the  Lord  put
together.  Neermai means  "neeraip  pOnRa  thaNmai".  That is "the
charecteristics of water".  There are so many charecteristics that
water has.  Of which five  important are  adaptability  to fill in
any form or shape (the wearing of thiru neer here symbolize that),
cooling nature (i.e., the mercy or compassion to ease the pains of
the  sufferings of the bhakthALs and make their life  comfortable)
easy availability everywhere, life saving, and life supporting,


The unique  feature of this festival is such that all bhakthALs of
the Lord also wear thiru  neeru on this day and come to the temple
to have darshan of the Lord who displays  His neermai  exclusively
during  this time.  This is very very  uncommon  and is  something
that is not seen  elsewhere in anyother  divya dEsam that has some
type of similar festival.  There are also other festivals that are
celebrated to promote unity (*) in few other divya dEsams.

One such  other  place  among  the  divya  dEsams  which is also a
SriKrishna  aarAnyAk  ksEthram  is  thiruk  kaNNa  puram.  In this
ashtAkshra  mantra siddhi  kshEthram, Lord appears as mumoorthy on
the  7  th  day  of  the  brahmOrsavam  festival  during  vaikaasi
(approximately between May 15 - Jun 15) month.  HE appears as Lord
Sri Vishnu who protects the universe all day.  During night, HE is
dressed  up with  dharbam  and  appears in the middle of the Lotus
flower as Lord  Brahma.  And the same day HE appears as Lord Shiva
during  early  morning  for 3  hours  and  45  minutes.  In  thiru
vaheenthi  puram Lord Deva  nAthan  appears  with the lotus in one
hand and have his third eye that is popularly  known as neRRik kaN
for Lord Shiva and also have "sadai mudi" i.e.  uncombed long hair
as  similar  to Lord  Shiva.  This Lord is also  addressed  by Sri
thirumangai Azhwar as "muthalaam thiru uruvam mooNrenbar".

pEy AzwhAr  pAsuram 63 of moonRAm  thiru  anthAthi,  on lord thiru
VEnkatan has drawn much attention from all faith.  Each one derive
their own  conclusion  from  that.  We as  Srivaishnavas  draw the
conclusions from our poorvachAryAL Sri periya vaacchAn pillai whom
we consider as incarnation of thiruk kaNNa mangai Lord HIMself.

pAsuram:
thaazh sadaiyum neeN mudiyum ON mazhuvum sakkaramum
soozh aravum pon Naanum thONRumAl soozhum
thiraNdu aruvi pAyum thiru malai mEl enthaikku
irAndu uruvum ONRAy isainthu

meaning:In the previous  pasuram (ie 62) AzhwAr delivered that the
Lord  showed  his most  important  kalyAna  gunA ie.,  neermai  or
simplicity.  ie., the Lord  shrunk HIS thiru  uruvam  (HIS  cosmic
body) of thiru vikkarama  avathAram to appear as Lord vAmanan, and
is present in many thirup pathis such as  Oppiliappan  kOil, thiru
vEnkatam,  Thiru  vahhA and thiru  vELukkai.  In the next  pasursm
ie., stated above as 63rd pasuram,  AzhwAr  delivers that the same
Lord is showing his sowseelya gunam in thiruvEnkatam as simialr to
how he exihibited  during His sankara  nArayana  avatharam.  There
are more than 30 avathArams  that take place during every  kalpam.
Among that the prominent are the 10 known as dasaavatharam.

PV  pillai   vyaakyaanam:  This  was  presented  by  adiyEn  in  a
discussion  with one of the  member  on annya  dEvatha  aaradhana.
Please read them from the  archives.  If more  clarifications  are
needed on that adiyEn will be pleased to deliver the same.

Sri lOka nAyaki samEtha Sri lOka nAyakan thiru vadikaLE
saraNam
Sampath Rengarajan


note:  (*) In Srimushnam near chidambaram, perumAL goes to killai
for kanu festival
every year.  During this 12 mile procession, perumAL halts near to
a mosque  situated  enroute.  Prayers are offered to perumAL  from
the mosque  according  to the  customs of the  mosque and the Lord
accepts  this.  This  festival  is  taking  place for more  than a
century  and  lately  under  one of the  previous  regimes,  it is
believed   that  the  Govt.  adopted  this  festival  as  a  govt.
festival to promote some unity.  In madurai the chithrai  festival
was also  promoted  for Shaiva Sri  Vaishnava  oRRumai  (read from
adiyEn's thala purAnam on thiru maal irum sOlai).