HANUMAN CHALISA

                     

              Hanuman Chalisa (Hindi: हनुमान चालीसा "Forty chaupais on Hanuman") is a devotional song based on Lord Hanuman as the model devotee. It is a poem written by Tulsidas in the Awadhi language, and is his best known Hindu text apart from the Ramcharitmanas. The word "chālisā" is derived from "chālis" in Hindi, which means 40, as the Hanuman Chalisa has 40 verses.
Hanuman (also known as Anjaneya and Maruti) is a Hindu deity and an ardent devotee of Lord Rama, a central character in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana.

                        Legend goes that Tulsi Das went to meet the then Emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi after having had a darshan or vision of God Sri Rama in Gokula, the birth place of God Sri Krishna. The Emperor challenged Tulsi Das to show Sri Rama to him. When Tulsi Das replied that it is not possible without true devotion to Rama, he was imprisoned by Aurangzeb. In the prison, Tulsi Das is supposed to have written the beautiful verses of the Hanuman Chalisa on Sri Hanuman.

When he completed the Hanuman Chalisa in prison, it is said that an army of monkeys menaced the city of Delhi. The king unsuccessfully tried to control the monkeys with his forces. Finally, the Emperor is supposed to have realized that the monkey menace was a manifestation of the wrath of Hanuman, the Monkey God. He released Tulsi Das and urged him to intervene in this grave matter and it is said that the monkeys stopped their mischiefs immediately after Tulsi's release.
           Tulsi Das says in the Chalisa that whoever chants it with full devotion to Hanuman, will have Hanuman's grace. Amongst the Hindus of Northern India, it is a very popular belief that chanting the Hanuman Chalisa invokes Hanuman's divine intervention in grave problems, including those concerning evil spirits and this belief is based on the claim made in the Chalisa itself.

ARUNAGIRINATHAR

ARUNAGIRINATHAR

                           Arunagiri was born in Thiruvannamalai, a town in Tamil Nadu. His father died soon after his birth and his mother and sister brought him up in the rich cultural and religious traditions. Legends claim that Arunagiri was attracted to the pleasures of the flesh and spent his youth in pursuing a life of debauchery. He used to get money from his sister each time to go to devadasi's. His sister always gave whatever she earned to make her brother happy. One day he demanded money from his sister, but unfortunately she had no money. She was very sad and said, "Oh brother, I am sorry that there is no money to give you today." Arunagirinathar shouted how its possible and he wanted money now to have pleasure. His sister then said "Brother, if you need to have pleasure then please sell me to someone and that money can be used somehow". Hearing that, Arunagirinathar felt how self centered and selfish he was. He decided to end his life, went to the temple hit his head in all the pillars and steps, begging for forgiveness. Then he leaped from the tower of Thiruvannamalai temple. He was however miraculously saved from the death by Lord Muruga who also transformed him to a holy saint instantaneously"^.                                        Arunagiri sang his first devotional song and thereafter decided to spend the rest of his life singing in praise of the God. He was a devotee of Lord Muruga and worshipped the God at Vedapureeswarar temple at the sacred place known as Cheyyar on the banks of the Cheyyar River.
His fame got the jealousy of chief minister of the Kingdom. He claimed Arunagirinathar as a false saint and not a true devotee of Lord Subramaniya. So the king arranged a public gathering and asked Arunagiri to show Lord Subramanya to others also. Arunagiri started singing songs towards Lord Muruga and soon after Lord Muruga appeared in a stone pillar in the form of child. He was so bright as equal to hundreds of suns and the people were unable to see this with their ordinary eyes. Due to this everybody lost their eyes including the king and ministers. It was suggested that bringing the Parijatha flower could only get sights back to the people. Arunagirinathar is said to have entered the body of a parrot in order to fetch the parijatha flower. His enemy Sambandan burnt his body & hence Arunagirinathar settled himself on the temple tower in the form of the parrot and sang his famous Kantharanubhuthi. There is a form of a parrot in one of the sthubis (Kili Gopuram), testifying to this story."
           
