NAALVAR VIZHA

There are hundreds of festivals in a year to be celebrated by Saivites all over the world. All festivals not meant to GOD only but for us participate and become better people and love the all souls in the universe. Festivals like Thaipusam, Maasi Magam, Maha Sivaratiri, Pangguni Uttiram, Sittirai Pournami, Vaikasi Visagam, Aani Uttiram, Aadi Puram, Vinayagar Saturti, Kanda Sashti, Kartigai Theepam, Tiruvembai- Aarutira Tharishanam and etc are few notable festivals to be mentioned. But the very basic essence of Saivism is to get the blessings of GURU- a guide to remove our ignorance from darkness and show the right path in our spiritual life AND without a proper guru's guidance, people are diverted to all kinds of confusion in their religious life.

It is always stressed that a guru must be chosen wisely. According to Tirumantiram, a good teacher or Sadguru is one who is faultless. He helps his disciple to overcome attachment, ego, karma and ignorance so that the latter yearns only for the love of God.He is not a wise guru who is taken up by the noise or show of arguments or petty squabbles. It also warns against the dangers of attaching oneself to a guru who is incapable of guiding a disciple.

"Those who do not accept a guru who will remove their blindness

but accept one who will not are like a blind man

who prances here and there with another and

finally falls into a pit"

A guru may teach the essence of religion, agamas, sacred text, the five lettered mantra-namasivaya or merely look into the soul of the student through the eyes so as to remove all bonds with penetrating look. He may also teach with symbols and postures as Siva, the mauna guru. Others may teach by example, living pure religious lives that may be emulated and followed.The Periyapuranam contains the life stories of such saints who may become models to other spiritual aspirants.

Periya Puranam contains 63 Nayanmarkal and everyone of them had their own way of getting blessings and mokhsa from Sivaperuman. But in reality, the most famous and hardened Saivites follow the footsteps of NAALVAR. Who are they? They are Tirunyanasambantar (Sambantar), Tirunavukkuarasar (Appar), Sundramoorthi Nayanar (Sundarar) and Manikkavasagar. These 4 Saint showed us the Sariya, Kriya, Yoga and Nyana ways to attain Siva's blessings and mukti. These Saints lived in different centuries ( 7-9 AD) but they gave us first 8 THIRUMURAIKAL. Sambantar's first 3 three, namely TIRUKADAIKAPPU, Appar's 4 - 6 as THEVARAM, Sundarar's 7th as THIRUPATTU and lastly Manivasagar's 8th as THIRUVASAGAM.

We must be most gifted Saivites to recite their Thirumuraikal as its our TAMIL AGAMAS or SCRIPTURES which inject us a spiritualism in our challenging life. They guide us to a simple Supreme God concept, truthful, healthy, discipline, respected, loving soul to others, spiritual life with chanting namasivaya, putting tiruneeru, praying at homes and temples, serving to humanity, selfless service, humble, egoless, meditation and wisdom of knowledge and endless good values to human kind. They are not only GURUS but they are good guide to millions of Saivites who are following their teachings in their lives and prospered in many ways.

What is our way of appreciating them for their enormous contribution the Saiva World? The most we can start:

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  reciting their Tirumurais daily for prayers at home and temples



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  follow their footsteps towards spiritualism either sariyai,kriyai, yogam or nyanam



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  propagate their good values and moral teachings to our society



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  encourage to conduct Tirumurai and Religious Classes for all



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  encourage to conduct Guru Poojas and Naalvar Vizha or Festivals



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  encourage to organise Tirumurai Conferences, Forums, Seminars and other Discourses



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  encourage people to involve in SERVICE



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  encourage Paarayanam of Pathigams (Recite Tirumurai in sequence)



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  encourage Annathanam for poor



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  serve all people wherever you are

I hope religious related NGO's in the country, make it compulsory to organise and conduct NAALVAR VIZHA/FESTIVAL annually in their respected places of worship. Its a great and golden opportunity given to us by Siva Himself to organise this Naalvar Festival as RajaRaja Cholan did 1,000 years back to bring back the golden era of Saivism and Tamilsm to the world. NGO's and temples can work together to conduct the Festival. Religion is not ONLY conducting poojas BUT sharing religious knowledge is more important than that. God is beyond kriyas but he loves devotees with full of love and knowledge.

May Siva blesses everyone in the world. sivasiva

Balakrishnan Kandasamy

Tanjai Periya Koil

Tiruchitrambalam. Todays -(9 August 2010) Tamil newspapers carried a story on Tanjai Periya Koil to celebrate 1,000 years of Temple completion on September 25 -26, 2010. Its simply astonishing that Tanjai Periya Koil has stood for the last 1,000 years. Its indeed a remarkable history of our ancestor's great intelligence, high tech knowledge, science background, spiritual guidance and God's blessings itself has stood all the way till now. (Please follow the information provided by Indian Heritage Temples Internet service)

The Brihadeeswarar temple, an imposing structure was built by Raja Raja Chola 1. He had conquered the Chera, Pandiya kings and also crossed the oceans to gain victory over many overseas land including Kadaram (Kedah state in Malaysia). Impressed by the huge magnificent temples and idols of Buddha, he dreamed of erecting a massive temple in his native land for Lord Siva. this temple is also called by various other names such as Rajarajeswaram, Perivudayar Koil, Adavallan Koil and Periya Koil.

The temple was built in a short span of six years. The imposing Vimana rises to a height of 216 feet with 14 storeys. the Sikhara built in accordance with Silpa Sastra is crowned with a massive dome consisting of a single stone that weighs 80 tons. And over it is placed an octagon shaped Stupa and a 12 feet high Kalasam. To lift and carry this gigantic stone to the top, an inclined road about 6 miles long was laid out, emulating the technique adopted by the Egyptians while constructing the decorate this Vimana from top to bottom. Though the Dravidian style of temple architecture predominates, there is indeed a harmonious blend of the Nagara, Vesara and Dravidian styles.

The arch way at the first entrance, called the Kerlanthakan gate way rises to a height of 90 feet. Next comes the grand gate called Raja Raja Vaasal embellished with exquisitely carved figures. Beyond this lies the sculptural wealth studded in the courtyard measuring about 500 feet long and 250 feet wide, and is surrounded by a high compound wall with a deep moat to its eastern and western sides.

The shrine for Parvathi, called Periya Nayaki was originally located in a garden in the north of the temple. During the Nayak regime, it was transferred to a grand shrine built in the first prakara. the shrine for the six faced Murugar carved out of single rock lies at the northern end of the west quadrangle. the enormous monolithic Nandi is installed in a high pavilion right in front of the garbha griha. It measures 19 1/2 feet in length; 8 1/4 feet in breadth; 12 feet in height and weighs 25 tons. The black Siva Linga, carved out of a single rock is considered the second biggest, next to the one in Lepakshi. It is 9 feet in height and 23 1/2 feet in circumference. It is installed on a high flat dias measuring 54 feet in circumference and 6 feet in height.There is an archaeological museum in the temple yard. The history of the Chola kings and the temples are depicted in sculpture and paintings.

There are other more info on this temple to be read in website dedicated to Tanjai Periya Koil. I hope this info give a picture on temple built race people- Tamils to be proud of and see that at least we, in Malaysia follow the temple building concept and philosophy to be followed whenever to build a temple- be it a small temple but just follow the agamic structure.

May Siva bless every soul in the world. sivasiva

Balakrishnan Kandasamy

HH Kundrakudi Adigalar Speech.

Tiruchitrambalam. The second day Tamil Devotional Literature Conference begin one hour late as less than 50 devotees only seated in the hall. A VIP- Dato' G.Palanivel as Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, was invited for special address. Palanivel presented or rather read a "ready made" Special Address on bakthi Literature. As a Saivite and Tamil speaking person, I was disappointed with his, so called special address- he cant even pronounce the words correctly and he was not prepared at all for the Conference. The organisers could have invited him because maybe he is a Deputy Minister and a staunch follower and devotee of Aiayappan. But for me he read from his lips not from his heart on spiritualism.

After the special address, it started with former MHS President Datuk A.Vaithilingam, as the Chairperson for HH Kundrakudi Adigalar's first session at 10.15 am. Vaithi did his best to do the introduction on various kind of prayers offered to God and how it can be standardized for the benefit of devotees. He asked to comment on slaugthering of goats in the name of God.

After Vaithi's long intro, HH Kundrakudi Adigalar presented a 50 minutes speech on Saivites way of prayers offered to Siva by various Nayanmarkal by quoting Tirumurai, Tiruvasagam, Periya Puranam, Tirukural, Tirupugal and etc. HH Adigalar gave a brief intro on how Saivism was in the darkness from 1-7 AD (century) and the rise of Great Saiva Cannons- Tirunyanasambantar, Appar, Sundrar and many other Nayanmarkal guided us to a golden Saiva era whereby hundreds of Tamil Bhakti literature were born from 7 - 12 century.

What are best practices found in our Bhakti literature- temple worship was stressed by our saints not because they feel and see God within themselves and in temples but to start with with some guide on God worshipping and make an individual more matured in spirituality.

What is important - most for prayers ? love and feeling/emotion. What Kannappar Nayanar did to Siva ? by donating his eyes and others can't do till now. It's not what we offered to God but how much love and passion we have towards God. Love with passion and feeling is a like a bomb which can do wonders.! Worshipping needs Prayers, love, emotion, feelings and not much of intelligence. Sandeeswarar was praying and doing abishegam to SivaLingam when his father was try to stop it and Sandeeswarar chopped his father's both legs. This is another kind of devotion.

Prayers should be simple and truthful but it should be done continuously and consistently throughout our life. There is no difference between Siva and Love & love and Siva, which carries the same meaning and concept. By chanting sivayanama in all their activities, actions, meditations, the Saints have attained mokhsa.

HH Adigalar insists in simple worship with love and truth as our 63 Nayanmarkal have shown to the Saivite world. God is omnipresent and omnipotent but to seek him we need to be humble, simple, transparent, truthful, non-egoistic and love Him.

Siva is willing to listen your Tirumurai and Tiruvasagam, but are you chanting it!! Please start your day as tirumurai day and enjoy the bliss of Siva forever..!

May Siva bless you!

Balakrishnan Kandasamy

Tamil Devotional Literature Conference

Last two days ( 6-7 August 2010) I was attending MHS's Tamil Devotional Literature Conference at Kala Mandabam, Jalan Scott, Kuala Lumpur. The organisers should be praised for their gallent effort for the last 3 months to make it happen by bringing His Holiness Kundrakkudi Ponnambala Adigalar and three others from Tamil Nadu. The first day, opening ceremony was done by Human Resourse Minister Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam and followed by launching of a Velli Vilakku Book- a weekly religious article collection for 52 weeks, published in 3 Tamil dailies every Friday. Its good and nice to see after a very long gap (maybe 2-3 years)MHS is publishing a religious book for the Tamils, especially Saivites. I must thank the organisers, especially Dr.K.thilagavathi and Mr.Ganesh Babu who personally invited me to the stage to receive the Velli Vilakku book from HH Adigalar as I was involved in the Editorial earlier of last year.

HH Adigalar gave a spiritual speech touching on many Saivite literature- 12 Thirumurais, Tirupugal, Periya Puranam and many other aspect of life and devotion to God with tear jerking jokes and meaningful life stories. The speech was full of spirituality, devotion, feeling of Tamilsm, siddhanta philosophy and I believe everyone of them enjoyed the dynamic speech. The most gifted and luckiest people were there to listen and enjoy the spiritual journey of the soul.

Everything went smoothly and as planned for the Conference except the CROWD-DEVOTEES. Its really disappointing for the organisers as they have done everything according to the book-write up in newspapers, announcement in both Minnal fm and THRraga, interviews in ASTRO, Viluthugal, BERNAMA news, invitations and letters to all NGO's, MHS State and Local Branches, etc YET there are hardly 120 people on the opening day and 60 people on the 2nd day Conference. Why there are few people only...!Promo is one way to invite people but who is in the field to liase and bring the crowd...! Sub Committee Meetings are good for the Conference but its not good enough to pull and bring the crowd. What happen to the State MHS leaders and their Branch members..! Are they not aware of the Conference? Yes, I heard, they are busy organsing thirumurai vizha BUT what respect we are giving to HH Adigalar!!

Enough for today and I'll comment on speeches tomorrow.

May Siva bless every soul in the world.

Balakrishnan Kandasamy