Love and faith

Vishnuchitta found her as an infant among the flowering bushes from where he would pluck flowers and make a garland for Ranganatha(Vishnu).
Naming her Goda, he brought her up by narrating the stories of krishna🕉
Eager to marry krishna she waited…..💟
She composed the Tirupavai-30 songs to awaken our sleeping soul and reach narayana💟🌹
Her another composition describes her dream where with the splendour of a 1000 elephants, Mahavishnu walked to wed her❤💟
Despite the mocking of society, she waited with faith🕉
He came one day, wed her and ran back into the sanctum of vishnu💟
She too merged with his idol💟
She became ANDAL-she who ruled in bhakti🕉💟❤
She is an incarnation of bhudevi (mother earth) 🕉🙏
She holds a parrot asking us to repeat the names of Narayana🕉🙏💟
Her songs are sung now every dhanu month (dec- jan)🕉🙏
“Wake up-let us bathe early and reach the house of Yashoda and Nandagopa. Let us remember the lion cub of Yashoda who grants us all boons and vaikunta”-Andal

Faith has no name or identity

Meenakshi and her British devotee🌹🕉
1801, Madurai came under the control of the British East India Company. One of the British administrators of Madurai was Rous Peter, who became the Collector in 1812.
Though he did not know anything of the traditions, he would salute the mighty temple gopurams or towers🙏
One stormy night, Rous Peter was awakened by a little girl in his room who held him by his hand and led him outside. 🙏
Lightning struck his bungalow, reducing it to ashes.😱
The girl was not to be seen😭😍🙏❤
It was Meenakshi💟💟💟🙏🙏😭🌹🌺
As a gesture of thanksgiving, Rous Peter donated a pair of gold stirrups studded with rubies to the goddess🙏🙏🙏
The stirrups presented by him are still worn by the goddess when she rides a horse in procession during temple festivities.
In fact, Rous Peter is known as Rous Pandian, named after the Pandya kings who ruled Madurai🙏🙏🙏
P.S-we all are her equal children…the word British was used just for appeal🤗😉🙏
“Sri vidhyam shiva vama bhaga nilayam, hreenkara mantrojwalam,
Sri chakrangitha bindu Madhya vasathim, Srimath sabha nayakeem,
Srimath shanmuga vignaraja jananim, sriman jagan mohinim,
Meenakshmi pranathosmi santhathamaham, karunya vara nithim”- She is Srividya ( a way of worshipping the goddess) and occupies the left half of Shiva. She resides in the bindu of the shree chakra and is the emperess of the sabha (world), she is the mother of ganesha and kartikeya and attracts the whole world. I always offer my namaskars to Meenakshi who is the epitome of mercy🙏🙏🙏🙏

Handling challenges

Once a harrassed devotee had many troubles and he approached Shree Chandrashekara Saraswati known as Maha Periyava of Kanchipuram.
The devotee said he was very sad and he was losing faith in Goddess Shakti (Parvati-the divine mother, spouse of Shiva).
Periyava patiently listened to all his woes. He then said, “See you are in lots of sorrow. Let me tell you a story.
Once a salt merchant who was a devotee of Kamakshi( the form of the divine mother at Kanchipuram, a shakti peetha) and his friends went to the market with salt on their donkeys. To reach the market they had to pass by a forest.
As he had a lot of salt, he expected a lot of profit.
When they reached half the way, suddenly it got cloudy.
The merchant prayed to Kamakshi to not let it rain as all the salt would go vain.
In a few seconds it poured rain. All the salt washed away.
The merchant now was angry and was crying. He said ,Amma Kamakshi I prayed to you so much all my life. I asked you one thing to protect my salt. Now I have so much loss! I will never worship you again”.
On their way back to their town, they were attacked by bandits inhabiting the forest who had guns.
The merchant and his friends were terrified of the guns.

Just when hope was bleak!
The bandits found that the guns made of gunpowder did not work as it was wet with rain that had just poured!
Taking advantage of this situation, the merchant and his friends fought the now powerless bandits who then ran away.
The merchant now had tears of joy that his life was saved. He said, “Amma Kamakshi you gave rain and I got angry that my salt waa lost. If I had gone to the market I would have earned a lot but it would have all been stolen by the bandits. Worse they would have killed us. But, you sent rain and prevented me from going to the market. Due to the rains, the guns of the bandits did not work so we are safe.”
Periyava now asked the devotee, “Do you understand? Remember the Divine mother. That in your difficulties Ambal allows you to think of her. Isn’t that a blessing itself? Think of her always. She will end your problems”.
Needless to say in a while the problems of the devotee ended.
Let us reflect on the story said by Paramacharya.
Such a simple way to overcome the problems we are facing in life. Meditation on the grace of Guru and Ambal. They protect us from something even big that could have happened.

Lets see the good in every situation.

After all every heartbeat, every sneeze, every pulse is thework of the Divine!

Sorrow or happiness-they are gifts from the universe!

Overcoming challenges

A devotee of the Divine Mother was lost in her prayer when the emperor Sarobji visitedThis devotee was well loved and was an established devotee and priest of the Goddess Abirami (a form of Goddess Parvati Durga meaning the attractive one)Few People who were jealous of him and whispered all sorts of malice against our hero that he was mad, (we too go through allegations no?)

As the hero was a priest, the emperor to check his sanity asked him “Sir, what thithi or day is it?”The priest at that time was meditating on the glow of compassion of Maa and said, “Our Mother is always radiant like the moon making everyday the full moon or Poornima!”The king flew into a temper as that day was amavasya or the new moon and assumed the priest was mad and ordered our hero to be suspended on fire and lowered slowly.

He called out to her! As he called out to maa, she stood before only him in all her glory as Lalita Parameshwari! She dazzled! Our hero wept with joy and lo! She threw her earring or thatanka engraved with the shree chakra across the sky. This earring shined as the moon! Amavasya became Poornima!The king and all those assembled were astonished! They begged the forgiveness of our hero!

These verses are still sung as “Abirami andadhi” and the temple is Tirukadaiyur near Chidambaram

In life we often face malice, criticism, struggles and pain like our hero…but let us remember if we stay in surrender and faith, SHE or your faith will make our dark times or amavasya into the full moon or Poornima.

May we soak in these prayers and stay in love, joy, peace and fullness!P.S-keep the goal or shakti in your heart always and we can overcome anything!

The moon appears Download