rule for pradakshinam or circumambulation

പദാത് പദതരം ഗത്വാ കരൌ ചലന വര്‍ജിതൌ
വാചാ സ്തോത്രം ഹൃദാ ധ്യാനം ഏവം കുര്യാത് പ്രദക്ഷിണം
पदात् पदतरं गत्वा करौ चलन वर्जितौ वाचा स्तोत्रं हृदा ध्यानं एवं कुर्यात प्रदक्षिणम्
padaat padataram gatwaa karau chalan varjitauvaachaa stotram hrudaa dhyaanam evam kuryaat pradakshnam
This is an old traditional rule about performing circumambulation (Pradakshinam) in the abode of God..
One should do the pradakshinam like this
 Each step should be placed very close to the previous step almost exactly following the heel of the first step with the toe of the next 
Both hands should be kept close to the torso without moving
The lips should utter only the stotras in praise of the deity The heart should constantly meditate on Him
ഒരു പാദത്തിനു തൊട്ടു പിന്നില്‍ അടുത്ത പാദം വച്ച് കൈകള്‍ രണ്ടും  ആട്ടുകയും അനക്കുകയും ചെയ്യാതെ വച്ചുകൊണ്ട്  ചുണ്ടുകള്‍ ഭഗവാന്റെ സ്തോത്രം ചൊല്ലിയും ഹൃദയത്തില്‍ ഭഗവാനെ ധ്യാനിച്ചും കൊണ്ട് പ്രദക്ഷിണം ചെയ്യേണ്ടതാണ്

eternally blessed ..

असारभूते संसारे सारमेतत्चतुष्टयः।

काशीवासः सतां सङ्गः गङ्गांभः शंभुपूजनं॥ 

asārabhūte saṁsāre sārametatcatuṣṭayaḥ| 

kāśīvāsaḥ satāṁ saṅgaḥ gaṅgāṁbhaḥ śaṁbhupūjanaṁ|| 

The life on this earth is so empty and frustrating.. 

But four things can impart vitality and meaning to the human life which is otherwise of little value. 

They are 

1.. Stay in the city of Kaashi, the abode of the master of the world 

2. Remaining always in the company of noble souls... satsang 

3. Being blessed with the holy waters of Ganga 

and 

4. Having the fortune to worship Lord Shambu the Maheshwara.. 

Usually those who happen to live in the city of Kashi become fortunate to have the other three also.. 

Indeed, they are blessed million times..

അസാരഭൂതേ സംസാരേ സാരമേതത്ചതുഷ്ടയഃ।
കാശീവാസഃ സതാം  സംഗഃ  ഗംഗാംഭഃ ശംഭുപൂജനം॥

ഒരു എത്തും പിടിയും കിട്ടാത്ത അതീവ ദുഷ്കരമായ ഈ ഭൂമിയിലെ ജീവിതത്തില്‍ ഏറ്റവും അര്‍ത്ഥവത്തും അനുഗ്രഹപ്രദവുമായ നാല് കാര്യങ്ങള്‍

1 ലോകനാഥനായ വിശ്വനാഥന്‍റെ തട്ടകമായ കാശിയില്‍ ജീവിക്കുക
2. മനസ്സുകൊണ്ടും വാക്കുകൊണ്ടും ശരീരം കൊണ്ടും നന്മ മാത്രം കരുതുന്ന, നന്മ മാത്രം ചെയ്യുന്ന  മഹത്തുക്കളുമായുള്ള സത്സംഗം
3 ഗംഗാ മാതാവിന്റെ തീര്‍ത്ഥം നുകരാനുള്ള പുണ്യം
പിന്നെ
4.  ഭഗവാന്‍ ശംഭുവിനെ പൂജചെയ്യുവാനുള്ള ഭാഗ്യം.

കാശിയില്‍ ജീവിക്കാന്‍ സാധിക്കുന്നവര്‍ക്ക് മറ്റു മൂന്നു കാര്യങ്ങളും വളരെ സുലഭാമാണല്ലോ

KANNAPPAN

KANNAPPAN

------------------

It was a thick forest with no civilized population. 

But even there by the Grace of Mahadeva, there appeared a Shivaligam, in the midst of the thickets. 

A hunter passing by once noticed it. He did not know what it is but he had the gut feeling that it is the living symbol of the Divine. 

As a realist suffering all the pangs of life, he knew it was very uncomfortable to live without a shelter, it was unbearable to go without water for bath and drink and so he presumed that even the greatest of beings would die if he goes without food. 

So he did all that he could do to make the deity comfortable immediately. 

He built a hut of dried leaves and twigs to house the lord. 

He used his chappals to clean the deity and the surrounding..

He did not have any vessels. 

So he went to the nearby brook, cleaned his mouth and filled in with as much water as he could and brought it to the lot and spat it on the idol so that the Lord could be clean. 

He did this for three of four times as abhishekam ( he did not know the word) and again brought water in the same way for the deity to drink.

He adorned the deity with wild flowers. 

The food he could offer was the raw meat of the beasts he killed and he did it by softening it with bites of his own sharp teeth so that the great god could eat with relish. 

