Sri Sailesa DayA pAthram Taniyan

[Guest guest]

Dear Members of Bhakthi group :

 

Further to the inputs of Srimans Mohan SAgar

and T.A. Varadhan , I would like to add a little more

of my own "musings " on the above Taniyan . It is interesting to see

how things come together .

 

The Taniyan used by the Tenkalai SampradhAyam of

" Srirangam AcharyAs " is associated with Sri Ranganatha

himself . May be, he had some thing in mind anticipating

the tensions of later times .

 

One intrepretation of the above Taniyan can be as follows :

 

I offer my salutations to the beautiful MaNavALa mAmuni ,

who was the object of the Daya of Sri Sailesa ( Thiruvaimozhi

PiLLai , his Acharya ). I worship that ocean of Jnanam and

Bhakthi , who revered Sri RaamAnuja.

 

Musings :

 

The reference to the Acharya as Sri Sailesa is intriguing.

Thiruvaimozhi PiLLai is known as Thirumalai AzhwAr

because of his connection to Thiruppathi . He is different

from Thirumalai Nambi of RaamAnuja's time . Thirumalai

can be the equivalent of Sri Sailam in Sanskrit , the abode of

Srinivasan . Sri Sailam hills today are the chain of hills with

Ahobilam ( Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan ) at one end , Sri Sailam

( Sri BramarAmpikhA sametha MallikArjuna Swamy /Famous

Siva Kshetram ) in the middle and Thirupathi Srinivasan at the other end .

By Sri Sailesa , NamperumAL might have used a pun., while referring

to the Acharya KatAksham of Maamuni .

 

Dhee( Jnaanam/intellect ) and Bhakthi normally do not go together.

By combining both and calling atention to Maamuni as the Ocean of GuNAs,

Sri Ranganatha might be hinting at his own Agatitha Katanaa

sakthi( Sri Oppiliappan Paasurams of SatakOpa)

of reconciling the opposites . Maamuni also wrote

wonderful commentaries on Bhagavadh GitA called

Taatparya Dheepam and Jnana Saara Prameyam . His

struggle with the intellectual approach ( Jnana Yogam )and

devotional approach ( Bhakthi Yogam ) and opting out for

Bhakthi yogam is what reminds me of this section of the Taniyan

 

Sri Sailesar was devoted to NammazhwAr and RaamAnuja.

He constructed a temple for RaamAnuja at Thirukkuruhur and

appointed his disciple Maamuni ( a grahasthaa at that time

known by the name of Azhahiya MaNavALa nAyanAr) as the

custodian/Aaradhakar . The Acharya created thiruveethis around

the shrine devoted exclusively to Sri RamAnujA and named it

" Sri RamAnuja Chathurvedhimangalam" . The devout disciple

devoted his energy to the worship of Sri RamAnujaa. The Acharya

near the end of his own life on earth recognized the greatness

( DheepakyAdhi GuNarNavam aspect )of his disciple and began to address

his SishyA as Yathindra PravaNar . Later, NaayanAr(maamuni ) took

the holy asramam of SanyAsam because he could not stay

away from worshipping Ranganatha on days of Theetu ,when one

can not enter the temples for a specified period , when some one in the

family passes away. These are the rules of a grahasthaa.

 

Acharya of Maamuni requested his sishyaa to compose a sthuthi

on RamaanujA to celebrate latter's devotion to Bhagavadh RamAnujaa .

Thus was born " YathirAja Vimsathi " of Maamuni.

 

Now coming back to the related matter, The Taniyan used by

Vadakalai sampradhyam is :

 

rAmAnuja dayaapaathram jnana vairaaghya bhushaNam

Srimadh VenkatanAthAryam VandE Vedhaanth aDesikam

 

This was created by Brahma Tantra Swatantra Swami ,

the elder to Swami Desikan and at the same time his

disciple. Sri Sailesa , the Lord of seven hills received

samAsrayaNam from Ramaanujaa. May be Sri Ranganatha was

referring to what happened at Sri Sailam.

 

The reference in the Vadakalai Taniyan refers to Swami Desikan

as Jnaana Vairaaghya BhushaNam. Swami , who declared

his Vairaaghyam thru the verses of Vairaaghya Panchakam

is defenitely a model of Vairaaghyam . The reference in the

Tenkalai Taniyan on Maamuni refers to Bhakthi of this achaarya.

 

Vara Vara Muni sathakam extolls the bhakthi laden life of

Maamuni. His devotion to Azhwaars and their AruLiccheyals

are legendary. Maamuni in this context spent a year at the

Ashtaakshara Kshetram ( ThirukkaNNapuram ) and built a

special temple(Sannidhi ) for Thirumangai Azhwaar. Maamuni was

born in Iyppasi Mula nakshatram. At this time ,when the birth month

of Karthigai 0f Thirumangai is approaching , it is appropriate to think

of the Azhwaars and Achaaryaas together and heal some of the avoidable

schisms of the past four centuries and bring a cohesive point

of view under the wide umbrella of Bhagavad Raamaanuja

Siddhaantham going back to Natha Muni , AaLavandhAr , NammaZhwaar

and the divya dampathis of Sri Rangam .

 

Sri VaishNava Daasan

 

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchari Sadagopan