| You are here: Sri Vaishnava Home Page : Bhakti List : Archives : July 1998 |
RSrin_at_aol.com
Date: Fri Jul 31 1998 - 07:06:16 PDT
Sri Anbil Ramaswamy wrote: <<The Sthala Puraanam story goes that a Rishi (whose name I do not remember) wanted the Lord to marry his 365 daughters. And, the Lord conceded to his request and married all his daughters on 'one a day' basis in this Ksetram. And, that is how he got the name "Nitya Kalyaana Perumaal" ! Again, the story proceeds to say how the Lord merged all HIs brides into one entity and put her on His left lap. Thus, the Kshetram came to be known as "Tiru Eda Venthai" 'Eda' means left.>> How beautiful! Although there may be as many interpretations here as there are Sahridayas, the way I saw it is Sthala refers to Place, space....When that represents Cosmic Space, or Sacred Space, 365 refers to time (days in a year). Marrying sacred space with sacred time (each day of the year, merging into one full year) is symbolic of the centre-space of any garbhagriha, where time and space merge into timelessness..