Sri SrinivasaKalyanam Harikatha

Om Namah Narayana Namah

Story1     -   Maharishi Brihu’s visit to Vaikuntham

Maharishi Brihu was on a visit to all the three lokams(DevLokam, BhuLokam and Paataal lokam) inorder to visit the three Eashwaras namely Lord Brahma (the creator-Srishti),Lord Vishnu(Karta) and Lord Shiva(the Destroyer) .When he made a visit to Vaikuntham(DevLokam)  ,Lord Vishnu was in deep state of meditaion that Maharshi Brihu remained unattended.So Maharshi got angry due to this ignoring behavior of Lord Vishnu and he kicked at the chest of Lord Vishnu with his right foot . Maharshi Brihu is short tempered because he can see everything happening every where since he has third eye in Right foot.Vishnu opened his eyes and held the foot of Maharshi and started massaging the foot  saying ,” Maharshi,Your leg would  have got hurt due to the strain of kicking me.So let me give a soothing massage to your foot”. Brihu was dumbfolded with such an astonishing kind words of Vishnu .

[The Vedas and Puranas say that Goddess Maha Laksmi  dwells in the chest of Lord Vishnu.

Goddess Saraswati stays stays at the tongue Lord Brahama.

Goddess Shakti devi resides in half body of Lord Shiva so he is called as Ardh Naareeshwar.]

[Aacharya says that this clearly depicts that women were given equal respect as men world during those times also.]

Now coming back to Maharshi Brihu’s story.Mahalakshmi got angry with Brihu’s behavior of kicking Vishnu’s chest where she was dwelling. On the top of this, she got irritated  with Vishnu’s behavior of of doing  sewa for “Not good “ act of Brihu .She told Vishnu that she felt humiliated with all drama and considering as disrespect for her , she fled to earth .

Lord Vishnu did sewa for Maharshi inorder to soothe Maharshi’s anger and bring down the sage’s pride.

[Aacharya says that these incidents are “Deiva Sangalpam”which paves way for Avatars of GODs in Bhulookam (Earth) so that people can experience the divinity of the Lords.]

Story2     -   Goddess Lakshmi ’s avatar as Padmavati

Mahalakshmi was born as a beautiful and charming baby girl in Lotus flower .The king who ruled South India came for hunting and found this devine lookinirg baby girl and immediately adopted her as his daughter .Since he did not have any of his child he took her as GODs gift . Those days Thirumala Venkatagiri was under Dravidian Rulers. Since Goddess was born on Lotus ie Padmam in Sanskrit she was named as Padmavati. Princess Padmavati happily grew up in the palace and she reached her 13 years of age.

Now coming back to Vaikuntham Lord Vishnu lost all his wealth and prosperity from the time Goddess Lakshmi left him and came to earth. Lord Vishnu was worried as years were running by and Goddess Lakshmi did not come back .SO he decided its hightime he must make his avatar to Earth and search for Lakshmi there and get her back .Since Mahalakshmi is already grown 13-years old so Lord Vishnu decided he has to take avatar as a 18 year old boy suitable for Padmavati .

Some stories also say that  Vishnu went to Shiva and Brahma for solution of his problem. They told him Since he had become poor he should beg and when he was begging his begging bowl fell to Earth so with reason to get his bowl he came to earth but actually he came to earth to get his wife back to Devlokam .

Story3    -   Lord Vishnu’s avatar as Srinivasa

In Venkatagiri / Thirumala/Saptagiri mountainous forest there was a Sanyasini named Vagulavalli .Whole of her lifetime she kept doing pooja to her favorite GOD Varahar in the banks of pond Pushkarna .This Sanyasini is none other that Yashodha ,Lord Krishna’s mother in Krishna Avataar.

Vedas say that in Krishna Avataar, Lord Krishna was born to Devki mother but he was brought up by Yashodha mother. So once he asked yashodha mother “You have take such good care of me ,Do you have any wish  left that you want to come true then tell to me?” . For this Yashodha said “I had along desire to be your real mother and I don’t want you to be shared with some other mother .So Lord Krishna promised her that in his next avatar she will be his real mother .

So going back to Thirumala now Vagulvalli sanyasini is Yashodha mother’s reincarnation.

One fine morning when Vagulavalli was doing morning poojas to her Lord Varahar, it started raining heavily along with thunders and lightning . Her intuition told something divine is going to happen today .Lord Vishnu came to Earth as 18 year old divine looking boy. Vagulavalli looked at him and asked him who he was and from where was he coming.Lord introduced himself saying he was an orphan nas was just roaming in the hills .She was moved by this and told he is no more an orphan and from that day he was her son and she was his mother .Lord said that he can be called Srinivasan. Vagulvalli got extremely happy that she has got a wonderful  perfect son .Srinivasan brings fruits and vegetables for her mother and helps in daily activities .Six months passed like this .Lord Vishnu had forgotten why he had come to Earth and was having good time with his mother .

