A Tribute to NammAzhwAr on His VaikAsi VisAkam birthday: Part 1

[Guest guest]

Dear BhakthAs :

 

Sriman MadhavakkaNNan's wonderful article today on

the ThiruvenakatamudayAn's Paasuram , AhalahillEn --,

is the most fitting tribute to the glories of the Lord of

Seven Hills on our Kulapathi's birthday . What a coincidence

or AzhwAr's sankEtham for Sri MadhavakkaNNan that

this special paaasuram dealing with Dvaya Manthram

moved onto the Center stage on the day of days ,

AzhwAr's birthday ! The sincere Kaimkaryam performed

by our Sri MadhavakkaNNan seems to have its own rewards .

It is wonderful to read these soulful postings from

Simhapuri .

 

Sri Murali Rangaswamy's tribute to AzhwAr and

Saama Vedam transforming into Thiruvaimozhi added

to today's special celebrations .

 

I would like to share with you the PurvAchAryA's commentary

on this most important paasuram on ThiruvenakatamudayAn

and add some additional thoughts . The two Saranagathi

pasurams addressed to Sri Oppiliappan ( Yennappan yenakkAiyuhuLAi--)

and Sri VenkatEsan ( AhalahillEn --) are the two most

important paasurams to me in the entire Thiruvaimozhi .

 

I will summarize what I have learnt from the commentaries

of PurvAchAryAs , the Navaneetham Family ( Navaneetham

Sri KrishnamAcchAr Swamy , Dr. VedAntha Desikan , Sri

Gopala Desikan ) , UttamUr Swamy and PrathivAthi Bhayankaram

AnnamAcchAr Swamy . One can not write enough about these

great paasurams of NammAzhwAr .Naatha Muni was initiated by

NammAzhwAr Himself into this Paasuram . His grandson , ALavandAr

captured the essence of this Paasuram in his SthOthra Rathnam

slOkams . His great grand disciple , AchArya RaamAnujA enshrined

the spirit of this paasuram in his SaraNAgathi Gadhyam .

Swami Desikan and other AchAryAs elaborated on this

paasuram to offer their tributes to our Sri VaishNava

SampradhAyam in an endearing/enduring manner .

 

AhalahillEn Paasuram

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

 

In the first decad of Thiruvaimozhi , AzhwAr points out that

Sriman NaarAyaNan is upAyam ; the second decad focuses on

the athibhOgyam ( most delectable ) aspects of the Lord ;

the third decad shows that the Lord has divya mangaLa

Vigraham ; the fourth decad asserts that the Lord is

the most superior means for moksham ; in the sixth decad ,

AzhwAr performs SaraNAgathi to ThiruvenaktamudayAN with

his AhalahillEn paasuram :

 

ahalahillEn iRayum yenRalarmEl MangaiuRai maarbA !

niharil puhazhAi ! ulahamUnrudayAi ! yennai aLvAnE !

niharil amarar munikkaNangaL virumbhum ThiruvEnkatatthAnE

puhalonRillA adiyEn unn adikkeezhamarnthu puhunthEnE

 

The above paasuram is the tenth in this decad . Through

the preceding nine paasurmas , NammAzhwAr completed the five

angAs of SaraNAgathi and in the tenth , he performed

the actual SaraNAgathi at the Lotus feet of the SarvalOka

SaraNyan at Thirumalai .In the earlier decad, he cried

soulfully : koovikkoLLum kaalam innam kuruhAthO ?

( Will not that time to call me to Your sacred feet

come very soon ? ) . He had great aarthi (longing )

for reaching the cool shade of Lord's holy feet to

escape from the scorching heat of SamsAram . He had

no patience for krama prApthi . He introduced himself

as " terithal ninaithal yeNNalAhAt thirumAlukku

uriya thondar thondar thondan SatakOpan " ( that he is

the servant of the servant of the servant of Sriya: pathi,

whose glories are beyond the comprehension through either

acquired knowledge , manthra japam or dhyaanam ).

 

AzhwAr had great dvarai ( urgency ) and acute longing

to rest at the Lord's cool feet . He recognized that

it was not enough just to have the longing . He had

to perform an anushtAnam to realize the fruit of

that longing . He chose the UpAyam of Prapatthi .

He recognized that Prapatthi to the ArchA murthy

is the better upAyam than Prapatthi to other forms of

the Lord such as Param , VyUham , Vibhavam and AntharyAmi .

He concluded next the performance of Prapatthi

to the ArchAmUrthy standing on top of Venakata Giri.

This is the sequence of happenings starting from

the first paasuram ," Ulahamunda peruvAyA --" to

" ahalahillEn --" .

 

Swami Desikan's description of the ten paasurams

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

 

In Taatparya RathnAvaLi , Swami Desikan captures in

his inimitable style the essence of these 10 paasurams

dealing with SaraNAgathi at the sacred feet of the Lord

of the seven hills . He concludes that Azhwar assessed

that Sri VenkatEsan is the most appropriate one to

receive his saraNAgathi and then performed it .

 

The last two lines of this summary of Swami Desikan

is as follows :

 

prApyA prApyathva yogAth svajana vijanayO: sath prapatthavya bhaavAth

uchE naatham SaraNyam sruthisatha vidhitham VenkatEsam SatAri :

 

The last line describes NammAzhwAr performing SaraNAgathi

to his Lord VenakatEsan , who is understood well by the VedAs .

The first line refers to his being near to His BhakthAs

and AsrithAs ( svajana prApyathvAth ) and being far away

from bhaktha dhvEshis ( vijana aprApyathvAth ) . References

here are to the Paasura vAkyams: vandhAy pOl vArAyi and

vandhAyi polE vArAthAi "

 

Finally , Swami Desikan connects " AhalahillEn "

part of the paasurem with "Sath prapatthavya bhAvAth ".

He salutes the Vaatsalya , SwAmithva , Souseelya , SoulabhyAdhi

guNams of Periya Piratti that are shared by Her Lord equally

and Her purushaakAram ( merciful intercession quality/sipArsu to

Her Lord ) and performs the SaraNAgathi to the Sruthi satha

vidhitha VenkatEsan , who is prapadhana sulabhan (easy of

access for Prapatthi ) .

 

In the next posting , I will cover the other AchAryA's

intrepretations of this profound paasuram .

 

ThiruvEnakatamudayAn ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan