Guest guest Posted January 10, 1998 Report Share Posted January 10, 1998 Isvara samvathsaram , Maargazhi Month 26th day Sukla Paksha TrayOdasi , RohiNi Nakshthtram MaalE MaNi VaNNA ThiruppAvai Dinam SRI NAMO NAARAYANAAYA RaamEthi varNa dvayamAdharENa sadhA smaran mukthim upEthi Janthu: I kalau yugE kalmasha maanushANAm anyathra dharmE kalu nAdhikAra: II ( When one remembers ceaselessly the two lettered mantam , Raama , and meditates on it , that jeevan attains mOksham . For the humans full of blemishes , who inhabit Kali yugam , there is no other dharmam prescribed for attaining mOksham; nay ,they are not even entitled to travel on any other dharmic routes ) Saint ThyagarAjA's Bhaagyam *********************************** On the banks of Cauveri river at ThiruvayyAru , Saint ThyagaraajA had the blessed experience of the auspicious darsanam of Sri Ramachandran wearing pithAmbaram and navarathna maalais . The KaruNArasa pUrna face of the Lord and the merciful glances of his beautiful ArAdhana mUrthy thrilled the saint . He poured forth raptourously into VarALI krithi , " Kana Kana ruchirA , Kanaka Vasana ninnu " in response to the blessings of divya darsanam of the Lord . The Bhaagyam of Another Parama BhakthA ************************************************ The experience of Saint ThyagarAjA reminds one of the powerful experience of another parama bhakthA of AparyApthamrtha Para Brahmam reclining at Thirukkudanthai. NammAzhwAr was the Parama Bhakthar at Thirukkudanthai , who described his parama bhAgyam this way from his seat at the base of the Tamarind tree at ThirukkuruhUr : aarAvamudhE adiyEnudalam nin paalanpAyE neerayalainthu karaya urukkuhinra NedumAlE ! seerAr senneR kavari veesum sezhuneert Thirukkudanthai yErAr kOlam thihazhak kidanthAi kandEnemmAnE ! (Meaning ) : " Oh Lord of Pure Nectar that can never produce satiety ! I have become Your slave after seeing You . My body melts in the love that I feel for You . The flowing liquid moves as a flood with the wave rocking with force. This melting is like what a goldsmith brings about on hard gold. Oh Lord ! Are You doing the same extinction of myself by reason of Your deep love for me? Well, May it be so! Oh Lord ! You are reclining in a most imposing pose at Thirukkudanthai , where the red paddy grain stems waft in breeze as if they are doing fanning service to You " --- Sri V.N. Vedantha Desikan's translation Saint ThyagarajA seeking blissiful conversation with and embrace of Sri RamachandrA like NammAzhwAr was blessed to have his heart's desire fulfilled . He enjoyed the insatiable beauty of the AarAvamudhu sittting in front of him at his pujA graham at ThiruvayyAru and that experience of BrahmAnandham flowed through the sAhithya Vaakhyams of VarALi pancha rathnam . Why there are only 8 charaNams in the VarALi pancha rathnam ? ********************************************************************* There are only 8 charaNams for this Pancha rathnam compared to the usual ten charaNams for the other four Pancha rathnams set in Nattai , Gowlai , Arabhi and Sri Raagams . As the Saint reached the 8th charanam of the VarALi pancha rathnam , he was so overwhelmed by his anubhavam of the soundharyam of Sri RaamA that he quit singing further and entered into a trance of bliss resulting from this extraordinary anubhava janitha aanandham . VarALi Pancha Rathnam : Condensed Meaning ****************************************************** Sri C.RamAnujAchari has provided us the condensed meaning of this krithi in his book , " The Spiritual Heritage of ThyagarAjA " . I will comment in depth on the individual sections of the krithi in future postings . For general reference , the text of Sri RamAnujAchAri"s translation is as follows : " Sweeter will be the devotee's pleasure , the more he(she), with a loving mind , daily sees You and Your charming face radiating beauty and unbounded glory . Did not such a darsanam redeeem and render happy DhruvA , when he felt mortified at the sharp and cruel words of his step-mother , Suruchi ? Did not the description of the glory of Your benign form given by HanUmAn transport Sri SitA into a blissful trance ? This , my statement , will be amply testified to by AnjanEyA , who lovingly and longingly holds Your blessed Lotus feet in his hands , by Lord SivA , the enjoyer of the superb sweetness of Your (Raama nAmam) , also by NaaradA , ParAsarA , SukA , SaunakA , IndrA , Parvathi and SitA . Equally sweet is the pleasure of the darsanam of sprightly SitA devouring the exquisite beauty of Sri RamA's face with her yearning and modest looks . " While this translation follows the general outline of the text of the Saint , what needs to be addes is the emotional content of the conversation that Saint ThyagarAjA had with Sri RamA about his AanandhAnubhavam resulting from the darsanam of the supreme beauty of his Ishta Dhaivatham and upaasanA murthy . I will provide annotated commentaries on the Pallavi , Anupallavi and the 8 charaNams next . Paalavi : Kana Kana RuchirA kanaka vasana ninnu ******************************************************** With Panchama yeduppu ( Pa maa-- pa maa- gaa gaa- ree) , the pallavi starts . Saint ThyagarAjA says here that his heart is jumping with joy like the waves react to the rising full Moon at the sight of the Lord's adhbhutha soundharyam . His heart has the state described in Tamil as Vimmi puLagAngitham adainthirukkum nilai . Saint ThyagarAjA's jeevanOpAyam ( the essential means of his life, his livelihood ) was to perform AarAdhanam , kaimkaryam to Sri Ramabhadran as he explianed in his Saveri krithi : " Raajam Natha Sura Raajam , Sthutha Gaja Raajam , Sruthi vinuthAjam , Sudha rathi Raajam , Turaga VirAjam , Sujana SamAjam , ThyagarAja Raajam , RAAMAM BhajEham SadhA " He was spending every minute of his life from dawn to ardhajAmam in SuprabhAtham , AarAdhanam , NaivEdhyam, Naama sankeerthanam and SayanOthsavam . When on one day he saw the resplendent limbs of the Lord after Thirumanjanam , the beauty of this " Athyantha Sundara Sthuthya sucharithra NithyOthsavan's rUpa Mahimai " overtook him and related to Him as the Devathi devan , Sriman NaarAyaNan standing in front of him with Kothandham in his Hand and attired in divya peethAmbharam . He cried out : Himakara kOti niphAnga RaamA ! Oh Lord filled with the 32 saamudhrikA lakshaNams ! Oh my Prabhu who took the avathAram of a human being to reestablish Dharmam ! Oh PeethAmbharAlankrutha MadhyakA ! When I enjoy Your divya soundharyam , my heart is pounding and I am sinking joyously in the ocean of paramAnandham . Anupallavi Vaakhyams ************************* dina dinamuna mansuna chanuvana ninnu ( Kana kana--) Anupallavi begins with the Veda Svaram , NishAdham to salute the Veda Murthy , Sri Raaman , recognized by one of the Sri Raama ashtOttharam as , " Om VEdAthmanE nama: " The saint declared here that he is saluting his Lord who is resting on the bed of his mind , which gives immense pleasure to Him every day and that he in turn is dipping deeply into the ocean of bliss over his soubhAgyam . Here , the saint recognizes the divya peethAmbaradhAri as the sacred resident of his HrudhayAlayam ( heart temple ) and states that he has reached the tanmayA state ( united with the Lord thru nithya kaimkarya bhAgyam ) . The saint , who is a supreme example of a Raama ChaithanyA practised bhakthi yOgam of a high order and invoked the Lord to reside in his HrudhayAkAsam as his favorite seat of residence as pointed out by Sriman NaarAyaNA to PrahlAdhA in a passage of PrahlAdha Bhaktha Vijayam , " Paala saagarmanthu bhavvaLinchudakanna Bhakthuni hrudhayampu bhAgayunDu " ( I prefer the heart cave of my bhakthan as a preferred place to rest than the bed of AdisEshA on the milky ocean ) . Saint ThyagarAjA had the sEvA of Sri RaamA in his hrudhayAkAsam thru dhyAnam every day and celebrated that blessing with the salutaions : " Sridhara , Raamachandra , Muni chinthitha pAdha , SarOja Sri Hari , Maadhava , Manju bhAshaNa , yOdhana veera veera , VARA YOGI HRUDHALAYA , nannu brOvavE " . In his DevagAndhAri krithi ," TanalOnE dhyAninchu tanmayamE kaavalErA " , he described his deep desire : " My Lord , What I would like as a cherished boon from You is to reach the state of tanmayam through the perfection of the dhyAnam over Your rUpa mahimA , nAma mahimA and kalyAna guNAs . This is all what I crave for in this life " . His prayer was answered and he reached the TanmayA state after witnessing the supreme beauty of the Lord for whom he had just completed Thirumanjanam . He performed shOdasOpachAram and attained brahmAnandham . He describes this state in yet another krithi this way : " divya peethAmbara Vana mAlAdhAruni , aadhi madhya antha rahithuni , akila jagadh pUjuni , AathmA Raamundaku , Sriman NaaraayaNa mUrthuni -- shodasOpachAramulachE pUjimchu , BrahmAnandha Paravasudai --" The above passage is also from PrahlAdha Bhaktha Vijayam , an opera composed by Saint ThyagarAjA . Here , PrahlAdhA explains his tanmaya state with the above words : Oh Lord ! I have performed Your aarAdhanam with shodasOpachAram as You resided in my heart temple adorned by divya peethAmbharam , vana maalai . I have understood You as the Supreme one without beginning , middle or end and worship You as the AathmA Raaman and Sriman NaarAyaNan . Saint ThyagarAjA had the highest reverence for great BhakthAs like PrahlAddhA , DhruvA , AnjanEyA and NaaradhA . He identified himself with their spiritual pursuits and yearned for the boons that they received form the Lord through their faultless practise of bhakthi yOgam . The anupallavi Vaakhyams of VarALi Pancha rathna krithi relates to such anubhavams of the supreme bhakthAs of Sriman NaarAyaNA . Sri Raamachandra para BrahmaNE Nama : Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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