KulasEkarAzhwAr Thirunakshathram - Today- Maasi Punarvasu

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

KulasEkarAzhwar was born as a prince to ChEra king Dhidavrathan and

nAdhanAyagi in the month of mAsi and the nakshatram of punarpoosam (same as

that of Lord Rama). Today is this AzhwAr’s Thirunakshathram. The child when

born looked divine and made everyone happier and cheerful. The entire

kingdom was in a jubilant mood. The kid was named kulasEkaran and when he

grew he was taught all sAstrAs, epics, arts, Tamil and Sanskrit and was

also given training on fighting, Horse riding, Elephant riding, etc. In each

endeavour, he excelled and came out in flying colours. When Dhidavrathan

became old, kulasEkaram ascended the throne and since then he was ruling

like Lord Sri Rama and brought in RamaRajyam to his kingdom. People were

very happy and here was rich harvest throughout the year; there were regular

rains and there was only subheeksham. Hence the citizens had great amount of

love and respect for their king kulasEkarA.

 

Once without knowing kulasEkarA's strengths, the neighbouring kings (Chola

and pAndyA) came to fight and during the battle kulasEkaran won with no

difficulty. Impressed PandyA king gave his daughter to kulasEkarA for

marrying her. kulasEkarA was blessed with a son (whom he named dhidavradhan)

and a daughter ILai.

 

One night, The Lord wished to divert kulasEkarA's attention to Him and he

appeared as Lord Tirupati Venkatachalapathi in the king's dream and blessed

him. The king was overwhelmed with the Lord's love and became silent and was

only thinking of the Lord at all times. He became totally like water in

Lotus leaf (Water never wets the Lotus leaf) and was ruling the kingdom

without any attachment; He was spending his time more and more on Thiru

vArAdhnam and Bhajans and listening to stories of Rama and KrishNa. He even

started disliking the battles since he did not like to see more loss of

lives in the battle. He started singing in Tamil and sanskrit with full of

love and Bhakti in praise of the Lord.

 

He spent his most of the time only on religious activities and attending

discourses. Once when the UpanyAsakar was narrating Rama RavaNa yuddham

where the battle was going on for a long time and RavaNa was giving a tough

fight, kulasEkara was so much attached to the story and it the discourse he

ordered his Army General to immediately organise to send the soldiers,

elephants and horses and the king was also making himself ready for the

battle to give a helping hand to Sri Rama. The upanyAsakar and all others

were totally perplexed and could not say anything. The upanyAsaker at last

came to the king and said" O, mighty king, We need not go. The Lord Rama has

already killed rAvaNa and is on his way back to AyOdhyA for his

pattAbhishEkam". That made the king silent and he came to normalcy; Such was

kulasEkarA's bhakti for Rama. It is told Lord Rama appeared in his dream

that night and said" kulasEkarA, I am deeply moved by your readiness to

offer me help in the battle. Since you are having blind affection and live

for me , you did not realise my Strength and parAkramam. We can win asurAs

with no effort; You are acting just like LakshmaNA, who is also attached to

me deeply. From today you will be called kulasEkara perumAL like

ILayaperumAL LakshmaNA. Even today he is revered as kulasEkara perumAL. The

pAsurams he sang were compiled under "perumAL thirumozhi". One can see his

feeling of deep regret for not being born during RamA's time in his

pAsurams.

 

As he was getting more and more involved in Bhagavadh Bhakti and Bhagavadha

Bhakti and was spending all his time in such activities, the ministers were

not clear as to how to bring the king back to his administration. The king

had even consecrated a Golden statute of Sri Rama in the palace where he was

spending most of the time with other pundits and upanyAsakALs.

 

Once during a Ramanavami day (the birthday of Sri Rama), the king was

astonished to see a big nice Navaratna mAlai which had adorned Sri Rama

missing. He was confused as to how somoen can come inside the palace with so

much security and so many people around. The ministers were asked; One of

them (may be the chief minister) hesitantly stammered to say" May be ..O

..king........one of upanyAsakALs, or these scholars

....could..........have.....taken...." He did not even finish his

statement. The king was shivering and was literally shocked to hear that

statement as if he has stepped on a Red hot burnt iron; He could not believe

his ears as to how these minister can even think of these GREAT BHAKTAAS as

ones who could have flicked; "What are you saying? Are you talking about

these adiyArs of Sriman NARAYANA. Are you not ashamed to say that? Is your

tongue still alive? How dare you think them as thieves when their love is

only for the Lord and they consider the Gold and dust the same; Those

UTTHAMARGAL - Do you think they have stolen the MAALAI? . He did not stop

with that. He called someone to bring a pot wherein he had arranged to place

a poisonous snake; Bewildered ministers obeyed. He showed them the pot with

the snake inside. He said and prayed to the Lord" If the mAlai has been

taken by one of the BhaktALs, let the snake bite me; If not, I will come out

unscathed.". He put his hand inside the pot. The snake NEVER TOUCHED his

hand. The minister came out openly saying "we are very sorry and we beg your

pardon. We are the ones who removed the MALAI and put the blame on BhaktA so

that you will start disliking them and will concentrate on administrative

matters. Please forgive us for this

irresponsible act."

 

Such was his love and reverence on Bhagawathas. He has written special ten

for Bhagawatha sEshathvam in His perumAl Thirumozhi.

 

In one of his paasurams , he revealed to us that those , who wear the dust

from the feet ( Thondar adippodi) on their heads do not need GangA snAnam to

wash away their sins :

 

aadip paadi arangavO yenrazhaikkum

ThondaradippodiyAda naam peRil ,

Gangai neer kudainthAdum vEtkai yennAvathE ?

