Singing Pallandu

Pallandu singing is for blessing some one. Normally a younger one will be blessed by an elderly person. Or more learned person will bless less learned person. But if you see periyazhwar has sung pallandu for Maha vishnu. In what way Periyazhwar is elder than Maha Vishnu who has no origin, no birth? Or in what way he is wiser than the omniscient narayana? But his sheer love on god qualified him to sing pallandu. Periyazhwar was given a respectable position by the pandya king. Yet he is a normal down to earth person who is thinking of the lord always. Though he is seated on top of an elephant his thoughts were fixed on namperumal.

When azhwar visualizes lord vishnu with his consort lakshmi, ascended on the garuda, he didnt think that lord should have come down to bless the devotees. But he had a different view. A view of a mother. He thought the lord is so handsome and when he ascends on the garuda, the beauty knew no bounds. He should be protected from the evil eyes. So azhwar sings pallandu thinking that it will protect the lord from the evil. Such an affection periyazhwar had on Vishnu. Even in his other pasurams he use to think him as lord krishna's mother and when he danced on the serpant kalinga, he was very much worried that the poison emitted from the snake should not harm his child lord krishna!

Need for tapas

Our ultimate goal in life should be to reach god. But there are 3 obstacles that will prevent us from attaining our goal. They are called as 3 malams. They are ego (ahankaram) , illusion (maya) and deeds (karma). One need to get rid of these three inorder to reach god.

The first step for achieving this is to start paraying to god. For that we are going to temple. Many may ask, why should we go to temple for praying to god, when he is present everywhere (omnipresent). Going to temple is like doing tapas or meditation. In this world there are lot of things that will kill our concentration. So we need a place where our attention is not diverted away from god. Temple serve for this purpose. We are not great saints to hold our concentration for a long time without getting deviated. Even the saints in ancient time will go to punya sthalas and theerthas for meditation.

The sages at naimisharanya who were devoid of the three malams mentioned above were unhappy as they were not able to understand the inner meaning of vedas. A new sage comes to naimisharanya and understanding their worries asks them not to feel bad. He also says that they need to do tapas and it should be done at a place where they can interact with god one on one. The sages asks the new saint himself to suggest a place and he suggests them all to go to Madurai and sit infront of the dakshinamurthy who is none other than lord shiva manifested as guru.

The sages then go to madurai and understand that Lord shiva is the essence of vedas. Detailed explanation is given in my other post. Click here to read it.