Thoppu Karanam

THOPPU KARANAM

INTRODUCTION

Thoppu Karanam means holding the ears, and bent over our body and then again raising up our body. It is a kind of exercise as well as it is a kind of worship performed to the first god Vinayaka. As per our holy Puranas, Lord Vikayaka had once removed the pride and ego of the demons, and asked them to perform Thoppu Karanam on him, in order to remove the badness in their minds, and to show their entire devotion on him. The demons also have done like that, and become enlightened in their lives.

Doing Thoppu Karanam is an ancient practice, and it has been done even by the divine demi gods in the heaven. Once when Lord Chandra, the moon god, came across Lord Vinayaka on his journey in the skies, and by seeing the big stomach of Lord Vinayaka, he began to laugh. Due to that Lord Vinayaka had cursed him to lose his powers. Immediately Lord Chandra began to worship him by doing Thoppu Karanam and sang various songs in praise of him. After knowing about this incident from Lord Chandra, all the gods and even Lord Vishnu began to perform Thoppu Karanam in order to get the grace of Lord Vinayaka.

If we see from spiritual point of view, we would get lot of benefits by regularly doing Thoppu Karanam. Our entire body cells would be very much activated, and some nervous disorder problems also would get relieved. Blood circulation would be freely flowed from top to bottom of our body, and we would be very much cheerful and fresh throughout the day.

As per Vinayaka Purana, Lord Vinayaka’s devotees like Vallalan, Vallabi and Purushundi would regularly do Thoppu Karanam and would recite various mantras on him. Apart from doing Thoppu Karanam, we can do Namaskaram, stretching and bending our body as an act of salutation. We can also roll our body in the temple floors, as an act of showing our sincere faith and bhakti on the almighty, and it is called as “Angapradakshanam” in Tamil.

There are various ways to please the deities. Since we are born in the difficult world, and since we are living in this terrible Kaliyuga, there is no other option, except to sincerely worship the deities. If we worship the first god, Lord Vinayaka, we would get the grace of all other deities also.

“OM SRI VINAYAKAYA NAMAHA”

WRITTEN BY

R.HARISHANKAR