Sri KulaSekharAzhwAr Vaibhavam

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SrimatE rAmAnujAya nama:

SrimatE varavara munayE nama:

 

Sri KulaSekharAzhwAr Vaibhavam

 

 

kumbhE punarvasau jAtam kEraLE chOLapaTTaNE |

kaustubhAmSam dharAdhISam kulaSekharamASrayE||

 

I salute the great kulaSekarA, who gloriously ruled the CherA kingdom , who is

the amSa of the Kaustabua jewel which decorates the beautiful chest of Sriman

nArAyaNA, who was born in the land of kEraLa, in the capital city named

kollinagar (vanjikkaLam), during the month of mAsi on the day of the punarvasu

star.

 

ghushyatE yasya nagarE rangayAtrA dinE dinE |

tam aham SirasA vandE rAjAnam kulaSekharam ||

 

That person (king), inside whose capital city the word(s) “ranga yAtrA”

(journey to SriRangam) are being uttered everyday, I bow my head down to that

kulaSekharA.

 

 

Akin to the SlokAs mentioned above, and as is mentioned in the vaibhava

SlokAs, and based on the teachings of the elders and pUrvAchAryAs, this AzhwAr

was born in the land of KeraLa, in the capital city named “kollinagar”, to the

king named drdhavratan, 27 years after the advent of kaliyuga, in the 28th year

of “parAbhava”, during the tamil month of mAsi, on a dvAdasi Thursday, on the

asterism of the punarvasu (punarpUsam) in the capital city of “tiruvanjikkaLam”

- the city getting its name from the queen herself, as the Royal Prince. The

king, seeing the radiance on this infant-prince, called him “KulaSekharan”,

meaning that he will be the chief or head of his clan (kula).

 

This illustrious prince had all the due samskaras (Upanayanam, etc) performed

on him by his father, the king. He learnt the four Vedas, the 6 angAs, also he

mastered all the texts on good, just governance mean for kings. He became a

champion in the different arts of war, he was simply hero from every direction.

Looking at the greatness of his son, the king made his son the royal prince

officially (what is the right word, can one be coronated to be a prince??)

 

Once he became the royal prince, as per the dharmas meant for a kshatriya,

kulaSekhara grew in power by the day, went in full force to the Chola and

PANdiyA kingdoms and invaded them just to see them become mere barons

(sitrarasargal). He thus became the leader of all the three major dynasties, and

was glorified as ”kollikAvalan kUdalnAyagan kOzhikkOn kulaSekharan” [ Perumal

Thirumozhi 2-10]. The very happy drudhavratA decided to have a coronation

ceremony and make his son the next King, before retiring to the forest to lead a

life of vAnaprastam.

 

The new king, who felt sad that his father retired to the forest, quickly

recovered thanks to the soothing influence of his noble ministers. He became

excellent in his job, leading a kingdom like “rAmarAjya”. He got married, named

his son after his own father, and his daughter was given two names: ilai (as an

amsA of niLAdEvi) and Serakulavalli.

 

This glorious king started to show deep interest in spirituality, “Who is the

one god who gave us this life birth, who can give us the next birth and even

salvation??, who is that original, complete God??”. He studied the shrutis and

the smrtis with the greatest scholars, and analyzed the inner meanings of all

those texts, and became engrossed in them. Lord Sriman nArAyaNA, after seeing

this great devotee, blessed him with “mayarvara madhi nalam” (blemishless

knowledge), and showed him his forms, qualities, creations, etc. Sri KulaSekharA

became overwhelmed with jnAna and bhakti, made his mind devoid of any confusion,

and became the greatest devotee of Lord Sriman nArAyaNA. This kulasEkharAzhwar,

who is now deeply immersed in the kalyANa gunAs of perumAL, became deeply

attracted to the rAmA and krishNA avataras among perumAL’s vibhAvatArAs and

among the archAvatArAs, he developed strong attraction towards Lords of

Srirangam, tiruvEnkadam, tirukkannapuram, tirucchithirakUdam and

tiruvitthuvakkOdu. He used to listen to discourses on rAmAyaNA all the time,

and he treated the SriVaishnavas with all love and respect. He started to lose

interest in his job as the king.