Meanwhile there were lots of famines, droughts, floods, natural calamities on earth because Paalan karta of Earth was not in heaven and also because Lakshmi was separated from him. So Narada Muni came to Earth to remind the Lord the purpose of his avataar. He also told him that Padmavati is in same kingdom as kings beloved daughter.

Story4    -  How  Srinivasa and Padmavati meet

One morning Srinivasan told his mother hat He is going for hunting (He lied to his mother actually he wanted to search Padmavati) .In every avatar of Lord Vishnu Garudalvar also take avatar to serve GOD. So in Srinivasa avatar Garudan came as a sparkling majestic white horse to take Srinivasa from Thirumala’s mountains to Padmavati’s garden .

Srinivasan being GOD made an arrangement such that a big elephant enters the garden of Princess Padmavati so that he comes as her savior who also wins her heart.

PLACE:Padmavati Palace Garden.

A big elephant came running towards the princess Padmavati and her friends.Some of the girls ran off while others hid behind tree and bushes while Padmavati was left alone. She could not run out of fear and stood there only closing her eyes .Then came Lord Srinivasa charming yound lad on white horse and he drove elephant away and asked Padma vati to open her eyes and there is no need to fear .

After so many years Lord Vishnu and Lakshmi looked into each others eyes .It was such a divine moment that all heavenly Devas,Indran,Brahama Deva , Saraswati devi ,Shiva,Parvati devi and all the devaganas were looking at this divine spectacle from heaven.Lord Varuna showed his happiness in form of Rain.

It was such an emotional and holy moment tat tears of happiness rolled down the Padmavathi’s eyes .She did not know what was happening to her as she was not aware about her avatar .Then Srinivasa left the palace.

[Aacharyaviews:Even today in Brahmin marriages there is a ritual in which Groom and bride look into each other’s eyes .The groom chants a mantra stating that Lets begin our life journey together forever as a loving and loyal couple .Let this be a wonderful moment  of start of our prosperous and blissful life .]

Princess Padmavathi returns back to her chamber .Her heart is filled with charming thoughts of young man whom she met . Though she is clueless about the whereabouts of her dream guy she wished she would marry him. Days passed . She fell ill as she stopped having proper food and had lost proper sleep .All the time she was preoccupied with thoughts of Srinivasa. Seeing this peculiar behaviour of their daughter , King and queen were very worried but did not know what  as happened to their daughter.

Story5    -   Lord Vishnu’s avatar as Fortune Telling Girl (Gypsy Girl)

Going back to Thirumala ,Srinivasa told about his desire to marry Princess Padmavati to his mother Vagulvalli.This was a huge shock for Sanyasini mother .How can a marriage happen between a rich mighty King’s daughter and extremely simple styled poor sanyasini son. She is not aware that Srinivasa is Lord Vishnu himself. Srinivasa convinces her mother that he will take care of everything and without any worry she should just go to Palace and asker her daughters hand for him from King. Believing her son and praying to GOD she accepted for this.

All these things are happening as part of Lord’s leelas.

Meanwhile Srinivasan takes another avatar as a fortune teller gypsy girl.Though called Gypsy , this girl looks divine and more beautiful than the royal girls because she none other than Lord himself. Fortume telling girl wals on the streets towards the Palace saying she comes from hills and that she predicts future accurately.The palace guards direct her towards the queen hoping she can cure the illness of the princess .Queen brings the gypsy girl to her daughter to show whats wrong with her.Gypsy girl narrates the whole incident that happened between Srinivasan and Padmavati in palace garden.She can get back to normal charming life once she gets married to her dream guy.So now Queen asks from where to search Srinivasan.The gypsy girl says , an old Sanyasini would come to her palace to ask Padmavathi for marriage to her son.Her son is none other that the princess dream guy.Queen conveyed this to the King so that he could make arrangement for her daughters marriage .They treated gypsy girl with royal gifts and after that she vanished.

Story6    -   Marriage of Lord Vishnu and Goddess Padmavati

Srinivasan’s mother sanyasini Vagulvalli came to the palace with the woriies of how she can convince King to fulfill her son’s wish.She was astonished to see the King and the Queen and royal members waiting at the palace gate to welcome her .They happily accepted the marriage proposal from Vagulvalli.The Brahmins confirmed the marriage dates. Vagulvalli with all happiness conveys the news to her son Srinivasan. She told Srinivasan that she has a wish . She wanted  her son’s  marriage to be in proper way in which    there will be gifts& ornaments are given to bride and from our side also all friends and relatives should join in marriage. Srinivasan promised to fulfill her wish .Vedas say that Devas came down to Earth and took role of the Srinivasan’s relativesin his marriage.Srinivasan took loan from Lord Kuberan to spend in marriage which Srinivasa had promised to repay later.

[Aacharya told that’s why even today all the wealth we offer to Lord Venkataeshwar Thirupathii Temple is contributed to Lord in paying his marriage loan to Kuberan.]

Srinivasa-Padmavati marriage happened in the presence of all Gods abd great Maharishis.Padmavati hen came to Thirumala (Srinivasa’s Dwelling place) and both Srinivasan and Lakshmi continue to shower their blessing on the devotees till today.

