Thiru Arangan Ula -2 The specialty of Sri Rangam

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Thiru Arangan Ula -2 The specialty of Sri

Rangam

 

 

 

We saw that the Lord descended from VaikunthA to Sri Rangam to be with us. Now,

what was his route?? In Satya LOkA, Lord RanganAthA was worshipped along with

the processional deity (namperumAL), his consort (RanganAyaki) and all

associated deities by Lord Brahma. Even the Golden VimAnA (sanctum) that we see

today in Sri Rangam was first present in Sathya LokA, before descending along

with Lord RanganAthA who settled in Sri Rangam. After Lord Brahma, Surya (the

Sun God) was worshipping the Lord for several millions of years. IkshavAku was

the first descendent of the Sun God from our planet, who was greatly devoted to

Lord RanganAthA. Because of his divine powers, he was able to ascend to Sathya

Loka every day just to perform prayers to the Lord and his family of deities.

But still, IkshvAku found it difficult to visit the heavenly planets every day.

Vyvasvatha Manu, the son of the Sun God then brought Lord Ranganatha down to our

planet in order for IkshvAkU to continue worshipping

the Lord without the hurdles of distance. Lord RanganAtha was first brought to

AyOdhyA, where generations of IkshvAkU’s descendants would worship Him

devotedly. In fact, the city of AyodhyA was built by Vyvasvatha Manu just

because Lord RanganAthA was going to reside there. Lord RanganAthA became the

affectionate deity of IkshvAkU’s descendants, namely King Dasaratha and his son

Lord RAmA.

 

 

 

Lord RAmA then gifted the deity of Lord RanganAthA to his dear devotee

vibheeshanA, the brother of rAvanA. En route to Lanka, VibheeshanA wanted to

have a bath at the Chandra Pushkarani theertham in Sri Rangam, hence he placed

Ranganatha on the ground. What appeared to be a temporary halt, Lord Ranganatha

decided to settle in Sri Rangam. Vibheeshana tried to lift the deity of

RanganAthA up, he couldn’t. Having learnt the fact that RanganAthA has settled

in Sri Rangam, King Dharma Varma, the local ruler, rushed to that place and

conducted the first BrahmOtsavam (religious ceremony of a grand scale) for Sri

RangAthA. Again, the question arises, why did Swami RanganAthA decide to stay at

Sri Rangam instead of Lanka as VibheeshanA desired? Of course, there are

beautiful gardens, river bodies even in the northern parts of India, but why

would the Lord choose to stay in Sri Rangam??

 

 

 

The answer: Sri SadagopA, nammAzhwAr. Sri RanganAthA knew that Sri nammAzhwAr

was going to appear in the future, and he wanted to be the object of all of

nammAzhwAr’s pasurams (as confirmed by Sri ParAsara Bhattar in his salutary

verses on nammAzhwAr’s tiruvAimozhi).

 

 

 

The glories of such Sri Rangam are endless. King Shantanu penanced at Sri Rangam

as a result of which he was blessed with Bhishma the great as his son. Arjuna

prayed at Sri Rangam, built the “Arjuna Mandapa” as a dedication to the Lord,

and he married Subhadra because of the Lord’s blessings. Lord RanganAthA also

has another beautiful name, “Azhagiya ManavALan” (the beautiful bridegroom) – he

was christened so by the great PeriyAzhwAr, father of AndAL. This Lord was

special to all the AzhwArs and AchAryAs. He used to adorn the garland made by

Thondaradippodi AzhwAr. He accepted AndAL as His consort. He was the father of

the great ParAsara Bhattar. Great AchAryAs like YAmunAchAriar and Swami

RAmAnujar walked on this holy land. The dust in Sri Rangam is very holy for the

same reason, any visitor to Sri Rangam should not just visit the temple and come

back, but roll on the dusts of Sri Rangam instead, for the land is extremely

holy.

 

 

 

Lord RanganAthA’s pastimes in Sri Rangam are numerous. He used to visit his

devotees’ homes; he used to talk with devotees on the streets just like friends

would. Of course, he depicted supreme pastimes with the AzhwArs and AchAryAs.

Let us look at one such pastime of the Lord.

 

 

 

Jeeyar Puram is a town that is situated near Sri Rangam. In that town was living

an old lady with her dear grandson named Rangan, both being devotees of the

Lord. Once Rangan wanted to go to the banks of the river KAveri and have his

head tonsured. When he had just arrived at the banks of Kaveri, it started to

rain heavily and KAveri started to flood, and he was pulled into the river.

Luckily, the strong current hurled the young lad on to the other side of the

river, where the temple was located. The rain was not to halt, and so our Rangan

was forced to stay in the temple till the rain abated, he used to eat the MahA

prasadam of the Lord to satiate his hunger. On the other side of the river, the

old lady started to get anxious. She started to shout his name with tears in her

eyes, “Ranga!! Ranga!!” and searched for him everywhere, but he was not to be

seen. As she was about to give up, Rangan returns, “Patti, I am so hungry,

please feed me something”, pleasantly surprised, the old

lady enquires, “Ranga, I was really worried you my dear boy, where were you all

these days, what did you eat?, replies Rangan, who has this radiant thirumaN on

his forehead and his head being smoothly tonsured, “Oh Patti, I was at Sri

Rangam, I was offered food regularly and was well taken care of, anyway I am

very hungry right now, do you have something to eat?” the relieved lady replies,

“unfortunately I don’t have anything but some preparation in spinach”, “Oh, that

would be enough, please give me that spinach”, “Hmmm, yummy, I want more” and so

enjoys our Rangan, much to the joy of his grand mother. “Ok Patti, I have to go

out and play now”, as soon as the young Rangan leaves, another Rangan comes, and

so asks the astonished lady, “Rangan, what happened to you?? I just saw you now

looking fresh with a clean, shaven head, but now you appeared tired and your

head appears unshaven, what happened?” “What?? I just came from the temple, who

came now??” bemused our Rangan. Who could

the other Rangan be??

 

 

 

Hearing about this incident, Swami rAmAnujA arranged for a festival that is

being continued till date. Even to this day, Lord RangAnAtha is offered SpinAch

preparations in remembrance of this glorious pastime in the past, and

descendants of the barber who tonsured Lord Ranganatha’s head are still honored.

 

 

 

Such a place was Sri Rangam where everything was wonderful. The Lord also has

another name, “Periya PerumAL”, which means “The Big Lord”. “Periya Piratti”,

“Periya Kovil”, “Periya ThirumaNi”, “Periya NambigaL”, “Periya AzhwAr”, “Periya

AchAn PiLLai”, “Periya Jeeyar”, everything is “big” in Sri Rangam. If such a

Lord was to become the possession of just a single person, who would that

special person be?? That would be Saint rAmAnujA. The Lord always listens to

rAmAnuja.“Stand up”, done. “lie down”, okay. “Give him Moksham”, sure. Such was

the greatness of saint rAmAnujA!!! The place is BhoolOka Vaikuntha without

doubt. If somebody is curious to know about VaikunthA, he/she should visit Sri

Rangam.

 

 

 

The temple has also been a center of many cultural events; many VaishnAvA works

were created in front of the Lord at Sri Rangam. TiruvAimozhi was first sung at

Sri Rangam by Madhurakavi AzhwAr. Poet Kambar’s rAmAyanAm was first presented

here- Sri NAthAmuni encouraged Kambar to present his rAmAyanam in Sri Rangam.

NamperumAL, the processional deity, asked Kambar to sing on Swami nammAzhwAr

first, and Kambar obliged and wrote “satagOpar andhAdhi” glorifying nammAzhwAr.

Saint YAmunAchAryA presented the first ever Vaishnava Stotra (that is not from

Shruti/Smrti) named StOtra RatnA in front of the Lord. His ChatusslOki was

written in front of the Lord’s consort. At the ripe old age of 100+, Swami

rAmAnujA performed complete surrender and made the Lord guarantee mOkshA to his

followers while reciting the gadya-trayam in front of the Lord. Swami Bhattar’s

works, Swami KUrEsA’s Sri Stuti, SwAmi VEdAntA DEsikan’s pAdhukA sahasram,

MunivAhana bOham, were all written in front of the Lord. All

of the brilliant commentaries on nammAzhwAr’s tiruvAimozhi were written in Sri

Rangam. AchAryA Hrdayam was written here. Also, many of the AchAryAs were given

glorious titles in by the Lord of Sri Rangam, Sri VEdAntAchAryA was given the

title “Sarvatantra svatantra” in Sri Rangam, Sri ManavALa MAmunikaL was given

the title, ”Eettu Perukkar” in Sri Rangam; as written in the beginning, the

glories of Sri Rangam are endless. Such was the setting in Srirangam- happy

times preceded the period of turmoil.

 

 

 

In the next posting let us look at the glories of the AchAryAs of Sri Rangam.

 

 

 

Adiyen.

 

 

 

Kidambi Soundararajan.

 

AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar tiruvadigaLE Saranam.

 

 

 

 

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