 

One day, when he was listening to a discourse on rAmAyaNA, the bhAgavatA was

going through the line from the AraNya kANDam, “there were these 14,000

rAkshasAs standing on one side who were instigated by the nose-cut SurpaNakA,

and the lonely Sri rAmA standing on the other side, with no help” after hearing

which Sri kulaSekharA, who was immersed in the nectar of rAmAyaNA, thinking that

rAmA was in danger right at that moment, declared, “when the Lord is in such

great danger, we have to help Him with all that we could”, thus commanding all

his forces to get prepared for battle and he himself started going towards

LankA!! All his subjects and courtiers were clueless, without knowing what to

do. Then the bhAgavatA, who was an expert on rAmAyaNA, went to the king and

said, “Flash news!! The great Lord Sri rAmA single-handedly vanquished all the

14,000 rAkshasAs and got sItA back who eased Him with her loving hug, and

everything is OK”. Hearing this, the AzhwAr decided not to proceed

anymore thereby, recalling all his forces.

 

Since then, the bhAgavatA used to talk mostly about the episodes where Lord

Sri rAmA was victorious without any trouble, and constricted the episodes where

the Lord was in danger, as tightly as possible. Once, since he was engages in

some other important task, the bhAgavatA sent his son instead. His son, without

knowing the nature of kulasEkharA, discussed the abduction of sItA by rAvanA in

detail. Once kulasEkharA heard that, he declared, “I shall go to lankA right

away and defeat rAvaNA and his forces and bring the mother back”, and started

traveling towards lankA along with his forces. Again, with all his subjects

remaining clueless, the AzhwAr dived into the ocean and that is when Lord

SrirAmA, along with MythilI and lakshmaNA appeared in front of the AzhwAr and

explained that he defeated rAvanA and everything is fine, sending him back.

 

Thus, the AzhwAr who had deepest interest in the itihAsA and purANAs, realized

the glories and greatness of Srirangam, decided to visit that holy place, and

even set his date. His (loyal, noble) ministers and courtiers agreed that if

this AzhwAr visits Srirangam and sees Lord Ranganatha, he would never return.

They convened and came up with a master-plan. What is that plan?? Since our king

knows that serving the devotees of the Lord is even greater than serving the

Lord Himself, he took supreme joy and interest in serving the SriVaishnavAs

visiting him. Thus, whenever the king wanted to leave for Srirangam,

SriVaishnavAs were invited by the ministers, thereby making the king to not

leave. This can be observed in his taniyan, “ghushyatE yasya nagarE rangayAtrA

dinE dine” (inside whose capital city the word(s) “ranga yAtrA” (journey to

SriRangam) are being uttered everyday).

 

Some of the ministers felt jealous looking at the SriVaishnavAs with all

liberty, going around his palace, his courtroom, and even restricted areas meant

for privacy without any interruptions. They decided to evoke some hatred towards

the SriVaishnavAs in the mind of the King. Thus, on a SriRamanavamI day, when

everybody was busy with the tirumanjanam of the deity, the ministers stole the

most precious pearl garland meant for the lord and hid it in some secret place

that nobody would know. After the tirumanjanam got over, the priests noticed

that the expensive pearl garland was missing and informed the king. The king

called all his ministers and asked them to look for that ornament and find the

culprit. The ministers, taking advantage of that situation said, “One of the

SriVaishnavas roaming around freely in this palace should have taken the

Ornament”, thus blaming the SriVaishnavas. Our AzhwAr was deeply annoyed, and

said, “the devotees of the Lord will never do such silly acts

even once; I shall prove that to you all right now”. He ordered his loyals to

bring a silver pot with a venomous snake inside. He then put his hand inside the

pot and said, “If any of the SriVaishnavAs have the cheap desire to steal

things, let this snake bite me, on the other hand if the SriVaishnavas are the

purest of the pure, then let my hand be unattacked”. The snake which was bound

by satya and dharma, didn’t attack his hand, but was just tame. Seeing this, the

ministers realized that they have no other go but surrender and accept their

folly. They gave the pearl garland back and penitently prayed to the AzhwAr. The

AzhwAr said, “it is not enough if I alone forgive you, since you all did

apachAra against the SriVaishnavAs, the only way is to surrender to them and do

service to them lifelong”, which the ministers happily accepted. This incident

has been cited in his thanian, “Arangedap parananbar koLLArenRu avargaLukkE

vArangodu kudappAmbil kayittavan”.

