Tirunelveli Halwa for Sannyas Diwas

 

The opportunity to offer South Indian food to participants of Lakshmi Narayan Mahayagnya was completion of Gurudev's blessings for all of us.

Pavitra, Atmapriya, Subashree, Venkatraman chose to be in the team to experience the flow of Abundance from the realm of Vaikuntha into Ganga Darshan.

The cooks from Tamilnadu had blessings of Ma Annapurna in their hands. Purely through the grace of Maa Annapurna and Gurudev, 20 delicious menus were offered over 10 days from 4th September to 13th September. Lot of care and consideration of different factors and parameters went into deciding on a suitable menu without repetitions throughout the Lakshmi Narayan Mahayagya. many items became great hit and was very much appreciated by all.

In this article I am particularly writing about the delicacy called "Tirunelveli Halwa" it is quite a famous sweet from the birthplace and hometown of Gurudev Parama Pujya Swami Sivananda.

Tirunelveli

Tirunelveli is a quiet and green town in South Tamilnadu, known for its never ending green paddy fields, abundantly irrigated by the sweet waters of Tamaraparani River. The water of Tamaraparani (Tamara meaning Copper and Parani meaning Mountains) enriched by the copper deposits of the mountain ranges the water is sweet and has anti microbial qualities.  Tamraparani water is a unique ingredient in the delicacies of Tirunelveli.

Several Rishis have lived and done their tapasya on the banks of the river. Some of the most ancient Siva and Vishnu temples are still blessing the land and enriching the lives of people of Tirunelveli.

Sri Appayya Deekshithar

The great sage Appayya Deekshitar was born in this divine land and is a stalwart in spiritual wisdom. He was an authority of Sanskrit and Tamil scriptures, revered during his time and continued to be seen as a great sage even today.

The Unmatta Pancha Shatakam or Atmarpana Stuti that was authored by Sri Appaiya Dikshitar a composition that he blurted out after consuming an ayurvedic preparation for intoxicating the mind. The composition is revered as one of the finest poetry on Bhakti and Jnana.

Born in the line of Sri Appayya Deekshitar as the sixteenth descendant, Kuppuswami became the star of Tirunelveli. He became a pole star of human evolution. Kuppuswami, later came to be known as Swami Sivananda and did the masterly job of Spiritual Cook.

The best and the most potent seeds from the stock of humanity, were attracted by the Magnetic Dynamo. Thousands of youngsters were drawn towards the unstoppable force in Rishikesh.

Finest spiritual masters were cooked in the spiritual kitchen of Swami Sivananda! The Spiritual Master Chef that Swami Sivananda was, envisioned every need of humanity, that would be famished of spiritual nourishment as materialism and existentialism would occupy main stage of human pursuit.

The finest and the most beneficial creation of Swami Sivananda have blessed the globe and humanity in the last hundred years. Sri Swamij Satyananda is the blessings that would pervade the world over the next couple of thousands of years to come.

Tirunelveli Halwa - Finest spiritual delicacy from the kitchen of Swami Sivananda:

Tirunelveli being the home town of Swami Sivananda, Halwa being the finest delicacy of Tirunelveli and Since Swami Satyananda is the finest master from the kitchen of Swami Sivananda, we decided to offer Tirunelveli Halwa on 12th September, the Sannyasa Diwas of Sri Swami Satyananda.

Process behind making Tirunelveli Halwa.

The process behind making Tirunelveli Halwa, takes lot of time, goes through several stages of preparation and extraordinary, patience and effort on the part of the cook. As I was sitting in the langar- guiding and overseeing the cooking by the team from Chennai, the process was very interesting and had several similarities to a spiritual transformation that a disciple goes through, under the expert hands of the Guru, who indeed is the master cook, transforming disciples into spiritually awakened beings.

The finest seeds of Chamba Wheat are chosen and that is soaked in water over three days, so that it becomes soft and expands. The Guru, who has the capacity to see the potential of the disciple, chooses the most potent disciple, who would have the strength to lose their identity for bringing out, the higher potential that the Guru alone sees! Satyam was the fine seed that Swami Sivananda chose and let him soak in Guru Bhakti for twelve years, so that the EGO became soft and expanded.

