On May 28th Divya Saketham has celebrated the great Divya surulu-Nammalwar Thirunakshatram.
On this occasion , HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji explained the greatness and existence of Nammalwar also known as Shatakopulu.
Nammalwar came to this world to give the hymns about God which can be read by everyone irrespective of cast and creed.
Nammalwar was born 5118 yrs ago in chathurdi varna family to a karyamaluru couple. After many prayers the couple were blessed with a baby. To the surprise this baby after being born never cried , had no sensations and no movements.
He became a big talk amongst the village.
The couple weren’t happy with the blessed child and thought of returning him to the God . They left the child in the tree hollow of the tamarind tree near the temple. 16 years passed , the child grew with out food , water or any earthly matter. It was a talk for years and everything calmed out.
Near this village was another village called Thirukollur lived a great poet named Madhura kavi. He was a great scholar as had written many poems on God.
One day while he was sleeping outside he saw a bright star in the sky moving towards the south. He was surprised with the sight of a star moving.
He observed this star for couple of days and decided to follow the star. Every night he used to follow the star and sleep during the day. Finally he reached the village Thirunar where the star disappeared.
On enquiring about the specialty of the village, villagers told Madhura kavi about the boy in the tree hollow. Madhura kavi visited the boy and saw the same brightness of the star in the boy’s face. To find out if the boy is dumb or silent, he asked a tricky question that can be answered by only an intelligent . The question was “ What does the reborn eat and where do they live?”.
“The one born in this world will eat from this world and lives in this world. “
Madhura kavi was astonished with the answer the boy gave he concluded that the boy is not a normal boy but a great scholar and is something special. He stayed with the boy and took care of him. The boy from then used to sing some songs and then become unconscious for days and wake up and sing songs again. Pattern continued. During the days the boy sang the songs, Madhura kavi used to record all the songs and when the boy was unconscious he used to take care of the boy.
When the recorded songs were read clearly, they meant the essence of Vedas. So Madhura kavi always used to carefully note down all the songs and lived there with him. Madhura kavi felt astonished how this boy lived motionless for 16 yrs and later once started speaking could live another 16 yrs singing without any food and water. Then he started observing and concluded that during the birth of a child from the mother womb the tail bone bends due to the pressure which causes an air block called ‘Shata’, it is because of this air blocks babies cry and have hunger and thirst and come to the mortal world.
But this man has never cried on his birth, as he controlled that air block and not allowed the rail bone to bend, ie he showed anger on that ‘shata’ so he was named as ‘Shatakopulu’.
As he was the destroyer of Shata air, he was also called as Shatakopari. He was marked as rushing as he has attained all the essence of Vedas.
After 32 yrs of life Shatakopulu Rishi begged lord Narayana to let him leave the world. During his last breath Shatakopulu Rishi asked for Lord feet. It is said, what ever you wish for during your last breath is what you are reborn as.
Since Shatakopulu has asked for Lord feet he became his feet. This is the reason we are given the blessings of Shatagopuram after theertham in temples. The reason we bow to the Shatagopuram is to attain the power to control and push away the bad qualities in us.
Swamiji concluded the discourse by giving Mangalasasanams to all who participated in the Nammalwar thirunakshatram.
