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Monday, December 14, 2020

Karthigai Amavasai 2020 - நிலா நிலா ஓடிவா !! மாமதீ மகிழ்ந்தோடிவா !!

Today 14.12.2020 is Amavasyai in the month of Karthigai.  Generally there would be periya mada veethi purappadu of Sri Parthasarathi Emperuman on all Amavasai days – however, today occurring during Ananthyayanam, there would be no purappadu. 





From tomorrow starts Adhyayana uthsavam – tomorrow is day 1 of Pagal pathu and 25.12 is Vaikunda Ekadasi – from the indications – there is unlikely to be mada veethi purappadu during Irapathu also.  There are plans for purappadus inside the temple but with everything else relaxed in lockdown, a beginning could be made from irapathu at least. 

நிலா நிலா ஓடிவா ....  நில்லாமல்  ஓடிவா ....

மலை மேலே  ஏறி வா .... மல்லிகைப்பூ கொண்டு வா....

சந்திரன் குளிர்ச்சியானவன்; சந்திரனுக்கு அம்புலி, வெண்மதி,  பிறை,   கலாநிதி,    நிசாகரன், மதி,   சுதாகரன்,  என பெயர்கள் பல இருந்தாலும் - அனைவரும் கூறுவது 'நிலா" .. .. சிறுவயதில் வீட்டிலும் பள்ளிக்கூடத்தில் இந்த பாடலை பலதடவை கேட்டு இருப்பீர்.  நிலவை  நோக்கி  கைநீட்டி, தன் குழந்தையுடன் விளையாட வருமாறு அம்புலியை அழைக்கும் பருவம் - அம்புலிப்பருவம். புவியிலிருந்து மிகத் தெளிவாகத் தெரிவதாலும் முறைதவறா பிறை சுழற்சியாலும், தொன்மைக்காலத்திலிருந்தே மனித  சமுகத்தின் பண்பாட்டுக் கூறுகளில்,   குளிர்ச்சியான சந்திரன்  மிகுந்த தாக்கமேற்படுத்தி உள்ளது.

தமிழ் சங்க இலக்கிய நூல்களில் எட்டுத்தொகையும்,  பத்துப்பாட்டும் = பதினெண்மேற்கணக்கு நூல்களாகும்.  கலித்தொகை சங்க காலத் தமிழிலக்கியத் தொகுதியான எட்டுத்தொகை நூல்களுள் ஆறாவது நூலாகும். பல புலவர்களின் பாடல்கள் அடங்கிய தொகுப்பு நூலான கலித்தொகையில் ஓசை இனிமையும், தரவு, தாழிசை, தனிச்சொல், சுரிதகம் என்னும் சிறப்பான அமைப்புகளால் அமைந்த கலிப்பாவினால் பாடப்பட்ட  பாடல்கள் உள்ளன.  அதில் ஒன்று. :

 

“ஐய! திங்கள் குழவி! வருக! என யான் நின்னை

அம்புலி காட்டல் இனிது

 

Are you a star gazer ?  – would you spend a few minutes looking at the sky, wondering the horizon, the twinkling stars, the beautiful moon. For most city dwellers, these may not be their avocation. 

Five hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci proposed an outlandish theory explaining why the Moon’s surface glows after lunar nightfall. Turns out, his idea was correct. The Da Vinci Glow–also known as “Earthshine”–makes the entire lunar disk visible even when the sunlit fraction is just a few percent. For much of human history, people marveled at the faint image of the full Moon inside the arms of the crescent. Where did it come from? No one knew until the 16th century when Leonardo figured it out. He realized that sunlight reflected from Earth lit up the lunar night.

This day, a  Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the Moon has begun its journey back to Earth, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, putting China on course to become the first country to successfully retrieve lunar samples since the 1970s. Engines on the Chang'e 5 probe were ignited 143 miles (230 kilometres) from the lunar surface early on Sunday, Beijing time, before being shut down after 22 minutes with the craft on a trajectory towards Earth, Xinhua said, citing a China National Space Administration statement. A successful landing in Inner Mongolia would make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples after the United States and the Soviet Union. The plan was to collect 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of samples, although it has not been disclosed how much was actually gathered.

The Chang'e 5, named after the mythical Chinese Moon goddess,  was launched on November 24 and a lander vehicle touched down on the Moon on December 1. The mission was expected to take around 23 days in total.  

Today is ‘Amavasyai’.  Amāvásyā (अमावस्या) is the lunar phase of the New moon in Sanskrit. Indian calendars use 30 lunar phases, called tithi in India. The dark moon tithi is when the Moon is within the 12 degrees of angular distance between the Sun and Moon before conjunction.  The New Moon tithi  is called Pratipada or Prathama. Amāvásyā is often translated as new moon since there is no standard term for the Moon before conjunction in English.

 

From Earth, we only ever see one side of the Moon. This is because the time it takes the Moon to rotate around its own axis happens to be the same amount of time it takes for the Moon to orbit Earth: one month. This phenomenon is known as tidal locking. Since we only see one side of the Moon, how much of the Moon is visible to us over the course of a month depends on which part of the Moon is reflecting light from the Sun. And that depends on where the Moon is in its orbit around Earth.



On the New Moon day,  the Moon is between Earth and the Sun, so the side of the Moon facing the Sun isn’t facing us. We can’t see any portion of the lit-up Moon during this phase.  Among these several forms taken by the Moon over a month, Full Moon has always proven to be a thing of beauty, whether it is a Full Moon of colour or just the Moon as we know it forming a complete circle. All these views, however, have been captured from the ground on Earth. The US space agency recently shared images of the Full Moon that adorned the night sky on December 5. The striking part of these images is that they have been clicked by astronauts currently occupying the ISS, meaning that the images have been clicked from space.  The Full Moon, of course, looks clearer in the images than what is observed from Earth with a naked eye. What's more, it can be seen hovering over a blue hue in the sky, denoting Earth and its atmosphere. The picturesque amalgamation is just mesmerizing.

Nasa has announced 18 astronauts who will travel to the Moon under the agency's Artemis programme. They include individuals who have already travelled to the International Space Station, as well as new recruits who have never flown in space. The group includes the next man and first woman who will walk on the lunar surface in 2024. The cadre of nine women and nine men were announced by US Vice-President Mike Pence at an event in Florida. Stephanie Wilson, who has flown into space three times aboard the space shuttle, Christina Koch, who holds the record for the longest continuous time in space for a woman, and Victor Glover, who recently launched to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon, are among those who will fly to the Moon in coming years.

In 2017, Donald Trump signed a space policy directive to return American astronauts to the Moon, and on to “other destinations”. Nasa said it would aim to do this by 2028. But recently the administration directed the space agency to bring that forward to 2024, citing Chinese lunar ambitions. Perhaps it would have coincided with the end of Trump's second term, but he was not re-elected. This time round, Nasa wants to do things differently. The Moon is part of a bigger ambition to explore deep space, including Mars, so part of the plan is to establish a lunar outpost.  “We're not going back to the Moon to leave flags and footprints and then not go back for another 50 years,” Nasa’s administrator  said earlier this year. “We're going to go sustainably - to stay - with landers and robots and rovers and humans."  Previous Nasa lunar missions had been named after the Greek god Apollo. The next is  named Artemis after his mythical twin sister, and there is already speculation about the identity of the agency's first female Moonwalker.

 



நமது வாழ்வியலில், சிறு குழந்தைகளை  மாலைப்பொழுதில் இடுப்பிலெடுத்துக் கொண்டு  ``நிலா நிலா வா ! வா!!' என்று   கையால் அழைக்கும்படி செய்து சாப்பாடு தருதல் இருந்தது.  இப்போது அதே நிலவையோ மற்றவற்றையோ  புதிய போனில் காட்டுகின்றனர். 

கோகுலத்தில் தவழ்ந்து வளர்ந்த கண்ணபிரானும்  அவ்வாறே நிலவை அழைக்க - அவனை சீராட்டி யசோதையும் ஏனைய  இடைப்பெண்களும்,  சந்திரனை அழைத்தனர்.   சந்திரன் மேகத்தில் மறைந்து போவது இயல்பாதலால் அப்படி மறைந்து போகதே  என யசோதை வேண்டியதாக, பெரியாழ்வார் தமது பாசுரத்தில் கூறுகிறார். . 

 

என்சிறுக் குட்டன் எனக்கோர்  இன்னமுது எம்பிரான்

தன்சிறுக் கைகளால் காட்டிக் காட்டி  அழைக்கின்றான்

அஞ்சனவண்ணனோடு ஆடலாட உறுதியேல்

மஞ்சில் மறையாதே மாமதீ மகிழ்ந்தோடிவா.

 

Here are some photos of Sri Parthasarathi Perumal purappadu on Karthigai Amavasai  (22.11.2014) – the first  two photos are of 18.11.2017 

adiyen Srinivasa dhasan
Mamandur Veeravalli Srinivasan Sampathkumar
14.12.2020. 






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