Ninth day of the NavAham :Reflections on Melkote, SampradhAyam and the service of Melkote Sanskrit Academy for the preservation of our sampradhAyam : Part I

[Guest guest]

SrimathE RaamAnujAya nama :

 

It was February 13 . AdiyEn had grand plans to have

the SevA BhAgyam of ThiruvenkatamudayAn at Thirumalai .

My nephew had arranged two tickets for "ThidIr KalyANam"

( sudden KalyANam ) for the dhivya Dampathis ,

which would have permitted ten members of the family to

attend the unplanned ThirukkalyANam for Sri VenkatEswaran

and the darsanam of the Moolavar .

 

Due to the overflow of activities from the previous

day (Ratha sapthami ) , the devasthAnam decided that

there will not be any unscheduled activities on Feb 13 .

Hence , we had to cancel the day trip to Thiruppathi .

Although adiyEn had the sevai of Sri VenkatAchalapathi

at DakshiNa Thiruppathi ( Sri OppilA appan at Oppiliappan

Koil ) at the very beginning of this trip on Thai SravaNam

day , adiyEn tried have the sevai of the Lord at Utthara

Thiruppathi this time . He seems to be telling that adiyEn

should complete the ongoing work (Kaimkarya Poorthi)

on His Home Pages (http://srimannarayana.homepage.com/index.html)

before climbing His hills to be blessed with His visEsha Sevai .

 

ThiruvenkatamudayAn blessed me soon enough with His

sevai at Singapore SrinivAsa PerumAL temple , where

a Bhattar from OppilA-appan Koil is serving the Lord.

Thus the cycle that started at ThiruviNNagar was

completed at Simhapuri regarding Lord SrinivAsan's sevai .

 

Ninth day was devoted to reflections on the just-

concluded visit to Melukote and the extraordinary

opportunity to spend significant quality time

at the Sanskrit Academy of Research as a guest of UVe.

Dr.Lakshmi TatAchAr Swamy of the AnandANN PiLLai Vamsam .

The unparalleled services rendered by Dr.TatachAr

Swamy for the preservation and propagation of our

illustrious Udayavar sampradhAyam are testaments

to his scholarship, dedication and creativity .

AdiyEn has no doubt that the lamp that is being lit

on the Yadhugiri Hills will serve as a beacon in

times , when there will be concerns about dangers to

our samprahdAyam due to the advance of kali Yugam .

AdiyEn will write about the highlights of the visit

to the Sanskrit Academy of Research later . For now ,

adiyEn would like to focus on the happenings at

" Melukote Through the Ages ".

 

Sriman TatAchAr Swamy presented me with a monumental

monograph entitled , " MelukOte Through the Ages " ,

a summary of the research papers from a special conference

organized by the Academy during 1998 in anticipation of

the 900th anniversary of the entrance of AchArya RaamAnujA

into MelukOte in 1999 . This monograph has encyclopediac content

and has been a source of rarely available information

on the happenings at Melukote over centuries. AdiyEn will

summarize/share the highlights EXCLUSIVELY from this monograph

in the presentation style for easy reading. Additional

details on the life and works of AchArya RaamAnujA

are captured in the recently released CD ROM ,

where it has been my privelege to work with

Dr.M.A. Alwar , the talented son of Dr.TatachAr.

 

HAPPENINGS AT MELUKOTE AND REFLECTIONS ON THEM

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

 

** AchArya RaamAnujA lived on this earth for 120

blessed years (1017-1137 A.D.). He was 82 years old ,

when He came to Melukote and was 94 , when He returned

to Srirangam .

 

** AchArya RaamAnujA renovated the temple of

ThirunArAyaNan on a BahudhAnya Samvatsara , Makra mAsa ,

Sukla Paksha ,Chathurdasi day , when the birth star of

Lord Raamachandran ( Punarvasu ) was in ascendance .

on the Christian calendar , it was between January

and February of the year 1099 .

 

** AchArya RaamAnujA peformed the AarAdhanam for

ThirunArAyaNan for the first three days and then

asked Srirangaraja Bhattar to take over and to

perform the Lord's AarAdhanam according to

PaancharAthrA Aagamaa rules propounded in

Isvara SamhithA .