 

Later, kulaSEkharAzhwar lost desire to continue with his role as a king where

he has to deal with falsehoods, therefore coronated his son dhrutavarman as the

next emperor and fulfilled his long-cherised dream of visiting Srirangam. He

stayed there for many years, worshipped namperumAL, and got his daughter married

(sErakulavalli) to that namperumAL as she was being captivated by the beauty of

that azhgiya manavALan and considered him to be her own manavALan (groom). He

constructed the third prakAra for the service of Lord Sri RanganAtha and he

performed many bhagavat-bhAgavata kainkaryams. To this day, the third prakAra is

known as “Kulasekaran Street” in Srirangam.

 

kulaSEkharAzhwar then went on a pilgrimage to other divyadEsams namely,

tiruvEnkadam, tirukkannapuram, tirucchithirakUdam, tiruvitthuvakkOdu and had

darshans of the presiding deities. He also visited tirukkurugUr, worshipped

Swami nammAzhwAr, after which he proceeded to mannArkOvil which is also known as

“brammadEsam”, performed service to Sri RajagOpAlan for some years, before

attaining paramapadam at the age of 67.

 

When enjoying the presiding deities of all the temples he went to, he wanted

to spread and share the joy that he was enjoying within. PerumAL tirumozhi is

the fruit of his desire to spread joy to everybody in the form of prabandams. It

is widely known that the wonderful Sanskrit text named “MukundamAlA” was

authored by Swami KulaSEkhara bhagawAn. But, none of the achAryAs including

PeriyavAchAn piLLai, who had written extensive commentaries on the

divyaprabandams (and other works of their pUrvAchAryas including stOtra rathnA )

have not written a single line of commentary on mukunda mAlA. Not only that,

till SwAmi ManavALa MAmuni’s time, none of the achAryAs have quoted or

acknowledged even a single line from mukundamAlA. Because of which, it cannot be

wrong to say that mukundamAlA was not authored by kulasEkharAzhwAr, but one of

his descendants in his CherA dynasty with the same name, whose time was just a

few years before that of SwAmi ManavALa MAMuni.

 

Now, let us try to summarize the meanings of verses from PerumAL tirumozhi.

After the most compassionate Lord Sriman NArAyaNA blessed him with blemishless

knowledge (mayarvaRa madhi nalam), because of the jnAna and bhakti gained, our

AzhwAr had the strongest desire to enjoy Lord Sriman NArAyaNA, he was very

impatient to even wait till getting to VaikunTam, he wanted to see the Lord

immediately. Therefore he wanted to worship Sri RanganAthA, who has not only the

same qualities but also affability (after all, he is in our planet!!), but then,

he was caught in the mundane duties as a king, and also bhAgavata kainkaryam

(ranga yAtra dinE dinE) which proved to be hassles of sorts (from seeing the

beautiful deity of Sri RanganAthA). Expressing that languish/yearn he sings in

the first tirumozhi, “When will the day come when I can visually enjoy the

blackpearl resting in the beautiful jewel that is Srirangam??”, ‘aNi arangattil

paLLi koLLum karumaNiyai adiyEn kaNdu kaLippadhu ennALO??”.

 

The stages of prapatti that occur to the devotee of the lord, which are:

 

1) anukUlya sankalpam (determination to act /do what pleases the Lord)

2) prAthikUlya varjanam (refrain from acts that cause displeasure to the

Lord)

3) The strong faith that Sriman Narayana will bless and protect us

4) Give him all due respects as he is our only saviour

5) Surrendering our soul to Him

6) Understanding that it is not in our hands to attain Him, and therefore

entrusting him with the responsibility of giving us Moksham.

 

In his first tirumozhi which starts with the word “iruLiriya”, the AzhwAr is

talking about bhagavath- anukUlya sankalpam (determination to act /do what

pleases the Lord) and in the second tirumozhi (starts with “thEttarum”) he talks

about bhAgavatha anukUlya sankalpam (doing things to please the devotees). As a

direct consequence of his strong attachment to the Lord and His devotees, he

loses contact with people who are attached to their bodies (dEhAthbhimAni) and

people who are attached to material things (vishayapravaNar), therefore he

develops prAthikUlya varjanam, and he sings about that in his third thirumozhi,

(starts with the word “meyyil”). Now, after he has strongly developed

bhagavat-bhAgavata anukUlyam and prAthikUlya varjanam, he is yet to attain Lord

Sriman NArAyaNA. Therefore he thought, “the Lord thinks that I am still attached

to this world, and hence he is delaying in offering salvation, therefore I shall

sing on the Lord of TiruvEnkatam who is none other than the

same Sri Ranganatha, on whom I sang my first three thirumozhi texts”. In his

fourth thirumozhi (starts with, “oonERu”), He wants to convey to the Lord of

ThiruEnkatam that he has no desire for anything belonging to this world and the

celestial world, he would rather become even the most mere object in

TiruvEnkatam and somehow see his beautiful beautiful, coral-like lips (pavaLa

vAi). Even after obtaining all these qualities, he is yet to attain the supreme

Lord Sriya: patI. He furthermore develops Akinjanchanyam (having nothing in

possession to get him Moksha) and ananyagatitvam (no other mode of salvation but

Sriman NArAyaNA) and conveys his position go the Lotus feet of the Lord of

ThirutthuvakkOdu in his fifth tirumozhi (starts with “tharuthuyaram”).

 

Even after all this, since he is yet to attain the Lord, he becomes extremely

sorrow, and gets to the level/mood of pirAtti (lover), and talks about those

feelings of love with the lord as his consort in his sixth thirumozhi

(“Ermalar…”), just as Swami nammAzhwAr sang “minnidaimadaivA” (ThiruvAimozhi

6-2) and Sri Thirumangai AzhwAr says “kAdhil kadi.....” (Periya Thirumozhi

10-8). He feels sorry and sad that he had wasted his lifetime until then by not

knowing about the Lord, and therefore he sings the 7th thirumozhi (AlainIL…) in

the mood/bhava of dEvaki when she felt sad for having missed Lord Krishna’s

childhood pastimes after the slaying of Kamsa. After the mood of dEvakI, he gets

in to the mood of Kausalya and sings a lullaby to Lord SrirAmA in his 8th

Thirumozhi (the famous “mannupugazh…”) at the divyadesam called

ThirukkaNNapuram. Next he attains the mood of Dhasaradha, and laments, “Oh!!

although I have enjoyed His Childhood pastimes, I myself have become the reason

for not

being able to enjoy His pastimes in His youth by sending Him to the forest”,

through the words “dasaradhan pulambal” in his ninth thirumozhi (starts with

“vanthALiNai..”).

Having expressed his yearnings for the Lord in the first nine Thirumozhis, he

gets to the divyadEsam named “Thirucchithira koodam”,gets all his desires

fulfilled, and gets to the mood of Sri VAlmIki bhagawAn, who experienced Lord

SrirAmA right from His appearance till His ascent to VaikunTa. Our AzhwAr, with

his supremely clear knowledge, sings the 10th Thirumozhi (starts with

angaNedumadhiL....). Since he displayed extreme love and affection for Lord

SrirAmA in both his own life, as well as his works (prabandams),

KulaSEkharAzhwAr is reverently addressed as “KulasekharapperumAL”. He says

“padiyAykkidandhunpavaLavAi kANbEnE..” (I would rather become a step in the

staircases on Thirumala and see your beautiful lips..) by which he means that

when performing devotional service to the Lord, he has no pradAnabhOgam (desire

for fruitive results), but to only see the Lord (un pavaLavaai). It is because

of which, in all the temples of the Lord, the steps in front of the deities

(inside

the sanctum sanctorum) are called “kulasekharan padi”.

Sri KulaSEkharap perumAL thiruvadigaLE Saranam.

AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE Saranam

adiyen dAsan,

Kidambi Soundararajan.

 

 

 

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