My dear blogger aatmans,

Iniya Deepavali Nalvaazhthukkal

Happy Deepavali.

I am sure that I will be an immense pleasure zone at the end of this blog post . I also would like and hope it to be the same for you guys too. Let me first invoke the blessings of Sri Guruvayoorappan and all the great people who have sung in praise of the glorious deity of Guruvayoor. In fact , this post is going to revolve around gurvayoorappan.I offer my salutations to the balakrishna , who is none other than the Supreme being.

Sri Gurpavana puraadeeshaaya Sri Krishnaaya Parabrahmaney Nama:


Gurupavanapuri Mahaatmyam

In a place ,free of any materialistic contamination , housed in a very simple yet elegant and beautifully structured Keralite temple,5000 years old, is the extremely sacred , four-armed divyaroopam of Sriman Narayana, Gurvayoorappan,the bountiful giver fo those who are dear to him. That beautiful HE, made of a precious and rare stone called as Pathala Anjananam (Black Bismuth) is said to have its origin even before the Satya Yuga (approx 4.5 millions years ago) when Sri Vishnu himself is believed to worship. It was later given to Brahma.

Once King Suthapas and Prsni performed penance for twelve thousand divine years in front of that Idol, which was given to them by Brahma. Lord Vishnu , pleased with their devotion , appeared before them and asked for a boon. Very pleased after seing Vishnu, Suthapas prayed thrice and spoke " It would be good if a son equal to Thee is born". Lord Vishnu replied "Only I am equal to Me. Therefore, I shall Myself incarnate as your son, in order to fulfil your desire. Since you have repeated your prayer thrice, I shall be assuming the aspect of your son in three births." Not long after that, Prsni lord himself incarnated in Prsnis womb as Prsni Garbha, who later propagated the greatness of Brahmacharya to the world.

Likewise ,in the next two births of Prsni and Suthapa , the lord incarnated as Vamana through Aditi and Kasyapa and and as Sri Krishna through Devaki and Vasudeva. After slaying Kamsa, Lord Krishna himself installed and consecrated the idol in Dwarakaa. Before swargarohana , Sri Krishna requested his friend Udhava to entrust the job of rescuing the idol from a deluge to Brhaspathi(Guru) and Vayu. The rescued idol was later installed at a location named after Guru and Vayu as Gurupavanapuri , which later became Guruvayoor in Malayalam. Since, the idol was worshipped by Vishnu himself in Vaikunta, Guruvayoor is referred to as 'Bhooloka Vaikuntha".


Some Tid-bits about Gurupavanapuri

The Gurvaayoor Devaswom is one of the richest in India, only next to TTD, Tirupathi

The gurvayoor temple owns and maintains the largest number of captive elephants (about 63)

It is believed that Adi Shankara was made to prostrate before the detiy when he ignoringly wanted to flew past over the place along with Narada Muni.

The great Bhakthas of Gurupavanpuri

It would be of no wonder to find such a divyaroopavigraham of Sri Krishna to have enchanted and still enchanting many devout hearts. It would be my pleasure to write a bit about some of those people whose bhakthi can't be described in words.

There was once a proficient scholar, who accepted a paralytic disease from his guru owing to his guru bhakthi. Not being able to tolerate the disease, he decided to goto the temple at Guruvayoor and composed each day approx 10 verses (decads) in Sanskrit about the greatness of the Guruvayoorappan for 100 days. At the end of 100 days, he got the vision of Sri Krishna of Guruvayoor and he was cured of his disease. The eminent scholar is none other than Narayana Bhattathiri and the work he composed became to be known as the beautiful Narayaneeyam , an abridged version of Srimad Bhagawatham. It is a gem of a work with profound Jnana, bhakthi and vibhakthi ( beauty of language).

Another great devotee of Lord that used to walk every month 100 kms to darshan the Guruvayoorappan. Once , he was attacked by robbers on his way to Guruvayoor. Sensing the approaching danger, he closed his eyes and cried out "Krishna Krishna". Immediately out of nowhere appeared the local king with his sword and fought the robbers away. The bhaktha immediately took out his ring and presented it to the King. The same night, the chied priest of Guruvayoor had a dream where Krishna appeared and told him that the next day he will find a ring on the idol and told him to take and give that ring to the devout bhaktha who will come tommorow.The next morning events happened exactly the same way and the devotee was totally flabbergasted to find that the ring the chief priest gave is the same ring he gave it to the local king who rescued him from the robbers. Then only he reailzed that it was the Lord himself who had rescued him. The devotee is none other than Poothanam,he author of the Malayala Gita or Jnana Pana, who once humbled Narayana bhattathiri in another incident.

Once there was a virtuous and a devout girl who used to bring garlands to the Lord every day. One day she was late and the temple got closed. Disappointed totally, the girls started to weep. Seeing her, Poonthanam gave her some words of comfort by telling her to keep the garland near the banyan tree since god is everywhere. Having convinced , she place the garlend near the banyan tree and left. The next morning , when the chief priest was removing the garlands , one garland alone got stuck to the idol. Seeing that , Poonthanam immediately noticed that the garland is the same as the one placed by the devout girl. The devout girl's name is Manjula and the banyan tree was later named as Manjulal.


