H.H. Poundarikapuram Andavan"s UpanyAsam : Part 2

[Guest guest]

Dear BhakthAs :

 

We will continue with the First focus theme of

the revered AchAryan in his upanyAsam yesterday .

That deals with the many meanings incorporated

by Swami Sri Desikan in his first verse

of UpakAra Sangraham that we will quote below

in its entirety . Srimath Andavan elaborated on

the individual , powerful words of this verse

to illustrate the paramOpakArams of the SaraNya

Dampathis.

 

2. Divya Dampathi's Many UpakAram to us

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

 

H.H. Srimath Andavan selected FIRST the subject of

the upakArams done by the divya dampathis for us .

According to Swami Sri Desikan , they fall into

three major categories :

 

(1) PoorvOpakAra ParamparAdhikAram

(2) SaadhanAdhikAram

(3) NirNayAdhikAram

 

Swami Desikan has brilliantly summarized all of these

upakArams in the first Tamizh Paasuram of UpakAra Sangraham.

Srimath Andavan anchored his first focus theme

on the individual subsections of this verse that

have very rich meanings :

 

anthamilA pErinbham arundha yERkkum

adiyOmai ARIVUDANE yenRum kaatthu

munthai vinai nirai vazhiyil ozhuhAthemmai

munnilayAm DESIKAR TAMM MUNNE SERTTHU

MANTHIRAMUM MANTHIRATTHIN VAZHIYUMK KATTI

vazhippadutthi VAAN YERRI ADIMAIK KOLLA

Tanthaiyena ninRa tanit ThirumAL ThALil

Talai vaitthOm SatakOpan aruLinAlE

 

This work of Swami Sri Desikan is understood as

the VyAkhyAnam for the Sri Sookthi of NammAzhwAr

revered as THIRUVIRUTTHAM and particularly its

first paasuram (poy ninRa Jn~Amum --ViNNaPPamE ).

 

The revered AchAryA of Poundrikapuram Aasramam selected

this paasuram of Swami Desikan and dwelt on the selected

words in this paasuram and linked it to other

powerfull words from the other paasurams of

NammAzhwAr's ThiruvAimozhi{TVM }, (e-g)., " annAL

nee tantha AAKKAYIN vazhi uzhalvEn " ( TVM: 3.2.1).

 

Sri Andavan pointed out that the Divya Dampathis

help us in every way . Mainly , there are 54 incomparable

upkArams that are performed by them for us , SamsAris ,

with the view to join us to Their parama Padham

in the spirit of NammAzhwAr's TVM Vaakhyam :

" Vaikuntham puhuvathu maNNavar VidhiyE " .

 

He reminded us of Sage MaarkanDEyA's Vaakhyam in

this context :lOkAnAm MaathA PithA cha MADHAVA :

The reference here was to " Tanthai yena ninRa

Tanit ThirumAL ', section of the above verse to

the sarva vidha Bhandhu , SarvEswaran .

 

Before He joins us to Sri His Vaikuntam for nithya

kaimkaryam , ThirumAl performs many upakArAms

that is hard for us even to keep track off

( NaaraNan maayayai aRibhavar yArO --TVM: 1.3.3 ,

AtthA nee seythana naan aRiyEnE! ).

 

His upakArams are giving us aakkai (sarIram )

to house the Jivan ; He bleesed the Jivan

to be eternal ( nithyan ) in svarUpam and blesses

the Jivan with Dharma BhUtha JnAnam and makes it

the Jivan's nithya guNam and protects thus the Jivan's

svarUpam and SvabhAvam .This is the connection to

the paasura pasage , " adiyOmai yenRum aRivudanE kaatthu "

in the UpakAra sangraham .

 

Srimath Andavan went on to explain the other key passages in that

important paasuram of Swami Desikan .The meanings are :

 

anthamilAp pErinbham arundha yErkkum adiyOmai = for us , who

are fit to enjoy the limitless bliss of the great Moksha anubhavam

 

arivudanE yenRum kaatthu , munthai vinai nirai vazhiyil

ozhuhAthu emmai munnilayAm Desikar tamm munnE sErtthu =

blessing and protcting us with the eteranl dharma bhUtha

Jn~Anam and also protecting us from drowning in

the timeless flow of the river of karmAs and getting us to the

safety of the bank by uniting us with SadAchAryAs for--

 

manthiramum manthiratthin vazhiyum kaatti vazhippaditthi =

(by uniting us with the sadaachAryAs )for upadesam of

Your redeeming sacred manthram , the AshtAksharam and

for learning about the inner meanings of that manthram

(viz)., the middle section of the manthram (nama: sabdham )

denoting Prapatthi and the end luptha chathurthi vibhakthi

standing in for Bhagaavdh Kaimkaryam . The greatness of this

acquisition of knowledge through upadesam has been celebrated

may times by AzhwArs and AchAryAs :

