Ekantha Sevai - Sri Parthasarathi Special Brahmothsavam day 3 – 2022
Everyone of us are attrached by “Beauty” - the quality which gives pleasure to the senses; the state of being beautiful. Confucius said “everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it”. Beauty is… skin deep, is only skin deep, is not only skin deep, is in the eye of the beholder, comes from within and so forth. The nature of beauty is one of the most enduring and controversial themes in Western philosophy, and is—with the nature of art—one of the two fundamental issues in philosophical aesthetics. Beauty has traditionally been counted among the ultimate values, with goodness, truth, and justice. It is a primary theme among ancient Greek, Hellenistic, and medieval philosophers, and was central to eighteenth and nineteenth-century thought, as represented in treatments by such thinkers.
Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, one of the major branches of philosophy. One difficulty for understanding beauty is due to the fact that it has both objective and subjective aspects: it is seen as a property of things but also as depending on the emotional response of observers. Because of its subjective side, beauty is said to be "in the eye of the beholder".
Conceptions of beauty aim to capture what is essential to all beautiful things. Classical conceptions define beauty in terms of the relation between the beautiful object as a whole and its parts: the parts should stand in the right proportion to each other and thus compose an integrated harmonious whole. Hedonist conceptions see a necessary connection between pleasure and beauty, e.g. that for an object to be beautiful is for it to cause disinterested pleasure.
So
what is beauty? What is its definition – or is that mere perception. Various cultures have different definitions
and perceptions of beauty. From the Kayan tribes who believe that long giraffe
type necks are the ultimate sign of beauty and from age five, start priming
their necks with heavy brass rings, to several parts of globe where pale or
white skin is often seen as a sign of beauty and affluence. For us there is no
confusion – beauty is what is attributed, ascribed, associated with Sriman
Narayana !
காண்காண் எனவிரும்பும் கண்கள்,
கதிரிலகு பூண்டார் அகலத்தான் பொன்மேனி,
~ can there be a better description than the words of Sri Peyalwar
Lord
Sriman Narayana adorns necklaces that dazzle on His wide chest,
"Oh, see, see!", craves my eyes”, says Peyalwar on the beauty of our
Emperuman.
In the ongoing Special Brahmothsavam at Thiruvallikkeni divyadesam - today 22.2.22 is the third day – a very important day ~ it
is Garuda Vahanam for Perumal. Garuda is depicted as having the golden
body of a strong person, has a white face, wings, prominent beak, wears a
crown – massive, strong – and more than anything else – ever devoted to Sriman
Narayanan, carrying Him on his shoulders all the time. His devotion and being
close to Emperuman all the time – Garuda, is admired as ‘Periya
Thiruvadi’
Brahmothsavam is
a grand festivity – each day it is different Vahanam, and Perumal has classy
alankarams … on Garuda vahanam day, thousands gather early in the morning to
catch glimpse of the Lord as he comes out of the gate (Gopura vasal
darsanam). In the grand Brahmothsavam, each Vahanam, every purappadu has
its own charm, yet, if one were to ask the most majestic and most crowd-pulling
ones, it would be Thiruther and Garuda vahanam. !! .. .. ..
On Garuda Sevai day, people from far and away come to the temple,
offer vasthram (new clothes), place before Lord coconut, fruits & other
offerings and have darshan of Lord in Garuda vahanam.
Garuda Sevai purappadu commenced with Gopura vassal darshan at 5.15 am- then aesal at TP Koil street and halt at Gangaikondan mantapam, ended at around 0900 am. Closer to 12.00 (noon) there was Ekantha Sevai ~ and hundreds were waiting to have darshan of Perumal Ekantha Sevai. Ekantham may mean solitude or loneliness ... in a different parlance, it would mean privacy ... in Temple parlance, it is construed to mean ‘Lord being alone – especially with lesser or no garlands and ornaments’ that is the stage when one can have darshan of the Thirumeni. Everytime, you have darshan of Sri Parthasarathi, you get carried away by the most beautiful garlands made of most fragrant flowers..... today, it was a simple (rather most grand) single garland made of roses and innumerable jewels adorned Perumal and got beautified by that. It was indeed a very great darshan, as Perumal very slowly walked to the mellifluous tunes played by Nathaswara vithwan. Here are some photos of the grand event.
~adiyen Srinivasa dhasan
[Srinivasan Sampathkumar]
22.02.2022
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