Perur...

Perur Temple Gopuram

Pattieswarar Pachai Nayagiamman

The Garba graha of this temple was built by Karikala Chola in the early Christian era. It is a Shiva shrine with a Swayambumoorthy. The Sthalapuranam states that when the calf of Kamadhenu was playing in the forest of arasu trees its legs got plunged into a hard object from which blood gushed out. It was then discovered that the object was nothing but a sacred Siva Lingam. Later on a temple came to built over the Moolasthanam which attracted large concourse of people throughout the land. The place became a Vaipu Sthalam in Saivalore. Since it was sung by Saint Appar and by Saint Sundarar in their Devaram.

Spare its entry tower, the bulk of the temple ishidden by the multitude of small commercialestablishments that surround its presence. The towerpainted with modern paint stands out proclaiming theexistence of the temple, the very appearance of thetower conceals the antiquity of this temple datingback to the Sangam period of Tamill history.

For its historical and religious significance, thetemple is relatively moderate in size, especially whencompared to the Saivite temples of the Chola region. The five tiered gopuram mentioned above marks the entrance to the temple. The mandapam encountered as soon as one enters the temple, bears murals representing the life of the Saivaite saints on its ceiling. The Nataraja shrine itself is a work of art. In front of the shrine is a mandapam constructed bythe royal patron Alagadri Nayakar of Madurai, withseveral pillars with life sized images depicting thevarious manifestations of Shiva. Also painted on the ceiling of this mandapam are images depicting scenesfrom Saivite mythology.

Visitors to the temple are confronted with the grandeur of the Kanakasabha hall on their right as they enter the temple. Straight ahead is the main sanctum dedicated to Patteeswarar - Shiva.The sanctum enshrines Shiva in the form of a Shivalingam. Against the rear of the wall is an imageof Kamadhenu. The image of Kamadhenu is movable, anduntil a while ago, the traditional abhshekams to theShivalingam used to be performed with the Kamadhenu positioned above the Shivalingam. Kamadhenu's presenceis in conformity with the legend that Shiva here was worshipped by Patti the daughter of the celestial cow Kamadhenu. An image of Bhoga Shakti is also enshrined in the sanctum.Surrounding the sanctum is the inner circumambulatory passage, with images of the 63 Saivite saints, SahasraLingam, Bhairavar, Surya and Chandra. The nichesaround the sanctum bear shrines to Durga, Dakshinamurthy and other parivara devatas.The outer circumambulatory path leads one to the Ambalshrine, housing an image of Maragathaambaal or Pachainayagiamman. Proceeding further around the externalcircumambulatory path, one reaches the mandapamhousing the processional deities of the Pancha murthis(Ganesha, Subramanya, Somaskanda, Parvati,Chandikeswara) and others. Proceeding further down the circumambulatory path, onereaches the Kanakasabha mandapam, housing an ornate shrine to Nataraja & Sivagami. Keeping with the legend that Shiva here was worshipped by Bhrahma and Vishnu in the forms of the sages Gomuni and Patti muni, there are two additional temples to Shiva on the banks of the temple tank. One of these temples is known as the Arasambalavaanar temple, wherelegend has it that Shiva revealed a vision of his cosmic dance to the two sages. This is also a fullfledged Saivite temple with shrines toArasambalavaanar, Ambaal and others. There are alsoshrines to Bhairavar and Nataraja.

Worship: Five worship services are carried out eachday and this temple resonates with the singing of the Tevaram hymns.

Particular significance is the Arudra Darisanam festival in the month of Maargazhi where thousands of people congregate to celebrate.

The annual festival is celebrated in the Tamil month ofPankuni.

Mondays in the tamil month of Kaartikai areconsidered special and are marked by Shankhabhishekam in the morning and by annabhishekam in the evening.

The Perur Natyanjali dance festival is celebrated inthe month of September where dance programs by leadingartistes are hosted within the precincts of thetemple.

Sri Raghavendrar...

Sri Raghavendrar

Sri Raghavendra (1595 – 1671 A.D.) has a unique place in the lineage of Masters, because He is said to be still living in his ‘samAdhi’ at Mantralayam on the banks of the Tunga-bhadra river in South India. He voluntarily entered this samAdhi in 1671 A.D. and his disciples, on his orders built the structure of the samAdhi over his seated posture from which he left the mortal frame by his own will. He has declared that he will ‘live’ in this samAdhi’ for 700 years. It was God’s Will it seems that Sanku-karNa a close attendant-devotee of Lord Brahma the Creator Himself should be born repeatedly in this earthly world and be a great spiritual leader of humanity. Mantralaya was chosen by the Master as the right spot because the great devotee Prahlada had performed several ritual sacrifices here which makes the spot very auspicious. Also it was the same spot where Lord Rama once sat down in his historic wanderings through the forest .

The celestial Sanku-karNa was first born as Prahlada (in the very first manvantara), again as VibhIshaNa (Ravana's brother) in Rama’s time and again as vyAsa-tIrtha, the spiritual leader of the madhwa school in the 15th century A.D. This leader was the twelfth Pontiff of the Dvaita mutt known by his name. His contributions to the dvaita culture and philosophy and to the growth of the dvaita mutt were many. He establsihed 732 idols of Hanuman all over India. He was the guru of the Vijayanagara kings. He wrote valuable commentaries and propagated the madhwa philosophy very successfully. He initiated the gret devotee Purandara-dasa who was himself an Avatara of Narada the divine sage.

