Posts

Showing posts from November, 2018

Kaishika ekadasi

In Varaha Puranam, it is said that Lord Varaha Swamy lifted Goddess Bhudevi from the ocean and placed her into the universe. After being rescued, Goddess Bhudevi expresses her concern about people who are still trapped in the cycle of birth and death (samsarasagara). In response, Lord Varaha Swamy assures her that those who follow 'Navavida Bhakti' will be lifted from the ocean of samsara. He proceeds to narrate the story of a devotee in Thirukurungudi, a place in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, where the Lord appears in four forms. The Lord on the hillock is called Malaimel Nambi, and the Lord down the hill appears in three forms: sitting (irunda Nambi), standing (Ninna Nambi), and sleeping (Kidanda Nambi). There lived a devoted Haridas near Thirukungudi, born in a downtrodden family. Every day, he offered songs with his veena as a service to the Lord, and he was affectionately called "Nam Paduvan" or "Our Singer" since his songs were solely dedicat

Sarangapani? Komalavalli?, Who is Who!!?

Image
During the 20 day Adhyayana Utsavam festival, on the 9th day of rapathu utsavam, perumal adorns the alankaram of komalavalli thayar and she adorns the thirukolam of Sarangapani. The element of surprise is that once adorned, after a while when the temple priests open the curtains to show mangala harathi to the couple, he himself gets confused as to who is really saranagapani and who is really komalavallli of the two present there.                                                            Komalavalli thayar on other days                                                    Sarangapani and komalavalli on other days Sarangapani                                                                 Sarangapani as Komalavalli                                                              The two with exchanged looks                                                           Sarangapani who looks exactly like Komalavalli                                                               

Patala Srinivasar

Image
It is a well known story , where Sage Brighu kicked the chest of Vishnu, and Mahalakshmi got angry and went to Kolhapur to do penance as he had kicked the place where she resided in the lord( in his chest). Later on as we know Lord Srinivasa married Padmavathi. Since the lord had married another person, Lakshmi went to the lord to demand an explanation for his actions. As he knew that he couldn't face her, he ran down south and hid underground in kumbakonam. Even to this day, in the prakaram of the Sarangapani temple , one can have a darshanam of the lord Srinivasar, known as patala Srinivasar( since hes's hiding underground or patala).          Patala Srinivasar sannidhi     

The greatness of the lord's sandals

Image
Once when Narayana was resting on his divine bed the serpent Sesha, a few devotees came rushing to him asking for him to vanquish the demons who were troubling them on earth, The lord rushed in a hurry to save his devotees, leaving his weapon the sudarshana chakra , the conch panchajanya and his own sandals on the bed Anantha. The disc and the conch felt mortified and insulted that the lord had kept his sandals on the same bed as he had kept these two, not knowing the greatness of these sandals. Hence to make them aware of these sandals, during Rama avataram, when Bharatha was born as the amsha of sudarshana chakra and shatrugna as panchajanya, while leaving to the forest, Bharatha( sudarshana) carried the sandals of the lord on his head and ruled the kingdom with these sandals on the throne as a symbol of Rama ruling. Thus the significance of these pair of sandals came to be known to one and all. Bharatha seen with the sandals of Rama on his head