For the same perumal in the bharata desam there are several temples. The most temples are for the venkatamudayAn especially in chennai. Similarly in India if we take Andhra pradesh, Karnataka we just cannot count the number of temples for venkatamudayAn. The swami being a varaprasadan, there are temples all around the world, in foreign countries we see several temples not only in existence but new temples are coming up day by day. Just like venkatamudayAn, for the varadarajaperumal, devarajaperumal there are many temples coming up. Also those who like their desired dieties are installing those dieties near the place of their living. A rich man on his own effort constructs his own temple as well.
Building a temple is a hindu samskAram. Wherever there is a ground upon which say about 10 houses are to be constructed, even before the houses are constructed there will be a temple out there first. Very quickly there are many sannadhis coming up there and the temple becomes very big soon which is usually the case. At any significant place or a bus stop, we find there is a temple and like this many temples are coming up. Wherever people are living in all those places, there will be a temple. Even where a factory is setup, inside that we find a temple, inside a cinema theatre there is a temple also. If there are about 50-60 flats, there is a temple constructed inside the flats. If there are about 100-200 flats, it wont be surprising if even for every floor there would be a temple. In chennai, the place nangainallur has several temples. Thanjavur, Madurai, Kanchipuram are all called temple places as there are so many many temples in these places. Just like venkatamudayAn who has so many temples, our vittalan has also several temples in tamil nadu. There are two temples which are very very old. One is the vittalapuram in Tirunelveli and the other is the vittalapuram in Kalpakkam. Ramarayar who is the brother of krishnadevarayar, being a great panduranga bhakthar, the lord panduranga has come before him and would talk to him. In the kshetram of Hampi, he built a very big temple for Panduranga. But due to non-maintenance, the temple became a little dilapilated, even today if we go to Hampi, we can see the foundations of this temple. By looking at the foundations, we can see how big a temple this once used to be. Such a massive temple was built called vittalmandir. In vittalapuram, Tirunelveli, Lord vittal came in the dream and showed this place and from there was a flower going towards a particular place there, by following that flower at a certain point from inside the earth, on its own arose our vittalan. He decided to build a very big and magnificient temple there but due to government changes, he could not build this vittalapuram temple according to his dream. I have heard information on this temple. It has been said that if anyone performs namakeerthanam in front of the sannadhi of this temple very devotedly, there will be a light ("jyothi") seen behind the vittalan. The reason they say is because they had invited many sants and sadhus to this temple and day and night akandanamasankeerthanam was being performed here. If bhagavan has to be with sannidhyam in a certain place, then namakeerthanam is the only way and the easy way. even today if namakeerthanam is performed there, a jyothi is being seen behind the vittalan. Similarly in kalpakkam, the panduranga has sarva sannidhyam, a parama kripAlu. Inside such a temple, if we perform namakeerthanam with bhakthi sraddha, the bhagavan will satisfy all our desires whether a child has to be born, job has to be got or a marriage has to be confirmed, difficulties to be abated. The reason being that bhagavan is with such a sannidhyam. Even in kalpakkam there has been a akandanamakeerthanam. The proof of this is, there is another village close to vittalapuram called bhairaghimatam. Like how we say the sanyasis as samiyAr in the south, in the north they call them as bhairaghis. These bhairaghis will be with virakthi wearing just a small towel around their waist, with a japa mala, beard, long hair with a paduka for walking will on walk itself perform theertha yatras. They will come to rameshwaram, kanyakumari, madurai, srirangam on foot and since they will be performing this japam always they will be filled with such mahimai. For these bhairaghis to have come there and stayed, to have their food this matam must have been established. The reason they must have come is to see the nearby vittalamandir. Because of the greatness of the akandanamakeerthanam they have performed there, even today the vittalan in the vittalapuram near kalpakkam is such a prataksha deivam here. Be it venkatamudayAn, vittalan, varadarajaperumal likewise in pushkar we see a temple meant for purushottaman. There is a temple for udipi sri krisnan in thiruallikEni itself. For Moola rama Sri Raghavendraswami brindavanam, many brindavanams, Mritika brindavan and others are there in so many places. Though we say dakshina pandaripuram and dakshina tirupathi even if the same nithya aradhana and the thiruvAradhanas are performed, tirupathi is still thirupathi and venkatamudayAn is still venkatamudayAn, the vittalan in pandaripuram is still vittalan that cannot be changed. The kshEtram has a mahimai and because of the prabhavam there bhagavan has come to stay in that place. That kshEtram itself has such a power and prabhavam. In Srirangapattanam, there is a beautiful temple for Ranganathar and the Sri Ranganathar himself will be very beautiful to look at. Whomsoever goes to Srirangapattanam they will have the darshan of the Ranganathar there and while going to talacauvery we can see the Ranganathar
Building a temple is a hindu samskAram. Wherever there is a ground upon which say about 10 houses are to be constructed, even before the houses are constructed there will be a temple out there first. Very quickly there are many sannadhis coming up there and the temple becomes very big soon which is usually the case. At any significant place or a bus stop, we find there is a temple and like this many temples are coming up. Wherever people are living in all those places, there will be a temple. Even where a factory is setup, inside that we find a temple, inside a cinema theatre there is a temple also. If there are about 50-60 flats, there is a temple constructed inside the flats. If there are about 100-200 flats, it wont be surprising if even for every floor there would be a temple. In chennai, the place nangainallur has several temples. Thanjavur, Madurai, Kanchipuram are all called temple places as there are so many many temples in these places. Just like venkatamudayAn who has so many temples, our vittalan has also several temples in tamil nadu. There are two temples which are very very old. One is the vittalapuram in Tirunelveli and the other is the vittalapuram in Kalpakkam. Ramarayar who is the brother of krishnadevarayar, being a great panduranga bhakthar, the lord panduranga has come before him and would talk to him. In the kshetram of Hampi, he built a very big temple for Panduranga. But due to non-maintenance, the temple became a little dilapilated, even today if we go to Hampi, we can see the foundations of this temple. By looking at the foundations, we can see how big a temple this once used to be. Such a massive temple was built called vittalmandir. In vittalapuram, Tirunelveli, Lord vittal came in the dream and showed this place and from there was a flower going towards a particular place there, by following that flower at a certain point from inside the earth, on its own arose our vittalan. He decided to build a very big and magnificient temple there but due to government changes, he could not build this vittalapuram temple according to his dream. I have heard information on this temple. It has been said that if anyone performs namakeerthanam in front of the sannadhi of this temple very devotedly, there will be a light ("jyothi") seen behind the vittalan. The reason they say is because they had invited many sants and sadhus to this temple and day and night akandanamasankeerthanam was being performed here. If bhagavan has to be with sannidhyam in a certain place, then namakeerthanam is the only way and the easy way. even today if namakeerthanam is performed there, a jyothi is being seen behind the vittalan. Similarly in kalpakkam, the panduranga has sarva sannidhyam, a parama kripAlu. Inside such a temple, if we perform namakeerthanam with bhakthi sraddha, the bhagavan will satisfy all our desires whether a child has to be born, job has to be got or a marriage has to be confirmed, difficulties to be abated. The reason being that bhagavan is with such a sannidhyam. Even in kalpakkam there has been a akandanamakeerthanam. The proof of this is, there is another village close to vittalapuram called bhairaghimatam. Like how we say the sanyasis as samiyAr in the south, in the north they call them as bhairaghis. These bhairaghis will be with virakthi wearing just a small towel around their waist, with a japa mala, beard, long hair with a paduka for walking will on walk itself perform theertha yatras. They will come to rameshwaram, kanyakumari, madurai, srirangam on foot and since they will be performing this japam always they will be filled with such mahimai. For these bhairaghis to have come there and stayed, to have their food this matam must have been established. The reason they must have come is to see the nearby vittalamandir. Because of the greatness of the akandanamakeerthanam they have performed there, even today the vittalan in the vittalapuram near kalpakkam is such a prataksha deivam here. Be it venkatamudayAn, vittalan, varadarajaperumal likewise in pushkar we see a temple meant for purushottaman. There is a temple for udipi sri krisnan in thiruallikEni itself. For Moola rama Sri Raghavendraswami brindavanam, many brindavanams, Mritika brindavan and others are there in so many places. Though we say dakshina pandaripuram and dakshina tirupathi even if the same nithya aradhana and the thiruvAradhanas are performed, tirupathi is still thirupathi and venkatamudayAn is still venkatamudayAn, the vittalan in pandaripuram is still vittalan that cannot be changed. The kshEtram has a mahimai and because of the prabhavam there bhagavan has come to stay in that place. That kshEtram itself has such a power and prabhavam. In Srirangapattanam, there is a beautiful temple for Ranganathar and the Sri Ranganathar himself will be very beautiful to look at. Whomsoever goes to Srirangapattanam they will have the darshan of the Ranganathar there and while going to talacauvery we can see the Ranganathar
After installing the diety of Sri Ranganathar in Srirangam, the king had a desire that the ranganthar in Srirangapattanam must have the same beauty and magnificence as in the temple of Srirangam. One cannot just describe the beauty of the Lord Sriranganathar in Srirangam, the azhwar so lovingly has described the perumal as "Pachai mamalai pol meni pavala vai kamala senkan". What can match his beauty? Once the ranganathar has been seen, will anyone like to see anything else at all? One would see all other rangan and then only come to Srirangam finally, because if you see ranganathar in Srirangam first, you will not like to see the other perumal divyadesham after that. All 108 divyadesha perumal are within the Sri Ranganathar HIMSELF. Such a Ranganathar, when one sees the face, eyes, nose or mouth, one can just keep on describing each one of them like anything. One describes the greatness of the ranganathar in many ways - HIS sleeping posture, HIS lotus feet, pranavAkAra vimAnam, paravAsudevan, seven prakarams, the cauvery river splitting itself and flowing, the whole of srirangam itself is so beautiful.
