Poygai ,Bhutham and pEy AzhwAr Birth day Tributes: part 2

[Guest guest]

Dear BhakthAs :

 

Yesterday , we started paying our tributes to

Poygai Azhwar and his avathAra sthalam(Part 1). We will

complete that today and continue with the SaarArtham

(quintessence) of the lives of the other two Mudal AzhwArs .

Earlier postings on Sri DeahaLIsa sthuthi has

covered the meanings of their moving paasurams .

 

ThiruvehhA Divya Desam :The birth Place of Poygai

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The Lord here appeared here to overpower the fury

of His daughter-in-law, Sarasvathi , who was determined to

destroy the Yaj~nam of Her Husband at Kaanchi . She was

angry that Her husband started the Yaj~nam without inviting Her .

Our Lord formed a dam across the fast flowing Vegavathi

river (Sarasvathi) and with one of His foot stopped Her

rapid and destructive flow. She came to Her senses and even

today , She sits at the foot of the Lord , Her Father-in-Law

wth folded hands in a mood of penitence .

 

Swami Desikan's tribute to the Lord , who rested

right in the middle of the Vegavathi river to protect

His son's Yaj~nam is a moving one poignant with meaning .

He describes the Lord as abhangura: sEthu or the dam

that can not be moved or destroyed .It is eternal . Any

one travelling across it can safely reach its other shore ,

Sri Vaikuntam without doubt .

 

The dam(sEthu) at ThiruvehhA is a matchless dam

in the entire world ( JagadEka sEthu) .As an ever present dam

across the ocean of SamsAram , He quells the fearsome tsunami

waves that break on it . This is the VishNu sEthu .He symbolizes

the deekshA that he undertook to inquire about our welfare

(Yoga KshEmam vahAmyaham ) and thus lives upto His name,

YathOkthakAri (Sonna VaNNAm seytha PerumAL) .

 

In RaamAvathAram , He declared His dhIkshA

as "SaraNAgatha Rakshakan " or "SaraNAgatha ThrANa vrathi ".

In KrishNAvathAram , He guranteed that He will banish

all of our paapams , if we surrender unto Him

and promised to give us the boon of Moksham .

He asked us not to fret about the samsAric afflictions .

That is the DhIkshA of KrishNAvathAram.In Varaaha avathAram ,

He promised to lead the dear ones that think of Him ,

when they are firm of mind and body , by His own hands

to paramapadham at the time , when they are not in

control of their senses and limbs (during their last moments

on His earth ). These are the dhIkshAs of the YathOkthakAri

of ThiruvehhA .

 

As background , BrahmA had HayamEha DhIkshA

( vow to perform AsvamEdha Yaagam ).He begged for

the Lord's intervention so that his Yaj~nam

will not be destroyed by the fast flowing

Vegavathi(Sarasvathi). Our Lord's DhIksha is to act

as told and hence He eliminated the danger (vyApadham )

from Sarasvathi by spreading Himself on His bed of AdhisEshan .

With the swift turn of one of His lotus feet , He stopped

the flow of the furious Sarasvathi in the form of the river .

 

When Bhattar of this temple at ThiruvehhA uses

his hand lamp to show us the beauty of that bent left foot

of this reclining Lord , please spend some time absorbing

the message of that foot of the Lord .He looks at us with

great affection and intensity . He appears to ask us as to

"what He can do for us , who have now arrived at His site ,

to still the turbulent waves in our hearts " . Please rest

your eyes on that turned foot pushing the high waves

of the river and the chastised Sarasvathi Devi perfroming

Kaimkaryam to Her Father-in-Law at the side of that turned foot .

 

The smiling Thirumuhamandalam (Face) of the Lord looking

at us from our right side in contrast to the Bhujanga Sayanams

of Srirangam and many other kshEthrams , where our Lord

looks at us indirectly from the left is an unforgettable

experience . Darsanam of this smiling , reassuring face

is janma saapalyam . Swami Desikan points out that

the Lord of this divya desam is "saraNam upagathAnAm

aadEsakAri " ( One who obeys the commands of those

who performed SaraNAgathi unto Him like Thirumazhisai

AzhwAr ).

 

Swami Desikan reveals further that He destroys

the parithApam( wretchedness arising from SamsAric ills)

of the denizens of His universe (sarva JanthO: ) by presenting

Himself in front of them( Sammukha:) at ThiruvehhA .He is

thus the UpAyam and He is present as the fruit (phalan)

on the top of Hasthigiri as PeraruLAlan .Thus the Lord

fulfills His two duties :

(1) to destroy the sufferings of the SaraNAgathAs

(2) to bless them with the desired boons . The first duty

is performed at ThiruvehhA and the second one is carried

out on top of the elephant-shaped hill (Hasthigiri) , where

Brahma performed his AsvamEdha Yaagam and had the darsana

soubhAghyam of the Lord arising out of the Yaj~na kuntam .

 

The 7 divya desams receiving MangaLAsAsanam from Poygai AzhwAr

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These sacred sites blessed by the anubhavam of Poygai Azhwar

are: ThiruvehhA ,Srirangam, ThiruviNNagar, ThirukkOvalUr ,

ThiruvEnkatam , Thirupparamapadham and ThiruppARkkadal.

The last two divya desams can not be seen by us

mortals and can only be seen by those like AzhwArs ,

who have the power of Tapas .

 

I will mention briefly the Passuram of Poygai

that salutes ThiruviNNagar's OppilAappan

along with the Lord of his birth place , ThiruvehhA :

 

" vEnkatamum viNNagarum vehhAvum ,ahkAtha

pUnkidangil neeLL kOval ponnaharum ,naan kidatthum

ninRaan IrundhAn kidanthAn nadanthAnE ,

yenRaal kedumAm idar "

--77th paasuram of Mudal ThiruvandhAthi

 

This is a wondeful Paasuram performing

MangaLAsAsanmam to four archA EmperumAn's

in the postures( ThirukkOlams ) of Standing

(Thiruvenkatam/(ninrAn ), sitting ( ThiruviNNagar/

IrundhAn)).Here , He presented Himself as

the seated Sri VaikuntanAthan especially for

the AzhwAr ; normally , He offers His sevai

in the standing posture as In ThiruvEnkatam .

After the standing and seated sEvai , the AzhwAr

is blessed with the reclining(KidanthAn )

sevai at ThiruvehhA and the strient walking

sevai as Thrivikraman at ThirukkOvalUr .

 

AzhwAr states in this paasuram that he has no

doubt about all of our idars( anxieties and

obstacles) being destroyed by remembering

these four divya desams , where the Lord offers

sevai as NinRAn , IrundhAn , KidanthAn and nadanthAn .

AzhwAr asks us to get the boon of the removal of

Idars by just chanting " ninRAn -IrundhAn-

KidanthAn-nadanthAn " .In his very first paasuram ,

Poygai has stated the purpose of his eulogy :

idar aazhi neenguhavE yenRu " .His goal as AchAryA

was to appeal to the Lord to banish the ocean of

misery(dukkak Kadal ) tormenting us as samsAris .

In the above 77th paasuram , AzhwAr gives us a simple

recipe to banish that miserable ocean of SamsAram .

 

In the next part , let us offer our salutations to

BhUtham and pEy AzhwArs .

 

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan