Sri VaishNavam- 1

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SRI:

 

SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAH:

 

SRIMATHE NIGAMANTHA MAHADESIKAYA NAMAH:

 

SRIMATHE GOPALA DESIKA MAHA DESIKAYA NAMAH:

 

SRIMATHE RANGANAYIKA SAMETHA SRI RANGANATHA PARABHRAHMANE NAMAH:

 

Dearest Sisters and Brothers, the bhakthAs of Sriman NarayaNA!

 

Ennuyir thandhu aLitthavaraich charNampukki/ yaanadaivE avargurukkaL

niRai vaNanghi/

PinnaruLaal perumpudhUr vandha vaLLal/ periya nambi Alavandhaar

maNakkal nambi/

NanneRiyai avarkku uRaittha uyyakkoNdaar/ nathamuni sadagOpan sEnai

nAthan/

Innamudhath ThirumagaLenRu ivarai munnittu/ Emperumaan ThiruvadigaLai

adaiginREnE!

 

It is my humble attempt to jot down all that I have heard and read about

Sri VaishNavam. Though it is nothing new for our Bhakthi Group, all of

these topics have been covered sometime or the other, it is still my

sincere intent to reach the beginners and novices like me who are just

in Kinder gardens of Sri VaishNavam; Today being the Most Auspicious day

of Panguni RohiNI, The Thirunakshatthiram of my Most revered His

Holiness Srimad Poundareekapuram ParavaakOttai Andavan Sri Gopala Desika

MahA Desika Swami, it is my offering to His Lotus Feet. I have also

tried to cover here at various places Swami's upadEsam also (when I was

blessed with the performance of saraNAgathi at Swami's Feet.). Of

course, it is all my free translation; It is most likely to have lot of

errors; Please forgive me; It is all mine; any positive and good points

in them- the credit goes to all AchAryALs and our rich

traditions/scriptures. (It is requested that we should stick and abide

by what our scriptures and AchAryALs say to the greatest possible

extent).

 

This may extend to a series of about 4 posts, I suppose. It is

Emperumaan ThiruvuLLam and krupai for enabling me to undertake this

naapAsai. (It is also

 

Introduction

 

There are lots and lots of lives on this earth. Human beings, Animals,

birds, insects, trees, plants, creepers, etc., etc., - there are so many

varieties of lives living in this world. Every day- every minute, there

are so many births of such lives and so are deaths.

 

After taking so many lives (they say about 8,400,000 lives), we have

come to this human life. Avvayaar, The Tamil poet, says : "aridhu aridhu

maanidaraayp piRatthal aridhu"- It is extremely rare and precious to be

born of human being. It is quite true that it is our fortune to be born

a human being with the capacity of sixth sense. Let us make use of it

for our upliftment further. What is good and bad- what to do and what

not to do- only human beings are blessed with such discriminating

capabilities- We have been given that capacity by Emperumaan. Shall we

not make full use of it?

 

Bhagyam:

 

Even out of human beings, it is our pUrva janma puNyam and that of our

ancestors for our being SrivaishNavAs. There are so many religions in

the world; Even in Hindu religion, there are many sects; and there are

hindus who worship many dEvatAs as their Gods.

 

For us SrivaishNavAs, Sriman NarayaNan along with His consort Sri

MahAlakshmi alone is the God (Deivam). He is the Primordial Chief. He is

the Chief of all dEvAs, including Sivan and BrahmA. Vedas proclaim that

Sriman NarayaNan is the ParamAthmA, PeramporuL and ParanjOthi. VedAs

also say that except Him all including dEvas, Sivan, BrahmA and Indran

are all jIvans. Being born a SrivaishNavA and/or a bhakthA of Sriman

NarayaNA, we need not worship other devatAs. We are related to the Great

King Himself; why to go and beg the army chief, minister or the Gate

keeper? No doubt, all dEvAs are also His great bhaktAs sometime or the

other; but they are NOT God. Sriman Narayanan is the God.