 

In another paasuram, Azhwar states that his hairs stand on end

over the thought of those BhagavathAs , who enjoy Sri Ranganaathan

as the Kodhanda PaaNi and get goose pimples :

 

...tiNNa maamathiL TennaranganAm meysilaik karumEhamonRu

tamm nenjil ninru thihazhap pOy mey silippavar tammayE

ninainthu yenn manam mey silirkkumE

 

In another paasuram of PerumAL THirumozhi , AzhwAr expressed his deep desire

.. He revealed that his prayer was to lose his mind in devotion to the

BhagavathAs , who sing and dance with aanandha paravasam about the glories

of the Lord of Sri Rangam with the beautiful eyes reminding one of the

beauty of the soft , red lotus flower . He wanted to become one of the

BhagavathAs to get closer to the Lord of Sri Rangam (Thondar vAzhvukku

maalayuRRathen nenjamE ) .

 

Let us get back to his history. Sorry for the digression. We were lured by

the Bhagawatha sEshathvam of AzhwAr.

 

KulasEkarA thought silently after listening to all this and understood the

underlining concern of his ministers for the kingdom and the rule. He

immediately decided to bring his son into the picture and trained him for

some time before he started off his Divya Desam pilgrimage throughout India

singing Lord's Glories and GuNAs.

 

He visited almost all the temples and he lost his heart for Sri Rama. He has

sung lullabies for Sri Rama as "RaghavanE ThAlElO!". He has even sung

pAsurams on Devaki's misfortune of not able to enjoy kaNNan's leelA's and

"thollai inbam" (naughty Kannan’s divya chEstithangaL) which yasOdhA was

blessed with. One can greatly be moved by his pAsurams where in he longs for

being born as a step in Tirupathi Lord's

temple or a fish in the Holy pushkaraNi or a seNbhaga tree in

Tirupathi(standing in front of the temple) or a Big stone which can not be

removed so easily; He even wished to be born as a servant holding the Golden

Bowl in front of Sriman nArAyaNan to spit the water after washing, gargling

and cleaning His mouth in the morning. Such was his desire to serve the Lord

ceaselessly and that too from a king!. [One can imagine our plight with so

little(or no) material possessions and with that few pennies in our wallet

we walk with so much pride, with arrogance with even a very little

achievement in our lives (which too is possible only with His grace).]

 

He lived till 67 years and then reached His abode and it is also told that

his daughter ILai followed her father kulasEkara perumAn and was also

blessed with the Lord's ThiruvaruL.

 

As mentioned earlier, this AzhwAr had dreamt about pilgrimage to Srirangam

every day from his kingdom. He gave up his kingdom finally and moved to

Srirangam and reached the Lord's sacred feet there. He blessed us 105

marvellous pAsurams in his PerumAL Thirumozhi known for their depth of

Bhakthi . The first three of his ten decads are about Azhagiya MaNavALan Sri

RanganAthan.

 

In the first decad , KulasEkarA longs for the day, when he would be able to

stand in the courtyard of Sri RanganAthan hugging the two ThirumaNatthUNNkal

(huge pillars in His sannidhi)- that one can see even today in Srirangam.

These two pillars are known as the marriage pillars. They are recognized as

a pair representing the fragrance

of Sri RanganAthan. The BhakthAs overcome by the Lord's beauty hold on to

them to maintain their balance, when the flood of the Lord's beauty hits

them as they stand in the ThirumuRRam of the Lord :

 

KadiarangattharavaNayil paLLIk koLLUM MaayOnai, maNat thUNE paRRi ninru yenn

vaayAra yenru kolO vAzhtthum nALE

 

(when will that day arrive, when I can stand holding the two marriage

pillars in the sannidhi of Sri RanganAthan and praise Him with all the power

of my tongue?).

 

In the third decad , AzhwAr explains the transformation in him as his mind

fell in love with the BhaagavathAs of Lord RanganAthan . He says that he

developed VairAghyam [detachment] and lost interest in pomp and circumstance

and discarded all perishable pleasures that are fleeting. He says that he

avoided from then on all those who confuse their body with their AthmA and

equate the perishable worldly pleasures with the divine Bliss of relating to

the Lord. In the sixth paasuram of this

decad , Azhwar states with conviction:

 

yemparatthar allArodum kUdalan

umbar vAzhvai onRak karuthalan

TampirAn amararkku , Aranganahar

EmpirAnukku Yezhumaiyum pitthanE

 

(Meaning ) : I will not associate with those, who have are not the servants

of the Lord like me. I will always stay intoxicated with the love for my

Lord of Nithya Sooris, who is at His Periya Koil

at Srirangam .

 

A sample pAsuram to taste the sweetness and longing desire of AzhwAr for

ThiruvEnkatamudaiyaan and be there in Tirumala in any form whatsoever.

 

AznAtha selvatthu arambaiyargaL thaRsoozha/

vAnALum selvamum; maNNarasum yAn vENdEn/

thEnAr poonchOlai thiruvEngadatthu chunaiyil/

meenAi piRakkum vidhiyudaiyOnAvEnE/

 

Such a wonderful pAsuram. adiyEn requests all those who can read Tamil to

read these 105 pAsurams of PerumAl Thirumozhi today and it takes only about

30 minutes at a maximum.

 

kulasEkarAzhwAr thiruvadigaLE saraNam

 

Regards

Namo narayana

dAsan

 

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