By Acarya Dasa
We reached Tirukoilur, also known as Tirukkoyilur or Kovalur on April 26th. The panchayat town is located in the Viluppuram district of Tamil Nadu. The town is famous for its temples and is a place where vaishnavites (worshippers of Lord Vishnu) and shivites (worshippers of Lord Shiva) co-exist in peace and harmony. In addition Tirukoilur is known as one of the ‘ashta veeratnams’ or eight (ashta) places of bravery (veeratanam). It was here that Lord Shiva transformed into various incarnations in order to destroy evil and establish justice. Of the many incarnations of Shiva eight avatars (incarnations) are very famous and Their appearances took place here in Tirukoilur. It doesn’t end there – this place also became popular after Avvaiyar received blessings from Lord Ganesha to write the famous verse ‘Vinayagar Agaval’ which was based on various yoga techniques and even included Meta physics. Avvaiyar was a Tamil poet. Long ago the Tamil kings had many female poets, ministers and warriors.
Whilst here we decided to visit the Ulagalandha Perumal temple –a temple dedicated to the worship of Lord Vishnu. The towers in this temple are the third tallest towers in the state of Tamil Nadu, measuring 192 feet or 59 meters in height. It is said that Lord Vamana Dev, the dwarf incarnation of Lord Vishnu, appeared here to quell the pride of the asura (demonic) king Bali. The Bhagavata Purana describes how Vishnu descended as Lord Vamana to restore Indra’s authority over the heavens when it had been taken over by Bali. Bali was the son of Prahlada Maharaja and grandson of Hiranyakashipu. He had received so much of praise from his courtiers and others that he had begun to regard himself as being the most powerful person in the world. The Lord appeared in the guise of a dwarf brahmana and approached King Bali requesting from him three paces of land. The king agreed to grant his request. Suddenly the dwarf brahmana revealed his true form as the supreme personality of Godhead. He transformed himself to gigantic proportions (in this form the Lord is known as Trivikrama) to claim the land that King Bali had granted him. His first step was from heaven to Earth and the second step was from Earth to the netherworld. The Lord had claimed all of creation available and was left with nowhere else to make his last step. King Bali wanting to fulfill his promise of three paces of land, then offered the Lord his head as the third. The Lord placed his foot upon King Bali’s head and granted him immortality for the humility he had shown. We relished in these pastimes and meditated on the beautiful forms of Lord Vamanadev and Lord Trivikrama whilst we were here. Akhildara Dasa also gave a class on the pastime of Lord Vamana.
Afterwards we all went out on sankirtana distributing 145 Bhagavad-gitas in one day. Once we were done with sankirtana we held gaura-arati –usually we choose a town square where four roads meet and in the centre we have gaura-arati. We start with making announcements and then invite everyone to join the arati. We have noticed that whichever towns we visit many pious people from within the town follow the padayatra from beginning to end, participate in gaura-arati, take prasadam and then return to their homes. On this occasion it was no different with many people attending the gaura–arati.
Every day we travel to new places, hosting various programs here and there. Our advance party of devotees’ head of to our next destination arranging accommodation and whatever else they can before the rest of us arrive. It is not always that whatever we plan happens, after all ‘man proposes, God disposes[1]’. We are never sure of so many things: like where we will have prasadam, how will we get water or where we will have arati –but as my Gurudev, Lokanatha Swami always says, “Nothing happens by chance, it is all the Lord’s arrangement. Whatever happens to a devotee is always auspicious –shoba.” Every day as we travel from town to town we carry Guru and Gauranga in our hearts. We march into the streets eager to discover what the Lord has planned for us. We are all very fortunate to make these new discoveries of the Lord’s causeless mercy. Each day the Lord brings us closer to Him, filling our hearts with realizations.
Jai Nitai Gaurasundar ki!
Jai!
[1] Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.11 Srila Prabhupada