                                Arunagirinathar was Tamil poet who lived during the 15th century in Tamil Nadu, India. He was the creator of Tiruppugazh, a book of poems in Tamil in praise of the Hindu God Murugan. He was a prolific composer, who is believed to have composed over 16000 songs, of which only about 1330 remain today. His poems are known for their beautiful, flowing lyrics coupled with complex rhymes and rhythmic structures. Thiruppugazh is considered as one of the major works of mediaeval Tamil literature, both for its poetical and musical qualities, and for its religious, moral and philosophical content.
                              Arunagiri, rendered his first song Muthai Tharu... after the miraculous escape at Thiruvannamalai. Arunagiri visited temples all over South India and composed 16000 songs - about 2000 alone remained in this earth. The songs show the way to the life of virtue and righteousness and set the tone for a new form of worship, the musical worship.
            The other works of Arunagirinathar include Thiruvaguppu, Kandar Alankaram, Kandar Anubhuti, Kandar Andhadi, Vel Viruttam, Mayil Viruttam and Seval Viruttam. For Muruga devotees Thiruppugazh is equivalent to Thevaram, Kandar Alankaram is equivalent to Thiruvasagam and Kandar Anubhuti is equivalent to Thirumandiram.

The Thiruppugazh songs remained in manuscript form for a number of years and ignored and forgotten. V.T. Subramania Pillai and his son V.S. Chengalvaraya Pillai of Tiruthani understood their value, retrieved them and published them.
                                                           In 1871 Subramania Pillai, a District Munsif, had the opportunity to hear a rendering of a Tiruppugazh song while he was on a tour of Chidambaram. Captivated by the song, he decided to set out on a mission to search for the entire body of Tiruppugazh songs. He toured all over south India, collected manuscripts, including palm leaves, assembled the texts and published them in two volumes, the first in 1894 and the second in 1901. After his demise, his son Chengalvaraya Pillai brought out a new edition of the songs. He also went to so many shrines sucha as shiva tempel and Muruga temples amongst Melakadambur is one of them he wrote a song about this shrine's lord Muruga "kaviri seerumon seeraru soozh kadambooril"-means Muruga is blessing us from the place where the tributary of the river Cauvery is the vadavaru the kadambur lies in the banks of the vadavaru.

GAYATRI

 

                   Gayatri (Sanskrit: गायत्री, gāyatrī) is the feminine form of gāyatra, a Sanskrit word for a song or a hymn. Gayatri is a consort of Brahma and the goddess of learning. Brahma married her when there was a need for a companion during a yajna. Brahma had to start the yajna along with his wife. Brahma asked Indra to help him find a solution and Indra found Gayatri, who came from the Gurjar community. So Brahma married Gayatri to start the yajna in time.

Upset by this act, Saraswati cursed Brahma that he would not be worshipped on earth except at Pushkar.

Originally the personification of the Gayatri mantra[citation needed], and revered by Hindus worldwide, the goddess Gāyatrī is considered the veda mata, the mother of all Vedas and also the personification of the all-pervading Parabrahman, the ultimate unchanging reality that lies behind all phenomena. Gayatri Veda Mata is seen by many Hindus to be not just a Goddess, but a portrayal of Brahman himself, in the feminine form. Essentially, the Goddess is seen to combine all the phenomenal attributes of Brahman, including Past, Present and Future as well as the three realms of existence.[citation needed] Goddess Gāyatrī is also worshipped as the Hindu Trimurti combined as one. In Hinduism, there is only one creation who can withstand the brilliance of Aditya and that is Gāyatrī. Some also consider her to be the mother of all Gods and the culmination of Lakshmi, Parvati and Sarasvati.

Gāyatrī is typically portrayed as seated on a red lotus, signifying wealth or else on a swan or peacock. She appears in either of these forms:

Having five heads with the ten eyes looking in the eight directions plus the earth and sky, and ten arms holding all the weapons of Vishnu, symbolizing all her reincarnations.
Accompanied by a white swan, holding a book to portray knowledge in one hand and a cure in the other, as the goddess of Education
It is a Sanskrit word, Ga means to sing, Yatri means Protection. Gayatri has three phases and so it is called tripada. It is also called tripada because it is Vedmata, Devmata and Vishwamata. Vedas have originated from Gayatri mantra and so it is known as Vedmata. It is Devmata because it helps in manifestation of divine virtues (gun), actions (karma) and nature (swabhav)

KOORATHAZHVAN

SAMACHITTHATHA OF RAMA