Oppiliappan: The Lord without equal and his sacred temple
Human beings seek divine intervention to solve their myriad problems, both big and small, as well as to seek favours, both big and small! Collectively, 75.8% of the world’s people identified with some religion or another, as of 2020, according to the PEW Research Center. The divine is being constantly bombarded for the resolution of problems and the accomplishment of desires.
The prayer traffic must be in trillions every minute. God himself would need a massive secretariat to handle such enormous volumes of prayers pouring in 24×7, from across the globe. This is where the uniqueness of Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism becomes evident.
Many belief systems attack Hinduism for the belief in the multiplicity of Gods and Goddesses, but to handle the phantasmagoria of continuous prayer traffic, innumerable divinities would certainly be needed. A lonely God or Godman would waver, inundated by the massive galaxy of prayer traffic that continues unabated. Hence, Hinduism has specialized Gods and Goddesses to handle different subjects. There are divinities who handle requests for wealth, health, longevity, victory in battles, examinations, legal disputes, love affairs, marriages, childlessness, and even sports.
It is a divine bureaucracy, as logical as our judiciary, government, defence, health, and finance. For example, there is a massive judicial bureaucracy, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at the apex, but disputes are segregated subject-wise, like civil, criminal, family disputes, motor vehicles, and so on. In the health sector, though there may be a chairman or president at the apex of the hospital, there are a vast spectrum of specialized doctors to deal with cases related to ophthalmology, orthopaedics, surgery, paediatrics, cancer, urology, gynaecology, and ENT. Even in the government sector, though the President and Prime Minister are at the apex, there is a broad range of specialized ministries handling different subjects. As in government, judiciary, health, education, it is only logical that in religion also, there is a spectacular array of divinities, handling specific issues related to human welfare, comprising health, wealth, litigation, education, enmity, marital discord, and longevity. Hinduism does not subscribe to the belief that one god or godman is the be-all and end-all for every human problem.
Each and every human being faces upheavals of various kinds in their life span. Life-threatening diseases, financial setbacks, and unemployment can all be devastating for an individual or family to tackle. Then there are collective issues like wars, famines, floods, earthquakes, and inclement weather that can seriously disrupt living conditions, necessitating divine intervention. The collective karma of the people undergoing tribulations also needs to be reckoned with. Certain karmic inflictions of pain and suffering answer the happenings that took place at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Iran. Only divine intervention can alleviate the suffering of the unfortunate people residing there.
As in the lives of nations, individuals also have to confront hostile conditions relating to their everyday existence. This writer, while confronting one such event, had a strange experience. Prayers to Lord Venkateshwara, and other known and unknown Gods and Goddesses were being released day and night continuously, to get out of that quagmire.
One night, in a short dream, an opaque apparition made an appearance, for a fraction of a second, and in a booming voice announced: “I am Oppiliappan. Come and see me to solve your problem”. I woke up with a jolt, unable to comprehend the entity that came in the dream. During those days, there was no Google or other search engines that could give instantaneous results for any kind of search. Queries to many people drew a blank, some people suggested that the language sounded like Tamil. I decided to approach an erudite senior Tamil Brahmin officer, working as Collector of Customs & Central Excise. Upon hearing the word, he exclaimed: “I say, it is the famous Oppiliappan Temple, located at Thirunageswaram, near Kumbakonam”. He instructed me about the directions to proceed to the Temple.
The priest at the Temple, while offering Aarathi to the deity, introduced Lord Oppiliappan as the elder brother of Lord Venkateshwara of Tirupati! Imagine my shocked surprise.
This temple figures in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, containing 4000 verses, and the 108 temples revered as Divya Desams. The 106 earthly Divya Desam temples are spread over the Indian states of Tamil Nadu (84), Kerala (11), Uttar Pradesh (4), Uttarakhand (3), Andhra Pradesh (2), and Gujarat (1), and the country of Nepal (1) (Muktinath). The remaining two Divya Desams are believed to be in the celestial realms. Oppiliappan Temple figures at serial number 60 in the list, while Tirupati is at serial number 96.
The most distinctive feature of this temple is that the sacred food offering (Naivedyam) and all Prasadams are prepared without salt. According to legend, Lord Vishnu appeared in the guise of an old Brahmin and sought Rishi Markandeya’s daughter Sridevi in marriage. The Rishi was not inclined to accept the proposal, but not wanting to displease the Brahmin, pleaded that she was too young to marry, and added that she did not even know the quantity of salt to be put in food preparations. Instantly, the Lord revealed his true identity and simultaneously announced that henceforth all the food consumed by him will be prepared without any salt! As Lord Vishnu accepted food without salt (Uppu in Tamil), he is praised as Uppili Appan and also as Oppili Appan, as none equals Him. Oppili – No equals.
The priest gave his blessings by reciting the Sri Vishnu Vijaya stotram – The prayer of victory to Lord Vishnu.
“Mangalya Stavam – Sri Vishnu Vijaya Stotram”
Verse 14: Sarva kama pradham nithyam deva devasya keerthanam
Atha param Maha jnanam na bhootham na bhavishyathi.
(This song of God of Gods grants all desires daily,
From then on, you will get great knowledge which is not in the past nor in the future”).
Om Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamasthu
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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