Shri Velukkudi Swamy Announced a trip to Kanchipuram on 3rd Apr 2017 , tracing Ramanuja’s life.
This came as a boon to us, as it also happened to be our Ubayam of First day of Panguni Uttiram festival in Kanchi Varadaraja temple.
We left early around 5:30am in our vehicle and had wonderful darshan in Sriperumpudur, as it was also the “Ardra” nakshatram day and the last of the monthly celebrations of Aacharyas Sahasrabdhi year.
Ilayazhwar was born here in this Boothapuri kshetram. We offered our prayers at Yathirajanathavalli thayar sametha Adikesava swami temple and at Acharyas sannidhi.
Here Ramanuja’s thirumeni is Thamugantha thirumeni. Huge temple with beautifully carved pillars.
We then proceeded to Thiruputkuzhi,on the Bangalore highway nearer to Kanchipuram.
Here we worshipped Maragadhavalli thayar sametha Sri Vijayaraghava Perumal. By the time we reached here, few of about 50 bus full of devotees also had come.
Sri Velukkudi swamin announced the day’s program from the mandapam where Illaiyazhwan learnt Advaitha philosophy from Sri Yadavaprakasa.
Kinchitkaram trust of Sri Velukkudi Krishnan swamy had arranged for a healthy hot pongal with gothsu.
We had this breakfast and left for Salaikinaru near the village Sevilimedu.
Story of Salaikinaru.
As Illaiyazhwan was stranded in the forests of Vindhya ranges, Perumal and Piratti appeared as hunter and wife and directed him homewards. After the night’s rest in the forest, in the wee hours of next morning the hunters wife wanted to quench her thirst and Ramanuja found a well, “Salaikinaru” from where he brought water just to find the hunter couple missing.
Illaiyazhwan recognized the place as Kanchipuram from the passersby and could see Punniya koti vimanam/ Kanchipuram. A flash in his mind suggested that the hunter couple was none other than Perarulalans. He decided to do kaingaryam to The Lord by taking water daily for thirumanjanam of the divine couple from then on.
In front of The Salaikinaru, Me, Rangaji and my sisterinalw Usha.
There is a well maintained Ramanuja sannidhi here, nearby the well and opposite of the sannidhi we could see the anushtana kulam.
Next we went into Thoopul...Which is the birthplace of Swami Desikan. In Thoopul we had darshan of Acharyan Desikan who had a haram with two pendants , one with Ramanujar and the other with Lord Lakshmi Haygreeva, Desikan’s Aradya perumal.
Then we went to the adjacent Vilakkoli or Deepaprakasar Perumal who showed the light to Brahma’s yagnam.
Saraswati was not invited to the Yagna performed by Brahma, she came rolling by to stop the Yagna as river Vegavathi and Lord stopped her by lying down in her path, as Vegasethu perumal. Then she put out all lights to prevent the yagna. Lord Narayanan showed the lights and hence Deepaprakasar.
Then onto Ashtabuja Perumal darshan. This Perumal holds eight weapons in his eight hands, Bow, Arrow, Sword, Shield, Mace, Sudarsanam, Sarngam and Lotus. The thayar is Pushpavalli thyar. There is a tank nearby with plenty of white lotus. Gajendra moksham is remembered in this temple.
At the Vardar temple we rush in to beat the crowd and race up to the Athigiri to have a fulfilling darshan of Vardar, tall, strong smiling and always offering solace.
We also had darshan of Perundevi thayar, with huge ear rings, maattal, bullakku .
Every corridor , every pillar in this temple has a hoary past. Illaiazhwan was “shown” by ThirukkachiNambigal to Sri Alavandar near Karimannikka perumal sannidhi corridors.
It is in this Vardar sannidhi that ThirukachiNambigal held conversations with Vardar, updating him frequently on the goingson in the village. It is here that Vardar told him the 6 commandments to be passed on Ilayazhwar.
It is in this temple tank, “Ananthasaras” that Ilayazhwar took sanyasam. He also gets the name “Ramanuja”. It is the Ananthasaras theertham under which the AthiVaradar resides choosing to come out once in 40 years and the next darshan is expected in 2019.
Shri Velukkudi Swami gave us a short discourse on Ilayazhwan’s life gracefully sitting on the steps of nootrukaal Mandapam.
Lunch, again was arranged by Kinchitkaram trust in a nearby marriage hall. After lunch we relaxed near the Mandapam in the temple.
It was extremely hot and walking in the temple was a rigorous task.
We went to the Udayavar Sannidhi on the south side of the temple, where again Swami gave a very informative discourse.
There is a Ramanujar Thirumaligai on the east side where arrangements were made for people to be seated on chairs. There is a Marble statue of Sri Ramanuja here and just outside this Thirumaligai, there is a well which was the catalyst for Illayazhwan to become Ramanuja ( He took sanyasasramam).
A discourse by Sri velukkudi was held here too.
We stayed in the temple where we participated in our utsavam which commenced around 6:15pm. till about 8:15 pm and left for Chennai.
The other devotees went to Sriperumputhur from here by buses .
We took the Padapai route and reached home around 10.30pm, in a record hour and half.
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