Thiru Arangan Ula- the sojourn of the Lord. – 1. The Lord’s Grace

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Thiru Arangan Ula- the sojourn of the Lord. –

1. The Lord’s Grace

 

Sriman Narayana who is the supreme Lord, radiates as the embodiment of

grace. Everything in the universe functions because of His grace. It

is because of His grace that we live, breathe, eat, sleep, make money

and multiply. His grace torrents on us, but we shut the doors thereby

preventing ourselves from receiving His grace. His grace is waiting

outside, knocking on our doors, but we keep the door shut. Lord

Sriman Narayana, out of his compassion and mercy descends from

Vaikuntha just to be with us.

 

Looking at our miserable conditions, are we are even

worthy of having Him amidst us?? We are in such a fallen state that

we are totally unwilling to receive Him. If He comes in his original

Four-Handed form, we still doubt if it is the Lord Himself. If He

comes in a normal form like a human being, we still don’t have the

intelligence to perceive Him to be the Lord. Either way, He is

willing to come to us, but we are not willing to receive Him.

 

There is an interesting episode involving the great saint

Kabir Das. Kabir, being a great Rama Bhakta, used to have regular

communication with Lord Rama. One of Kabir’s followers who was a nice

VaishnavA, wanted to celebrate Sri Rama Navami in a pompous manner. He

desired to have Lord Rama come in person and attend the celebrations

and hence he expressed his strong desire to Kabir Das. During his

subsequent communication with the Lord, Kabir requested Lord Rama to

attend the celebrations at his follower’s house, and Lord Rama said

he would oblige (the Lord never fails to honor His devotee’s

prayers).

 

It was the

day of Rama Navami, celebrations were going on in a grand scale at

the VaishnavA’s house. There were Abhishekam, prayers, Bhajans,

discourses and the turn out was massive. The Vaishnava was eagerly

expecting Lord Rama to attend , but the Lord was not to be seen. Once

all the celebrations were over, the gathered devotees started getting

hungry and they desired to have their prasadam. The Vaishnava went to

the streets in the area searching for Lord

Rama, but all in vain. So, he gave up looking for the Lord and asked

his guests to partake the prasadam. He felt let down and was very

upset with Kabir Das. As the guests finished honoring the prasadam,

there was a poor cowherd walking down the street with his buffaloes.

One of the buffaloes cut lose and entered the house of the Vaishnava,

and started running amok It started eating the leaf-plates of the

Vaishnavas, and made the place rather dirty. The guests got angry and

caned not only the buffalo but also the cowherd for losing control of

the animal. The Vaishnava got infuriated even more because of the

whole situation and the same evening, expressed his outrage and

displeasure to Sri Kabir Das.

 

The

same evening, Kabir asked the Lord why He didn’t attend the

celebration as He promised. Lord Rama replied, “Kabir I did attend

the celebration. But, I wanted to enjoy the prasadam of the

VaishnavAs. Had I gone in my real form they would have served me

first and I won’t be able to enjoy the remnants of the food honored

by the Vaishnavas”!!! He showed the back of his divine body with the

marks of the canings that He

received from the Vaishnavas!! Such is the glory of the Lord, He is

more than willing to come to us in any form possible, but still we

all avoid Him. We don’t want to completely surrender unto Him. We are

still holding on to materialistic things with one hand even if we try

holding His lotus feet with the other, instead of totally

surrendering to the Lord Sriman NarAyaNA, just as Draupadi did. The

key is to not prevent His grace from showering on us.

 

When

Sriman NArAyaNA descended from Vaikuntha, he wanted to settle in a

nice location, where he could provide His devotees with the easiest

access to Him. He decided Sri Rangam to be that place. Sri Rangam has

the river Kaveri, which is considered to be even holier than Ganges,

and it is easy to visit. The Lord is Saulabhyan, simplicity

personified. What

quality emphasizes his simplicity?? That would be His easy access. He

is willing to be amongst us in any form possible. He is present in

temples as archa-avatArAs, our Prayer-rooms in the form of Pictures

or SalagrAma Silas, in our wallets as pictures, even in our cars!!

All the inhabitants of VaikunthA are filled with qualities of

suddha-sattva, hence negating the purpose of his innumerable

qualities of goodness, then where can he put his qualities to work??

The BhUlOkA!! We are his faulting children, and as a loving parent,

he has descended down to Sri Rangam just to be with us.

 

AzhwArs have said that Mother Kaveri dashes on the banks of

Sri Rangam, the strong waves thereby touching and massaging the Lotus

Feet of Lord Sri RanganAthA, and hence even Kaveri is considered to

be a consort of Lord Sri RanganathA. Lord RanganathA is really happy

in the beautiful town of Sri Rangam which is surrounded by Mother

Kaveri, which has beautiful gardens where the bees hum beautifully,

the peacocks dance decoratively and the birds chirp sweetly; the Lord

is happily relaxing in such beautiful ambience.

 

AzhwAr EmperumAnAr JIyar ThiruvadigaLE Saranam.

 

Adiyen Dasan,

Kidambi Soundararajan.

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