Thursday, February 15, 2018

Naalayira Divya Prabhandham

     As the name suggests Naalayira Divya Prabhandham is a collection of 4000 Tamil verses composed by 12 alvars. Basically Divya Prabandham sings the praise of lord Narayana and alvars sang these songs at so many sacred shrines across the country called as Divya desams. Coming from a staunch Saivites community I have no clue on what basis I chose to start reading the book on 15th December 2016 which happened to be almost start of Margazhi month and I successfully completed reading the book on 13th January 2018 which was last day of Margazhi. One reason on why I chose to read this book is could be because of ‘Genes’ since my dad is an ardent devotee of Lord Perumal. I hardly knew at the start of what is in store for me during the course of me reading the book since I had to go though a massive transformation in my life. Also reading the connotation of each verse is beyond the scope of my age hence I just read the verses. I feel I have something small to offer for ones who happen to read this blog and so here I go …..

      Let me go over the Yuga we are living – are we living in Kali yuga which is considered to be period of darkness and divisiveness, hatred and greed, warfare and inequality ? If we just take a look into what is happening around the globe you may relate to what I say. Very sorry to hear regarding the gun shoot incident in Florida and if US is scary of gun shots then we have India full of road accidents and similarly there are other countries where either poverty or warfare is ruling the roost. Mother Nature is literally crying due to environmental hazards caused by insatiability of human beings. Though Chennai floods brought people together it is shame that we need something as big as Chennai Floods to make people united. If you take a closer look into Human beings - we thank for everything we have on Thanksgiving day and next day we run for deals, we pray for rain but at the same time we offer coconut to almighty not to rain on the day of our personal event.

     Year 2017 was one year where I had to go through so much of frustration and my patience was thoroughly tested. Being a religious person I even thought of deserting from worship but the commitment to read the book kept me going. Though my frustrations are far from over but am starting to understand life from a bigger picture. Now if I look back to see where did I get all the mental strength to face everything that was thrown at me then it has to be the Naalayira Divya Prabhandham book. Though we should always mantle ourselves with positivity we cannot hide the fact that we are concerned over so much of hatred happening around us, natural calamity, aging parents, health concerns etc., This is where prayers come into picture and there are different ways to offer prayers. You can sing praising the lord, offer dance, volunteer at a temple etc., You can also take up something substantial as a commitment to offer your prayers to lord such as reading. If you happen to be Lord Siva devotee you have ‘Devaram’, Thiruvasagam’; Lord Muruga devotee you have ‘Thiru pugazh’, ‘Kandha Puranam’; Lord Permal devotee you have ‘Naalayira Divya Prabhandham’; Lord Ganesha devotee you have ‘Ganesha Puranam’; Lord Sai baba devotee you have ‘Sai Satcharitra’; etc., Take the book of your choice based on Ishta Devadha and start reading whenever you get some time and always acknowledge the fact that hardships will not disappear just like that and with faithful prayers one can come out of it. I do not have the age to advise anyone but I just want to share something which I believe could be helpful based on my personal experience.

      Also February 16th 2018 marks a decade of me starting my personal blog site. Though I have written very few of them I have got some amazing and memorable compliments from friends. I promise to take blogging more seriously and value every minute of the reader and will come up with some nice articles in the coming weeks/months. Choosing  a topic takes much more time than writing one. Being good at heart is not just helping poor and needy but also sharing something in your life which could have a positive influence in others life. Through this blog I have paid my tribute to ‘Naalayira Divya Prabhandham’ book and I believe I can bring a positive influence to anyone reading this blog.



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