Then came the avatAra of Sri Raghavendra. Even as a youth Sri Raghavendra then known as Venkatanatha was not interested in worldly pursuits or a married life. The Goddess of Learning appeared before him in person and guided him to decide to throw away his worldly ties, his wife, his kith and kin, and adopt the ochre robe, which is what his own mind wanted. What followed was a long life of renunciation and dedication, ornamented by scores of miracles, several of which have been documented. He wrote more than forty works bearing on the teachings of Madhwa and the dvaita philosophy

In this avatAra Raghavendra captured the imagination of millions through his scholarship, devotion, spirituality, the divine qualities of infinite grace and compassion and his mystical powers of perception and action. It is said that his accumulated merit (= puNya) is so vast that as an enlightened soul he himself has no use for them. In his infinite compassion he lives still in his samAdhi and dispenses this vast store of puNya to those who care to visit his samAdhi or to worship Him and seek His grace. In fact this is the way he says he is helping his favourite God zri-Rama by relieving Him of His burden of removing the miseries of devotees, so that in the long run the devotees may ask from the Lord SrI Rama for the moksha that He alone can bestow. That is why He is thought of as the wish-yielding heavenly tree (= kalpa-vRkSa) or the divine Cow kAma-dhenu which both can bestow on you anything you want, just the moment it is wished. This thought is inbuilt into the following classical prayer traditionally addressed to Sri Raghavendra.

The words satya-dharma-ratAya ca are significant here. Truth (satya) and righteousness (dharma) are the two pillars on which the entire Hindu philosophy and religion stand. And of the two satya is more fundamental and is the one foundation for everything. satya has the top priority in Hindu dharma. It is independent of caste, creed, status of life, profession, tradition, lineage, race or sex. All other dharmas are dependent on satya. So the Ultimate is addressed as satya-dharma in the final prayer contained in verse 15 of ISopanishad: The face of Reality is hidden by the golden container. Reveal it, O Sun, so that I may visualise the Dharma of the Self as Truth. :

The Sun is the only physically visible representative of the Supreme Truth, Divine Light, brahman, in this earthly world - if we cannot see or visualise the whole universe as brahman itself. He is the One therefore, who illuminates us from within. Our limited consciousness has to open up to the Infinite Consciousness represented by the Sun. The allegory of the golden container in the above passage is full of meaning. The sanskrit word pAtra is derived from the definition: pIyate anena iti pAtram -- that by which we 'drink', i.e., experience. We experience the good and bad results of our past karma from this reservoir of our samskAra (store of cultural imprints in the mind) which brings forth our cycle of births and deaths.There are three seeds for this sprouting forth of our samskAras and vAsanAs. The three are: Light (cit), Existence (sat) and Love (Ananda). They respectively activate, our Intelligence from its state of ignorance and inertness, our Life (i.e., birth and death) from its state of formless subtlety and our Mind from its states of love and hate. These activations express themselves in our wish to know, our wish to live, and our wish to enjoy -- these three being in turn sustained by one's father through knowledge, one's mother through food, and one's spouse through pleasure and companionship. (For more on this go to Three fundamental urges ). This then is the whole cycle of our samsAra. The reervoir for all this is the golden container representing the reservoir of all our vAsanAs.The creator, BrahmA, through whom this blossoms in the world as Life, is called HiraNya-garbha (Golden Conception) in this charge of His. So the rays of the Sun which are golden in colour and which constitute the blinding factor for not allowing us to see the Sun, the Reality, constitute, as it were, the golden container of our vAsanAs. The only Seer is the HiraNya-garbha who sees it all through. Our individuality, our names and forms, our inner organ of mind with all its ramifications, its accessories in the form of our sense organs -- all these are created by this HiraNya-garbha, who gives the Light to all of them. He is therefore the savitA, the Sun. So we ask Him, plead with him and request him to remove the blinding rays from himself, because the seeds of our samskAras are with him, so that we can see Him as He really is. He is the One who can make us transcend our individuality and make us see the Oneness of Spirit within. This vision of the dharma of the Self as Truth is Sri Raghavendra.

Dasaavathar of LORD VISHNU

Lord Vishnu

The preserver god of the Trinity has four hands. The first holds a conch shell (sankha) indicating spread of the divine sound "Om"; one holds a discus (chakra), a reminder of the wheel of time, and to lead a good life; one holds a lotus (Padma) which is an example of glorious existence and the fourth hands holds a mace (gada) indicating the power and the punishing capacity of the Lord if discipline in life is ignored. His vehicle is the swift-flying bird Garuda which can spread the Vedic knowledge with great courage. The dark color of the Lord represents the passive and formless ether, a great quality for a pervading god. He rests on the bed of the powerful, coiled serpent, Seshanag who represents the sleeping universe. Lord Vishnu is also known as Hari, the remover. Lord Vishnu's consort is Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth .

Lord Vishnu's preserving, protecting powers have been manifested to the world in a variety of forms, called Avatars, in which one or more of his divine attributes were embodied in the shape of a human being or an animal or a human-animal combined form, possessing great and sometimes supernatural powers. All these Avatars of Vishnu appeared in the world either to correct some great evil or to effect some great good on earth. These avatars are ten in number, however, the Bhag wad Purana increases them to twenty two and adds further that are innumerable.Of the ten universally recognized avatars, nine have already manifested whereas the tenth is yet to appear. It is important to note that the all the Avatars are earthly form of Lord Vishnu , who himself is eternal, unchangeable and immutable.

Matsa Avathar

Kurma Avathar

Varaha Avathar

Narashima Avathar

Vamana Avathar

Parasurama Avathar

Rama Avathar

Balarama Avathar

Krishna Avathar

Kalki Avathar