ThirupallAndu : Comments on singing of " Eternal Years" for Sriman naarAyaNA !

[Guest guest]

Dear Members of the Bhakthi Group :

 

One of the readers of the SaraNAgathi journal

had a question on PeriyAzhwAr's mangaLAsAsanam

of the SaraNya Dampathis thru ThiruppallAndu , where

he burst forth with the benediction of " Long Live the divine

Lord and His consort " .

 

Our immediate reaction to this benediction for "eternal years "

to the Lord , who is not defined by time , is the appropriateness

and relevance of a mere mortal wishing the eternal Lord

Long life ! A deeper reflection of the context of the origin

of Thiru Pallandu and a fuller appreciation of the towering

Bhakthi of this AzhwAr would help us reconcile this " odd " and

yet spontaneous bendiction by the AzhwAr ( VishNuchitthA ) .

 

The Context

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

The Lord appeared with MahA Lakshmi in the sky on

the back of Garudan to witness the honor accorded to His

dear BahkthA and student by the King of Mathurai for establishing

His supermacy ( parathvam ) in a scholarly fashion with indisputable

proofs from the VedAs and Upanishads at the court of the

Pandyan king ; the Joyous AzhwAr was overwhelmed with

concern and fear over the safety of the Lord as he drank deep

the beauty of the SaraNya Dampathis , who manifested

over the sky . He marvelled at the parAkramam of

the Lord as he saw the weapons that the Lord handles

to punish the wicked and protect His asritha janams .

The Azhwar was totally overwhelmed by the grace of the Supreme Being ,

who sanctified the occasion with His appearance in person

to witness the celebration over his victory at the court .

..

The Azhwar suddenly got worried about any dhrishti dhOsham

falling on the Lord and causing Him( Sriya: Pathi ) any harm .

He forgot for few moments that the Omnipotent Lord

could take very good care of Himself and fend Himself

very well against any undesirable happenings associated

with the "evil eye " of the malevolent people . The concern

that poured out of the AzhwAr was like water gushing out of

a deep fountain . MaNavALa Maamuni understood precisely

the outpouring of anxious concern of this kind and the deep

desire of the devotee to intervene and protect the Lord

from harm's way . AzhwAr 's mood was described by

Maamuni precisely as " Ponghum Parivu " . Maamuni

concluded that this unique anubhavam of the AzhwAr

entitled him to be recognized as PeriyAzhwAr .

 

Our AzhwAr was a retiring Kaimkaryabhara of Vatapathra Saayee

and was quite happy with his chosen vocation to gather

flowers from his garden and to make beautiful garlands

for the Lord of Sri VilliputthUr . Sriman NaarAyaNA decided

to project this humble man on the center stage . Our Lord

commanded VishNuchitthA to go to the court of the PandyA

king in a dream and to claim the prize reserved for the Scholar ,

who would establish the supermacy of Sriman NaarAyaNan .

 

The worried VishNucchitthA described his lack of

scholarship and begged off from undertaking such a

ventutre . The Lord became his AchAryA and stood on

his tongue ( jihvAgra SimhAsanam ) and made him

proficient in the deeper meanings of the VedAs

and enabled His dear bhakthA ( VishnuchitthA )

to win over all the contestants , who questioned

His supermacy .

 

Achaarya Nathamuni refers to this incident

in his taniyan saluting PeriyAzhwAr this way :

" Gurumukham anadheethya PrAha VedAn AsEshAn ,--" .

Here , AchArya Nathamuni points out that VishNucchitthA

did not have the benefit of Adhyayanam of the VedAs

in the traditional manner . He did not have the luxury

of a Guru and therefore , the knowledge of the VedAs

did not come to him via a traditional Guru and yet ,

he became totally proficient in the intrepretation of

all VedAs ( vEdAn AsEshAn ) and their deeper meanings

to win his case to establish unequivocally

the supermacy of the Lord in the spirit of

Sri NaarAyaNa Sooktham :

 

NaarAyaNa parO jyOthi-rAthmA NaarAyaNa : Para :

NaarAyaNa param Brahma tattvam NaarAyaNa: Para:

NaarAyaNa parO dhyAthA dhyAnam NaarAyaNa: Para:

yaccha kinchijjagath saravm dhrusyathE srUyathEpivA

Antharbahisccha tathsarvam VyApya NaarAyaNa: sthitha :

 

That was the uniquenes of this devotee of the Lord .

The miraculous grace of the Lord fell on this dear devotee

doing pushpa Kaimkaryam . Our SaraNyan blessed His

devotee to enjoy direct instructions on the VedAs

from Him . The result of those instructions made

the "untutored " Brahmin expound the inner meanings

of the VedAs at the royal court and led to his winning

the prize ( Sulkma = Kizhi ) established by the king

to prove the supermacy of Sriman NaarAyaNA .

VishNucchitthA transformed into PeriyAzhwar as

as a result of the anugraham of our Lord . The

depth of his devotion for the Lord and the concern

for the safety and security of the Lord , who had become

visible to the eyes of all kinds of people ( BhakthAs

and ill-wishers alike ) created indescribable

tensions in the mind of the AzhwAr . This deep fear

about anything untoward happening to the Lord

transformed itself into the verses of Thirup PallAndu

offering benedictions to and prayers for the well being

of the Lord . Here , the AzhwAr did not ask the Lord

anything for himself , but asked instead for the Lord's

protection and prayed for the the establishment of

the Lord's unquestioned sovereignity over

every part of His Universe . What we experience in

the verses of Thirup PallAndu is the tender and

extraordinary love of the AzhwAr for the Lord and

the most compassionate Lord's love for His devotee .

 

It has also been suggested that PeriyAzhwAr's prayer is for

the eteranl life for the Lord in His ArchA form ( One of the five

forms of Lord ) , which " had become the center of culture

and security for all people in every village and town " . AzhwArs

without exception have performed mangaLAsAsanam

for the ArchA murhtys of 106 divya dEsams , where the Lord

is consecrated in the ArchA form . Any injury or harm to

the ArchA murthy ( consecrated temple icon ) would

cause certain harm to people and their places of residence .

The conditions for the Lord's sAnnidhyam ( presence )

in the icon is rooted in the twin requirements of

" the protection " of the icon and the sAstraic performance

of ArAdhanams and uthsavams for the ArchA murthys as

prescribed by the VaikAnasa and PaancharAtra AgamAs .

PavithrOthsavam is conducted each year and the

MahA SamprOkshaNam are carried out for these purposes

to assure the Lord's presence in these consecrated ArchAs

for "eternal years " on earth conferring blessings to the dear

devotees and protecting the world from calamities . This

has been pointed out as another reason for the AzhwAr's

prayer for the eternal years ( pallAndu ) of residence of

the Lord as ArchAvathAran on His earth . This then

is considered as the prime reason for our singing

the Eternal Years for the Lord following the path

shown by PeriyAzhwAr in a spirit of prayer to Him

to be with His dear devotees in all of His five forms:

" Transcendent , Cosmic , Historical , Iconic and

as Internal Ruler Immortal( AntharyAmi Brahmam ) " .

 

The incident that happened at ThiruveLLUr in this

century is a case in point for the well being of the

ArchA form of the Lord. One day , Sri VeerarAghavan

of ThiruveLLUr appeared in the dream of the 37th Jeeyar

of Ahobila Mutt and mentioned that His arm had a lot of pain

and as a result , He had difficulty getting up from His

reclining pose . The Jeeyar woke up and went to the temple

in the morning with the temple priest and found that

there was a slight damage to the right hand of mUlavar

from an accident during the daily ArAdhanam . The Jeeyar

performed BaalAlayam and repaired the damaged arm

and reconsecrated the power of the Lord in the mUlavar .

The Lord , who is worshipped as Vaidhya VeerarAghavan

at ThiruveLLUr thanked the Jeeyar for taking such good care

of Him , when he was in distress . This is why it has been said that ,

" the entire relation between God and man awakens the awareness

of the Reality both in its individual depths and universal vastness " .

 

 

PeriyAzhwAr was the first among the true devotees

of the Lord , who blessed the Lord for long life and

freedom from any inauspiciousness. Saint ThyagarAjA

offered later rakshai to the Lord through his Bhairavi krithi ,

" Raksha BettarE " in the spirit of the Kaapidal paasurams

of PeriyAzhwAr . Both were engaged in deep meditation

and enjoyed the drama of protecting the Lord with

unquestioned sincerity . They both played the role of

protecting mother and concerned father .

 

Purandara DAsar offered his own benedictions

to Sri Ramachandra in his tender NeelAmbari

raaga Krithi :

 

Jayathu KOdhanda RaamA

Jayathu DasaratharAmA

Jayathu SeethArAmA

Jayathu RaghurAmA Jayathu

 

In three charaNams that follow , Purandara Daasar

performs benediction to the Supreme and wishes

Him to be victorious ( Jaya Vijayee Bahva ) .

 

That seems to be the inner meaning of wishing

eternal years to the Lord , who is kaalAtheethan .

 

PeriyAzhwAr ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,

 

Oppilaippan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan