Few points and a tribute to Acharya RaamAnujA !

[Guest guest]

Dear Members of the Bhakthi group :

 

The high calibre of discussions of sincere and devoted

members of this group ( Srimans Sridhar Srinivasan ,

Mani , Dileepan , Kalale , Mohan Sagar and others )

makes one feel as how important is the need need for

understanding our beautiful darsanam revered as

Sri Bahgavadh Raamaanuja Siddhaantham .

Thanks to you all contributors and clarifiers !

I have benefitted personally from the reading of these postings .

 

Dear Sri Mohan Sagar : you have always been gracious in your postings.

There is no reason whatsoever for you to feel that you are out of bounds

related to the topic of discussion . I am surprised to read that some one

will volunteer to make such an observation .Actually you bring a fresh

and curious point of view. Like yourself , I feel that this forum is

a very dear one and has to be invented , if it did not exist . All of us

are beginners , when it comes to ascertain ourselves about

the deep meanings of Prapatthi , the conduct before prapatthi

and after prapatthi .

 

Dear Sri Krishnamachari : Thanks for your posting on the Vishnu

Sahasra Naamam and its glory. Parasara Bhattar's commentary

(Bhagavad Guna Darpana ) is a testament to his great scholarship.

This work is indeed one of this seminal contributions to the advancement

of Vishitaadvaithaa . As a master dialectician , devotee of Sri Ranganatha

and his acharya , we have very few parallels .It has been said that his

Vishnu sahasranama bhashyam " brings out the importance of the Bhagavatha

cult and the glorious and innumerable auspicious qualities of the supreme Lord

".

As a boy of ten , I used to go around the temple thiruveedhis

with friends of mine and recite the VishNu Sahasra Naamam

before dawn at Oppiliappan Koil . Any success in my life is due

to the Lord's grace arising from that paarAyaNam. I look forward to

your next posting .

 

Parasara Bhattar's Vaibhavam

**********************************

 

As the chief preist of Sri Ranganatha and as the one born out of

the grace of the Lord of Srirangam , ParAsara Bhattar blessed us with

the guru parampara starting from Nanjeeyar and the vyaakhyaana jkarthaas

of Thiruvaimozhi . As the son of KurathAzhvAn and AndAL , he was

very dear to Acharya RaamAnujA . At this time , when Acharya RaamAnujA's

birthday is two days away , it is appropriate to reflect upon

the glory of the Sishya paramparA of RaamAnujA starting from

EmbAr and continuing with Parasara Bhattar , Nanjeeyar ,

NampiLLai and the others in that line.

 

Paraasara Bhatar blessed us with twelve works , ten in sanskrit and two

in Tamil besides his nirvAhAs on some passages of the Divya Prabhandham .

The book by Dr. S.Padmanabhan , the nephew of the 43rd Jeeyar of

DevanAr ViLAgam Azhagiya Singar on Sri Parasara Bhattar

is a scholarly study for those of us , who want to follow up

on his works. Those of you , who wish to acquire a copy can

do so by writing to Sri Bahradvaj Jaganath and making a small

contribution .

 

The summary on the works of Paraasara Bhattar are :

 

1. Ashta slOki , 8 terse verses on the three Rahasyams

of Sri VaishNavAs .Using long metres , Bhattar hinted at

the depth of the subject matter . The metres used by Bhattar are

SikhariNi , Saardhula Vikridhitham and Sragdharaa.

 

It is interesting to compare Swami Deikan"s usage of these three

long metres in his works. Among the total of 862 slokams of

Swami Desikan used SikhariNi 28 times , Saardhula vikridhitham

35 times and Sragdharaa 82 times .

 

Metres used by Bhattar in Ashta slOki& Swami Desikan in his works

**************************************************************************

 

It is fascinating to recognize that the entire Nyaasa Vimsathi

is set by Swami Desikan in the long SragdharA metre .

The subject matter is about the glories of Prapatthi , a topic

of great interest to this group . Swami Desikan placed 5 key

slOkAs of the total 32 slOkaas of Nyasa Tilakam in the same Sragdharaa

meter. The entire Garuda PanchAsath was set in this meter .

