A SanyAsi ascends the Peetam :Part 2

[Guest guest]

Dear Divya MaNi paadhukha SevakAs :

 

I will cover in this posting the sacred Divya Desam

of AhObilam , the murthys there and the life of Adhi vaNN

SatakOpa MahA Desikan , the first AchAryA to ascend the

Ahobila Mata peetam and the Paasurams of Thirumangai

AzhwAr , who performed mangaLAsAsanam of Sri Lakshmi

Narasimhan of this most sacred kshEthram ..

 

DIVYA DESAM OF AHOBILAM

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Sri Dileepan had posted earlier a detailed describtion

of this sthalam and has followed it up with a special feature

on the 108 Divya Desam CD ROM Project archives with

lovely images . I will therefore add complimentary information

on this sthalam and include the meanings of the paasurams of

Thirumangai on Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan , the presiding deity

of this ancient Divya Desam .

 

I will start this posting with a slokam from

Sri Lakshmi NarasimhAshtakam composed by

Sri Vaadhikesari Azhagiya MaNavALa Jeeyar before

summarizing the meanings of the ten paasurams of

Thirumangai AzhwAr on Ahobila KshEthram . The Jeeyar's

slOkam begs the paripoorNa, parisuddha, lustorous moorthy ,

Narasimhan , to rescue him from the ocean of SamsAram ,

where he( the Jeeyar ) is immersed and is sinking fast :

 

Srimadh akalanga paripoorNa sasikOti

Sridhara ManOhara satApatalakaantha

paalaya krupAlaya bhavAmbhudhi nimagnam

daithyavarakAla Narasimha Narasimha

 

Thirumangai AzhwAr's paasurams on AhObilam

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Sri Sampath Rengarajan and Sri Dileepan have

encoded the Tamil paasurams from NaalAyira

divya prabhandham in Sri VaishNavA home page

maintained by Sri MaNi VaradarAjan . Hence , I will

confine my kaimkaryam to giving the meaning of the ten

awe-inspiring paasurams of AzhwAr here.These

pasurams are found in between the AzhwAr's Periya

Thirumozhi (PTM) paasurams on NaimisAraNyam

( PTM 1. 6) and Thiruvenkatam ( PTM 1.8) . The almost

intimidating beauty of this Kshethram and the difficulties

in getting there are described by the AzhwAr in his

paasurams . These paasurams are set by the AzhwAr

as conversations with his mind ( Maanasa Sambhodhanam) .

 

Paasuram 1( AnkaN yjAlam anja --)

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O My mind ! Let us offer our salutations to the Lord ,

who appeared as Narasinghan out of the pillar that

the egotistic HiraNyan stuck with his fist . Our Lord had a

form at that time , which was half-lion and half-man .

That Nara-Simha roopam frightened all the denizens of

this earth known for its beautiful places . The rising

fury of Lord Narasimhan impelled Him to tear with His sharp

nails , the body of HiraNyan , who offended the parama

bhagavathA , PrahlAdhan , who was His dear devotee.

 

At this sacred kshEthram , the lions of the forest with eyes

red from their anger pull apart the ivory tusks of the green-eyed

elephants and hasten to Lord NarasimhA's sannidhi and

present those tusks to Him out of their bhakthi and salute Him .

Oh, my mind ! let us offer our salutations to the Lord at this

AhObila KshEthram .

 

The asurA king , HiraNyan , was bloated with pride about his

valor . When his son , PrahlAdA , asserted that the Lord is

everywhere ( Hari yengum uLan ) , HiraNyan disputed that

statement of his son and challenged his son to show that

the Lord was inside the sthampam (pillar ) that he hit with

his fist . The word Hari (ari inTamil ) means lion and

uLan refers to Parama Purushan , who is pervasively

present everywhere. The Lord did not want to make the

words , " ari yengum uLan " false and he appeared out

of the pillar to validate His devotee's statement . The ear

shattering sound associated with His avathAram frightened

all the jeevans and the devAs of the world . They feared for

their own lives . The Lord's fury was focussed however on

the offending asurA king .

 

This paasuram states that the lions from the forests surrounding

Ahobilam came to the temple to honor their kula naathan , who

presided over their land . They came with upahArams of their

own choice (viz) ., the precious ivory tusks for use in the service

to the Lord . Just as their Lord had the combination of ugram

(ferocity displayed at HiraNyan) and Vaatsalyam ( affection for His

devotee , PrahlAdan ) , the lions of the forest had the simultaneous

display of anger at the elephants and affection for their Lord .

The lions killed the elephants and pulled out their valuable

tusks , cleaned them and brought them to the sannidhi of the Lord

as kaaNikkai to demonstrate their reverence .

 

Thirumangai's mangaLAsAsanam celebrates this kshEthram

as " SingaveL kunram " . SingavEL has been intrepreted by

Sri Utthamoor SwamigaL as " SingavEzh kunram " . He intreprets

the meaning two ways . In one intrepretation , the Singha + Yezh

(SingavEzh ) means the seven peaks just as in thriupathi (Yezhu

malai ); in another intrepretation , " yEzh " refers to the ascending

peak hititng the sky as Giri Raajan .

 

Paasuram 2 ( Alaittha pEzh vaai---)

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The ferocious form of the HiraNya SamhAra Murthy is

visualized by the AzhwAr in this paasuram . He salutes

this kshEthram as the place of residence of the Lord .

AzhwAr has the darsanam of the Lord with His mouth

as big as a deep cave ( pEzh vaai ) and there he witnesses

the gigantic tongue moving from side to side inside that mouth .

the AzhwAr sees the brillantly shining teeth of the Lord

in that mouth . He has the anubhavam of the Lord

chasing HiraNyan with His majestic gait and

witensses the Lord piercing the chest cavity of the mighty

HiraNyan with His sharp nails . The AzhwAr reminds

himself that Ahobilam is indeed the HiraNya SamhAra

Kshethram.

 

Here , the AzhwAr experiences other commotions during

his visit . He describes that scene as well to his mind .

He says : ' Oh, my mind ! Please offer your worship to

the Lord of this divya desam , where the hunting tribes

of Ahobilam with their bows , arrows and snare drums

fight noisily with the groups of pilgrims climbing the hills

to have the darsanam of their Lord " . The AzhwAr suggests

that the enduring affection and bhakthi of the pilgrims ,

who overcome their fear of the natives , who wish to protect

their territory from " invading tribes " and save the Lord ,

the one who married one of their daughters , chenju Lakshmi ,

from any harm that may befall Him.The hunters try to scare

the groups of pilgrims , but do not succeed . The courage

of the pilgrims to brave the dangers on the road to Ahobilam

overpowers their fears and they undertake their pilgrimages .

 

Paasuram 3 : (yEndha pEzh vaai ---)

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Here , the AzhwAr describes the perils that the pilgrims

encounter on their journey to this divya desam besides

those caused by the members of the local hunting tribes.

There are lions , tigers , wild elephants and other dangerous

animals in the forests surrounding the narrow and rock-strewn

path up the hill to the temple. The time is mid-day ,when the Sun

is shining fiercely and the heat is setting fire to the dry bamboo

trees in the forest adjoining the pilgrim's path. Dark smoke and

loud noise from exploding bamboo trees accompany the fire.

The animals of the forest are lying low . The grass under feet is

smoldering from the forest fire. The heat from the fire is

shattering the stones on the road and the stones are cracking

and flying apart .

 

Inspite of these dangers and obstacles , the pilgrims proceed

with their determined journey up the hills to have the darsanam of

the majestic Narasimha moorthy who has the giant jaws

that match one another in their strength , a cave-like mouth

and frightening cannine teeth jutting out of that mouth .

 

The devout pilgrims recognize this Narasimhan as the Lord

of this KshEthram and as the one , who tore apart the mighty

HiraNyan's body with His sharp nails alone . They salute this

kshEthra nAthan as the Veda Purushan , who never lets down

His dear devotees and punishes the wicked , who harm

His bhakthAs .

 

Paasuram 4 : ( yevvam vevvEl---)

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Here , Thirumangai through a series of frightening

and evocative images reminds us that this KshEthram

is not easy to travel to by AvaishNavAs ( avaishNavAnAm

aprApyam ) . Just as parama padham is hard to reach by

those , who do not have the spiritual riches (avaishNavAs ) ,

AhObilam is not easy to reach by any one , who does not

have the depth of devotion to the Lord . Those , who have that

wealth of Bhakthi are guided and protected by the Lord of

AhObilam to climb up and reach His sannidhi .

 

The kshEthram is described as generally accessible only

to the DevAs and people with deep devotion to the Lord . Here ,

the Lord tore into pieces the body of HiraNyan sporting a

sharp spear in his hand and waving it at the Lord rushing at him .

The Lord got hold of him and kicked the spear off and placed

him in His lap and cleaved the asurA's chest and destroyed

him for his offense against His Bhakthan , PrahlAdhan .

 

The AzhwAr describes a scene on the way up the hill

during his pilgrimage to remind us of the terrors of the

journey to the inaccessible place of residence of the Lord.

The time is midday. The heat is scorching. People are

staggering in that heat and fall down on the road side.

The waiting dogs and the vultures lunge at them . Only

those with Bahgavadh katAksham proceed further .

Rest of the avaishNavAs do not make progress in

their efforts to complete their pilgrimage to this

awesome kshEthram . Only those with a pure mind

filled with devotion for the Lord complete their pilgrimage

to this "unreachable " kshEthram and others have many

obstacles that interfere with their plans .

 

Paasuram 5 : ( Menra pEzh vaai --)

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Here , AzhwAr dwells further on the unapproachability

of the temple , where the Lord presides . He states that in

this KshEthram, where the Narasimha Moorthy with mighty

jaws and sharp, shining teeth destroyed the AvaishNavA ,

HiraNyA , the climbing flames of the wild fire reach skyward

and the powerful wind spreads the heat and smoke

all around and makes it extremely difficult to find one's path

under one's feet to continue with the pilgrimage.

 

Even today , it is not easy to make a journey up the hills

unless one is accompanied by a group of like-minded

devotees. AzhwAr's determination to reach ' unreachable"

places is well known . Once , he stayed for six months at

the foot hills of Thiruneermalai for the surrounding floods to

subside and then he ascended the hill to perform

the mangaLAsAsanam for the Lord of Thiruneermalai .

 

( to be continued )