 

VedAs and SaastrAs say that even to think of Sivan and BrahmA and other

dEvas as equal to God is a great sin (mahApaapam). For that matter,

Sivan and BrahmA themselves are great bhaktAs of Sriman NarayaNA. I am

sure They themselves DO NOT RELISH being considered anywhere near the

Adhimoolam- The Primordial Chief. When GajEndrA shouted for help

"AdhimoolamE!" it is NOT any name of God-please note! It is just calling

the Primordial Chief, the first one- the Parathvam! Nobody dared come

claiming for "Adhimoolam" post, it is our Sweet Lord Sriya: Pathih

Sriman Naraynan who appeared IMMDEIATELY on GarudA and saved the

elephant. You may tell that it is only the name and rose by any name

will smell as sweet. But it is vEdAs (which are eternal and

apaurushEyam) that proclaim that Sriman Naraynana is the Supreme

Godhead. It is not just a name. It is kaaraNa peyar; name with a meaning

in it; naaram + ayaNam is Narayanan. Hence, we should worship only

Sriman Narayanan. Even uttering His name alone will yield tremendous

benefits both in this world and in the next. (as also vouched by the

Great Adhi SankarAchArya sang the Bhaja Govindham song wherein he

advises us to think of KrishNA and the Parama BhakthA of Sriman

NarayaNA, Sivan, when he himself tells Parvathi to utter Rama naamam,

which is equal to the Thousand names of VishNu. - Do we need any other

proof?)

 

For us, only vEdAs are the moola pramaaNam. (The proof). VedAs were not

created by anybody. They are apaurushEyam. Vedas proclaim the Glories of

Emperumaan Sriman NarayaNan.

 

AZHWARS:

 

AzhwArs, 12 AzhwArs appeared in South India and composed Tamil pAsurams

(about 4000) that are considered EQUAL to vEdAs. The Naalaayira Divya

Prabhandham were composed for us to learn and understand the vEdAs in

Tamil. As mentioned by Swami Vedanta Desikan "theLiyaadha maRainilangaL

theLiginROmE!". By reading these 4000 pAsurams, our concepts get

clarified and we get to understand the incomprehensible vEdAs clearly.

They are hence, called Tamil vEdam.

 

AzhwArs were 12. Since they always were immersed (aazhndhu) in kalyANa

guNAs (the Most Auspicious attributes) of Emperumaan Sriman NarayaNan,

they are called AzhwArs. They were PoigaiAzhwAr, BhUthathAzhwAr,

PEyAzhwAr, ThirumazhisaiAzhwAr, NammAzhwAr, PeriyAzhwAr,

MadhurakaviAzhwAr, ThondaradippodiAzhwAr, KulasEkharAzhwAr,

ThiruppANAzhwAr, AndAL, & ThirumangaiAzhwAr.

 

NammAzhwAr is considered the Most important and the Greatest AzhwAr; for

his prabhandham (of Thiruvaaimozhi of 1000 pAsurams) which glorifies the

prapatti (the surrender concept). He took refuge at the Lord's feet and

performed prapatti. Hence, for all of us, VaishNavAs, NammAzhwAr is the

Chief, since he leads us by example for performing prapatti at the

Lord's Lotus Feet. He is Moola purushar. He is also addressed as the

Prapanna santhaana koodasthar. His Thiruvaaimozhi's commentary is called

Bhagavadh Vishayam. It is a Grantham that one has to do kAlakshEpam

under the feet of his AchAryA.

 

 

Guru paramparA:

 

Sriman Narayanan is the first AchArya for all of us. He is the Adhi

Guru. Next comes Periya Piratti MahAlakshmi. VishvaksEnar (Senai

Mudhali)( -no connection with Mudhaliar caste of present times) is the

next AchAryan. He is the Chief of the Lord's army (sEnai). Next is

NammAzhwAr. VishvaksEnar, it appears had come down to the earth to teach

NammAzhwAr. Nathamuni is His sishyA. UyyakkoNdaar, MaNakkaal Nambi,

Yamuna Muni (Alavandhaar), Periyanambi come in that lineage. Periya

Nambi's sishyar is Our Most reverred YathirAjar, Sri RamanujAchAryA

(lakshmaNa Muni). He is the Most important AchArya of VaishNava

Siddhantham. He is also called Bhagavadh RamanujA. Rest is all that you

are aware of and we can trace down to our present AchAryA. (ask your

parent, if you are not sure who your present AchAryA is.)

 

Next part, we will talk about the Siddhaantham- tatvam - (if time

permits, ) sarIra Athma bhAvam.

 

AchAryAL ThiruvadigaLE saraNam

 

Ram Ram

 

With Best Regards

 

NarayaNa dAsan madhavakkannan

 

 

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