 

** AchArya RaamAnujA presented us with the famous

slOkam that we recite every day to remind ourselves

about the importance of MelukOte (yadhusailam ):

 

" Sriranga-MangaLa-MaNim KaruNA-nivAsam

Sri VenkatAdhri SikarAlaya KaaLamEgham

Sri Hasthisaila sikaOjvala paarijAtham

Srisam namaami Sirasa Yadhusaila dheepam "

 

Here, Srirangam is recognized as the Adhi KshEthram and

Yadhu Sailam as the antha kshEthram . Thirumalai and

Kaanchipuram are the two madhya KshEthrams .

 

Sri M.D.RangarAjan goes on to connect the commentaries of

PoorvAchAryAs on the first ThiruvAimozhi paasuram to this slokam :

 

a. "UyarvaRa uyarnalam udayavan yavanavan "referring to

SrirangarAjan (first line of the above slOkam )

 

b. "MayaRvaRa madhinalam aruLinan yavanavan" referring to

ThiruvEnkatamudayAn of sapthagiri(second line of

the above slOkam ).

 

c. "ayaRvaRum amarargaL adhipati yavanavan" referring to

PeraruLALan of Hasthigiri (Third line of the above slOkam ).

 

d. "TuyaRaRu sudaraDi thozhuthezhen mananE " referring to

ThirunArAyaNan of MelukOte (Fourth line of the slOkam ).

Here Swamy NammAzhwAr recommends to his mind to banish

its sufferings by surrendering unto HIM at Yadhugiri.

 

** Here at MelukOte, the first ThiruvArAdhanam is for

AchArya RaamAnujA ; the AarAdhanam at the main shrine of

ThirunArAyaNan follows next .

 

** The tradition at this temple is to stop at the Bali

peetam and bow towards RaamAnujA's sannidhi and then to

ThirunArAyaNan in recognition of the "Charama parva Nishtai ",

according to which the reverence for the AchAryA comes

before that for the PerumAL ( a la Madhura kavi AzhwAr).

 

** Here in front of what is today his sannidhi , AchArya

RaamAnujA taught Bhagavath Vishayam to three great

future AchAryAs : ThiruvAimozhip PiLLai , the Guru

of Sri MaNavALa MaamunigaL ,ThirunArAyaNapuratthu

Aayi and ThiruvAimozhi AacchAn .

 

** The ThiruvAimozhi decad , " OrunAyakamAi " was presnted

by AchArya RaamAnujA on the Punarvasu uthsavam day and

is recited even today every Hastha Nakshathram during

the SaatthumuRai. Hastham is PerumAL's Nakashathram here.

 

** An unique future of this Thiruppathi is that Madhurakavi

AzhwAr's " KaNNInuNN SiRutthAMpu " is recited instead of

the usual "ThiruppallANDu " during Dhivya Prabhandha

PaarAyaNam . This is in recognition of the mahOpakAram

of Madhura Kavi and Naatha Muni in giving us the sacred

collect of 4000 . After this ,ThiruppallANDu ,

RaamAnujar's Taniyan ( describing him as 'MaRanadi

PaNinduindavan"), Taniyan for NammAzhwAr and then

the taniyans for the AlwArs are recitd in that order.

This was the sampradhAyam established by AchArya RaamAnujA

900 years ago and followed even today.

 

** The inspiration to AchArya RaamAnujA came form here,

when he composed :

 

" Srimanna Sriranga SriyamanupadravAmy anudhinam samvardhaya "

 

( Let Sriman NaarAyaNA , the One , who always has the Sri

at His feet see to it that the wealth of Srirangam grows

day by day without any hindrance).The important link is

that Sri Devi is at the Thiruvadi of ThirunArAyaNan here

unlike in the other KshEthrams , where She resides

on His Chest .AchArya RaamAnujA had this special

aspect of ThirunArAyaNan here in His mind .

 

** One of the final Six instructions of RaamAnujA to

his disciples at Srirangam was to construct a hut

at Yadhu Sailam and spend their last days there .

Thus even during His last moments on this earth ,

AchArya RaamAnujA's thoughts were on ThirunArAyaNapuram.

 

RaamAnuja DhivyAj~nA VardhathAm abhivardhathAm

 

Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan