Part XII: Swamy Desikan's Taathparya RathnAvaLi: Tenth SlOkam

[Guest guest]

Monday , Dec 24 , 2001

 

Keezh Vaanam VeLLenRu ThiruppAvai Dinam

 

ANDAL ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

 

SrI:

 

Dear RasikAs of Swamy NammAzhwAr's Dhivya Prabhandhams:

 

On this Ninth ThiruppAavi day , adiyEn will continue with

the Tenth SlOkam of DTR:

 

icchA-SaaraTya-sathyApitha GuNa KamalAkAntha gIthAntha--

siddhUdhyacchudhAnthaAchAra suddhair-iyam-anaga guNagranTi-

BhandhAnubhaddhA

Tatth-thAthruk-ThAmraparNi-taDagatha SaThajith dhrushta

sarvAya-saakhA ghAtA-taathparya-rathnAvaLi: akhila

--bhayOtthAraNI dharaNIyA

 

(Extended meaning ): The Lord out of His own volition(svEcchai)

determined to take on the role of the charioteer (Saarathy)

for Arjunan and displayed thus His soulabhya GuNam

(ease of access by any one) and blessed us with

GithOpanishad as His HithOpadesam for us and concluded with

the Charama SlOkam to show us THE UpAyam to attain Him.

He instructed us clearly at the end of His HithOpadEsam

through His Charama SlOkam about two main things :

(1) ananya Seshathva Jn~Anam and (2)its fruit (phalan ):

ananyOpAyathna Jn~anam . The first tatthvam is about

the need for realization ,that we are unconditional leige

(eternal servant ) of Him (Sriman NaarAyaNan) only

and not any others .The second tatthvam is about the need

for the recognition and acceptance of Him alone as

the means for Moksham . A full comprehension of these

two Tathtvams would lead us to perform Saanga prapatthi

with MahA VisvAsam and become a Prapannan and conduct

the life prescribed for the prapannan after the performance of

Prapatthi . They become pure. Such a performance of

Prapatthi recommended to us by the sage SaThakOpar ,

who is the embodiment of KrishNa ThrushNai ( longing

for KrishNa BhagavAn) . SaThakOpar incarnated on the banks of

TamraparaNi river and distilled the essence of ancient

Sanskrit VedAs and Upanishads and Gitai in Tamizh language for

the benefit of ALL of us , independent of the caste or gender

or scholarshp levels through His ThiruvAimozhi with its message

as DhIrga SaraNAgathy (extensive/extended SaraNAgathi to the Lord).

 

Swamy Desikan goes on to say through this tenth and

the conclusive verse of the introductory section

of ten verses that his DramidOpanishad Taathparya RathnAvaLi

is the summary of the messages of Swamy NammAzhwAr

about SaraNAgathy tatthvam , the ways to perform it and

thereby attain the paripoorNa anugraham of Sri VaikuntanaTan

as a muktha Jeevan (librerated soul). Swamy Desikan also

points out that he has set the slOkams in the sacred

Sragdharaa metre and the recitation of DTR slOkams

will free one of all samsAric fears and these slOkmas

of DTR are like a rathna maalai containing the gems(meanings)

of the individual paasurams , the dasakams and the sathakams.

He instructs us that this rathnAvaLi should adorn our

hearts to help us understand the significance of

each word of the individual Paasurams and comparitive

analysis of their collective meanings so that we can

gain a clear comprehension of the upadEsam of Swamy

NammAzhwAr for our benefit.

 

Swamy Desikan states that his RathnAvaLi is made up

of the blemishless kalyANa guNams of the Lord

( anaga guNa granTi BhandhAnuBaddhA ).He points out

further that the content of the RathnAvaLi is of

the form of the KrishNa prEmai , which voluntarily

took the form of the Charama SlOkam as the fitting

finale for His HithOpadEsam of GithOpanishad on

the battle field of Kuru KshEthram using Arjuna as

a vyAjam ( icchA SaaraTya-sathyApitha guNa KamalAkAntha

GithAsiddhyacchudhvAnthanthA aachAra suddhai:iyam

anaga guNa granTiBhandhAnuBaddhA).

 

In the introductory ten slOkams , Swamy Desikan

saluted Swamy NammAzhwAr , His divine Sri Sookthi of

ThiruvAimozhi , the scope of his Sri Sookthi (DTR)

about SaThAri Soori's aruLiccheyal and who should

learn DTR and what SrEyas will come their way as

a result of such a study .

>From hereon , Swamy Desikan proceeds to cover the deep

meanings of the Mudhal ThiruvAimozhi (1.1): " UyaRvaRa

uyar nalam udayavananyavanavan--" to the last

ThiruvAimozhi(10.10): MuniyE NaanmukhanE MukkaNNappA".

Swamy Desikan's coverage of these ten sathakams

emerged as 120 more slOkams .

 

adiyEn may not be able to cover all of the 120 slOkmas

due to the need for being breif . Hence adiyEn will

content myself with three dasakams (1.1 , 6.3 and 10.10).

 

The ten paasurams of 1.1 deal with Swamy NammAzhwAr's

celebration of the ten guNams that deal with the Parathvam

of the Lord and His intense desire for his mind to

be engaged in the worship of the Lord's sacred feet .

He commanmds his mind to engage in such a worship.

 

The ten paasurams of 6.3 deal with his special salutations

to ThiruviNNagarappan ,the presiding deity of OppilA Appan Koil.

Here Swamy NammAzhwAr performs his SaraNAgathy to

ThiruviNNagarappan .

 

10.10 deals with the bliss of his union with the Lord

at Sri Vaikuntam , which is one of the two decads

sung during Swamy NammAzhwAr Moksham day (Dec 29

at Sri RanganAthA Temple this year at the end of

the Thiruadhyayana Uthsavam).

 

After coverage of these DTR slOkams , adiyEn will

focus on the second shorter Sri Sookthi of Swamy

Desikan (26 slOkams) of DhramidOpanishad Saaram.

 

Finally , adiyEn will provide an introduction to

AchArya Hrudhayam and include excerpts on additional

Thirumozhis dealing with Lord RanganAtha and

ThiruvEngadamudayAn as well as ThirukkuruhUr ,

the avathAra Sthalam of Swamy NammAzhwAr.

 

Sri RanganAyaki SamEtha Sri RanganAtha ParabrahmaNE Nama:

Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil VardAchAri SaThakOpan