Pujya Sri Mahaswamy Divya Charitram Part#29

 

Prathishtai

Two days prior to the prathishtai, the preliminary rites began at the yagasala. There were continuous sounds of Veda recital, Bhajan singing and Thevaram recitals. Swamigal gave abhisheka theertam, vibhoothi and mantra akshadai to thousands of devotees gathered to see the pujas performed to Sri Chandramouleeswarar.

Swamigal adorned with his own hands, the ears of Devi Akhilandeswari with the repaired Tatangas at an auspicious time in the forenoon of Sunday, the 17th of Mesha (Chitra) month of the cyclic year Rudrotkari, i.e. 29th April, 1923. The folks who had the opportunity to witness this event were blessed indeed.

Key patrons of this event were M.Kandaswamy Servai, Lawyers Sri R. Srinivasa Iyer, Sri.V.Jayarama Iyer and landlord from Andipatti Sri. Pethachi Chettiar. Free food was provided for seven days on account of this event by Thepperumanallur Sivan.

Annadanam of this proportion was not seen in Tiruchirapalli before. A religious conference was held on this occasion where experts, politicians,
members of Brahma Gnanam, high ranking government officials, lawyers, saivite and vaishnavite experts and others joined the debates. The key topic of discussion at this conference was “ How to save our religion in keeping with the times and not letting go of historical values as well as safeguarding core religious aspects”. The conference took place for three days. Chetlur, a politician belonging to Congress was one of the notable participants in the debates. Swamigal would also participate in the discussion everyday.
A blanket freedom was given to all to discuss their ideas on how to safeguard the religion and preserve the social values. After heated discussions, several resolutions were adopted after obtaining the blessings of Swamigal. One of the resolutions was to start a university at Thiruvanaikaval. Swamigal wanted this to be in the format of Gurukulam. In commemoration of the Tatanka pratishta, he established a veda patasala and an institution for teaching Advaita philosophy, in the Sankara mutt at Tiruchirapalli. Swamigal had given the responsibility to organize this conference to the editor of Sri Rangam Vani
publications, T.K.Balasubramania Iyer. He was honored by Swamigal for efficiently organizing the conference.

Tatanka Pratishta To Goddess Akilandeswari:

The Hindu Message published at Srirangam under the editorship of T.K.Balasubramaia Iyer, B.A.; Editorial, May 10, 1923) “Never before in the annals of Tiruchirapalli have we witnessed the grandeur and enthusiasm that were displayed at the reception of His Holiness Sri Jagadguru Sri
Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam who arrived at Tiruchirapali on the 23rd ult. The mile long procession headed by richly caparisoned elephants and surging crowds with His Holiness seated high on the ivory palanquin in the center, surrounded by large concourse of Brahmins chanting the Vedas, and followed by numerous Bhajana parties and Thevaram parties, the rich and tasteful decorations all along the route which extended to nearly eight miles, the buoyant enthusiasm of the huge crowd that pressed on all sides just to have a glimpse of His Holiness, beaming countenance and that followed the procession right through to the end, the festive appearance of the whole town and the eagerness of everyone in that vast concourse of people to do some sort of service to His Holiness were sights for Gods to see and they beggar all description. It showed in a clear and unmistakable way the stronghold of religion and religious ideals still on the people of the country. No Viceroy or even the Emperor himself could have evoked such spontaneous and heartfelt enthusiasm. It took nearly five hours for the procession to reach its destination. His Holiness had a smile or a word of cheer for every one of the assembled people and when he retired into the mutt, His Holiness observed that the weariness of the journey was counteracted by the unprecedented enthusiasm of the people. The next day commenced the preliminaries of the Tatanka Prathistha of the Goddess Akhilandeswari at Jambukeswaram. As many of our readers may not quite understand what it means by Tantaka Pratishta we will describe it a little in detail.

When Adi Sankaracharya incarnated in this holy land, he went round the whole of Bharatavarsha several times and in the course of his Vijaya-Yatra established several Yantra in different temples. Of such temples, Jambukeswara is an important one. It appears the Goddess here was very fierce and with her ugra-kala used to burn everything before her. Even the archaka who opened the temple doors early in the morning was
reduced to ashes and the people, unable to put up with such fierceness, eagerly availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by the presence in their midst of the great Sankaracharya who came to this kshetra in the course of his tour and implored him to draw out the ugra-kala of the Goddess and thus appease her ferocity. Accordingly, he established a temple of Ganesa just opposite to that of the Goddess so that when the temple doors were opened in the morning the first person to catch the eye of the Goddess would be her own favourite son. This in a way reduced the ferocity, but not satisfied with this, Sri Sankaracharya prepared two Sri-Chakras in the shape of two Tatankas(Ear Ornaments) and drew forth all the ugra-kala of the Goddess into these two Tatankas and fixed them on her two ears. Thence forward the Goddess became Samya Murti and ever since then this Tatanka has been worn by the Goddess always except during the nights.

And whenever this ornament got into disrepair, it was repaired by the spiritual descendants of the great world-teacher, who adorned the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetha,and again put on the ears of the Goddess after due Pratishtha. In accordance with this time honoured rule, the present occupant of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham deemed it part of
his duty to repair the Tatanka and perform the Pratishtha while fixing it again on the ears of the Goddess. With this object in view, His Holiness started from Kumbakonam more than four years ago and after touring through various parts of the country, teaching Dharma to his numerous disciples, reached Trichinopoly just two weeks ago.

The preliminary ceremonies were performed on a grand scale with the help of thousands of Brahmins and the ceremony proper took place on the 29th ult. Ever since a very early hour that morning, people began to assemble in large numbers and by about 8 A.M. When His Holiness left the Mutt for the temple the crowd had become so dense that the town could not hold it.. The twin attraction of Goddess Akhilandeswari (Goddess of all the worlds) and the divine Jagadguru ( the World-Teacher) was so great that it attracted enormous crowds with boundless enthusiasm. The rush was so great that it became very difficult even for His Holiness to enter the temple. Finally, when His Holiness got into the
Sanctum Sanctorum and the Kumbham was brought in from the Yagasala and the abhishekam was performed for the Goddess, there arose a thrill of reverence throughout the surging mass of humanity. Soon after, under the commands of His Holiness and blessed by him, the Tatankas were fixed up as usual on the ears of the Goddess and
immediately there shone a brilliant divine luster, which was the privilege, of only those that were inside, to witness. Thus ended the unique festival eagerly awaited by thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the country. People were fed in tens of thousands and a very large number of highly learned vidvans, who had graced the occasion, delivered a number of public lectures under the command of His Holiness on various interesting
topical subjects. They were all duly honoured by His Holiness with valuable presents according to their merits. Thus ended this unique ceremony not witnessed by any for two generations past.”

When Swamigal was residing in Thiruvanaikaval, he used to give darshan to devotees in the infirmary situated in the back of the mutt. The devotees enjoyed Swamigal explaining the effects of scientific discoveries and their results, in a simple and witty manner. Professors P.T.Srinivasa Iyengar and PG.Sundaresa Shastrigal were known
to have commented that Swamigal was an embodiment of ancient and modern . Swamigal had darshan of Sri Ranganatha in Sri Rangam and Sri Mathrubhootheswarar in Malaikottai. As usual, devasthanam officials from both temples provided the official welcome to Swamigal and facilitated his darshan of the deities.