DEIVATHIN KURAL # 118 (Vol # 5) Dated 26 Jan 2012

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 118 (Vol # 5) Dated 26 Jan 2012

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by PeriyavaaL of Kanchi Kaamakoti Peetam, over a period of some 60 years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of the last century. These have been published by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each as Deivathin Kural. Today we are proceeding from the last para on page No 731 of Vol 5 of the Tamil original. The readers may note that here in 'man/he' includes 'woman/she' too mostly. These e-mails are all available at http://Advaitham.blogspot.com updated constantly)
663. When there is a spiritually sacred temple or tomb of a saint, its divine vibrations would be spread over a radius of ‘Pancha Krosa’, that is, some 10 to 12 miles all around. There is a Sivapuram located some 3 and ½ miles away in the SE direction from Kumbakonam, we can say that Kumbakonam falls within the Pancha Krosa limits of Sivapuram. Like we have Greater Bombay and Greater Delhi, Sivapuram will come within Greater Kumbakonam, so to say. As Sivapuram and Kumbakonam are located close to each other, in Kerala, Kaladi and Trichur (Sivapuram) are co-located. There is sufficient evidence that those Tamilians who went to Kerala named the new areas the same as what they had left behind. Then we can guess that the residents from Sivapuram (near Kumbakonam) named the new place also Sivapuram, which has retained the Sivapuram name in Sanskrit and become Trichchur in the colloquial. There in Trichchur the (would be) parents of our AachaaryaaL prayed to Siva there and got an assurance that he will be born as their child. AachaaryaaL’s connection to Kumbakonam does not finish there. I will give you details of a closer relation.
664. Our AachaaryaaL’s father’s name was Sivaguru. Guru means a big man. So, it was the custom to call the respectable gentleman who gives Upadesa as Guru and so also, since the child’s father is the first to teach many things to the toddler, the biological father is also referred as Guru only. Thus it is very appropriate that Siva Avatara’s father’s name is Sivaguru. Similarly the name of our AachaaryaaL’s mother also matches perfectly. A gentleman in Sanskrit is addressed as ‘Aarya’. Our AachaaryaaL was of course a perfect gentleman and so an Aarya. His mother is ‘Amba’ or ‘Amma’ as the mother of Aarya, has to be Aarya + Amba = Aaryaamba; and that happened to be her real name too!
665. Let us come back to the matter of Sivaguru. This is quite an uncommon name both in the South and North India. Siva himself is the Guru of all and so is Sivaguru. Kumara Swami as the one who gave Upadesa to his own father is also a Sivaguru. But, amongst mortal human beings, our AachaaryaaL’s father is the one and only Sivaguru by name! The name is so rare! But within Tamil Nadu, only in one area this name is quite common and that happens to be the general area of Kumbakonam! There are many people here with names such as ‘Sivaguru Naathan Chettiyaar, Sivaguru Pillay, and Sivaguru Udaiyaar’. Do you know as to why it is so? The presiding deity in the Sivan Kovil at Sivapuram is known as ‘Sivaguru Naathan’! Then also the Swami Malai, where Kumara Swami gave Upadesa to his own father Siva, is also located within that Pancha Krosa (ten to twelve miles) circumference of Kumbakonam. Having given that title to the son in Swami Malai, here the father has retained the same name for himself! He is Siva as the primordial Guru of all and his son is the Guru of his own father and the Malayala Brahmin Sivaguru is the father of the Siva Avatara, our AachaaryaaL! One name of which there are three different types!
666. This Malayala Brahmin has the name of the presiding deity of the temple at Sivapuram. He has prayed to God at the Malayala Sivapuram at Trichchur to grant him a boon to get a son! What is the lesson that we can discern out of the connections that I have brought out? It is crystal clear that, in the times of yore when Parasurama enabled the migration of Brahmins known as Sozhiyas, it was from Sivapuram near Kumbakonam and that the place they migrated to was Trichchur. When that class of Brahmins settled and spread around Trichchur, Sivaguru’s father or grandfather must have shifted slightly and settled in Kaladi. But, they must have remained faithful to the deity at Sivapuram and the same deity installed in the temple at Trichchur that; Sivaguru’s father Vidyaadiraja must have given that very name of their favourite deity to his son. Then that son Sivaguru wished for a son, he went to the same deity at Trichchur! So, we can guess that our AachaaryaaL’s ancestors must have been the Kumbakonam Sozhiyas only.
