Thiru Arangan Ula - The sojourn of the Lord

[Guest guest]

Thiru Arangan Ula- the sojourn of the

Lord.

 

Dear friends,

My father-in-law gave me an MP3 collection by the

name of “Thiru Arangan Ula” by Madurai Sri ArangarAjan Swamin. Casual

was I when I started listening to the lecture series, but the

contents and presentation style started growing on me. The lecture

series was on the subject of Lord Sri Ranganatha’s sojourn around

South India when the holy town of Sri Rangam was under the attack of

Muslim Invaders from the north (Malik Gafur, Mohammad Bin Tuglaq) and

the travails of the AchAryAs and the VaishnavAs who were trying to

save the divya vigrahA (deity) from the hands of those terrorizing

invaders.

Madurai Sri ArangarAjan is well known

and well respected in the Sri VaishnavA circles for his in-depth

knowledge of the scriptures and ArulicheyALs. In fact, he is an

academic, having retired as the head of Department of Tamil in

Madurai Kamaraj University. He is one of the advisors for the

Vaishnavism department of Madras University. He has done a lot of

research on this specific subject, and his lecture series revealed a

lot of interesting facts and factoids based on history. As an

aspiring Sri VaishnAvA, I am thankfully amazed by the presence of

such spectacular scholars like Sri ArangarAjan Swamin.

 

Personally, my attachment to our Sampradayam and our

AchAryAs increased manifold as I was listening to the lecture, and I

thought I could share the same experience with you all. As I am

writing, I shall try to present the ideas in simple, understandable

English avoiding any difficult words. I had gotten the permission and

blessings of Sri ArangarAjan SwAmin’s son in Dubai to write a series

of postings on this interesting subject. I feel it is the duty of

every Sri VaishnavA to understand the history of his/her glorious

sampradAyam. By a Sri VaishnavA, I don’t mean a Thenkalai/Vadakalai

Iyengar, but any person who is attracted to Swami RAmAnujA’s

siddhantha and the AzhwArs’ works – let us first break this concept

of exclusivity of

“IyengArs” or Brahmins in Sri Vaishnavism. As we shall see, VaishnavAs

from various social backgrounds have made unimaginable sacrifices for

the cause of our glorious SampradAyA.

 

I try to remain true to the lecture and shall

try to reproduce the lecture materials as truthfully as I can.

Nevertheless, to err is human as they say and I am superhuman in that

aspect, hence I request you all to kindly pardon me for any slip-ups

or perceived misinformation. Madurai Sri ArangarAjan though being a

Thenkalai Scholar, has the good wishes of Ahobila Matam as well and

has cited a few examples of his interactions with the Pontiff from

that Matam, hence I hope to stay clear of any Kalai disputes which,

by the way appear to be rather trivial and childish when one thinks

of the sacrifices of the AchAryAs from the past.

 

I am also tied in many material responsibilities

(work, education, etc) and hence I request all of you to kindly bear

with me in case the frequency of the postings is irregular. Any

mistakes to be seen in the postings are only because of me and all

glories are due to Sri ArangarAjan Swamin. If possible, I would love

to work with Sri Mukundan Pattangi and upload the MP3s on the Vedics

Website.

 

Adiyen Dasan,

KidAmbi SoundararAjan. (Vimalkumar Ranganathan).

Phoenix, USA.

 

AzhwAr EmperumAnAr JIyar ThiruvadigaLE Saranam

 

PiLLai LokAchAryar thiruvadigaLE Saranam, Desikan thiruvadigaLE Saranam.

 

 

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