VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, DAY 3 –BHAKTHI MANDRAM
Next was Bhakthi mandram similar to patti mandram but
without the competition part. The Judge was my favourite Professor Dr. Selvaganapathy,
who I have heard talk about the nayanmars on Doordarshan many times.
The speakers were Pulavar Ramalingam on Navukarasarin
Bhakthi Nerigal (நாவுக்கரசரின் பக்தி நெறிகள்) and Vijayasundari on Gnanasambandarin Bhakthi நெறிகள் (ஞானசம்பந்தரின் பக்தி நெறிகள்) .
The talks were very interesting but I felt that they
sometimes went off their allocated topics when Pulavar Ramalingam started
talking about Gnanasambandar and Vijayasundari about Navukarasar.
But on the whole it was a new concept and very informative about both the
Shiva devotees and made one emotional about their Bhakthi towards Lord Shiva!
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, DAY 3 – NAMASANKEERTHANAM
BY SRI SATTANATHA BHAGAVATHAR
The third programme was Namasankeerthanam by Sri Sattanatha
Bhagavathar associated with Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamigal.
Ms. Sumathi introduced them with an interesting narration
that when she asked Sattanatha Bhagavathar from when he was involved in
Namasangeerathanam, he said right from the age of 7 and has been rendering
Namasangeerathanam for the past 25 years, but the person looks only about 30
years old! She went on to compare Sattanatha Bhagavathar with
Thirugnanasambandar who was also from Seeragazhi and had the blessings of the
Almighty at a very young age!
The Namasangeerthanam was a beautiful 30 minutes with total
devotion. I loved the rendering of Muralidhara swamigal song “hare rama hare rama".The crowd got very much involved with clapping and repeating during the
namasangeerathanam.
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON
12, DAY 3 – DHARMAME VELLUM BY PROFESSOR ILLAMPIRAI MANIMARAN – Part 3
Another episode narrated during the discourse was about a
happening during the Agnyathavaasam of the Pandavas. After 13 years of
vanavasam, the Pandavas were spending a year in Agnyathavasam in hiding. The Pandavas
had chosen Virada Desam for staying hidden. Yudhishtra had joined as the king’s
advisor naming himself Gangubattar. Bheema became the royal cook, Arjuna, a
eunuch while Nakula and Sahadeva took care of the horse stables. Draupadi took
up the job as the queen’s companion.
When the queen’s brother Keechakan tried to misbehave with
Draupadi, Bheema killed him. Hearing of Keechakan’s death, Duryodhana guessed
that the Pandavas should be in Virada Desam as only a great warrior could
defeat Keechakan. The Kauravas attacked Virada Desam and the prince went to the
battlefield with Brigannalai (Arjuna, the eunuch) as his sarathi.
The Virada King was in his court playing the dice with
Gangubattar. As they were wondering what could have happened in the battlefield,
Gangubattar said that Brigannalai would have defeated the Kauravas.
Angry that Gangubattar suggested that Brigannalai could have
defeated the opponents and not the prince, the king threw the dice at
Gangubattar. Blood started flowing from the wound and Draupadi ran to stop the
blood ensuring that not even a drop fell on the ground. This is because
Yudhishtra is such a great person that if a drop of blood from his body fell on
the ground, there will be no rain in that area for a number of years and the
Pandavas did not want such a thing to happen to a country who helped them spend
their Agnyathavasam period comfortably!
The Professor also narrated the episode of “Ashwathama
hathaha kunjaraha” he only place where one could say Dharmaputra’s dharma slipped
a little, but that too was because of Krishna
leelai.
It is the 15th day of the Kurukshetra battle and
the only way to defeat Drona was to tell him Ashwathama had been killed. Drona
would not believe the news unless it was uttered by a Dharmavan such as Yudhishtra.
Krishna suggests that Yudhishtra says it but
the latter refuses to lie.
Krishna asks Yudhishtra to announce that an elephant name
Ashwathama had been killed and when Yudhishtra announces “Ashwathama hathaha
kunjaraha”, Krishna blows his conch just as
Yudhishtra says “kunjaraha”. Drona believes his son Ashwathama is dead and drops
all his weapons. In that weak moment, Dhristadhyumna kills Drona!
The moment Yudhishtra announces “Ashwhathama hathaha
kunjaraha”, his chariot which was always a few inches above the ground
declaring his Dharma, touched the ground.
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA
SEASON 12, DAY 3 – DHARMAME VELLUM BY PROFESSOR ILLAMPIRAI MANIMARAN – Part 2
The next episode explained by the Professor Illampirai
Manimaran to show the Dharmam of Yudhishtra brought tears to my eyes. In fact, the
Professor herself was so involved and emotional while narrating the same that
all of us were transported to the battleground of Kurukshetra.