667. OK. What more can be the greatness of Kumbakonam? That is the place where at the time of Pralaya (dissolution of the world), the Amirta Kumbha is said to have come ashore. (Like the Noah’s Ark in Christian mythology, Indian mythology talks about a golden pot aka Amirta Kumbha, which survived the Armageddon and made it possible for creation to restart. The place got its name Kumbakonam from that incident only.) More than that, while the Amirta Kalasam initiates further creation and involvement in the affairs of the world, the Amirta Kalasam of Adwaita Anubhuti that our AachaaryaaL has installed as an eternal spring of nectarous flow, selected that particular class of Brahmins for his Avatara to be born amongst, is the greatest of its greatness!
668. This must have been one of the important reason that, when the 62nd Mataadipathy had to establish a second capital for his Matam, the fact that Kumbakonam was the original place of our AachaaryaaL’s ancestors, could influence the decision in its favour. Like Sri Rama is specially related to Surya Vamsam, our AachaaryaaL had a special relation with the general area of Kumbakonam. His life in the mortal body ended in Kanchipuram. But it all started in Kumbakonam. For the Avatara to take place, the boon was obtained by his father from the presiding deity of Sivapuram, Sivaguru Naathan! So, Kumbakonam was not only the starting point for all evolution but also the place of our AachaaryaaL’s ancestors!
669. If our AachaaryaaL’s father is so closely related to Kumbakonam, his mother Aaryaamba was connected to Kanchipuram, rather intimately! Like Sivaguru, Aaryaamba is also a rare name. In Kerala on the way to Sabari Mala there is place known as Aaryankaavu. Aaryan refers to the presiding deity at Sabari Mala also known as Aiyappa. Aaryan in Sanskrit becomes Ayyan in Tamil. This word Ayyan with apparent respect becomes ‘Aiyanar’, which is something like Sir! Appa is like Dad or Daddy in English. So, Aiyappa is something like ‘Sir, Father!’ What is considered as village deities all over Tamil Nadu are these Ayyappas and Aiyanar-s only.
670. Aaryaa is the name of Parameswara’s consort, AmbaaL. In the Sanskrit dictionary, a number of names for AmbaaL are listed as, ‘Uma, Kaatyaayani, Gowri and then Aaryaa, Daakshayani and Saiva Girija. Especially in the form of ‘Tripura Sundari’ with the bow, arrows, paasa (the lassoing rope) and ankusa (the sharp instrument in the hands of the handler of elephants), and is of the reddish hue, called ‘Aaryaa’! Kamaakshi AmbaaL in Kanchipuram is with those very form and defining features! She is referred to as ‘Kamaakshi Maha Tripurasundari Lalitaambika’. The methodology for doing pooja to Kanchi Kamaakshi was originally deviced by Durvaasa Muni. He has written a work known as ‘Aarya Dvisati’ of 200 poems. There is another work addressed towards Kamaakshi known as the ‘Panchasati’ of 500 poems by Mookar, in which the first hundred poems are together known as ‘Aarya Sadakam’!
671. It is a well known fact that AmbaaL did Tapasya to regain Siva’s favour, in Kanchipuram. This is referred in Kanda PuraaNam, Daksha Kaandam, 21st Padalam, 15th song which starts with the word ‘vaaridigaL’; says that the place was ‘aaryai tavam seipadi’ meaning where ‘Aarya did the Tapasya’! So the very special name of Kanchi Kamaakshi was given to our AachaaryaaL’s mother! As Siva’s father (Guru) is Sivaguru; our AachaaryaaL, who is a perfect gentleman and so an ‘Aarya’; and his mother rightfully is ‘AryaambaaL’! A well deserved parents of a very well deserved son, our AachaaryaaL!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.