Sriman RanganAthA and the AzhwAr Paasurams: Part III

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Uniqueness of Sri RanganAthan and Srirangam (Continued )

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(2) Sri Appayya Dikshithar , a great admirer of

Swami Desikna gives us an insight into the uniqueness

of SriranganAthan and His dhivya dEsam . The pertinent

slOkam is :

 

idham cha Rangam thyajathAm-ihAngam

na vidhyathE angam yadhi jaathuchAngam

PaaNou rathAngam sayanE bhujangam

yaanE vihangam charaNEmbhu Gaangam

 

Sri Dikshithar reminds us first that it is the unique

Srirangam that he is referring to ( idham cha Rangam ).

For those ,who shake their mortal coils here ( thyajathAm

iha angam ) ,there are no more births or bodies constituted by

the limbs ( na vidhyathE angam ). If for arguments sake ,

some one is born again with limbs (Yathi jaathu cha angam ) ,

after passing away at Srirangam , then these will be

their features :

 

(a) paaNou rathAngam ( will have Chakram in their hands)

(b) sayanE Bhujangam ( will have snakes as their beds)

© yaanE Vihangam ( will have the brahmini kite for their transport)

(d) CharaNAmbhu Gaangam ( will have the waters of the sacred

river GangA flowing from their feet )

 

Sri Dikshithar states that those who breathe their last in

Sriranam will have SaarUpya Moksham .The main message is that

" iha angam thyajathAm , angam na vidhyathE " ( they will not

have any rebirths as stated by the last Brahma Soothram , " na

Punar aavarhtathE , na punar aavarthathE ".

 

Third reference for Srirangam's Uniqueness

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Here Sri RanganAthA presides with Sriranga Naayaki ,

in a sadas with AchAryAs and BhagavathAs just as He gives

His darsanam at Sri Vaikuntam . This is the sevai decribed as ,

" kuzhumit thevar kuzhaangaL kai thozhac chOthi-

veLLatthin uLLE yezhuvathu oru uru " .This form

has been saluted as " Aadhiyam sOthiyuru ". This is

the form which is seen directly (prathyaksham ) by

Nithya Sooris and MukthAs ( prathyaksham Paramam padham ).

The corresponding slOkam is:

 

VaikuntE thu parE lOkE SriyA-saardham Jagathpathi:

asthE VishNu: achinthyAthmA Bhakthiar Bhaagavathai: saha

 

(Meaning ): In Sri Vaikuntam (nithya VibhUthi), The Lord

presents Himself with His divine Consort ;that Lord,

whose glory is impossible to fully comprehend manifests

Himself in the company of BhakthAs and BhaagavathAs .

 

The purport of this slOkam is extendable to Srirangam ,

the BhUlOka Vaikuntam (LeelA VibhUthi)as well . Here ,

He is giving His sEvai with Sriranga Naayaki and is surrounded

by adoring AchAryAs , BhakthAs and BhaagavathAs ( Bhakthai:

BhAgavathi: saha ). This KshEthram is unique in that

it is densely populated by AchAryAs , who do prathakishaNam

around the Lord as indicated by Thirumazhisai AzhwAr in one

of his Srirangam Paasurams :

 

" sirreyiRRu muRRal Moongil moonRu dhaNdar onRinar

aRRa paRRar suRRi vaazhum anthaNIr ArangamE "

 

Here "Moongil MoonRu dhaNdar" refers to thridaNdi

SanyAsis like Srimath Azhagiya Singar , Srimath

Andavan of PeriyAsramam , Srimath PoundarIkapuram

Andavan and other AchAryAs representing every facet

of Sri sampradhAyam . These ThridaNdi sanyAsis

( holding the three bamboo sticks held together

with a flag at the end) circumambulate around

the Yeka DhaNdi ( SenkOl mannan , Sri RangarAjan )

for receiving His anugraham . The situation is similar

to the child , which runs round and round its Mother

as She moves around the house on her chores . This

situation is also similar to the SishyAs circumambulating

around their AchAryAs. The child seeks the love of the Mother

and the SishyAs seek Jn~Anam and sadhupadEsam through

their closeness to their AchAryAs . They in turn

try to live as close as possible to the Lord of Srirangam

to intercede with Him on behalf of their sishyAs .

 

All these soubhAgyams are abundantly present

at Srirangam .Poet Kamban refers to this uniqueness

this way : " sErAthana uLavO ThirucchErnthArkku ".

Those residents of Srirangam are garbha SrimAns

and there is precious little that is beyond their

reach .There is nothing that they can not attain .

The reference here from a garbha SrimAn's point of

view is the Srirangam Paasuram of Poygai AazhwAr

describing his gaze as he lay in the womb of the golden-

lotus at YathOkthakAri Sannidhi pushkaraNi at Kaanchi:

 

onRum maRanthilEn Odha Neer VaNNanai naan ,

inRu maRappEnO YezahikAL ,-anRu

karuvarangatthut kidanthu kai thozhuthEn kaNDEn

ThiruvarangamEyAn thisai

 

Poygai points out here that he has never for a moment

forgotten the ocean-hued Sri RanganAthAn and even

as an embryo inside the womb of the Kaanchana Padhmam

in the pushkaraNi at TiruvehhA , he turned His head

in the direction of Srirangam to gaze at the ancient

ParamjyOthi at Srirangam . Such is the uniqueness

of ThirucchErntha Rangam .

 

Fourth reason for the Uniqueness of Srirangam

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Great Sri Sookthis from AzhwArs (247 paasurams)

and AchAryAs ( Gadhya thrayams , Sri RangarAja

Sthavam , PaadhukhA Sahasram , NyAsa Tilakam )

were born here. The uniqueness of this KshEthram

is celebrated therefore by Swami Desikan as ,

" AarAtha amudham potintha Kovil , theerAtha

VinaikaL yellAm theerkkum kovil--".

 

In SrirnaganAtha PaadhukhA sahasram , Swamy salutes

the Lord's PaadhukhAs as Swamy NammAzhwAr , who blessed

us with the thousand verses of ThiruvAimozhi . Sri ParAsara

Bhattar described these 1000 paaurams are ALL ABOUT

SRIRANGANATHAN:

 

" MathiL Arangar VaNN pukazh mEl aanRa Tamizh Aayiram "

 

The insightful SiRiya Thirumadal paasuram of Thirumangai

adduces another reason for the uniqueness Of Srirangam

by describing it as " AarAmam soozhntha Arangam " .

Superficial meaning for "AarAmam Soozhntha Arangam "

is the City of Srirangam full of beautiful gardens .

As PeriyavAcchAn PiLLai has commented , these words of

Thirumangai have much deeper meanings. He comments :

 

" uhantharuLina desangal yellAm pahal irukkayaai ,

aasritha rakshaNatthirkku EkAntha sthalam yenRa

kOililE nithyavaasam paNNuhiRaay irukkirathu ".

 

(meaning ): All other dhivya dEsams chosen by the Lord

are like the day resorts for a king on travel ; Srirangam

however is for Him , the unique sthalam for protecting those ,

who sought refuge at His sacred feet and here He resides

permanently.

 

The Fifth Reason for the Uniqueness of Srirangam

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This is the Dhivya Desam , where Thirumangai initiated

the Thiru AdhyayanOthsavam by bringing Swamy NammAzhwAr

from ThirukuruhUr for the pahal Patthu, Iraa Patthu

Uthsavam. Naatha Muni, AaLavandhAr , Thiruvarangap PerumAl

aRayar , EmperumAnAr and their sishya paramparai carried

out the Thiru Adhyayana Uthsavam tking the cue from Kaliyan .

 

There are so many more reasons for the uniqueness of

Srirangam that we will celebrate in the Paasurams

of AzhwArs on Sri RanganAthan . We will pay our homage

to selected paasurams form the 11 AzhwArs , who

peformed MangaLAsAsam for the Thiruvarangacchelvan

in the remaining postings of this series .

 

SrimathE RanganAthAya nama:

Daasan, O.V.Sadagopan