Fw: Pushpa, ThyAga, BhOga ...16

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- divya ramanan

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Saturday, November 13, 2004 11:55 AM

Pushpa, ThyAga, BhOga ...16

Water is the first thing that provides cooling effect. For example, a

tired person would first want to take a warm shower before starting

his next activity. Similarly, when we consider Srirangam, kAvEri is

the starting point of bhOgam. Srirangam is a place that did not

achieve bhOgam after Ranganathar’s arrival. It was because of its

bhOgam that PerumAl chose to reside there. An interesting thing to

notice is how the Azhwar’S have referred to kAvEri. She is called as

‘Thenneer Ponni’ by one Azhwar, where as she is called as ‘kalangiya

neer’ by other Azhwar. How can both be true? This is where we really

need our AchAryAs. Swami ParAsara Bhattar was known for his complete

jnAnam, bhakti and vairAgyam. He lived his complete life in

Srirangam. Had he lived for few more days he would have built a way

for all of us from Srirangam to SriVaikuntam. He has thoroughly

enjoyed the PerumAl in Srirangam in his RangarAja Stavam. Let us see

what is the explanation for kAvEri being both ‘Thenneer Ponni’ and

‘Kalangiya neer’.

KavEri is considered to the mother of RanganAchiyAr. ThiruppArkadal

(Samudra Raajan ) is considered to be the father of RanganAchiyAr.

Since Srirangam is nothing but BhoolOka Vaikuntam, the water of

kAvEri is very clear with thelivu by always washing the feet of

RanganAthar. Since kAvEri is the mother in law of PerumAl, she is

always concerned that she is not able to completely serve the

PerumAl. Hence, everytime she washes the feet and comes back she

starts to worry much about RanganAthar. Hence she is also a

‘kalangiya neer’.

KavEri water is full of bubbles. This is because kavEri is always

proud that it is superior to even Ganges. Though Ganges has got its

own speciality of washing the feet of PerumAl when He took vAmana

avatAram, she was stored in head of an anya dEvatA (ShivA). On the

other hand, kAvEri is always washing the feet of RanganAthar. Hence

it is very obvious that KavEri is more special than Ganges. All the

souls on the earth take bath in holy rivers to shed off their sins.

Hence all the rivers carry those packs of sins (pApa moottai). Hence

they need to off load those pApa moottais somewhere. Every ippasi

month, they all come and mix with kAvEri to do so. KavEri, on the

other hand does not carry any of those as she is always washing the

feet of PerumAl.

All the above facts are speciality of kAvEri. How does she really give

bhOgam to Srirangam? We can refer to the beautiful pAsuram of

NammAzhwar in ThiruvAymozhi.

‘kangulum pagalum kaN thuyi laRiyaaL kaNNanNeer kaikaLaal iRaikkum,

changuchak karanga LenRukai kooppum `thaamaraik kaN' enRu thaLarum,

`eNGNGanE tharikkE Nnunnaivittu' ennum irunNilam kaithuzaa virukkum,

chengayal paaynNeerth thiruvaraNG kaththaay! ivaLthiRath thencheykin RaayE?'

If we look at the last line of the verse, Azhwar’s thAyAr (mother of

ParAnkusa nAyaki) refers to the bhOgam of fishes living in kAvEri.

The fishes living in kAvEri are so big that everytime they jump they

hit the coconut fruit in the trees. Because of the force, the water

in the coconut will fall into kAvEri and add to the sweetness of her.

Drinking this water, fishes get the bhOgam with more strength. If we

look into the actual meaning of the pAsuram, the mother of ParAnkusa

nAyaki pleads to RanganAthar saying that souls (jeevAtmAs) that are

dependent on only nAram (acit, the kAvEri water) live happily in

Srirangam, but my daughter, who is completely immersed in thoughts on

you (ayanam) is not able to get the bhOgam. She is not able to realize

the day and night. She is always thinking about you. Whenever she

tries to lift her hands to worship you, she ends up wiping her eyes.

Would it be right in comparing the above kalangiya neer from Azhwar’s

eyes to the kalangiya neer of kAvEri?

Let us look into one more aspect of bhOgam in Srirangam so that we

complete the spectrum of bhOgam with regard to cit and acit. This can

referred from Thondaradippodi Azhwar’s ThirumAlai.

‘vaNdina muralum sOlai mayilinam aalum sOlai, koNdalmee thaNavum sOlai

kuyilinam koovum sOlai, aNdar_kO Nnamarum sOlai aNithiru varanka

mennaa, miNdar_paayn thuNNum sORRai vilakkinaayk kidumi NneerE’

Bees (vandus) in this Divya Desam are always singing in groups. This

music is nothing but the sAma GhAnam that expresses complete bliss.

Because of these groups, the peacock community thinks that the black

clouds are covering the place. This is the sign of rain. Hence,

peacocks start dancing. Looking at the dance of the peacock community

in turn, the actual clouds think that it is time to rain, and hence

start moving. On the other hand, kuyil inam is completely cut off

form these two, and they keep chanting in on PerumAl in their own

fashion.

We have seen that acit (the place including kAvEri) and cit (even the

fishes) are in complete bhOgam in this place. We already know that

PerumAl is always full of bhOgam. Still there is a speciality

attached to the bhOgam of this PerumAl. We will enjoy that in the

next posting.

aDiyEn,

ramanan

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