Tamil Brahmin.....

[Raji Ram]

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The ladies whose mother has not performed the Varalashmi nOnbu pooja in the traditional way,
usually seek the help of a sAstrigaL to commence it first. Then they continue every following year. ray2:

 

[vgane]

With regards to the post about the filthy habits of certain "Cehnnaivasis" with respect public defacing of walls and using them as urinals or spitting any where etc. I lived in Chennai/Madras during the early sixties when I went to high school there. Chennai was much cleaner in those days. But over the years I have been regularly visiting Chennai every couple of years to see my mother and brother who live in T'Nagar. This place has become one of the most crowded and dirty places. Pondy bazar road used to be cleaned every morning in the early sixties. Today it is even impossible to do that ever. At one time when I expressed some opinions like that when visited, I was given a good oral whipping by one my cousins saying that you who grew up here and now settled in America have the audacity to mention that "their T'nagar" is dirty! I decided to stop commenting and just carry on with my visits. Only the people living in Chennai can make the changes to their society and environment. I wish everyone there all the best in their environmental cleanup endeavors.

T.Nagar is highly crowded & commercialized...It requires concerted effort of both civic authorities & public to maintain cleanliness..Not an easy task though!

 

[vgane]

This Varalakshmi Vritham is such a wonderful puja to propitiate Goddess Lakshmi...I wish all TB's do it...This is one puja where Athu vazhakkam come into picture...Can anyone clarify why more than half the households among TB's do not do this Puja?

 

[athimber]

Dear Sri. Athimber,
You mention "absence of male members" alluding to the fact the lineage of a person is only carried by male members. I beg to differ on that ideology. Once you get married both the male and female are equally responsible for the creation of the next generation. Doing the "Panchayatana Pooja" is your family(you, your spouse and children) decision. It does not have to be handed down to you via a male lineage. It can also come from your wife's side if her father was doing it and she had no brother.
"Varalakshmi Pooja" is another such tradition. My mother did not do it because it was not done on my Father's side although it was done on my mother side of the family. Now my wife has decided to do that Pooja in my family even though it not a Father's side custom for me. I did not objected to it. In fact I sit with her and read out the pooja manthras for her from the book similar to the one's that TB sent out through this TB forum.
Any prayer done sincerely to any deity will give you "Spiritual Energy" and satisfaction. So go ahead and ask the temple priest or other people who sincerely do the same pooja and learn the rituals and do it with the full sincerity and faith. You cannot go wrong doing it.

At the end of any pooja recite the following Manthra with some water in your right hand palm and then pour it down through your fore fingers at the end of the manthra. Then touch that water from the ground and apply it to your forehead which is the ultimate source of all your thoughts and actions.

"காயென வாசா, மனஸெந்த்ரியைர்வா, புத்தியாத்மனாபா ப்ரக்ரிதெ ஸ்வபாவாத், கரொமி யத்யத் ஸகலம் பரஸ்மை, ஸ்ரீமன் நாராயனாயேதி ஸமர்பயாமி"

"Kaayena Vaacha, Manasendryairva, Buddhyathmanabha prakrithe swabhaavaath, karomi yadhyath sakalam parasmai, sriman Narayanayethi samarpayami"


"I have done my rites as sincerely as I perceived as correct, but being of mundane nature(implying whether I did it correctly or incorrectly) , I did this all as an offering(samarpanam) to Sriman Narayana(the Supreme Protector)"

This prayer is good for TB Iyers(Saivites) or TB Iyengars(Vashnavites)

This prayer is common to all conscious humans not just TB's because " To err is human".
You can see this "erring" in all my writings and the corrections I receive from Veteran writers!

Thanks for such a wonderful encouraging post, Shri Raysunder ji. Really a morale boosting one. Makes me more confident now. As already said the pooja had been handled by the sons of the family so far. For the first it is set to go to a son-in-law. Hope I would be able to do justice to the confidence they have shown on me.

