AparyAptha dhyAna sOpaanam: Slokam 8

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Dear BhakthAs of AarAvamudhan :

 

AdiyEn will cover the 8th of the 13 slOkams of

the AparyApthaamurutha DhyAna sOpAnam

of Thirukkudanthai Desikan in this posting .

The 8th slOkam deals with the pair of beautiful arms of

the Lord reclining on Aadhi Seshan at Thirukkudanathai :

 

nathAnAm sarvEshAm parama hitha visrANana param

suvAmam vAmAnyam svabhujam upadhAya pramudhitham I

bhajE vaamam bhAhum bhujaga sadhrusam jaanu nihitham

vidhAya ananthE asmin sayitham anagam SaarngiNam aham II

 

Thirukkudanthai Desikan stands before AarAvamudhan

resting on AnanathAzhwAn and gazes at the two arms of

the Lord.He sees that the Lord's right arm is serving as

a pillow for the Lord's head and the other is stretched

across His body all the way to His knees .Thirukkdanthai

GopAla Desikan reveals to us the significance of these two

arms of the Lord free of any dhOshams ( anagan or

kuRai onRumillA Govindhan ).

 

ThiruppANAzhwAr did not address the beauty of the Lord's arms

inhis amalanAdhipirAn paasurams .He was on a straight line of

a journey and was hastening from the enjoyment of

the ThirumArbhu to the neck of the Lord .Swami Desikan

compensated for the omission of the AzhwAr , who was

rushing to unite with the Lord of Srirangam and in that

rush skipped the salutation to the Lord's arms .SWami Desikan

however tarried a bit to enjoy the beauty of the powerful

and auspicious arms of Sri RanganAthan . The apara-Swami dEsikan ,

Thirukkudanthai Gopala Desikan followed the directions

of his predecessor and included a slOkam to salute the

greatness of the arms of Sri SaarangapANI at KumbhakONam

in the way shown by Swami Desikan some 500 years before

at Srirangam .

 

Swami Desikan's Bahgavath DhyAna sOPaana slOkam

saluting the Lord's arms is as follows :

 

yEkam leelOpahitham bhAhum aajAnu lamBham

prApthA RangE sayitu: akhila prArthanA pArijAtham I

DhrupthA sEyam DhruDa niyamithA rasmibhi: bhUshaNAnAm

chinthA hasthini anubhavathi mE chithram aalana yanthram II

 

Swami Desikan salutes the right hand of Sri Ranganaathan that

playfully supports His head and serves as the boon-granting ,

wish-yielding KaRpakaa tree for one and all , who surrender to

Him as prapannAs .Swami Desikan enjoys the long left hand of

the Lord that reaches all the way to His knees and states that

the enjoyment of those auspicious pair of the Lord's hands

sends him into rapture . He compares his status of bliss

of enjoying the Lord's arms to that of a joyous she elephant

that is bound by the ropes and held under control in

a cage . In his case , the ropes are the rays of light

emanating from the aabharaNams on the Lord's chest and

the two arms constitue the cage that holds him in captivity .

 

Thirukkudanthai Desikan echos Swami Desikan"s thoughts

on the beauty and the anugraha sakthi of those two arms

of Sri AarAvamudhan , who is the Hemarangan . He points out

that the right hand ( vaamAnyam ) is supremely beautiful

( suvAmAm ). That arm is serving as a pillow for His head

and looks very graceful in that posture ( Sva VaamAnyam bhujam

upadhAya pramudhitham ). Besides being blissful to look at ,

that right hand under the head of AarAvamudhan has a very

special function . What is that unique function ? It is

" parama hitha visrANana param " or it has the vratham of

conferring Parama Hitham (mOksham ) to all those , who

perform SaraNAgathi to Him .That anaga mUrthy ( Blemishless

Lord ) is resting on His bed of AadhisEshan ( asmin AnanthE

sayitham ). His left hand resembling that of AnanthAzhwAn

in size and strength , stretches all the way to His left knee .

Through the placement of His left arm near His knee, the Lord of

Thirukkudanthai is hinting that the ocean of samsAram ( BhavAbhdhi )

is only knee deep for those , who seek refuge in Him .

As Parasara Bhattar explained to AppiLLai PiLLai ,

the extended left hand toward His feet to indicate

those feet are the UpAyam and upEyam for a PrapannA .

 

Thirukkudanthai Desikan is overwhelmed by the darsana soubhAgyam

of these auspicious and powerful arms of the Lord and performs

immediately his SaraNAgathi ( anagam SaarngiNam bhaJE )since

they are " akhila bhuvana prArthanA parijAtham " as pointed out

by Swami Desikan .

 

Additional comments on the groups of words of this SlOkam

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

 

1.nathAnAm sarvEshAm param hitha visrANana Param : That

right arm of the Lord has a kankaNam on its wrist to

reveal that those , who approach Him and surrender to Him

will receive the highest of hithams (vi., ) mOksham .

 

Two of the AzhwArs , who performed SaraNAgathi at

AarAvamudhan's feet and received the blessings of

His auspicious arms are NammAzhwAr and Kaliyan .

Here are excerpts from their anubhavams :

 

* isaivitthu yennai unn thALiNaik keezh irutthum ammAnE "

 

* theerA vinaikaL theera yennai AaNDAi "

 

NammAzhwAr salutes thus the Lord of Thirukkudanthai

as the One , who prepared his mind and blessed Him

to be seated at the comforting shade of the Lord's

sacred feet . The result of that boon was the curing

of all incurable thApa trayams and other SamsAric

sufferings .

 

Thirumangai celebrates the power of the blessed

arms of the Lord and reminds us that we will

receive the parama hitham of Moksham from those

celebrated hands ,if we offer our prapatthi

under His feet . He asks us to recite His names

and dance with joy over reflectio on the many meanings of

His name , NaarAyaNan :

 

" KudanthayE thozhuthu naavinAl uyya naan

kaNDu koNDEn NaarAyaNA yennum nAmam ".

 

KonDal kai MaNi VaNNan taNN Kudanthai

Nagar Paadi AadeerkaLE "

 

2. VaamAnyam sva bhujam upadhAya pramudhitham :

 

The UllAsam or the joyous poisture of the Lord ,

who has His right hand under His head as a pillow

to support it is referred to here . Why He is so

Joyous ? The allusion is to the Dharbha sayana mUrthy ,

who laid down on the dharbhams in observance of a vratham

to seek the permission of the King of Oceans to build a

sEthu (dam ) across the ocean to reach LankhA . At that

time , Our Lord used His right arm similar to AdhisEshan in

strength and beauty as a pillow to support to His head

and waited . At Thirukkudanthai , He Himself is the SEthu

( amruthasya yEsha sEthu: ). He did not need another sEthu

to transport the prapannAs across the deep and fierce ocean

of SamsAram . He is proud and joyous over the fact that He

Himself is serving as the "Raama sEthu". That is the reason

for His ullAsam .

 

3.BhajE Vaamam bhAhum bhujaga sadhrusam jaanu nihitham

vidhAyan ananthE asmin sayitham Anagam SaarngiNam :

 

Lord is Ananthan ( limitless); He is lying on Ananathan

( AnanthAzhwAn/AadhisEshan ).The sthuthi paasage ,

" sahasra vadhanO dEva: phaNAmaNI virAjitha : ,

sa yEva vaTa VrukshO bhUtananthOdhbhutha rUpavAn "

AdhisEshan took the form of the pupil tree leaf

during PraLyam for serving the Lord as His bed and

later took the form of the thousand hooded AadhisEshan to

serve once again as bed at Srirangam and Thirukkudanthai .

The same "aalatthilayAn " transforms into " aravinaNai mElAn ".

On the bed of Ananthan , He gives us the impression

that He was engaged in Yoganidhrai ( uRanguvAn pOl

yOgu seyvAn ) until Thirumazhisai asked Him to

get up and speak to him . He woke up , opened His eyes and

partially raised Himself to see , who was commanding Him

to get up and enjoyed the presence of His dear devotee in

front of Him and kept His eyes open since then to see us

all even today to bless us .

 

Sri KomaLavalli SamEtha Sri SaarngapANInE nama :

AdiyEn , Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan