Sri DehaLeesa Sthuthi : part 11 ( Slokams 12-16 )

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Dear Members of the Bhakthi group :

 

In the last posting , I covered Slokams 8 to 11 .

In this posting , I will cover the ones from 12-16 .

The latter five slokams continue to cover the many

aspects of the unimaginable beauty of Sri DehaLeesan.

 

SlOkam 12

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sathkurvathAm tava padham chathurAnanathvam

padhOdhakam cha sirasA vahathAm Sivathvam I

yEkathra vikramaNa karmaNi tath dhvayam thE

DEhaLyadheesa yugapath prathitham pruthivyAm II

 

 

( Meaning ) : O DehaLeesa ! When You grew upward as

Trivikramaa , Brahma dEvan offered paadhyam (water offered

respectfully to wash the feet of revered ones ) to Your

sacred feet and became blessed . Siva perumAn received

the waters used to wash Your feet ( GangA) on His head and

became equally blessed . Today , those who worship You as

the one who appeared at the DehaLi of ThirukkOVilUr and

carry on their head the water used for Your Thirumanjanam ,

they gain the combined advantages gained by Brahma Devan

and Lord SivA at the same moment .

 

( Comments ) : Swami Desikan uses sledai or double

meaning , when he uses the words ChathurAnan and Sivan .

ChathurAnan can mean either the four-faced Brahma or

chathura--Ananan ( one who can speak cleverly ,

with chAthuryam ) . Sivan can mean Rudran

or Auspiciousness (Sivam ) .

 

Swami says that those , who worship the Lord of ThirukkOvalUr

attain instantly the blessings that ChathurAnan and

Sivan attained by offering paadhyam to the Lord's

sacred feet and receiving that paadhyam water

( GangA )on His head . Swami says that the bhagyasaalis

on earth attain ChathurAnanathvam and Sivathvam together thru

their worship of the DehaLeesan's sacred feet at ThirukkOvalUr .

SIMULTANEOUSLY , those puNyavAns attain the state of Siva

and ChathurAnanA as opposed to receiving such blessings

thru separate acts (i-e) ., one washed the Lord's sacred feet

and the other received those sacred waters that emanated

as AkAsa GangA on His Jatai .

 

In one of his Naanmughan ThiruvandhAthi , Thirumazhisai

AzhwAr describes the offer of paadhyam by BrahmA from

his kamandalu theertham and Lord Siva receiving that

fast moving torrent of GangA on His matted hair to protect

the worlds from damage of its powerful descent :

 

kuRai kondu Naanmuhan kundikai neer peythu

maRai konda manthiratthAl vAzhthi --kaRai konda

kandatthAn senni mElERakkazhuvinAn

andatthAn sevadiyai aangu

 

Thirumazhisai visualizes BrahmA pouring water on

the upward moving foot of the Lord as it passed thru

his abode , Satya Lokam , to the accompaniment of

Veda Mantrams. He visualizes next Lord Sivan blocking

those torrential and free-falling waters by receiving them

on His densely matted locks of hair . AzhwAr says that both

BrahmA and Lord Sivan offered thus their woship to

TrivikramaavathAran .

 

A great Swami Desika BhakthA , Sri D.Ramaswamy

Iyengar sums up the message of this slOkam this way :

" O DehaLyadheesA ! You who were once a TrivikramA

of Cosmic proportions now revel in confining Yourself

to a small DehaLi . Even so , On those who worship You ,

You confer the boons of Simultaneous ChathurAnanathvam

and Sivathvam. "

 

Slokam 13

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BHAKTHPARODHA SAHA PAADHA SAROJATHAS THE

MANDAAKINI VIGALITHAA MAKARANDHA DHAARAA i

SADHYAS TRIVARGHA APAVARGAMAPI KSHARANTHEE

PUNYAA BHABHUVA PURA SAASANA MOWLIMAALAA II

 

( Extended Meaning ) : O Bhaktha uparOdha saha ! O Lord

who put up with the tight squeeze caused by the mudal aazhwArs !

