Symbols worn by Vaisnavas on the body
From the Bhakti List Archives
• September 20, 1995
Mani wrote: >is called "Urdhva pundra" in Sanskrit. >In Tamil, the white part is called "thirumaN" and >the red part "sri chUrNam". The whole thing is >often referred to as "thirumaN" or "nAma", since >each thirumaN placed on the body represents a >different name of Sriman Narayana. to elaborate : forehead: Kesava belly: Narayana chest: Madhava throat: Govinda right side: Visnu right arm: Madhusudana right shoulder: Trivikrama left side: Vamana left arm: Sridhara left shoulder: Hrisikesha upper back: Padmanabha lower back: Damodara Mani wrote: >The primary place for the urdhva pundra is on the >forehead. The two white lines represent the feet >of the Lord, and the red line represents Lakshmi >Thaayar who is everpresent with him. The Azhvaars >refer to this tradition of wearing the pundra as >"wearing the feet of the Lord on one's head", >representing one's eternal relation as his servant. I heard a different meaning. The left line represent Lord Brahma, the right line Lord Siva and the middle portion is where Lord Narayana dwells with Mother Lakshmi; so may not be smeared. This may explain why some put the marks on the Lord's forehead as Lord Narayana. By putting the marks on the various parts of the human body, we are acknowldeging and reminded of this fact, and by putting on the Lord's body, we are not only reminded of this but in His case both external and internal is the same - spiritual. Mani wrote: >P.S. It seems that Ramanuja initiated the tradition >of only using the special white clay for the thirumaN. >One Azhvaar remarks that even ash can be used (anathema >to some Vaishnavas due to its connection with Siva), >but best would be the dust of the feet of other devotees! Ash is in the mode of ignorance known as the Tamo guna; so may be avoided. What is the difference between the Tengalai and the Vadagalai forehead marks? Which one did Sri Ramanuja initiate? The part about dust of feet is interesting. Some people I have seen go to the sanctum sanctorum and wipe off some dust from the floor and apply to their forehead, I think in an effort to gather the dust from the feet of devotees those that we can see and those that we cannot see such as the heavenly beings. When I was in the undergraduate engineering in India, one of our teachers, an Iyengar wore the forehead marks everyday. He was also one the better teachers we had, in the sense of pulling the mischief-mongers up to a better standard. He was always mumbling something and talked very little outside of the class, now I know that mumbling to be constant repetition of the Lord's name. How many do we know in US who go to work or school wearing the forehead marks? If you know of any, please make it known to this group. May be it will insprire those not wearing now, to do so! In the Padma purana the Lord says that one who wears the marks becomes fearless. -Eswar
- Next message: T.G. Srinivasan 31288: "Re: Symbols worn by Vaisnavas on the Body"
- Previous message: Sriram Ramanujan: "Re: Symbols worn by Vaisnavas on the Body"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]