Sri Badrinarayan's question on the absence of palasruthi

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Badrinarayan :

 

Yes , Swami Desikan has commented on the absence

of the palasruthi usually seen on the prabhandhams like this .

It is in his vyAkhyAnam on Muni Vahana Bhogam that

Sri Mani Varadarajan has referred to many times .

 

As a part of the series that I am writing on Thirukkudanthai

Desikan 's AparyApthAmrutha sOpAnam , I was going

to cover it at length . I will write about this section now .

 

As we know from the many postings on AmalanAdhipiraan ,

Swami Desikan had a great affection for these moving verses

and created Bhagavadh DhyAna sOpAnam , Muni Vaahana

BhOgam out of his extraordinary revenerence for ThiruppANar .

 

Thirukkudanthai Desiakna considered as an aparaavatharam

of Swami Desikan modelled his great affection for ArAvamudhan

taking his cue from Swami Desikan's works and

blessed us with his AparyApthAmrutha sOpaanam .

 

Both Swami Desikan's Bhagavadh DhAyana sOPaanam and

Thirukkudanthai Desikan's works include a pala sruthi verse to

respectfully stay away from the unique experience of

ThiruppANa Naathan , where he merged with the Lord

after stating " yennamuthinai kanda kaNNgaL

maRRonRinaikkANAvE " .

 

In the above quoted passage , AzhwAr does not say

Yenn amuthanai kanda YENN kaNNgaL . He states

" yenn amuthani kanda kaNNgaL " . unitl this paasuram ,

he has been referring to himself as adiyEn , adiyEn .

At this stage of his anubhavam of the sarvAngha

soundharyam of periya perumAL , the afiliation with

himself is gone . He forgets his name , his place of

origin . It has been suggested that Lord RanganaathA

made sure that there is no distraction to the AzhwAr in

the deep experience of HIS athayantha soundharyam and

lAvaNyam . It has been stated that the one who gained

moksha saamrAjyam sings saama ghAnam according to

Upanishads . AzhwAr engaged insuch an incomparable

experience could not come down to refer to his coordinates

or the fruits of the blessings of reciting his paasurams .

 

He was " too far gone " to turn around to say a word of

advise as an AchAryA . He was being pulled fast forward

by the Lord's beauty and was hastening to merge with

the AdhimUlam resting on the AdhisEshan at the

kshEthram known as BhulOka VaikunTam .

 

In the second line of the final paasuram , he states as to

what had happened to his mind : YennuLLam kavarnthAnai

----( kanda kaNNgal maRROnRinaikkANAvE ) ". The heart has been

stolen . The Lord's property hasbeen returned to the Lord . There is

nothing left to talk about the erstwhile state as ThiruppANan

from UrayUr .

 

AzhwAr acknowledges that his eyes can not see anything or

anybody else after experiencing the beauty of the Lord with his

eyes. Swami Desikan points out that the AzhwAr was in

the state of ananya prayOjana kaashtai ( the boundary of

the state of not expecting any fruits other than the Lord )

and that led to declaring " kanda kaNNgaL " instead

of " kanda yenn kaNNgaL " in the spirit of nispruham ,

nirahankAram and nirmamathvam .

 

Swami Desikan quotes two examples to compare the

AzhwAr's exraordinary mental state of bliss . One is

the statement of AnjanEyA to Sri RamachandrA " Bhakthisccha

niyathA veera bhAvO NAANYATHRA GACCHATHI " . AnjanEya ,

the greatest of Rama chaithanyA , says that his Bhakthi to

Sri Raman is nithyam ( unchanging and eternal ) ; he adds

that his thoughts do not go even go to Sriman NaarAyaNA

in Vaikuntam , but are rooted in Sri Ramaa and Him

alone ( anyathra na gacchathi ) .

 

The other example quoted by Swami Desikan is

the Thiruvaimozhi paasuram of NammAzhwar ( 4.9-.10):

 

kandu ketuRRu mOnthu undu uzhalum eimkaruvi

kanda inbam ----kanda sathir kandozhindhEn

adainthEn un thiruvadiyE "

 

( short meaning ) : After experiencing the limitless beauty

of You both as Divya dampathis and as Nithya sEshis

in Sri Vaikuntam with your own blessings , I have

abandoned with joy the persihable alpa sukhams born out

of the activities of the panchEndriyAs and the kaivalya

sukham coming from athmAnubhavam . I have now

firmly grasped Your lotus feet as the one and only

lasting and incomparable sukham in all the worlds .

 

In the final tamizh paasuram of Munivaahana bhOgam ,

Swami Desikan pays tribute to the " kadiya kaathal

of PaaNN perumAL " and describes his prabhandham as

" pazha maRayin poruL " ( the essence of the ancient vedAs

dealing with the relationship between Iswaran and Jeevan ) :

 

kaaNpanavum uraippanavum maRRonRikk-

kaNNanayE kanduraittha kadiya kaathal

paNN perumAL aruL seytha paadal patthum

pazha maRayin poruL yenru paravuhinROm .

 

In his pala sruthi on MunivAhana BhOgam ,

Swami Desikan hints at his composiiton as

equal to " muktha isvarya rasOpama: " ( equivalent

to the brahmAnandham experienced by the Muktha Jeevans

and Nithya sUris in Nithya VibhUthi / Sri Vakuntam ) .

That is because of the subject matter deals with the

singular aanndhAnubhavam to the exclusion of all the

others by ThiruppANAzhwAr at the bhUloka Vaikuntam

that made him declare " amudhinaikkanda KaNNgal

maRRonRinaikkANAvE " .

 

Swami Desikan , ThiruppANNAzhwAr thiruvadigalE SaraNam

Oppiliappan koil Varadachari Sadagopan