When you grew as Trivikramaa and shot up towards the brahmAndam ,

Your sacred feet travelled past the BrahmA's world (Sathya Lokam ) .

There , Your son , BrahmA worshipped those holy feet with

the waters from his kamandalu and performed Thirumanjanam .

The sanctified waters of that abhishEkam was borne by Lord

Siva on His head like the holy garland to purifying His head .

Those waters of AkAsa ganga were then released

by Lord Siva and they flowed like the flood made up of honey

( PuNyA mandhAkini makarandha dhaarA ) . Anyone , who bathes in

these sacred waters reaps the benefits of dharmam , artham and

kaamam . Such a bath in the waters associated with your holy

feet cleanses the minds of the bathers and blesses them to

perform SaraNAgathi at Your feet and gain mokshAnugraham .

O Lord ! how magnificient indeed is the glory of Your

CharaNAravindhams ?

 

Swami Desikan visualizes the crush experiened by the Lord's

lotus feet resulting in the flow of makarandha -dhArA . In the seventh

slOkam , Swami had suggsted that the Lord was being squeezed by

the AzhwArs like a sugarcane bundle to yield sugar juice. It has also

been pointed out that PeNNAr flowing at ThirukkovalUr is the honey-

river flowing out of the Lord's lotus feet . PeyAzhwAr has visualized

this scene of what happened at Sathya lokam and provided the

inspiration for Swami Desikan . The paasuram section of

PeyAzhwar is as follows :

 

azhahanrE ankai neerErArkku alar mElOn kaal kazhuva ,

Gangai neer kaanra kazhal

 

AzhwAr sums up before his mind's eye the picture of

Kapata Vaamanan receiving water on his little hands

to solemnize the gift of three feet of land ( Ankai neer

yERRarkku ) and his transformation into Trivikramn

to measure the sky and receiving there the paadhyam

from his son seated on the lotus ( alar mElOn ) .

 

Slokam 14

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vikrAnthi kethu patikA padha vaahini thE

nyancchanthyupaithi natha jeevitha simsumAram I

outthAnapaadhim amruthAmsum aseetha bhaanum

hemAchalam Pasupathim himavantham Urveem II

 

( Extended Meaning ) : O Lord who has Your dear devotees

as Your life ! You conquered the worlds back from MahA Bali.

The river Ganga that flowed from your feet and travelling thru

the majestic ,golden HimAlayAs became like the waving flag

symbolizing Your victory . Those holy waters reached first

the cosmic sphere of SimsumAra chakram and next in order

to Dhruva mandalam , Chandra mandalam , Surya Mandalam ,

the Meru mountain , Lord Siva"s head at Kailas on the HimAlayAs

and finally reached this earth . Thus GangA nadhi spreads the

glorious victory of Yours over Bali chakravarthy all over Your

worlds .

 

The torrential , white waters of Ganga at the upper reaches of

HimalayAs is indeed like a fast fluttering flag as it decends to

the gorges and reaches to the plains . This similie of the flowing

GangA as a flag fluttering in the winds is a beautiful one . The choice of

the word " natha Jeevitha " in this verse has been pointed out

as reference to the three AzhwArs , who stood before the Lord

with bent heads and prostrated before Him .He is the Natha

Sathyan and melts before anyone holding anjali mudrA .

Such is His bhaktha DaakshiNyam .

 

Slokam 15

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veda kamandalu jalair vihithArchanam thE

paadhAmbhujam prathidinam prathipadhyamAnA I

STHOTHRA PRIYA ! thripathagAdhi sarith varaaNAm

paNNA bhabhUva bhuvanE bhaumAna paathram II

 

( Exteded Meaning ) : O Lord who is easily pleased by

the eulogies of Your bhakthAs ! Your Holy feet has been

the object of worship by BrahmA's kamandalu waters .

PeNNAr is flowing right next to those thiruvadis all the time.

Compared to the river GangA , which had association with

Your holy feet once , this lucky PeNNAr has perrineal

contact with Your Lotus feet and is blessed therefore

many times over GangA river.

 

The river PeNNAr and its bhaagyam is saluted here .