Apart from such great bhakthas , the deity at Guruvayoor had always been adored by the elephants. Some of the elephants very simply extra-ordinary devout animals. Padmanabhan and Kesavan are two of the most remebered elephants. Padamanabhan was nick named "VeeraShringala" owing to his kingly, majestic yet humble nature. Kesavan was nicknamed , 'gajarajan' or the 'king of elephants' . Though Kesavan was more aggresive , he never caused any harm to others. Whenever he turned aggressive , he would run straight towards the the temple and circumambulate the temple . He would stop whenever a child or two crosses his way. He died on an Ekadasi day with his trunks stretched towards Gurvayoorappan. A 12 ft statue has been erected near the temple to commemorate him.

Irayimman Thampi

To conclude this post, I have to mention a few words about Iravivarman Thampi (popularly known as Irayimman thampi), the uncle of the great Maharaja of Travancore state, Swathi Thirunal. He is none other than the composer of the very popular lullaby song, "Omana Thingal Kidavo" , which he composed for the new born baby Swathi Thirunal . There is another compostion of his that was highly popularized by a bhagavatha and musician of Kerala, the late Vengalakural (bronze-voiced:)Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagawathar. That composition, "Karuna Cheyvan Enthu Thamasam Krishna" , was composed by Irayimman on the Guruvayoorappan. It is a very beautiful song ,initially set up in Sri Raaga. It is a compostion that has a Karuna rasa inducing saahitya(lyrics) .

Once , during his concert in Sucheendram, Chembai almost lost his voice. He sought the help of numerous medical experts but none of them were able to cure him. Chembai ,immediately sought the help of Guruvaayoorappan, when he sung this soung aloud in the beautiful karuna rasa inducing raaga "Hari kambhoji". He immediately got back his voice with a never before brilliancy. Even now , his voice remains matchless. After that , he always concluded his concerts with that song. To commemorate his devotion for Guruvayoorappan ,each year, as part of Ekadasi celebrations, Chembai Sangetthostsavam is held.

The fun parts starts now..:) I am going to upload the above mentioned song as rendered by Chembai and a couple of others including the great Me;) . My personal favorite is Chembai's. His rendition is peerless. Even my attempt at this song is based on his version. Since the song is in Malayalam , for the sake of Tamil and other Telugu readers, I am aslo going to have the song transliteration and the meaning. My special thanks to Dr P.P Narayanswamy , who had the translation mailed to me on request.

TRANSLITERATION :

TRANSLATION (Thanks to Dr P.P Narayanswamy)

Why the delay in showing kindness, Lord Krishna,
I worship your feet with my folded palms.

Granting the desires of devotees who seek asylum in you,
You rest in Guruvayoor, oh Lord, remover of all sorrows.

Your chaste feet, lovingly caressed by the Lotus Maiden,
Whether I serve them with reverence from near
Or think of serving them from afar
To you, Whose greatness fills the universe,
This is a matter of indifference.

I have learned from the Sages who have extolled your exploits
That you, Hari, emerald like handsome Lord,
Are the refuge for the teeming humanity
Who live on the surf of the great ocean of suffering called life.

I see you in my heart, handsome as Cupid,
Your hair adorned with peacock feathers,
Your glances, a mixture of compassion and smile
Your chest showing Kousthabham and garlands of wild flowers
Your ankles adorned with jingling golden anklets.

Creator and protector of the worlds
Lord Padmanabha, who resides in Guruvayoor,
May it please you, without delay, with compassion,
To remove my illnesses like rheumatism
And bless me with health and prosperity.

Renditions :

1.KarunaCheyvan - Chembai ( For the carnatic music enthusiast)


2.KarunaCheyvan2 ( soft, cool , Sri ragam)
3.KarunaCheyvan3 ( by Unni Menon)
4.KarunaCheyvan-Me ( great voice ;)



UPDATE:

Here is another rendering of the same song by Sri K.V. Narayana swamy, the disciple of Late Sri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar. Kindly bear with the quality of sound. Also, the song will actually start in the second half of the first mp3 file.

I would also like to encourage the reader to listen the song by following the lyrics and the meaning provided above for maximum enjoyment.

Karunacheyvan ,Shri KVN -PArt 1:


Karunacheyvan ,Shri KVN -PArt 2:

Let me conclude this Diwali Special post by offering my salutatuons to all the great bhakthas , with a special mention to Irayimman Thampi for composing a wonderful composition and of course , Chembai Bhagavathar. If not for him, I wouldnt have gotten a chance to enjoy this nectarine music. Finally, I meditate on the lotus-feets of Guruvayoorappan, who is none other than the Krishna -Vasudeva , the poornavataara of Sri Man Narayana , the destroyer of Narakaasura and all things that are dark and evil.

Hantha Bhaagyam JanAnAm , (Worderful indeed, is the fortune of the mankind)


SRI GURUPAVANAPURADEESHAAYA KAMALAPAADHA SAMARPANAM
JAI SRIMAN NARAYANA