Additional Thougts on the words " Om Ithi abhyubhyupagamya"

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri RanganAtha BhakthAs :

 

Swami Desikan is known for his choice of words

and their depth of meaning (artha garbham ) .As we accept ,

Nothing is casual in his choice of words , since they

flowed from Lord Hayagreevan , his upAsanaa murthy .

 

As I thought more about the above three words in

the 30th slOkam of NyAsa Tilakam , a whole set of

ideas came to me . I would like to share them with you

as an addendum to the previous note on the subject .

 

As Sri MahA NaarAyaNOpanishad declares :

" Om ithi yEkhAksharam Brahma --sAyujyam

viniyOgam ".The Lord of Srirangam receiving

the Prapatthi of Swami Desikan is sitting under

the PraNavAkruthi VimAnam as PraNava SvarUpa

Parabrahman . PraNava Naadham is emanating from

there ceaselessly and is spreading as a Doppler Radar .

Swami Desikan approaches (upagacchathi )

this PraNava svarUpi in the sapraNava prarthanA

pUrvaka manner and makes his viNNappam ( appeal ) .

He prays for the granting of Moksha sukham and

nithya kaimkaryam .

 

The choice of prefixes " Upa " and " abhi" used in conjunction

with the root gam ( upagamanam and abhyupagamanam )

are so profound . Upagamanam means going to

or reaching or being duly received . The coming

and going is both covered here (gathAgathAni ).

I will dwell below on how the Upa sabdham and abhi sabdham

get intertwined to form the firm rope bridge to travel over

the frightening torrent of samsAram rushing below .

 

Abhyupagatha: means to come to the help of or

to arrive at a point in time (after removal

of ahankAram and mamakArams here ) or to

assent to or agree to a request ( the Lord's

response to the prayer ).

 

Swami Desaikan"s prayer is " Omithi abhyupagamya ".

An assent to the prayer (so be it , I have granted you

Moksham is waht he wants to hear from the Lord ).

That is is what he asks for , now that he has

declared his ananya sEshathvam .He asks the

parama upakArakan to lead him ( upanayanam )

to the seat of reverence (upasthAnam) , Sri Vaikuntam .

 

That the Lord is the Omnipotent , Omniscient ,

Omnipresent One and to perform saraNAgathi with

mahA visvAsam to Him thru MahA Lakshmi is the upAyam

for moksha siddhi was the upadesam of Swami Desikan's AchAryA .

 

That the Divya dampathis alone can grant

one the moksha sukham and the associated nithya kaimkaryam

is what is known as " Abhyupagama siddhAntham " or the admitted

axiom of Sri VaishNavism .

 

It appears to me that Swami Desikan chose therefore

the word " abhyupagamya " to suggest the intertwining

relationship between the PrapannA and the Lord , who

accepts that Prapatthi .It is a very rich conception

that Swami Desikan presents to us here and gets

to the core of our SiddhAntham .

 

Swami Desikan ThiruvadigaLE saraNam ,

Oppiliappan Koil varadAchAri Sadagopan