Friday, November 29, 2019

Naalaiyira Divya Prabhandam - Verses 5 - 10 - Chapter 8



Here continuing the verses from 5 - 10 with meanings


In these verses, it takes about different types of devotees 1) who prays to get materialistic enjoyment 2) who prays to get spiritual knowledge, 3) who prays to attain the feet of GOD


Meaning of Verse 5:

There are second set of people in the universe who worship lord for the wealth and materialistic happiness towards GOD who kills demons, rakshasas and enemies;
The request is to kill your desires around materialistic and come , join the group who just meditate at GOD's feet by chanting his thousand names to get spiritual wealth;
And the GOD's sacred feet is protected for thousands and crores of years

Meaning of Verse 6:

My father, his father, my great grand father and all of my earlier generations for 7 cycles were reciting only LORD's name who had killed Hiranyakasipu on a evening time during Thiruvonam day and I and my future generation will continue to protect the sacred feet of GOD for thousands and  crores of years

Meaning of Verse 7

The one who has broad shoulders and carry Sri Sudarsana chakram which is revolving with fire and in deep red color, our entire generation will keep singing about Srikrishna who killed Asura Vanasuran through Sudarasana chakram which made the blood of Asura to flow as river;
We continue to pray and protect the sacred feet of GOD for thousands and crores of years.

Meaning of Verse 8

Dear Swamy. you had provided us rice and equal amount of Ghee, you also gave us a good place to stay, and also gave beetle leaves, oranaments like necklace, chain, hand ring and also ear ring. you also gave sandle paste that we desired to have on our body; you also made us to acquire spiritual knowledge and made that to flow in our family; We continue to workship who is the opponent of Nagaraja ( here it is Garuda which is the vahana of Lord Vishnu ) and we continue to pray and protect the sacred feet for thousands and crores of years

Meaning of Verse 9:

We wear the dress ( Pattu Pithambaram ) worn by you, we take the food left over as prasadam from you and we also take the fragrance of the flower that were taken from you; Even with all this we do have a fear O' Swamy you born on Thiruvonam star and   who takes rest on Nagaraja, we continue to serve and protect the sacred feet for thousands and crores of these years

Meaning of Verse 10:

Swamy, the day we surrender to your feet, Me and my family were all relieved from the quest of self materialistic enjoyment and we reach a stage of spiritual level; You are the one who appeared on the day of Rohini star at Madura as Sri Krishna and killed Kamsa and also danced on the heard of 5 faced Nagaraja; we continue to serve and protect the sacred feet for thousands and crores of years

Verses to continue ...

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Naalaiyira Divya Prabhandam - Verses Starts - Periyazhwar Thirumozhi - Chapter - 7 - My 100th post...

Naalaiyira Divya Prabhandam - Verses Starts - Periyazhwar Thirumozhi - Chapter - 7 - 
My 100th post...


This is my 100th post, started 7 years back to bring on my readings and leanings of Guru Raghavendra Swamy; Thanks to GOD and my Guru to keep going; There had been phases where I was totally off from the blog; Infact from 2017 to Nov 2019 was a long period and I have restarted this to write about Naalaiyira Divya Prabhandam, this is not for others, but more for me to read all the 4000 verses and live the life in a right way;

wanted to start with Periyazhwar Thirumozhi  pasurams; The very first verses that I heard is from him and hence wanted to start the series with this and move to other alwars.



Meaning of Verse 1:  
Years after years, and thousands and crores of years, Manivanna ( another name of Sriman Narayanan ) your strong shoulder and surrendering to your feet is the savior for all in this materialistic world

While in this materialistic world, we go to GOD to pray either for getting materialistic thing or get his blessings on us; There is a belief that Bakthi is to pray for what we want; Alternatively people will also pray for their well being, their parents, their family and their near and dear ones;
But here PeriyAzhwar says instead of saying all this, he is requesting the well being of Sriman Narayanan; so once he is doing good he will take care of the rest; He informs that if we surrender and ask if he is all and his well being is all we wanted, rest will be taken care by itself; What a belief in Bakthi

Meaning of Verse 2: 
As a devotees we pray that we are bonded and thinking of you for several crores of years; Mahalakshmi who resides on your chest continues to stay there for several crores of years and bless us all; The powerful Sudersana chakra that continues to stay in your right hand and the conch ,
Pancha chaniyam which is used during the beginning of wars continue to stay in your left hand for years and crores of years

Meaning of Verse 3: 
We all who are work shipping to reach the sacred feet of Lord Sriman Narayanan will continue to do so by following rituals and events in temple; We will never entertain to focus on materialistic things in the world; We respect continues to all seven generations and more in serving lord and no stains / disrespects attached;  We will continue to surrender the feet of Lord Sriman Narayanan who  freed Lanka people from rakshasas ;

Meaning of Verse 4: 
Before we reach the state of surrendering to Sri Narayanan's feet where there is no return to this world, we will first learn to separate atma from this mortal body; Join the devotees and spread the benefit of reciting the maha mantram OM NAMO NARAYANA to the world and pray for Lord to continue for several crores of years to protect this universe

Verses to continue...

Monday, November 18, 2019

Naalayira Divya Prabhandam - Birth star of 12 Azhwars - Chapter - 6

Naalayira Divya Prabhandam - Birth star of 12 Azhwars - Chapter - 6



Here is the list of all 12 Alwars and their birth star; There are festivals happening in their birth place temples during this star and month

As we all know, while there is birth star and month for Pogai Alwar, Boothathalwar and Peialwar, they are believed to be born directly




In next chapters we will further go into alwars and their pasurams / hymns

Verses to continue ...


Sunday, November 17, 2019

Naalayira Divya Prabhandam - List of Alwars and their birth place - Chapter - 5

Naalayira Divya Prabhandam - List of Alwars and their birth place - Chapter - 5




Here we will see the list of 12 Alwars and their birth place. Without them we will not have got this 4000 Pasurams in Tamil





In next chapter we will see the star sign and month of each of Alwars

Verses to continue ...

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Naalaiyira divya prabhandam - Its Uniqueness Chapter - 2

Naalaiyira divya prabhandam - Its Uniqueness Chapter - 2




Naalaiyira ivya prabhamdam is unique in many ways; first  hymns that were written way back in Tamil, the 3 Alzwars are believed to be part of Dwapara Yuga and it also proves that Tamil has been in existence since then.


Above all, there is a famous verse which says " Perumal follows Tamizh" this is because in any vaisnava temple events, during thiruveethi ula, first the elephants will go, followed by musical instruments, then Divya prabhandam and then Perumal comes, which means Tamizh comes first followed by Perumal, this the importance of the hymns;

Brings back my Vishnu kanchi days where this event will happen for 10 - 11 days in a year across temples and each day there will be a vahana (carrier) on which Lord Perumal appears and comes through the major streets of the city and the ritual is same day after day with just the Vahana changes, the major event would be on Garuda vahana and the last one is Theru; this will be so tall that the city power lines will be switched off and the main prasadam would be brown sugar

coming back, the word Azhwar means 'the one who immerses himself in pure bakthi' and all of them are beleived to be coming from some part of Lord Vishnu; like Poigai Azhwar comes from counch ( Sangu );



List of Azhwars and the belief of their incarnation from Vishnu



Poigai Azhwar is from Sangu;

Bhoothath Azhwar is from Vishnu's gada;

Pei Azhwar is from Vishnu's sword;

Thirumalisai Azhwar is from Sudarshanam;

Nammazhwar is from Vishnu's commander;

Madhurakavi Azhwar is from Garuda;

Kulasekhara Azhwar is from Lord's necklace;

Periyazhwar is from Garuda;

Andal of Bhoodevi is from Lakshmi in her form as Bhudevi;

Thondaradippodi Azhwar is from Vishnu's garland;

Thiruppaan Azhwar is from the mark on Vishnu's chest;

Thirumangai Azhwar is from Rama's bow;



Verses to continue...

Naalaiyira Divya Prabhandam - Recollection of lost verses - Chapter - 4

Recollection of lost 4000 verses - Chapter - 4



There had been a phase after 700 odd AD most of this sacred hymns / pasurams had been forgotten or lost for generations.

There is place called Veeranarayana puram in Kattu Mannar Koil town which is some 15 kms away from Gangai Konda Cholapuram, this was the home town of a vaishnavate Nathamuni adigal or Nathamuniyar during 950 AD, he was born in Annuradha Natchathiram during Jyestha month. It is believed that he lived during either Rajaraja or Rajendra chola period.This place has a perumal temple Veeranarayana perumal. 

Nathamuniyar has been a servant of lord in this temple and use to do seva every day thinking of lord. One day while he was performing his daily pooja, a group of devotees came Thirunarayanapuram in  Melkote. They were singing the pasuram of Aravamuthey, a pasuram from Nammazhwar thirumozhi which was praising the lord Perumal from Kumbakonam. 


The devotees ended this with these pasurams as these are " 10 out of 1000". These pasurams were so great that made Nathamuniyar happy and asked them to sing remaining 990, unfortunately none of them were aware of that. 



This made Nathamuniyar not able to concentrate on anything and he started to Kumbakonam in search of remaining 990 pasuram along with his 2 disciples Melaiyagattazhwar and Kilaiyagattazhwar. From there he was asked to go to Thirukarugur, however he was not able to find anything, he again went 5 km east to Thirukolur. There he got the verses of Madura kavi Azhwar who wrote verses in praise of Nammazhwar starring with 
Kannin Siruthambinaal ( கண்ணிநுண் சிறுத்தாம்பு ).  He was able to get the 12 verses of this and he went straight to a tree and sat down and sung these 12 hymns 12000 times after which NammAzhwar appeared before him and handed over all the 4000 verses which we are reading today as Naalayira Divya Prabhandam.

After this he went back to his native Kattu mannar koil and started to spread this to all vaishnavaite temple and made a vaishnava sampradayam from then on

He also had couple of disciples with whom the spread of divya prabhandam started. 


There is also an interesting aspect , Nathamuniyar's 'son name is Ishwaramuni and Nathamuniyar's grandson name is Yamunai Thuraivan, who is fondly called as Alavanthan, he continued to take the responsibility of spreading Vaishnavate sampradayam. His diciples include Periya Nambi, Thirukoshtiyur Nambi, Thirukachi Nambi. Alavanthar is the one who made Sri Ramanujar as Acharya after him;

The current vaishnavism is started with Nathamuniyar and with his direction Alavanthar and Sri Ramanujar started to spread and standardised it; He is the first guru of current Vaishnavaite Sampradayam;

In next chapter we will see little more details of 12 Azhwar , their birth place etc

Verses to continue...

Naalaiya Divya Prabhandam - how it started.... Chapter - 3

Naalaiya Divya Prabhandam -  how it started.... Chapter - 3




We will see how first verses were written which was the base for the remaining 4000 verses. As mentioned earlier the first three Azhwars were believed to be from Dwapara yuga ( while some say during 7th century). 

The first three Azhwar were believed to be born directly with no parents, like Poigai Aalwar was born from Vishnu's conch , Boothath Azhwar was born from Vishnu's mace and Pei Azhwar was born from Vishnu's sword. 

I still remember my recent visit to Yathothkari Perumal temple in kanchipuram  where saw the pond where Poigai Azhwar , though no water this requires some good maintenance, on the compound walls at outside there are notes left which highlights Poigai Azhwar birth reference and there is a shrine for him inside the temple...

http://goppuradarisanam.blogspot.com/2013/01/sri-yathothkari-perumal-koil-kanchipuram.html?m=1


Going back , once there was a heavy rain in a place near Thirukovilur and Poigai Azhwar found a small space to stay away from rain which can accommodate 3 ppl to stand , sometime later Boothath Azhwar joined in same place to hide from rain and Pei Azhwar also joined , it was so pitch dark and each other of the three Azhwar are not able to each other , however after a while Poigai Azhwar was able feel there is a fourth person in the room based on the feelings that got, during lightning he was able to see the face and it was so charm and peace and Poolai Azhwar right away knew it was Lord Vishnu and started to write 100 hymns on Lord and praying to have the light, he considered world as a big vessel and bakthi as oil in that vessel and surrender to got as a light , the hymn were called as Thiruandhadi , andhadhi means the ending letter of a verse will be a starting letter for the next verse, similarly both Boothath Azhwar and Pei azhwar also wrote 100s of hymns instantly and this is how Naalaiyira divya prabhandam started.

Even a paper that keep last week is lost and all will have a question how come a hymn written in dwapara yuga was available now, this is the blessing of God and Nammazhwar and Nathamuniyar.

Let's wait till chapter 4 to see how this happened...


