Andal Jayanthi : When Goddess Lakshmi incarnated as Andal

Celebrating Andal Jayanthi awakens a unique consciousness within us. It is the awareness that makes you appreciate beauty and abundance in the world around you, and sustain it through unconditional love for all creations of God. Goddess Andal epitomizes the beauty that evolved from the unrestricted love that welled in her for Lord Vishnu. She imagined him in every aspect of the world around her and through faith awakened his consciousness so that he would seek her as his consort.

Andal Jayanthi is a special day of Lakshmi

It is the birthday of Andal, one of the chosen twelve Alwars (an esoteric group of devout saints of Lord Vishnu) elevated to the status of Goddess after she united with her Vishnu. This day is otherwise known as Aadi Pooram – the Pooram (Purvaphalguni nakshatra) star day in the Tamil month of Aadi (the special month when various aspects of Shakti are rejoiced and worshiped). This star holds Venus energy whose archetype is Goddess Lakshmi. It is on this day that Lakshmi is said to have incarnated as Andal in the household of a Vishnu devotee.

Goddess Andal lives through her compositions even to this day

Andal’s intense love for Lord Vishnu is captured through pieces of her remarkable religious poetic compositions, the Thiruppavai comprising of 30 verses and the Nacciyar Tirumoli of 143 verses. In the Thiruppavai, she perceives her Lord as Krishna, Rama, Hari, Govinda, Narayana and Vishnu and reiterates that none can sever the bond that mankind has with the Lord. Her second composition relates yearning of her womanhood; every belief and practice that she follows to unite with him, and every beautiful thing that she enjoys in his memory.

Mythology that relates the union of Andal and Lord Ranganathar

At the tender age of fifteen, Andal had declared her yearning for Lord Ranganathar, who is the Vishnu in the most auspicious Vaishnava temple of Srirangam in Tamil Nadu. She refused to marry anyone else. The legend goes that Andal’s father had a dream of the Lord instructing him to bring his daughter as a bride to his temple of Srirangam. Subsequently, the priests at the Srirangam temple had a vision of the Lord asking them to make arrangements to welcome Andal. After she had arrived as a bride to his temple, she turned into light to merge with Vishnu in sanctum sanctorum. Since the occurrance of this event, shrines of the couple Andal with Ranganathar have been built in the village temple of Srivilliputtur.