 

[athimber]

Athimber Sir,

This part of the movie 'Thirumaal perumai' is for you, in case you are a Sivaji fan! :drama:

Thirumangai Azhwar

Thanks Madam RR, for sharing such a wonderful movie clip. Nostalgic and quite informative on the subject as well. Thanks a lot. In the mean I also did some search over the internet and got as information as I can. This really is the benefit of this forum. See how much enlighten I am within a span of certain hours. That's why I like this forum very much. Now regret not joining this forum much earlier. Thanks one and all.

 

[vgane]

Smt. Raji Ram,
"Cat Name(Poonai Peyar)" of a male writer! I guess "Chennaivaasi itself" would have been more neutral address!

It is pseudonym & not cat name...A small correction!

 

[athimber]

It is seen that members uses prefix like sri or suffixes 'sir' while addressing me in the forum. May I request all of you only to use my handle name without any prefixes or suffixes as I believe the prefixes and suffixes creates a distance and reduce the intimacy. I also will follow the same suit. Thank you.

 

[Raji Ram]

It is pseudonym & not cat name...A small correction!

'Punai peyar' became 'poonai peyar', Ganesh!

BTW, I heard the following, in a discourse, when I was a kid:

'ஓங்கி உலகளந்த உத்தமன் பேர் பாடி' was read as 'Ongi ulagaLandha uththaman bare body'

and interpreted as 'viswaroopaththil ulagaLandha uththaman, chattai aNiyavillai!

 

[Raji Ram]

May I request all of you only to use my handle name without any prefixes or suffixes .....

:nono: I like to address you as Athimber Sir.

P.S: Two of my maternal uncles used to address my dad as 'Sir'!!

 

[raysundar]

Dear Athimber,
As you please.
One of my eldest cousins(my mother elder sister's son) used to called his mother by name, Meenu. Of course, I addressed her properly as "Periamma". Subsequently all his younger siblings(total 12 in the family, a very large household!) also used to jokingly call their mother by name, especially when she got angry with them, just to relieve the tension!

 

[Raji Ram]

This Varalakshmi Vritham is such a wonderful puja to propitiate Goddess Lakshmi...I wish all TB's do it...This is one puja where Athu vazhakkam come into picture...Can anyone clarify why more than half the households among TB's do not do this Puja?

Dear Ganesh,

For tambrahms, this poojA is 'Aththu vazhakkam' only; but in case a lady wants to start it, she can do so with

the guidance of a sAsthrigaL for the first time and one elderly sumangali initiates her to perform the poojA.

There is another belief that if the eldest of the daughters in law does not 'take' the poojA, the younger ones

can't perform it. In a family known to me, the third daughter in law is unable to do this since the eldest one

refuses to 'take' the poojA.

 

[Raji Ram]

.........
One of my eldest cousins(my mother elder sister's son) used to called his mother by name, Meenu. Of course, I addressed her properly as "Periamma". Subsequently all his younger siblings(total 12 in the family, a very large household!) also used to jokingly call their mother by name, especially when she got angry with them, just to relieve the tension!

I am fondly called as 'Raji manni' by my 4 sisters in law, their sons, daughters, grandsons and grand daughters!!

 

[raysundar]

There is another belief that if the eldest of the daughters in law does not 'take' the poojA, the younger ones

can't perform it. In a family known to me, the third daughter in law is unable to do this since the eldest one

refuses to 'take' the poojA.

RR,
Its only a belief, not something engraved on stone. If one wishes to perform a pooja or say some prayers, then that is a religious freedom that is given to all, especially Indians. If its not in the family, then any one can do it with proper initiation from another person who knows or a proper knowledgeable priest.

 

[Raji Ram]

RR,
Its only a belief, not something engraved on stone. If one wishes to perform a pooja or say some prayers, then that is a religious freedom that is given to all, especially Indians. If its not in the family, then any one can do it with proper initiation from another person who knows or a proper knowledgeable priest.