HariKatha 17-07-2011 to 21-07-2011 GandhiNagar Adyar , CHENNAI

There was HariKatha in Sri Kanchi Anantha Pdmanabh Swamy temple GandhiNagar Adyar , CHENNAI

Harikatha by Kalaimamani Kalyanapuram Sri R. AravaMudaChariar

17-07-2011-Prahladha Varadhan
18-07-2011-Kulasekara Kanda Raman
19-07-2011-Pattarpiran Kanda Kannan

20-07-2011-Sathaguru Sri Thyagarajar

21-07-2011-Sri Srinivsa Kalyanam

Swamy narrated small stories each day about laord Rama,Lord Krishna and Lord Srinivasa in Tamil. Just had an oppartunity to attend the same with my friend Shrinivasini who tanslated some of those interesting stories to English .These days we rarely find time for such things.He also explained and compared at that society with todays society. 

DAY 3-Pattarpiran Kanada Kannan (Lord Krishna Charita)

Lord Krishna was born to Devaki and Vasudeva. Devtas had predicted that when HE grows up he would kill cruel king Kansa , HIS maternal uncle. From this fear Kansa had imprisoned his sister Devaki and her husband Vasudeva ,immediately after marriage .Whenever any kid was born for them Kansa used to kill the child .But as per GOD’s leela when 8th child was born to them ,Something strange happened .On that night it rained heavily and all the guards/people of kingdom fell in deep sleep. Vasudeva ‘s friend Nanda Gopal who was head of Yadhavas wanted to save this child .So he came with his just born daughter to the prison and exchanged with just born child of Vasudeva the LORD Krishna. He took him safely to his village without any one in the kingdom. Since it was raining heavily when NadaGopal was taking Krishna ,SheshNaga came and protected Krishna from rain by forming Umbrella with its hoods over Krishna.

So some stories about Lord Krishna’s childhood infance are narrated by Acharya during Krishna Harikatha in Sanskrit and then explained in Tamil and also sang bhajanas in classical music .He was assisted by musicians playing dholak and violin.

So please read and enjoy those stories for some of which we still remember some scene from Serials like Krishna telecast on TV during our childhood days and some stories were also new for me.

STORY 1:

One day when Lord Krishna was very small enfant ,Yashodha had to feed the little kid so she takes him out to show him Bright shining moon and mother nature . This way he would listen to her and eat food .

[Acharya compared this to Mothers of current era .These days mothers show ads in TV or cartoon inorder to divert the protesting action of kids while feeding them. That’s why kids become more adamant and ask for things shown on TV]

STORY 2:

Krishna as 2 year old:

When Lord Krishna was a 2 year old kid he had just started walking .Desikacharya in his work on Lord Krishna had mentioned that when little Krishna took his first foot step, the impression of shankh was found in yashodhas house, his next foot step made impression of chakra on floor. This depicts that Lord Krishna is none other than Lord Narayana himself.
[Acharya compared this to License Drving test in which they ask us to drive car in S- shape which resembles 8 ]
STORY 3:

Krishna grew up as a naughty and mischievous boy. He had a special Love for butter. He used to steal butter from the pot and after eating, in order to escape from his mom, he used to wipe away his butter loaded hands all over his body.

Now what if his mom gets the butter smell from his body. So Krishna used to roll himself in the garden sands. This says he grew up as a naughty little kid.

One day Yashodha was calling Krishna to have bath. Krishna was busy playing out and had least interest to listen to his mom. So Yashodha made many varieties of sweets and told Krishna will get sweets only if he takes bath. This deal moved Krishna to listen to his mom’s words. Thats why even today on Janamashtmi festival so many sweets are offered to Lord Krishna .

For Lord Krishna number 8 is very important. He was born on ashtami and was 8^th child born to Devaki and Vasudev.

STORY 4:

Yadav Ladies always had complaints that Lord Krishna as a young boy stole butter from their house. One day Lord Krishna’s elder brother Balraam found him eating sand .He complained about this to Yashodha. Angry Yashodha came running to Krishna & asked him to open his mouth .She was astonished to see 7 worlds inside Lord Krishna’s mouth .First world had Yashodha checking Krishna’s mouth if he had eaten sand which in turn had another world inside (again in which Yashodha is checking Krishna’s mouth  if he had eaten sand) and so on…..

STORY 5

One day a yadav lady came to Yashodha’s house asking for justice .She convicted Krishna of stealing 2 golden bangles from her daughter’s hands .Lady narrated the following story. Lord Krishna came to the lady’s house and called her daughter and asked her to stretch her hands and close her eyes .She was one of the gopikas. So her heart was filled with love for Krishna and she obeyed his commands. Krishna snatched 2 gold bangles and vanished .He was found selling those bangles to someone for butter.

Yashodha did not believe this story and asked that girl to show her hands .Everyone around were astonished to see 20 gold bangles in girl’s hands. The girl did not have any bangles when she entered Yashodha’s house .

Acharya came up with the moral “If you offer something to GOD with true love, he gives you back10 times more .That is the love HE has for HIS devotees”