This routine continued for days.

He never thought he was doing a great thing.. 

He was just looking after his guest in the forest. 

The lingam had three marks for its eyes and they used to shine brilliantly. 

One day the lord could not contain Himself. 

As is His wont he started giving heartburn to a true friend. 

One fine morning the hunter saw that one of the eyes of his friend had become lusterless and it was bleeding profusely. 

The hunter thought. " I have two eyes to see. This God has to see the entire world. So he will do better with one more eye. Hie eye should not be lost". 

Without hesitation, with the sharp edge of his bow, he extracted his own eyeball and placed it where the Lords eye was bleeding . 

The bleeding stopped. 

The hunter was blissfully happy. 

But his only slight disappointment was that the loss of one eye would affect his capacity to bring food to the friend. 

His travails did not stop there.

On another morning he saw the second eye of the Lord bleeding. 

He was at his wits end.

He could offer his second eye, but after that who will bring water and food to the God? 

However he made his final decision. With dexterity he extracted his own second eye and now without any capacity to see, he groped with his hands and found out the lord's bleeding eye and placed his second eye there. 

Then he thought. " Now there is no way for me to bring water and food to the lord. 

All I have is my body.

Let me lie down before the lord and offer myself as his final supper." 

Waiting for the god to receive his mortal body as food, the hunter just lied down before the Sivalingam.

Even for the hardened heart of the stone that the Sivalingam was , this self-sacrifice was too much. 

The lord appeared before the ignorant but faithful hunter in his Divine form and blessed him and gave him a place in the array of the sixty three nayanamaars, who are considered as the foremost devotees of Shiva..

He is Kannappa Nayanaar.

THIS HAPPENED IN KALAHASTI

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Srimat Shankarabhagavat paada in his Shivananda lahari alludes to this incident at sloka 63

मार्गावर्तितपादुका पशुपतेरङ्गस्य कूर्चायते

गण्डूषाम्बुनिषेचनं पुररिपोर्दिव्याभिषेकायते।

किञ्चिद्भक्षितमांसशेषकबलं नव्योपहारायते 

भक्तिः किं न करोत्यहो वनचरो भक्तावतंसायते॥६३॥

॥श्रीमत् शङ्करभगवत्पाद विरचिते शिवानन्द लहर्याम्॥

mārgāvartitapādukā paśupateraṅgasya kūrcāyate

gaṇḍūṣāmbuniṣecanaṁ puraripordivyābhiṣekāyate|

kiñcidbhakṣitamāṁsaśeṣakabalaṁ navyopahārāyate 

bhaktiḥ kiṁ na karotyaho vanacaro bhaktāvataṁsāyate||63||

||śrīmat śaṅkarabhagavatpāda viracite śivānanda laharyām||

free translation

what is there that sincere devotion cannot do?

The footwear that was worn out through wandering in the forest was all that the hunter could find to clean and adorn the body of Shiva

The water filling the mouth was used by the hunter to offer divine abhishekam to Shambu the vanquisher of the three worlds (Puraripu.. the enemy of Tripuras)

Pieces of meat, which the hunter tasted first to see whether it would suit the Lords palate became the naivedyam or holy offering of fresh food for Shankara

And that obscure hunter became the greatest devotee of the Lord of Lords Parameshwara..

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PALANI

• 
  

    PALANI

  
  

  
  

  

  From the stala puranam of Palani. We know the chlid Muruga has reached the hill to reside there permanently because he had got angry with his parents on the question of  a fruit supplied by the wily Narada which the elder brother Ganesha managed to get as a present from the parents. The child, not more than three years old was just running around and playing among the peacocks and snakes in the hillock. Sage Agastya was there with his disciple Idumba, residing by the side of the hill. The boisterous play of the child distracted him and he was rather impatient. He saw the child, and as luck would have it, did not recognize the Master of the World there and started advising the child to go elsewhere and not cause nuisance to him. The naughty child said, "you old man, if you are so irritated with we, you can go away and stay somewhere else." The puny but powerful sage was enraged. The slip of a child talking to him like that! He wanted to finish off the child. He chanted many mantras and threw some ashes on the boy. In the normal course the sage expected the child to be burned to ashes. But the child was still there unmoved, just laughing and playing. The child in turn gave the sage a small piece from the dried sandal paste He was wearing on his forehead and asked the sage to taste it. The sage was skeptical but still put a little piece of that into his mouth. Suddenly he lost balance of himself and started flying in the space as if catapulted from a rocket-launcher  and knowing no means of of coming back. Suddenly realization dawned on him. It was the son of his master who had come there to purify the South India. He apologized and was taken back to his own place. The sage made himself the disciple of the Lord Muruga, and the siddha system of medicine is said to have come from Muruga himself through Agastya and his disciples like bhogs. Even now, in Palani a particular type of sandal paste which is placed in the body of the idol during night is given as rare prasadam in the morning for the devotees to eat. It is called raakkaal chandanam 

  
  

  
  

  
  

                   Pazhani Andavar did not reside there all alone for long time. The lovely brother and the doting parents would not let him. They followed him without any delay. Wherever you go in Palni, you will find only Ganapatis. The brother was so affectionate that he was running round the younger one to take him back to Kailas. You will find many ganapathis here with Murugan sitting in his lap. Their love is model for fraternal affection. Even now when we prepare kavadi one of the legs is adorned by Murugan and the other is by Ganapathi. We actually invoke Mahaganapathi also in the mudra. After Agastya left, the boy had a tiff with Idumba also. In fact the two hillocks were being carried on the ends of a huge rod by this rakshasa Idumba, and being carried south. When this Idumba saw this boy he tried to remove him. The boy simply give him a short kick and the demon was dead. Then his family entreated with the Lord and the pleased lord  revived him  decided that his own presence will be there at the top and Idumba or idumbas presence willbe in the middle. He also ordained that the first puja in palni should be given to Idumba, "Idumbanukku muthal poosai".
   The master of Siddhaa, sage Bhoga, later on finding the presence of Murugua in the mountain, started worshipping him in an idol made of nava paashaana....nins rocklike medicines.. and this is the idol which is still there. Bhoga has recorded that he has made nine such idols and when time comes the next idols will be revealed in succession. There is a cave route between the place of Bhoga and Garbagriham at Palni.. we can see the samadhi of Bhoga and the Marakatha lingam of Shiva which was worshipped by Bhoga in the temple even now. The puuja at the bhogar samadhi is even now being conducted by a descendent of that great physician sage. The worship of the temple was entrusted to the local people, Pandarams or Othuvars. But the potency of the lord was too great and the people stared witnessing depletion in their population. So they brought in the Sivacharyas (Gurukkals ) for pooja. The presiding gurukkal in Palani is held in great reverence . He is called TavarajaPandita.

              

  
  

   Going back to Bhogas time, one of the disciples of Bhoga was a sage named Pulippani (vyagrapada) and it is said that this sage rode on a tiger and used to bring water for the abhishekam of dandayuthapani from the nearby varattaru. By his yogic powers, he would just take water in a big globe without any contained. This Vyagrapada is supposed to be a nambuthiri and while he was in his moksha stage, he asked the Lord to go to Kerala. People from kerala were thronging Palani even in those times. The assuranace given by god is that He will stand facing west, looking at Kerala, and if and when a day comes when a Kavadi from Kerala is not reaching Palani He would come to Kerala. 
   Till this day that has not happened.

: Mahalaxmi Temple

श्रीर्वर्चस्यमायुष्यमारोग्यमाविधात्शोभमानम् महीये। धान्यं धनंपशुं बहुपुत्रलाभम् शतसंवत्सरं दीर्घमायुः।।
महादेव्यै च विद्महे वि्णुपत्त्न्यै च धीमहि तन्नो लक्ष्मीः प्रचोदयात्

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panguni uthram and kodungallur bharani

The two festivals are near. 
To feel Pankuni Uthram , one must really be present at palani and kodumudi near erode to see the devotion of the bhakthas who just fill pitchers of kaveri theertham sanctified at the siva temple at kodumudi by placing a special leaf in the water and proceed to Palani by foot carrying the theertham as kavadi or otherwise and reach the zenith of their spiritual achievement when this theertham is poured on the holy head of dandapani.  In one of the driest seasons in this geographical terrain the water, no, the life giving theertham of Kaveri flows down the palani malai and just runs all through the streets. For the padayatrikas there is no caste, creed or consideration of financial ups and down. This phenomenal festival goes on and on through ages. There is no scarcity for anything. No padayatrika will feel staravation or deprivation.  Everyone one sees is only dandayuthapani incarnate.

For Kodungallur Bharani, devotees, most of them poor, start their journey by walk from far off places in Kerala and outside shaking a curved sword with chalangai tingling, clad in red clothes, visiting every house on the way announcing that they are going to kodungallur for bharani and collecting contributions to be dedicated to the mother.. the men and women who go as komarams are practically letter less, but they know they are one with Kodungallooramma.  They reach Kodungallur by bharani day  in Meenam and as they approach, they forget themselves.  The Devi is just their mother, many have anger toward the mom because she has not looked after them well in the way they expected. But it is their mother and so they present their views in the most abusive language. It is their privilege to shout at their mother.  But the mother could understand it because they are all her children.  If they are drunk, she knows it is out of frustration and partly out of the embarrassment to approach the great mother in their lowly status in life.  For the Lokamatha, the ignorant drunkard who addressed her with love in the most abusive language and the Vedic pundit who praises her with vedic sookthas are all her own Children.
This rush of innocent devotees for Bharani has continued through ages and ages.

Unadulterated bhakthi is the only common factor found in these two festivals.

pallassana bagavathy temple website

friends and sirs, as all of you may be aware the Pallassana Bagavathy temple near Palakkad is considered to be one of the greatest Bagavathy temples in Kerala and for a huge percentage of Palakkad iyers the Mother is the  presiding adimai kavu.  enclosing a link for the temple
http://www.meenkulathitemple.com/

http://www.divinetraveller.net/meenkulathi.html
http://pskarthikn.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/meenkulathi-bhagavathi-amman-temple-pallassena-palakkad-kerala/