vaikunda Ekaadasi

[Guest guest]

Today is vaikuNda Ekaadasi. I live in nangainalloor, chennai.

Srimad azhagiya singar of ahObila matam is camping a street

away from me at the Lakshmi Narasimhan Temple here for the

month of Margazhi. He is performing upanyasam everyday by

explaining the thiruppaavai paasuram of the day.

 

On the last day of kaarththigai, he gave an introduction

about why one should listen to the thiruppaavai commentary.

It seems once Srimad Ramanuja's students asked him to give

a discourse on aaNdaaL's paasurams. To that Sri Ramanuja

replied that he wouldn't have any problems in giving a

discourse on nammaazhvaar's work, or of mangai aazhvaar's

work, but it is very difficult to do so for aaNdaaL.

The person giving the discourse should be pure in his heart

and his audience should also be so likewise. Srimad azhagiya

singar then talked about the varaha charamslokam and linked

aaNdaaL to bhoomidhEvi and how bhoodhEvi requested the

varaha to help her children escape the samsara saagara.

 

Unfortunately, I have not been able to attend the

upanyasams everyday with my work commitments. If I do go

to them and if I have time, I will try to summarise whatever

little I learn from them.

 

--badri

 

[azhagiya singar also talked about performing mass

samasrayanam and bharanyasam in mylapore. He was quite

happy that even little children were assembled there.

However, I am not very comfortable with this concept.

There seems to be an utter disregard among the

sri vaishnava community regarding the rahasya arthas behind

the ashtakshara, dvaya mantras and the charamasloka. It

is not the mere ritual of branding the disc & conch on

either shoulders but rather learning the mantras and

their various meanings from the acharya that should be

highlighted. I am a bit disappointed.]