Beginner’s guide – kainkaryam (Service)

parASaran, vyAsan, vEdhavalli and aththuzhAy enter ANdAL PAtti’s house.

ANdAL pAtti: Welcome children. Wash your hands and feet, I will give you fruits offered to perumAL. Did you celebrate ALavandhAr’s thirunakshathram?

parASaran: Yes, We celebrated well. We had good dharSan at ALavandhAr’s sannidhi. There,
they celebrated thirunakshathram in a grand manner. Our father taught us ALavandhAr’s
vAzhi thirunAmam and we also recited the same in our home.

ANdAL pAtti: Very happy to hear.

vEdhavalli: Last time you told us that you will tell the importance of kainkaryam. Do you remember that pAtti?

ANdAL pAtti: Yes, I remember. I am very happy that you remember and you asked me this.
kainkaryam is doing service for emperumAn and his devotees. Our kainkaryam should make
emperumAn happy and please his heart.

vyAsan: If emperumAn will become happy then we are very eager to do kainkaryams to him. How can we do kainkaryams pAtti ?

ANdAL pAtti: We can do kainkaryam with our heart (mAnasIka kainkaryam), our words (vAchika
kainkaryam) and with our body (SarIra kainkaryam). ANdAL nAchchiyAr also said the same
in her thiruppAvai 5th pAsuram that we can sing his glories, think about him and offer
flowers to him. By this way we can please his heart. Thinking about emperumAn’s divine qualities falls under mAnasIka kainkaryam. Praising/singing his divine glories and speaking about emperumAn and his devotees’ greatness, very importantly, reciting AzhwAr’s hymns and pUrvAchAryas’ sthothrams make emperumAn very happy. These kainkaryams fall under vAchika Kainkaryam. Cleaning emperumAn’s temple premises/sannidhi, decorating his premises/sannidhi by drawing kOlams (beautiful shapes), by making garlands, grinding sandal paste for his thiruvArAdhanam etc fall under SarIra kainkaryam. First, we have do possible kainkaryams to emperumAn at our homes. emperumAn happily accepts kainkaryam performed by kids like you.

parASaran: You have explained this very well pAtti. We will happily participate in thiruvArAdhanam performed by our father at our home.

ANdAL pAtti: Good to hear.

aththuzhAy: vEdhavalli and I will participate in drawing kOlam, making garlands etc.

ANdAL pAtti: Very happy to hear aththuzhAy. Another important aspect is, doing kainkaryams to emperumAn’s adiyArs (devotees) is more important than doing kainkaryams to emperumAn. Example, lakshmaNa did all kainkaryams to emperumAn SrI rAma but Sathrugna did kainkaryams to SrI rAmA’s dear brother and devotee bharatha. Also, nammAzhwAr considered his dear krishNa as his food, water and betel leaves/nuts, but madhurakavi AzhwAr considered nammAzhwAr as his only Lord. This emphasises the greatness of emperumAn’s adiyArs. So, we should always be devotees of emperumAn’s adiyArs.

aththuzhAy: As you said, we will definitely give priority to do kainkaryams to emperumAn’s adiyArs. But how do we serve the devotees pAtti?

ANdAL pAtti: When devotees visit our homes, we should offer obeisances to them and make them feel comfortable. We should assist them as necessary. We should also enquire wonderful charithrams about emperumAn, AzhwArs and AchAryas from them and try to learn as much as possible from them. We should humbly ask them if they need any help in their kainkaryams and support them. There are many such ways one can engage in kainkaryams for devotees.

aththuzhAy: Sure pAtti. We get an idea about it now. We will certainly look out for such opportunities.

(Other three kids also say “Yes” in chorus)

ANdAL pAtti: Very happy to hear dear kids.

vEdhavalli: PAtti, It is very interesting to listen your words. Please tell us more.

ANdAL pAtti: I will be very happy to explain more it but now it’s getting very dark outside. Next time, we will discuss another topic. Now, you all should go to your homes.

The children leave happily to their homes thinking about the wonderful conversation they had with ANdAL pAtti.

adiyen sAranAyaki rAmAnuja dAsi