Even though the king decided that the temple and perumal must look exactly like the Ranganathar in Srirangam, he felt that there was some shortcoming. There is no such sobhai (beauty) or mahimai (greatness) for some reason. He somehow wanted to make this ranganathar to have the same mahimai like the Ranganathar in Srirangam. A sanyasi came there who was quite adept at all the mantra sastras and tantras and told the king that if he were given some money, he would go to srirangam and perform lots of mantras and tantras and japams with which he could catch hold of the ranganathar sobhai and mahimai and from there he could bring it to Srirangapattanam. He said that he could catch hold of the mahimai in a vessel (kalasam) of water by performing an avAhanam he can bring the same beauty and mahimai. The king was very happy on hearing this and could not control his excitement. He told the sanyasi that if he could do this, he would give anything the sanyasi asked of him. The sanyasi then came to Srirangam. In Srirangam he would have to stand for several hours in the sannadhi of the perumal and by constantly and with concentration, looking at perumal he would need to perform the mantra japam. By looking constantly at the perumal and performing japam, he would be able to attract the beauty of the perumal and then catch the "sobhai" and "mahimai" which he would transfer and store in the water within his kalasam. In that theertha kalasam he need to perform avAhanam continuously. Mantrams can be made avAhanam with fire and water or by veda brahmanars. But it would take days with standing for several hours in the sannidhanam of the perumal. Without any reason if one keeps staring at the perumal for hours and hours and performing mantra japam, people around would be suspicious at what is going on and what is he doing. As this is not something that can be accomplished in a day, it can take months probably years. So he performed an yukthi - what is that? The fact that he is in the sannidhanam and performing mantra japam should not be seen by anyone and he should remain invisible only then he can accomplish his task. When we study the granthams, we come to know a lot of things. There is a mention of a certain herb in the granthas and if that herb is held in one's hand one can become invisible and cannot be seen. sparshavEthi is also being mentioned. Lots of poets have mentioned this. The sparshavEthi, when kept on a block of iron will turn the iron block into a gold block. They mention that such an herb is present. They also mention about the existence of a certain herb or leaf in the mountains, which when consumed, one would not feel hunger at all. With some herbs we apply on our skin and on top even if we apply chilli powder, we will not feel burning sensation or if you fall into fire it will not burn. Like this they say a lot about these herbs. But we do not have direct experience with these herbs, still we hear they exist and read about it. Similarly with mantra sastram there is a dye called "anjanam". It is mentioned that this dye should be made so and so and there is a procedure. Mixing the dye, chanting respective mantras, adding other specific leaves, also taking the castor leaf used to make castor oil, then sun dried and then mixed to come up with what is called as "anjanam". This is described in great detail in the mantra sastras. Once this is made and then applied on the eye, as long as it stays in the eye one will remain invisible. Wherever one goes, he or she will remain invisible to the eyes of the others. For the sanyasi, who was adept in mantra sastras this was very simple and ordinary thing to do. He made the dye and applying it to his eyes stood in front of Sri Ranganathar. Then constantly chanting the "kala Akarshana" mantram, he is pulling the sobhai and mahimai of the lord into the water in the vessel. No one can see either him, his dress or his ornaments or the vessel he is holding in his hand.
Whichever perumal temple, you go, there will be a huge praharam, 100 pillar or 1000 pillar mantapams will be there and in each mantapam there will be lots of writings on the pillars. Whether we go to venkatamudayAn or varadarajaperumal temple, in each of the pillars we can see many moola moorthy being etched on these pillars. Sometimes the perumal etched may be bigger than the main deity itself. But no one would go to the perumal etched in these pillars, pray or perform archana or offer camphor to it. We always search for the perumal in the garbha graham even though we may see bigger perumal or more beautiful looking perumal etched on these pillars. Our mind understands that there is something in the garbha graham, the perumal is so beautiful there, there is a prabhAvam, even though we have several samsara difficulties or problems in our mind, but when we reach the garbha graham, we get a sense of calm and peace to our minds. This is what everyone knows. That is the reason why thousands and thousands of people waiting long hours in a queue come to see the perumal in the garbha graham. For all their difficulties and problems, they come here only. Whether it takes long time, be it hot or rainy weather, coming via some tourist buses, waiting for days, climbing hills and standing in queues for hours on end. Since they know that they get such a calm and peace in the sannadhi of the perumal, that is why people come and search for perumal temples. In such a sannadhi, the mantravadi sanyasi, standing for hours on end is capturing the sobhai and mahimai of the perumal in his kalasam.
Subham
Radhe Radhe
Read more translations of the other episodes at: http://aranganinarumai.blogspot.com/
A Lifetime of Divine Treasure trove of great wisdom galore within Azhaikindran Arangan DVD. Dont miss this in this human lifetime! Order today for all the Complete Episodes...for your own treasured lifetime copy as well as preserving it for the generation next, do not hesitate to contact "Madhuram" - a Unit of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Namabhiksha Kendra +91 94426137102"
