Narayaneeyam Day: Its history and significance
Enter December 17th this year and most of the world would be gearing up for its winter break. Much of India, especially from deep South, would be busy in its Margazhi celebrations — festival proceedings to Carnatic concerts. But let’s unwind a few days back to December 14th, and zoom in to the God’s own country, where yet another sweet festival would be going on. Yes, I’m talking about the Narayaneeyam Day in Kerala’s Guruvayur, where the poet gets the rare Darshan of the Supreme almighty Lord Krishna.
Now this day was backed up by ninety-nine days of fervent prayers to the Lord by Sri Narayana Bhattathiri, who had his humble origins in the village of Melpathur in Kerala. Born in 1560 AD, he learnt from his father Matrudattan and later learnt the Vedas from Sri Madhava, the science of debate from Damodara, a famous astronomer-mathematician in Kerala, and Sanskrit grammar from Achyuta Pisharati. By the age of 16, he excelled in the knowledge of the scriptures.
Bhattathiri held his Guru Achyuta Pisharati in great reverence as the later served as his spiritual guru as well. Even as he entered family life, his Guru reminded him of his path of Dharma, that he was born for something higher and should ponder about how to achieve that.
After about a decade, the Guru’s paralysis turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Bhattathiri wasn’t able to witness his Guru suffering in such a state. He prayed fervently to Lord Narayana to transfer the disease to him so that his guru could be relieved of it. As the Lord granted his wish, the Guru was cured while Bhattathiri became paralysed himself. Unable to move, he requested his relatives and disciples to carry him to the Guruvayur temple.
Once at the spot, he admired greatly the beauty and the wave of positive energy emanating from the deity. While he was thinking about what to do over there, he met Thunchath Ezhuthachan, an eminent Malayalam poet of those times, known for Adhyatma Ramayana, the Malayalam version of the original. He advised Bhattathiri to ‘begin his treatment with the fish’ in order to get cured. His disciples who heard the suggestion were shocked; Bhattathiri was a devout Brahmin, so the advice seemed to be meaningless. However, Bhattathiri understood the deeper meaning behind it, and sat down to compose hymns that started with the Matsya (fish) avatar of Lord Vishnu.
Starting with a really beautiful verse — about how the very essence of the Truth-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda), that transcends space and time, who is eternally free, and who is sought after by all, is in an easily visible form in the temple of Guruvayur and that people are extremely blessed to have such a manifestation of divinity among them in the form of the Lord Sri Krishna — Bhattathiri started to describe the Brahman, the eternal Supreme Reality. Then he went on to describe the eternal infinite form of the Lord and how devotees reach him through a rigorous method of penance and austerity. He proceeds with the creation of the worlds, some of the earlier avatars of the Lord preceeding the Matsya Avatar, the major coninents and other lands on the world, and so on. Then he describes the other Avatars including Varaha, Narasimha, Kurma, Vamana, and Matsya in order. Later the poet described the Ramayana in a brief but beautiful form. Parashurama’s story was then described and finally the mind-blowing avatar of the ever-mischievous and tactul Krishna — from the start of the background of his manifestation on earth, his deeds as a child, his affection for the Gopis of Vrindavan, slaying of the demon Kamsa, his role as king of Dwaraka and how he manipulated the Mahabharata till his end — in about 40 chapters. Ultimately, he comes back to the importance of devotion and surrender, how one’s work and duties are to be done, concluding with a vivid description of his vision of the Lord and his prayers for all of humanity.
Starting on the 21st day of the Malayalam month of Chingam (that coincides with either the 5th or 6th of September, it’s on the 6th this year), Bhattathiri composed one chapter, or Dasakam (that consists of approximately 10 verses) a day and completed the 100th chapter on the 28th day of the month of Vrishchikam (that coincides with either 13th or 14th of December, it’s on the 14th this year) thus giving us a gift of 1036 blissful verses in all. Each Dasakam ends with a prayer to the Lord to cure him of his ailments as soon a possible. The lengths of each verse in different Dasakams are varied and that helps to break the monotony of chanting continuous verses of the same metre.
There were a few instances where Bhattathiri became skeptical about whether a particular story happened the way he composed it. It is said that during those times he dedicated the text to the Lord and meditated on Him, to which he got the approval of the Lord Himself.
There were other instances where he expressed his inability in the middle of a story. At the end of chapter 24, during the argument between the demon Hiranyakashipu and his son Prahalada, the former keeps asking, “Where is that Hari? Is He present everywhere? Even in this pillar?” and kicks at a pillar nearby. Suddenly the poet says that he is unable to describe what happens next in pure words. It is said that the Lord enacted the scene of his appearance of Narasimha so that Bhattathiri could continue his composition.
In yet another instance, in chapter 74, he writes that the citizens of Mathura welcome Krishna, who arrived there just a while ago (to kill his uncle Kamsa) with some small offering in hand, and received his blessings. But then he laments, “However I hadn’t brought any offering, nor did I stand among those residents who were liberated due to Your presence, and so I am still suffering today. Had I been among them, I would have been delivered from my sufferings and attained Nirvana then and there!”
One begins learning Narayaneeyam by invoking Lord Ganapati and other Gods before starting with the text. Once the last verse of the last Dasakam is done, the very first verse is chanted again to ensure its completeness. It is customary to organize a Narayaneeyam completion pooja once one has completed learning the entire text. It involves chanting the entire Narayaneeyam, which takes about five to seven hours, along with Naivedyam for the Lord as part of chanting certain chapters of some major Avatars. Chanting in general is also done everyday, or in three or seven days, rather than chanting all of it in one go.
Celebrations for the day when the text was completed, also called the Narayaneeyam Day, includes a day-long recital of the text along with Naivedyam, Aarti, discourses and debates. It is also common to chant some important chapters on the occasion of Ekadashi. Moreover, chanting or listening to Narayaneeyam regularly brings many benefits to the body and mind. When chanted with devotion and dedication, it has the potential to cure severe ailments and result in good long-lasting health and happiness. People often chant the Narayaneeyam to get their cancer cured. However, let us not seek any “fruits” and learn the essence of the Narayaneeyam and chant or listen to it whenever we can, just for the betterment of mankind.
Author: Sudhiksha Kannam, ME23B2006: I’m a diehard fan of Indian traditions and religion and seek to live upto its expectations. I love to learn, relearn and reflect on Indian scriptures and ethics, witness Indian art and culture, and take pride in our roots.