Verses to continue...


Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Naalaiyira Divya Prabhandam - Why I wanted to scribe - Chapter - 1


Naalaiyira Divya Prabhandam - 4000 Divya Verses on Lord Vishnu - Chapter - 1





We are getting nearer to the month of Marghazi ( Tamil month), which is unique month for Hindu followers where it is believed that this is the early morning for all Devas and GOD ( approx 1 year is 1 day and Marghazi forms early morning ); hence during this month Viswa Roopa Darisanam is very famous in all ancient temples as people will long to see the god as first thing the moment temple is opened which is Viswa roopa darisanam;

The memories of me of Marghazi goes back to my childhood days in Kanchipuram; Usually marghazi is a cold month and people tend to have good sleep specially in early morning which i am doing today, however in my early days, as a child used to get up early during this month and sit at the outside of the house in a small stone and watch all the cows which were tied in line by their owners to draw milk for the society; ( in villages people do it and buy milk from that society, the so called organic today )

There was  a small space ( still active ) in my street where near by street people will also come and join us to sing hymns in front of GOD pictures ( still remember a 7 feet Tanjore painting of lord Krishna), usually referred in local Tamizh as Bajanai koil at 5.30 AM and most of the kids and teen age students ( that's right , you are reading it right, kids and teen age folks mostly those days , a very rare / non existent sight these days ) get into the Bajanai koil and pick each instrument like drums, flute, nadaswaram and a small instrument that makes ringing sound ( called Jing Chuck ); usually I pick that up and sit next to a person who does drum ( after all these years I had a chance to meet him in my brother's marriage in 2013) and very first hymn starts  "Pallandu Pallandu Palayirathandu Pala Kodi Noorayiram" and goes into Andal Thirupavai Pasurams for 45 mins;



while I sing and do this jing chuck sound in rhyming as anthathi ( ending phrase will be a starting phrase in next verse)  multi-tasking activity which was done unknowingly and it continues till date and key aspect of management that was taught to me in my masters , my eyes will be looking outside the temple every 5 mins to make sure the pongal / sundal / sakarai pongal ( one of it ) is reaching the location of Bajanai temple for distribution at the end of singing hymns and this goes for all 30 days;

Infact it was one of the nicest ideas by elders to distribute food to get more kids and teens and involve them in hymns and bakthi; my very first memory of Marghazi goes like this and still brings me smile, happiness and the taste of ven pongal; without knowing in my age of 4 itself I started to get introduced to this divya prabandam of Lord Vishnu;


Naalaiyira divya prabhandam is all hymns on Lord Vishnu who is the savior of humanity and all hymns are about his kindness,love, beauty , grace and his blessings, this was all sung ,written workshiped and loved by 12 Azhwars at various centuries; The highlight of this is all written in Tamizh which is a unique feature as most of the hymns that we know were all used to be in sanskrit;  These beloved 12 Azhwars were great devotees of Lord Vishnu;

This prabhandam has 4000 verses of covering Lord Vishnu in 108 temples visited and sung by these 12 Azhwars which are called DivyaDesams and majority of it is located specially in southern india with Srirangam Ranganathar temple and Lord Ranganathar being the first of these 108 divya desams where 85 are in Tamilnadu, 11 in Kerala , 2 in Andhra , 4 in UP , 3 in Uttarkand, 1 in Gujarat with the last one Vaikundam where the ultimate Lord Vishnu resides;

It is no wonder that I get introduced to Divya Prabhandam at the tender age of 4 because 15+ Divya desams are in Kanchipuram (Vishnu Kanchi ) which is my birth place and the first of all the Azhwars  - "Poigai Azhwar" was born in Kanchipuram and I am blessed to be born in the same town which contains more spiritual history;

Verses to be continued ... 

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Thank you all for continuously visiting my blog and posts. I was in pause for more than 24 months; but still there has been consistent visitors and thanks to all of you;

I am back to blog and posts and will continue to start posting on spirituality, my Guru, his preachings,

Was pondering for a while if I could expand the blog to cover various aspects of spirituality and still primary focus on my guru and his preachings.

You can start seeing more posts covering various aspects of spirituality, spiritual books, my thoughts , Vedas and for sure about my Guru which is core and heart of this blog.

Thank you to all and your comments, visits are the motivational factor to keep going.

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