As we know , the five aksarAs of Garuda Manthram took the form

of the five VarNakams of the sthothram on the Veda Maya Purushan ,

Garudan . He used this metre to concude his salutation to

Acharya RamAnujA in his YathirAja Sapthathi ( SlOkaas 69, 70& 71) .

 

Swami Desikan chose SikhariNi metre for one of the decads of

DayA Sathakam ( slOkAs 61-70 ) . The subject ofcourse is the

SrinivAs aanukampaa flowing like the river of sugar cane juice.

Swami placed two of the Hayagreeva sthothram verses and four

of the saraNAgathi verses (Nyaasa Tilakam on Sri Ranganatha)

in this sacred metre . Swami used this powerful metre to celebrate

the greatness of the Sri Sookthis of Acharya RaamAnujA ( SlokAs

49-60 ) in his YathirAja Sapthathi .

 

Swami Desikan used Saardhula Vikridhitham for the entire

thirteen verses of DasAvathAra Sthothram . YathirAja sapthathi

received 8 verses in this metre and fourteen more scattered in

Dayaa sathakm(2) , VairAgya Panchakam (1) , Sri KaamasikAshtakam(1),

Bhu sthuthi (1) and Nyasa Tilakam (9) .

 

Bhattar used 45 kinds of metres in all of his sthothrAs

containing 337 verses. The top three usage among the 45 metres are:

Saardhula vikridhithA ( 55) , VasanthatilakA ( 43 ) and SikhariNi ( 34 ).

In comparison , Swami Desikan used 22 metres in his 862 slOkAs .

His most frequent usages among metres are : Vasantha TilakA ( 266) ,

short AaryA ( 116 ) and SragdharA (82 ) . That covers over 50% of

the total slOkAs of Swami Desikan .

 

Bhattar's works : # 2

**********************

Bhagavad GuNa DarpaNa: This is a celebration of

the SaguNa Brahmam aspect of Sriman NaarAyaNaa

and the important tenets of Sri VishitAdvaitham .

 

Work # 3: Bhattar's celebration of Sri Devi (Sri RanganAyaki )

*****************************************************************

The 61 stanzas of this sthuthi celebrate the glory of Mahaa Lakshni .

Bhattar dwells at length about Mahaa Lakshmi's pleading

for us (Purushakaara aspect ) before Her Lord and suggests that

the Lord's glory is dependent on Her .

 

Work # 4: Sri Ranganatha Sthothram

********** ******************************

This is said to have been composed , when Bhattar had

to leave Srirangam , when he angered the chOlA king

and stayed at Thirukkhoshtiyur. There he used 6 slOkAs

to reflect upon his great loss arising from his inability to

have the daily darsanam of Sri Ranganatha .

 

Work #5 : Sri Rangaraajasthavam

**************************************

He folowed the tradition of his illustrious father,

the author of Pancha sthavAs , and composed this

long sthavam with 232 verses . The first half deals with

the glories of Srirangam , the supermacy of the Lord there and

His Anantha KalyANa GuNams and the beauty of river Cauveri .

The second half deals with the subjects that were discussed

this week and the last in our forum (Viz ) : the upanishadic

basis for Sri VaishNavaNava SiddhAntham , the nature of

Moksham et al .

 

Works #6 ,7 ,8 ,9and 10

**************************

 

Many of Bhattar's work are lost and are available in either fragments

or thru the quotation of other AchaAryAs . These are KriyA DeepA

( Like Nitya GranthA ) , Tattva RathnAkarA ( masterly treatise on

TattvA ) , AdhyAthma khaNda dvaya VivaraNA , Lakshmi KalyANa .

The last work celebrating the marriage of MahA Lakshmi to

Sriman NaarAyaNA deals with SaraNAgathi , the position of Sri Devi

in Sri SampradhAyam , the supermacy of Divya Dampathis revered as

Lakshmi NaraayaNA , Sridharan and Maadhavan .

 

The other two sanskrit works lost to us or available in shreds are

the commentary to SulabhOpanishad , which was elaborated on by

Swami Desikan in his Sarvaarthasiddhi and stray verses of

Thirumanjana KattiyangaL recited even today at the great temple

at Srirangam by the descendants of ParAsara Bhattar there . This

starts off as a dialog between the Lord and his devotee and goes onto

celerate the glories of the Lord during His Thriumanjanam .

