MANTRAPUSHPAM

[Guest guest]

SrI KrishNa parabrahmaNE namah

 

Dear BhAgavatas,

 

my praNAmams to you all.

 

In his recent trip to TiruvEngadam, adiyEn bought a TTD book

"stOtraratnamulu" containing SrI VaishNava sanskrit stOtras in Telugu

lipi.The book is re-published after many years.An important addition in

the new edition is swAmi dESikar's hayagrIva stOtram and mantrapushpam is

excluded from this recent edition.

 

adiyEn has a copy of earlier edition at home.In this edition, the

mantra pushpam starts with 1.rug vEda mantra "agni mILE purOhitam" and

consists of the following other things:

 

2.sAma vEda Siras of nArAyaNOpanishat "...OmityagrEvyAharEt..."

3.VaikunthEti parElOkE...

4.icchAmOhi mahAbAhum..

5.Esha nArAyaNaSSrImAn..

6.one more SlOka on krishNa "...sAkshAnmanmatha manmathah"

7.nammALwAr's "SenRAl kudaiyAm..."

8.ALavandAr's "kadApunaSSanka.."

9.SrI rAmAnujar's SrIbhAshya SlOkam "akhila bhuvana janma sthEma .."

 

adiyEn doesn't know why they have excluded this parama vaidika mantra

pushpam.

 

Now adiyEn's query is like this:

 

adiyEn has never seen this mantra pushpam being recited anywhere. adiyEn

knows that

the mantra pushpam for smArtas is different and has purusha sUkta mantra

"dhAtA purastAt.." and entire nArAyaNa sUktam.But even in VaikhAnasa

temples adiyEn saw the same version being chanted.So when is the

above-mentioned mantra pushpam to be chanted?

Hope that SrImAn Sadagopan will kindly enlighten adiyEn on this matter.

 

SrI rAmachandra charaNau SaraNam prapadyE

your servant

V.Srimahavishnu

[Guest guest]

Srimahavishnu wrote:

> adiyEn has a copy of earlier edition at home.In this edition, the

> mantra pushpam starts with 1.rug vEda mantra "agni mILE purOhitam" and

> consists of the following other things:

 

[...]

> 7.nammALwAr's "SenRAl kudaiyAm..."

 

Dear VS,

 

This is actually from Poykai Alvar's mudhal thiruvandhaadhi,

verse 53.

> Now adiyEn's query is like this:

> adiyEn has never seen this mantra pushpam being recited anywhere.

> So when is the

> above-mentioned mantra pushpam to be chanted?

 

In my experience, it is the tradition to recite this

mantra pushpam as part of the alankAra-Asana during

bhagavad ArAdhana. Recall that there are six Asanas

or "seats" offered to God during ArAdhana:

 

(1) mantrAsana -- request that the Lord be present

for the worship.

(2) snAnAsana -- ceremonial bathing

(3) alankArAsana -- adorning with flowers and

offering ornaments, incense,

sandalwood, etc.

(4) bhojyAsana -- offering of food

(5) punah mantrAsana -- reciting stotras, paasurams,

songs, kIrtanas, dance, etc.

for the Lord's enjoyment

(6) paryankAsana -- conclusion of worship and requesting

the Lord to go back to yoga-nidra.

 

After offering gandha, dhUpa, dIpa, etc., during alankArAsana,

the mantra pushpam is offered in the order you described.

In a few temples, I have seen the mantra pushpam recited

after bhojyAsana and during punah mantrAsana, if I am not

mistaken. This may be a Vaikhanasa practice; generally

in homes mantra pushpam forms parts of alankArAsana.

 

Sri Rangaramanuja Mahadesikan, popularly known as Kozhiyalam

Swami, writes about the alankArAsana in the 'Laghu Ahnikam':

 

... bhagavanmantrai: pushpAni pradAya praNamya yathASakti

stotrANi paThitvA ...

 

The editor of this book writes in a footnote:

 

'mantra pushpa' iti prasiddha-veda-vaidika-vividha-

sUkta-anusandhAana-pUrvaka-arcanAnushThAnam sarveshTam.

 

Mani

[Guest guest]

>Srimahavishnu wrote:

>> adiyEn has never seen this mantra pushpam being recited anywhere.

>> So when is the above-mentioned Manthra Pushpam to be chanted ?

 

Supplementing the excellent information provided by

Sri Mani Varadarajan earlier , I wish to add that

AlankArAsanam is the section of the Bhagavadh AarAdahanm ,

where Manthra Pushpam is traditionally recited .

 

The sequence or the ten sub steps of the AlankArAsanam

are :

 

(1) PrArthanA (2)Arghyam (3) Paadhyam (4) AachamanIyam

(5) AlankAram (6)Ghandham (7)DhUpam (8) Dheepam

(9) MANTHRA PUSHPAM and (10) ArchanA .

 

Manthra Pushpam in all its glory and in an

unabridged state is included as a part of

the AarAdhana kramam in the AchArya RaamAnujA

CD ROM that is awaiting release .

>Sri Rangaramanuja Mahadesikan, popularly known as Kozhiyalam

>Swami, writes about the alankArAsana in the 'Laghu Ahnikam':

>

> ... bhagavanmantrai: pushpAni pradAya praNamya yathASakti

> stotrANi paThitvA ...

 

There are Veda Rks ,sthOthrams , RaamAyaNa slOkams and paasurams

et al in the section on Manthra Pushpam ." YathA sakthi " are the

key words .It is like an accordion .You can compress

or expand as indicated below as "sarvEshtAm ".

>

>The editor of this book writes in a footnote:

>

> 'mantra pushpa' iti prasiddha-veda-vaidika-vividha-

> sUkta-anusandhAana-pUrvaka-arcanAnushThAnam sarveshTam.

>

 

V.Sadagopan

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavathas,

 

The meaning of popular and uplifting Mantrapushpam from aruNa

prashna of KYV araNyakam has always baffled me.

I have pondered over different books and talked to different

shrOtrIyAs, but unfortunately never got a satisfactory answer.

Finally, I resolved it for myself. If we

translate apAm of yOpAm (yaH + aPam) as the Lord (Brahman)

it makes lot of sense.

 

(Note: Sri Sadagopan in one of his MP commentaries

has implied this meaning for aPam. In fact one of the Arsha vidya gurukulam

books also suggest LORD for apAm).

 

The best of anything or anyone is considered as

flowering of a civilization.

Thus,

>>>yOapAm pushpam veda I pushpavAn prajAvAn 

bavathi I <<

can be paraphrased as:

one who realizes the pushpam (greatness, blessing or blosoming) of Lord,

becomes pushpavAn (Great, blessed) or blosoms.

>> yOpAmAyathanam veda I

aayathanavAn bavathi<<

 

One who realizes the sustaining power of teh Lord becomes sustained

(Compare Christian belief: If you realize Jesus died for your sins, you are

saved).

 

Rest of MP als becomes readily very menaingful, because rain, Moon, years,

fire, Sun are all outpourings (extension) of parabrahman.

 

We can very well see the water-lord comnnection in appa for father,

as well as Ap is respectful way of addressing people in the Hindi language.

Embodiment of water (thIrtha rUparu for elders in Kannada), thI-rtha sthalam

for holy places.

 

dAsan,

 

K. Sreekrishna Tatachar