In the second stage the soaked, soft wheat grain is ground in the grinder. The softened and expanded wheat grain, gets thoroughly ground in between the grinding stones of the grinder. Satyam was also put in the hard and grinding stone like, Ashram environment. 

As the grain is ground finely, it loses its individuality and becomes a seamless paste, the milk that is invisible in the hard grain, emerges from the wheat paste. The solid shell that held the milk of the wheat hidden inside, is completely crushed. Individuality is totally lost allowing the inherent quality to emerge out!

Satyam, got completely ground into an inseparable unidentifiable part and parcel of his Guru's mission, that the inherent  nectarine quality that remained concealed to him manifested as the essence of Satyam. Compassion, camaraderie, servitude, humility, discipleship and many such inherent qualities emerged out,

Milk that is extracted from wheat is boiled over a period of three to four hours so that the quality of milk goes through complete transformation, the milk like liquid that was extracted from wheat when heated on a stove of high flame, gradually loses its sticky and murky nature and becomes glass like, transparent and non sticky.

Initially the milk like liquid is opaque! It is also sticky. The milk of wheat is poured into a kadai, deep and wide open vessel and a high flame is placed underneath. A long metal ladle is placed into the milk and continuously the milk is kneaded with the metal ladle.

The effort that goes into transforming the murky and sticky liquid into a non sticky transparent Halwa is an arduous task. In the Langar in Ganga Darshan almost four persons took turns to continuously knead and roll the liquid without stopping. Two aspects were required for the transformation to be facilitated. One the heat from beneath and two the kneading of liquid.

Ashram is the large kadai and the teachings of the Guru is the trans-formative heat because of which the obfuscated intellect, gets clear with Viveka and becomes endowed with vairagya, the non sticky nature. Ashram life is a continuous process which, in a dynamic way keeps kneading the disciple, to homogeneously transform the disciple into the Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram.

Dharmendar homogeneously went through the process of total self transformation,  Tapasya and Guru Seva was kept up for twelve years without the slightest reduction in the effort. From being Self Centered to becoming absolutely non Self-Centeredand then to becoming totally selfless, the process was complete. Swami Sivananda being expert cook knew exactly when and how to increase the heat and kept turning the situations in such a way that all the stickiness and murkiness was transformed into clarity and selflessness.

Ghee was added liberally to complete the process of transformation. Ghee represents the higher nature of milk. The finest byproduct of milk is ghee. It was added abundantly to the milk of wheat as it was being cooked. Ghee when added facilitates the transformation of the milk into the non sticky halwa. Satsanga is the ghee. Being in the constant company of Guru, receiving small yet powerful doses of insights eases the mind and heart of the disciple, like ghee easing the process of cooking the milk.

Swami Sivananda constantly monitored Satyam and poured out his spiritual nature and blended into the mind, thoughts and nature of Satyam, the higher spiritual qualities, so that all the stickiness was completely converted to the highest form of selflessness. Swami Sivananda himself proclaims that his disciple Satyam had achieved the highest quality of Nachiketa element in him. That Satyam was an epitome of Tyaga and Vairagya.

Sannyasa Diwas.

On the 12th September 1947, Swami Sivananda poured into Satyam the essence of spiritual wisdom and lo! Satyam became Satyananda, a well cooked Tirunelveli Halwa, presenting to the world the most accomplished master in history to celebrate forever. The whole world celebrates 12^th September as Sannyas Diwas of Sri Swamiji.

Even on this 12^th September, at Chaaya Samadhi, our beloved Guru Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati reminded the auspicious moment of Sannyasa Diwas because of which today we all are seated together, have met in our lives and are striving to live up to the vision of walking on the luminous path!

When the plates of participants of Lakshmi Narayan Mahayagnya, received the serving of two spoons of Tirunelveli Halwa, my eyes were filled with tears of gratitude for the untiring effort taken by Swami Sivananda to create such a flawless master. The visionary contribution of Sri Swamiji in giving us two jewels in Swami Niranjan and Swami Satsangi.

I offer my humble pranams at the lotus feet of the illumined masters of our Guru Parampara, which has dedicated itself in patiently accepting all of us and provide a live tradition that helps us go through the process of transformation from being a Chela, to becoming a Sishya.

Seeking blessings from Swamiji for having the faith in the heat that Guru turns upon us, so that we too become a flawless Tirunelveli Halwa!

Shivarishi