It was the 13th day of the Mahabharatha battle. A
padmavyugam had been formed by the Kauravas. Abimanyu, who had learned how to
enter the padmavyugam when he was in his mother Subhadra’s womb, entered all
alone into the vyugam as his father and uncles were elsewhere in the
battleground. Bheema was the only one
close by and he noticed Abhimanyu proceeding deep into the vyugam breaking down
the formation by killing the soldiers.
Aware that Abhimanyu only knew how to enter the vyugam and
not how to exit, Bheema tried to help him. Jayathrathan, Kaurava’s brother in
law (married to the only sister of the 100 Kauravas) threw a kondrai flower
garland across Bheema’s path. A great Shiva bhaktha, Bheema hesitated to cross
the garland and in this momentary hesitation, the vyugam completely closed
around Abhimanyu and never allowed him to come out.
At the end of the day, when Arjuna came to know that
Abhimanyu was crushed inside the vyugam, he was inconsolable. When he learnt
that Jayathrathan made sure Bheema could not help Abhimanyu, he vowed to kill
Jayathrathan before sunset the next day or else kill himself.
That night, the great dharmavan, Yudhishtra called
Gadothgajan and asked him to go and warn Duryodhana to hide Jayathrathan the
whole of next day so that he does not get killed. Inspite of Arjuna’s vow that
he will kill himself if he does not kill Jayathrathan by next evening,
Yudhishtra did this as Duchalai, wife of Jayathrathan was the only sister for
both Kauravas and Pandavas and Yudhishtra did not want her to be widowed.
That Krishna did a leelai
the next evening by hiding the sun and then showing it later thereby helping
Arjuna kill Jayathrathan is another story.
The above was narrated with great emotion by the Professor. Her
description of the Pandavas sorrow for the loss of Abhimanyu made the audience
feel the loss of Abhimanyu right there and then and not as if it happened eons
ago!
VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA
SEASON 12, DAY 3 – DHARMAME VELLUM BY PROFESSOR ILLAMPIRAI MANIMARAN – Part 1
With weekend household chores I never expected to attend the
Sunday programme but my description of Saturday’s programme got my sister
Sundari, who happened to be in town, very much interested. We planned to leave
home early, take an auto and reach Narada Gana Sabha by 4.30 pm. But as usual
God had better plans for us. Ranga had been out for the day returned early and
surprised me. With the result, we comfortably travelled the 10 km by car.
The three of us managed to reach the venue only by 5.45 pm
and missed most of Suchitra’s performance. The second programme at 6 pm was
discourse by Professor Ilampirai Manimaran. The topic was “Dharmame Vellum”.
Of course when the topic is Dharmam, it has to be about Dharmaputra
– Yudhishtra. The Professor first narrated an episode that happened during the
vanavasam of the Pandavas. A deer had taken the arani kattai (the wooden sticks
used for lighting the fire of the yagna) of a Rishi and the Pandavas went after
the deer to retrieve the sticks. They searched for the deer for a long time but
could not find it. Yudhishtra was very thirsty and asked his brothers to find
water. On climbing a tree, they saw a river at a distance.
Dharmaputra sent Sahadevan to get some water. When he did
not return, he asked Nakulan to go in search of him. Like this, all the four
brothers went and when none of them came back, Yudhishtra himself went. He
reached the river and was shocked to find all his brothers lying dead. His
throat parched, Yudhishtra tried to drink some water from the river before
finding out about his brothers’ deaths. That’s when he heard a voice. A Yaksha
came before him and wanted Yudhishtra to answer some questions before taking
water from the river. He also said that he had so instructed Yudhishtra’s
brothers but they did not listen to him. The ever patient Yudhishtra was ready
to answer the Yaksha’s questions. Professor Ilampirai Manimaran detailed the
Yakshaprasnam beautifully.
Very happy and satisfied with the answers given by
Yudhishtra, the Yaksha reveals himself as Yamadharma and blesses Yudishtra,
declaring that the latter is a Dharmavan.
Yamadharma further asks Yudhistra if Yama is ready to bring
one of his brothers back to life, who will Yudhishtra choose. Yudhishtra once
again establishes that he is a Dharmavan by asking Yamadharma to bring Nakulan
back to life. When Yama asks him why he chose Nakulan and not Bheema or Arjuna,
Yudhishtra beautifully explains that he, Kunti’s son is alive. If Nakulan comes
back to life, then it will be one of Madhri’s sons who will live. Pleased with
his explanation, Yamadharma brought all four of them back to life.
More about Professor Illampirai Manimaran’s talk on
“Dharmame Vellum” on my next blog.