Very true, Sir! But still some believe in 'Swami kaNNaik kuththum!'.

 

[raysundar]

That is a tradition of my younger days. I had a much older cousin, we used to call Raji Akka.
BTW, isn't it past midnight in Chennai.
You veterans really work late, keeping this forum alive!

 

[Raji Ram]

That is a tradition of my younger days. I had a much older cousin, we used to call Raji Akka.
BTW, isn't it past midnight in Chennai.
You veterans really work late, keeping this forum alive!

Me in Sing. Chennai at 10.30 pm.

Ram and I are on vacation at Boston!

 

[raysundar]

RR,
OK. Boston huh.
Reverting to the original discussion started by Athimber, about Tamil Brahmins and about Iyers and Iyengars.
I am reminded of my IIT Madras class mate, Ram (yes your last namesake) in Mech Engg. He was a devout Iyengar, who regularly visited the Jalakanteswara/Kathyayani, Siva temple on campus, every evening. He even smeared the Vibuthi prasadam on his forhead. I greatly admired not only his intelligence (he got the Gold Medal for #1 Student of our class when we all graduated), but also his being a completely transparent Tamil Brahmin. Friendships like his and of course my upbringing at home molded my religious personality.

 

[GNANA SUNYAM]

when we are in a crowd, we still want others to recognize and be aware of our identity as TB.

even if they aren't aware we proactively make them aware.

what is hindering us from mingling/dissolving in crowd?

why do we want someone in the crowd to point to us and tell someone else 'avaru iyer da'?

 

[vgane]

when we are in a crowd, we still want others to recognize and be aware of our identity as TB.

even if they aren't aware we proactively make them aware.

what is hindering us from mingling/dissolving in crowd?

why do we want someone in the crowd to point to us and tell someone else 'avaru iyer da'?

Even if want to integrate with the rest, we still can be identified by our speech, taste, behavior and look...

Even if we want to mingle with the rest, others want us to be kept aloof as they would then score brownie points!!

But we go all out to cultivate the rest then nobody can stop us !

Ultimately we have to take a call whether we want to be aloof & have a unique identity or merge our identity with the rest!!

 

[raysundar]

Here in the US one of my friends went directly from the temple wearing traditional "panchakacham and angavastram" directly to the airport to pick up a priest. He is quite a proud TB and loves to tell Americans about our TB style of traditional dressing.

 

[Raji Ram]

Many Americans like the Indian dresses; ladies love to wear sarees! :thumb:

One of my nephews invited some American friends to his wedding and all the ladies wore sarees

(stretch blouses were very handy!) and men wore either panchu / dhOti! Now we know how to

market panchus and dhOtis and hence the ready made panchus and 'ottikkO - kattikkO' dhOtis

are popular not only among foreigners but a few NRI tambrams too.

Advt: ottikkO kattikkO dhOtis

 

[renuka]

He was a devout Iyengar, who regularly visited the Jalakanteswara/Kathyayani, Siva temple on campus, every evening. He even smeared the Vibuthi prasadam on his forhead..

Narayana!

Just kidding!

 

[Raji Ram]

Dear Renu,
Probably his Shiva bhakthi fetched him the coveted Gold medal. :first:

 

[renuka]

Dear Renu,
Probably his Shiva bhakthi fetched him the coveted Gold medal. :first:

Yes...what isn't possible when one has Shiva Bhakti?

Even Yama dare not come near...Chandrasekharamashraye Mama Kim Karishyati Vai Yamaha!

 

[krish44]

Why iyengars are being targetted here and their visit to shiva temple mentioned?

There may be some pseudo iyengars who do that or the poster is ignorant or wrong.

Iyengars do not patronise shiva temples or navagraha.

Vishnu and avathars of vishnu are considered supreme.

If you have doubt , vaagmi sir will enlighten you.