 

iha sangrahatha: SrimAn GopthA sEshi samAdhika dharidhra:

SaraNam sarva sarIri prApya; sEvyasccha saadhubhirbhAvya :

 

-- Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram , Moola manthrAdhikAram

(Meaning ): Briefly , the Moola manthram recognizes our Lord

as Sriya: Pathi (Srimaan )through akAra sabdham and rakshakan

( protector with many upakArams ) , in luptha chathurthi as

sEshi , and as one who has no equal or superior, in namas

sabdham as upAyam ( prapatthi ) , in NaarAyaNa sabdham as

sarvAntharyAmi and in the final chathurthi as the One

to be worshipped by Saadhu Janams as PrApyan and Sevyan .

 

Srimath Andavan referred to the paasura vAkhyam ,

MaamAyA ! mikkAr otthAr ilai ! There is no one

equal to You or greater than You ( samAdhika Dharidhra :

in the above Rahasya Thraya SlOkam ).

 

The VedAntha Jn~Anam imparted to us by SadaachAryAs

(Mantharitthin vazhiyum kaati ) is another of these MahOpakArams

of the Lord since it leads to the ultimate bliss of

ascent by archirAdhi maargam ( vaanERRi adimaik koLLa)

and nithya kaimkaryam. That is the nall Vaazhvu

referrred to by Thirumangai in his ThirunedumthANDakam (TNT )

paasuram passage :

 

anthaNar maattu anti vaittha MANTHIRATTHAI MANTHIRATTHAAL

maravaathu YENrUM VAAZHUTHIYeL VaZHALaM --TNT pasuram :4

 

(Meaning ): Oh my foolish mind ! If you enjoy the Thirumanthiram ,

the saaram of the Vedantham , which is the wealth of the Brahmins ,

and if you reflect upon the meanings of that sacred manthiram ,

you will surely attain sadhgathi ( nall Vaazhvu ).

 

Srimath Andavan continued with the explanation of

the fourth paadham of the UpakAra Sangraha SlOkam :

 

Tanthai ena ninRa tanit ThirumAl ThALil

tlai vaitthOm SatakOpan aruLAlE

 

The Lord stood as the Forever-caring Father ,

who performs great upakArams ( tanthai ena ninRavan ).

 

He is a matchless EmperumAn with the mahimai of

PaadhAravindham that ha s no comparison in its

redemptive and anugraha qualities ( Tanit ThirumAl

ThALil ) .

 

Next Srimath Andavan expalined as to what happened at

these sacred feet of the Lord as a result of the

grace of NammAzhwar our Prapanna SanthAna Jana kUtasthar .

The paasura Vaakhyam is : Tanit ThirumAl ThALil

talai VaitthOm SatakOpan aruLAlE . Through the Parama

KrupA of NammAzhwAr , we got to Sri Vaikuntam and laid our feet

at the sacred feet of Sriman NaarAyaNA as the ultimate step

in Moksha Siddhi rsultign from SadAchArya Sambhandham and

BhagavAn's paramOpakArams .

 

NammAzhwAr is the One , who showed us the way through his

Prabhandhams . He used the purvOpakArams done by the Lord

to anticipate the future upakArams to come and showed us the way .

He was blessed with Bhakthi and Jn~Anam from the Lord of

Nithya Sooris . His enjoyment of the Lord blossomed as

the Four divya prabhandhams . Thiruviruttham was the first

of the Four prabhandhams .Here , he desribes his varalARukaL

( Virutthams )and thus this prabhandham came to be known as

Thiruviruttham . In the very first paasuram ( Poy ninRa

Jn~Amum-- ViNNappamE ), NammAzhwAr reflects on the purvOpakArams

( or the upakArams done earlier through conferral of

aathma Jn~Anam , Dharma BhUtha Jn~Anam )and sets that up as

Infrastructure for the ensuing paasurams and prabhandhams

containing his requests for other upakArams that culminate

in Moksha Siddhi at the end of ThiruvAimozhi .In this Thiruvirutth a

Paasuram , NammAzhwaar addresses the Lord as ImayOr talaivA

( sarva Seshi ) and himselfas adiyEn ( sesah bhUthan ).

The sEsha-sEshi Sambhandham , Artha panchakam are covered here .

The connection of Artha panchakam with brahma SvarUpam

is known as Shadatha nirUpaNam . That was what NammAzhwAr

instructed .Swami Desikan wished to show us the paramountcy

of this central message and crated UpakAra Sangraham .

 

Srimath Andavan of PoundarIkapuram Aasramam selected

this verse deftly as the first theme in his upanyAsam .

We are indeed blessed .

 

AzhwAr , AchAryan ThiruvadugaLE saraNam

Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil varadAchAri Sadagopan

( To Be continued )