 

Works 11 and 12 in Tamil

****************************

The commentary on Kaisikha PurANam earned him the honor of

being carried on a palanquin by the brahmins of Srirangam around

the streets of that city of the Lord ( Brahma Ratham ) . The remaining

work in Tamil is the celebrated commentary on the 21st paasuram

of ThirunedunthAndakam , which converted the Advaitha achArya

to Sri VaishNavism and earned him the title of Nam Jeeyar from

ParAsara Bhattar . The rest of the Tamil works are the ones known

from Thiruvaimozhi commentaries as Bhattar NirvAhams .

 

The greatness of Bhatar , the beneficiary of RaamAnujA's grace

*********************************************************************

 

Achaarya RaamAnujA had a significant influence on Parasara Bhattar

as his teacher . On this day that is two days away from the celebration

of the jayanthi of Achaarya RaamAnujaa , it is appropriate to dwell at length

on the works of a great acharyA , Bhattar ,who followed the footsteps

of the illustrious guru of his father and his own acharya , Embaar .

 

Bhattar's philosophical contributions to Sri SampradhAyam have been

brilliantly sumamrized by Dr. Padmanabhan and chapter 5 of his

monograph deals with this subject . The role of Karma and the Lord's

will in relation to it are covered here . Other topics covered that is

pertinent to the recent discussions are : The nature and means of

MokshA , the Sesha-Seshi bhavam , the concept of Sri , the concept

of Avathaarams , Iconic forms of the Lord et al.

 

Some passages quoted by the author regarding Bhattar's views on

SaraNAgathi that may be of interest to the current discussions are :

 

1. Vishnumaayaa can be crossed only when Prapatthi is performed.

 

2. " O Ranganatha! I resort to You , who are my refuge --I am devoid of

any knowledge or action or devotion ; nor I am aware of any icchaa

(desire ) , the proper eligibility (adhikaarA ) , the feasibility of such

 

a hope etc . Full of sin and foolishnes and with a confused state of

mind , I request you to be my saviour ." ( Verse 89 of Sri

RangarAjasthavam ) .

 

3. In the 102nd verse , Bhattar once again performs

SaraNAgathi this way :

 

" I have been made your burden and responsibility (Bhara ) by

my AchAryAs . I have also orally declared that I seek refuge .

Therefore , it behoves You to accept me as your entrusted burden " .

 

4. In his ashtaslOki , the verses 6,7 and 8 deal with Prapatthi .

Sixth verse is about the Prapatthi to Sri Devi as the means to the end

of resorting to the Lord . In the 7th slokam , he explains the meaning

of Carama SlOkam . In the 8th verse , he declares his prapatthi ,

" where he expresses his inability to implement the Karma ,

Jnaana and Bhakthi yogAs as means of salvation . Even regarding

Prapatthi , he is unable to follow it because of his utter helplessness

and lack of firm conviction of its implementation . Still the hope of being

 

saved by the Lord , He being the final means , sustains him " .

 

1997 RaamAnuja Jayanthi celebration

******************************************

The Ranganatha temple of Pomona will be celebrating our Acharya's

birthday on Sunday , May 11 between 8 AM and 12 Noon . After Thirumanjanam

to the Lord and Gadhya recitations , there will be pravachana sevas

by Professor Prasad and myself prior to saathumurai . Professor Prasad

will speak onnthe life of Sri RaamAnujA . I plan to speak on the tributes

to Achaarya RamAnujA by Thiruvarangatthu AmudanAr ( Raamaanusa

NooRRanthathi ) , Vedantha Desikaa ( Yathiraaja sapthathi ) and

MaNavALa maamunigaL ( YathirAja Vimsathi ) . There will be a benefit

concert by the great Sarod vidwaan , Ajmad Ali Khan for generating funds

for Sri Ranganatha temple . That would be at 3 PM . It is remarkable that

this great artist is contributing his sevaa to Sri RanganAthA in the tradition

of Sheik Chinna Mowlaanaa . All of you , who are within driving distance

are welcome to join these two celebratory events.

 

Subhamasthu , Svasthirasthu .

 

AzhwAr, EmperumaanAr , AcharyAL thiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,

 

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan

..