She is in contact with the Lord's feet ( prathi dinam

prathipadhyamAnA) . PeNNAr in Sanskrit is referred

to as KrishNabhadrA because of its holiness .

 

Swami Desikan , who has coined many new names for

the Lord of ThirukkOvalUr such as DehaLeesan ,

BhakthOpamardasahan chose here an ancient name

found in Sri VishNu shasra naama : " SthOthra Priyan "

( sthava priyan ) . Sri Parasara Bhattar's commentary

on this Naamam is apprpriate to recall here :

 

" YathA kadhamchith , Yatha KadhAcith bhAshayA

yEnakEnApi GuNasankeerthanaabhimAnEna kriyamANa:

STHAVA : svavishaya PRIYATAMA: yasya "

 

This eulogy (sthOthram ) can be in any language ,

it can be occasional , it can be from anywhere .

The Lord responds with great joy at this attempted

praise by His bhakthAs and rushes to bless them .

 

SlOkam 16 :

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In this verse , Swami Desikan celebrates the advent

of the Three ThiruvanthAdhis by the Mudhal AzhwArs .

 

svacchandha vikrama samunnamithAth amushmAth

sthOthrathrayam yadhabhavath tava paadhapadhmAth I

vEthALa BhUtha SarasAm apadisya vAcham

peAyENa tath prasava bhUmim avApa bhUya : II

 

( Extended Meaning ) : O Lord DehaLeesA ! The flood

of sacred waters that flowed out of Your own sankalpam

from Your uplifted feet branched off into three divisions

and reached dEva lokham , Manushya Lokham and

the nether world . Those three streams then took on

the form of the three thiruvandhAthis associated

with Poygai , BhUtham and pEy aazhwAr and finally

returned to Your sacred feet . Swami suggests

that they started liek Ganga at His sacred feet and

returned to them .

 

The triple stream of GangA ( srOthAsthrayam )

is compared here to the three floods of divine

utterances that emanated from the three aazhwArs .

The Lord's celebrated feet , the origin of

GangA in TrivikramAvathAram , is the goal of the

parama bhakthAs assembled in the DehaLi

of ThirukkOvalUr sthOthra priyan .

 

The unanimity of thought and purpose of the three

AzhwArs is compared to the three branches of

the same river ( srOthasthrayam ) . The tradition

is to enjoy these three prabhandhams in unison .

They have the tatthva trayam with the extraordinary

beginnings , which are echoes of one another :

 

Vyaam tahaliyA , AnbE tahaLiyA and ThirukkanDEn .

 

Similarly , Tattva , Hitha and PurushArtham ,

another triad , is connected to the AzhwAr's

Parabhakthi , Paraj~nAnam and Parama Bhakthi .

Sri D.Ramaswamy Iyengaar points out this

connectivity and reminds us that these andhAthis are

affectionately named " VyatthandhAthi , AnbhandhAthi

and ThiruvandhAthi " .

 

Sri D.R IyengAr also speculates that Kumaara

VaradAchAr , the son of Swami Desikan might have been

inspired by this verse to consider Srimadh Rahasya

Thraya Saaram of his AchAryA as " sthOthra Trayam " :

 

vigAhE NigamAnthArya VishNupaadha SamudhbhavAm I

Rahasya thraya sArAkhyam thrisrOthasamakalamashAm II

 

He salutes his father's ( AchAryA's ) magnum opus as

originating like the GangA with the three branches

( the three andhAthis of Mudal AzhwArs ) from the sacred

feet of Sriman VishNU NaarAyaNan .

 

In the remainig twelve slOkAs , Swami Desikan

describes the Lord lifting the three AzhwArs to

His Parama Padham and then requests the Lord to

grant him a similar boon of nithya kaimkaryam

at Sri VaikunTam .

 

Iypaasi SRavaNam Day

ThirukkalyANa Uthsavam begins at Oppiappan Koil

 

Bhumi DEvi sametha ThiruviNNagarAn

ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

 

Swami Desikan , AzhwArgaL thiruvadigaLE SaraNam

DaasOham ,

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan