Lord's Bhakthavijayam - pratyaksha darshanam

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavatottamas,

 

Sri Sadagopaniyengar swamy's articles are nice to read & learn. Adiyen have not

only heard of Lord's Bhaktha parayana quality but have got the chance of being a

spectator to it. I want to share this with all. All interested devotees can also

have a glimpse of this amazing display of Lord's quality.

 

As Swami Desikan has described they way true Bhaktas experience the lord "

Amaantha Aananda Payodhim Anthaha - Payobhirakshanaam Privahayanthi" Adiyen have

seen this happen several times to my Maternal grandfather, the great Srinidhi

Swamy whenever he has darshan of Lord in temple or whenever he recites certain

thrilling slokas. He has composed several slokas praising several divya desa

perumals. Chilkur Balaji Venkateshwara swamy temple - our family deity & the

place where Adiyen belong, was also visited several times by my grandfather for

obvious reasons and enthralled by Lord's devinity here, he composed a nice

stotram for this Lord. We have been reciting this every day since then. The

first slokam starts : "Shilaayaam Ekasyaam Jalanidhi Bhuvaa Kashyapa bhuvaa

vilaasam santhanvan .........Sakala Jana Sarveshta phaladaha, Kalau asmin

deivam Jayathi chilukuru venkata pathihi". This Slokam describes the Archa

murthy there and says that in Kaliyuga this Lord of chilkur grants all

the wishes of his bhaktha koti. We have inscribed this slokam of the swamy in

the temple.

 

After the praise of his Bhakta, Lord in our Archa murthy, who was showing his

powers of showering blessings within a limited circle i.e. our family serving

him & small number of devotees visiting him started fulfilling the wishes of

many devotees - trying to fully live upto to the desire of his Bhakthas-

'bhakthaparayanathvam'. Who ever comes to this Lord and performs 11

pradakshinams his wish is being fulfilled. We have seen exponential increase of

devotees. The temple which was visited only by handfull of people even in a

month, had increasing devotees, initially in tens, then in hundereds and

thousands and now it is in Lakhs per month. We experienced sudden increase in

influx after my grandfather attained Lord's feet. Performing 108 pradakshinams

to this Lord after fulfillment of the wish which initially would take about

20-30 minutes now takes any where between 5-6 hours with the prakaaram simply

filled tightly with devotees. People, mainly youngsters like students,

jobseekers, Visa seekers, film stars, ministers & so on perform pradakshinams

to the Lord & get their wishes fulfilled.

 

We, in our temple, make the devotees recite Names from 'Vishnusahasranamavali'

while they perform Pradakshinam & also make them know about the greatness of

'Govinda namam' which sri Sadagopa Iyengar swami has mentioned in his write-up.

 

For devotees who want to have a glimpse of this living example of Lord's Bhaktha

parayanathvam, the temple is situated at 30 km from Hyderabad. It is on the

route of Hyderabad - Vikarabad (via) Chevella. In the earlier days we used to

give a half page route explanation, but now we would limit it saying that any

Taxi person, auto person will be able to transport the devotees from any point

of Hyderabad to the temple. The nearest point in Hyderbad is Langerhouse (via)

Mehdipatnam if one is travelling from Hyderabad station or Airport. Route

numbers 288D plies from Mehdipatnam to temple at a frequency of every half an

hour - previuosly (just 2-3 yrs back) no buses used to ply with devotees being

on their own walking 2.5 kms.

 

Sajjana Padapadma paramanuhu

Lakshmi Narasimha dasaha

 

 

 

Ram Anbil <Ramanbil wrote:

 

 

 

>sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar

>Ram Anbil <ramanbil, radha jagannathan

><radha, "j.srinivasan" <j.srinivasan,

>"cs.srinivasan" <chetlurvas

>CC: sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar,

>sadagopaniyengar

>How to See the Lord

>Fri, 05 Sep 2003 08:33:43 +0530

>

>Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

>

> How to "See" the Lord

>

> Shastras tell us that the Lord is present in five forms. The first

>and foremost is the Paramapurusha whose abode is Sri Vaikuntam, where He

>reigns supreme along with His Consort and the emancipated souls. Though

>this Cosmic form of His is in the constant sight of the nitya sUrIs ("sadA

>pasyanti sooraya:"), it is way beyond the ken of mere mortals like us, says

>the Veda Purusha-"na sandrusE tishttathi roopam asya, na chakshushA pasyati

>kascha nainam". Similarly, the VyUha roopams, those of Sri VasudEva,

>reclining on the snaky bed in the Milky Ocean, Sri Pradyumna, Sri Aniruddha

>and Sri SankarshaNa, are too exalted to form the subject matter of our

>faulty sight. Maharshis like Sri Narada and the inhabitants of the SvEta

>dveepa might be endowed with the good fortune of seeing these moorties, but

>not poor mortals. In the Vibhava avatArAs, constituting His descent to this

>earth assuming various forms like those of a fish, a boar, a man-lion, a

>giant turtle, the Princes of Ayodhya and Mathura and so on, He was indeed

>visible to mortal eyes, making Sri Koorattazhwan wonder at His

>accessibility-the Supreme Parabrahmam making itself visible to errant

>humanity ("nanu lOchana gOcharO bhoo:"). However, all those avatArAs were

>in the distant past, with absolutely no access to the present-day

>inhabitants of this planet. In His dimunitive form as the antaryAmi, the

>Inner Dweller of all beings, our accumulated baggage of Karma makes us

>unable to see Him within us, though He is present at extremely close

>quarters and in as splendorous a form as the one at Paramapadam.

>

> All that is left is the arcchAvatAra, the beautiful forms in stone, wood

>and mud, that the Lord assumes at various temples and it is only these

>fantastic figures of the Lord that we are able to see and admire. Thus, the

>Lord who is normally totally beyond the impaired vision of errant humanity,

>makes Himself perceptible to mortals, out of His infinite Mercy, and out of

>a desire to entice, enthral, enchant and finally ensnare recalcitrant

>humans, weaning them away from the debilitating path of sin. Whatever be

>the glory of His other forms, which we have only heard of and have no means

>of confirming, we are able to see for ourselves, with our very own eyes,

>the immeasurable beauty of the Lord in His arcchAvatAra-so much so that Sri

>Tirumangai Mannan holds the readily-available, blissful experience afforded

>by the arcchAvatara to be superior to that attainable at distant

>Paramapadam, admittance to which is restricted to the elite who perform

>Bhakti or Prapatti, and which is achievable only after herculean effort.

>Would anyone hanker after the flesh of a yet-to-be caught crow in the sky,

>which is anyway of dubious taste, when one has already captured a rabbit,

>which offers a delicious fare, enquires Sri Kalian, likening arcchavatara

>anubhavam to tasty hare flesh and the bliss of Sri Vaikuntam to that of the

>crow-"ErAr muyal vittu kAkkai pin pOvadE?". True to his fame of having Sri

>Kalian's sweet words etched in his heart ("Kalian urai kudi koNda

>karrutthudayOn"), Swami Desikan too spurns Celestial Bliss for that

>afforded by the ecstatical sight of Sri DevAdi RAjA of Kanchi, prepared to

>swear on the point-"Satyam sapE VAraNa saila nAtha! Vaikunta vAsEpi na mE

>abhilAsha:"

>

> Be it the Azhwars or Acharyas like Sri Koorattazhwan, Sri Bhattar or

>Swami Desikan and countless others-- they appear to consider the very

>sight of Emperuman in various temples to be blissful and each visit to the

>shrine an extremely rewarding experience, so much so that they feel capable

>of rejecting any offer of alternative bliss in the exalted Paramapadam, of

>which the Shruti, Smritis and itihAsAs speak volumes. The arcchavatara must

>therefore have afforded them such unalloyed pleasure, such deep delight and

>such immeasurable ecstasy, that they feel it to be superior to any other

>form of the Lord.

>

>However, when we go to temples and stand before the Lord with hands

>dutifully folded and eyes ready to drink in His magnificence, while we do

>feel a certain amount of inner peace, we are unable to experience the sort

>of bliss described by Sri Kalian or Swami Desikan. We stand on an equal

>footing with these venerated worthies in that we and they used only these

>mortal eyes to see the Lord. While the Lord's decorated idol does generate

>in us a lot of aesthetic pleasure, why does it not afford us as much bliss

>as it did to them? After all, the Emperuman at divya desams is the same

>today as was worshipped by our Poorvacharyas, the temples are the same but

>for some periodical cosmetic uplifts and the eyes too are the same,

>characterised by the same degree of frailty as present in all mortals.

>

>Given this, we find only two possible reasons for our not being able to

>derive as much delight from the sight of the Lord, as did our Acharyas. One

>might be that the Lord has made up His mind to be less pleasurable to us

>than to our worthy Acharyas, due to their infinite superiority in matters

>of wisdom, bhakti or adherence to Shastras. However, given Emperuman's

>predilection for favouring the underdog rather than the perfect person, we

>find this reason untenable. The other possible reason for our deriving less

>pleasure out of Bhagavat anubhavam is that something is wrong with our

>eyes, our vision, in the way we look at the Lord. This appears to be a much

>more plausible explanation and one which requires us to look deep into

>ourselves to diagnose the possible impairment our visual equipment could

>have suffered.

>

>When we go the temple and stand before the Lord, what do we see? At best,

>what people like me see is a beautiful, highly decorated idol that is

>pleasing to the sight, with impressive height and girth, with any number of

>adornments to enhance its looks. We are unable to see in the idol the

>all-powerful Lord, who is the epitome of all auspicious virtues and the

>antithesis of all that is bad, the sole repository of all imaginable good,

>the Universal Protector, one who is ready to take ten giant steps towards

>us and come running to embrace us, if only we would lift our foot to take

>one tiny step towards Him. We are unable to see beyond the stone and mortar

>and wood that the Lord, out of His inifinite mercy, resides in, out of a

>desire to be the subject matter of our mortal eyes. We do not take in the

>beautiful form in full and are satisfied with a superficial and overall

>look at Him, as shallow in our devotion as we are in our other secular

>endeavours (perhaps more so, since our human bosses are more demanding than

>the Lord, who is the personification of tolerance).

>

> How should we "see" the Lord, when we are before Him at the sannidhi? Sri

>Nammazhwar shows us the way, in his pasurams on Tirukkurungudi. According

>to him, the only way to enjoy the matchless magnificence of the Lord is to

>take Him in inch by blissful inch, part by splendorous part, with undivided

>attention paid to one particular aspect of Emperuman's tirumEni or

>adornments or AyudhAs, at a time. This is because the Lord's brilliance is

>too much for us to absorb, all at once. Like a child with its favourite

>sugar candy, we too should stretch the experience to the maximum possible,

>savouring the boundless beauty of the Lord little by little. Kamban says

>that this too is impossible, for those who set sight on a particular aspect

>of Emperuman is unable to pry his eyes away from that part of the tirumEni,

>("tOL kaNdAr tOLE kaNdAr") with the result that the onlooker is unable to

>proceed to enjoy the next part of the divine body.

>

> Coming back to Sri Satakopa Muni's experience, the Azhwar's eyes first

>lock on the snow-white conch adorning the Lord's left hand, capable of

>striking terror in the heart of His foes with a single booming emission.

>After having enjoyed the sight to his heart's fill, he moves on to the

>dazzling Discus inhabiting the Lord's right hand, which at once serves as

>the ultimate weapon and an adornment par excellence. It is significant that

>Sri Poygaiyazhwar too mentions the Conch and Discus among the principal

>items of visual attraction on the Lord's perfect physique-"serukkiLarum pon

>Azhi kaNdEn, puri shankham kai kaNdEn, en Azhi vaNnan pAl indru". Moving on

>with reluctance, Azhwar's eyes are ensnared by the Lord's own, the eyes

>famed for their length, breadth, blackness, brilliance and size, resembling

>a beautiful lotus in full bloom. The divine eyes lock with Azhwar's own,

>full of love and affection. The eyes speak indeed volumes ("toodu sei

>kaNgaL koNdu ondru pEsi"), obviating the necessity for words. The long

>eye-brows, forming a perfect bow on the Lord's forehead, clamour for

>attention too. Difficult though it is to pry his gaze away, Azhwar does so

>with difficulty and manages to travel down the Lord's face, till he is

>captivated by the coral mouth, with its rows of orderly pearl-white teeth,

>which demands its share of Azhwar's attention, impeding further progress.

>The long, perfect and extremely shapely nose, from which emanate all the

>Vedas and the beautiful throat commend themselves to the Azhwar's attention

>next, followed by the Lord's jet black locks, which fall bewitchingly on

>His forehead and shoulders. Only part of the beautiful hair is visible, the

>rest of it being contained by the long and majestic kireetam, set with the

>most brilliant of gems, signifying the Lord's supremacy by its very

>magnificence. The broad and beautiful chest, adorned by the matchless

>TirumagaL, swims into view next and completely captivates the onlooker,

>embellished by the microscopic Kousthubham and the Vaijayanti mAlA. The

>four strong shoulders culminating in slender but strong arms, holding the

>Discus Sudarsanam, the Conch PAnchajanyam, the mace KoumOdakI, and the

>invincible bow Sarngam, with the sword NAndakam hanging by His side, refuse

>to release Azhwar's vision, with the shining black torso competing for his

>attentions. The white YagyOpaveetam lies across the black chest like a

>flash of lightning in an overcast sky, with the several strands of

>TitutthuzhAi competing with garlands of pearls and fragrant flowers, to

>embellish the Lord's chest. The entire picture is one of unmatched

>magnificence and blinding brilliance, one which makes Azhwar dizzy with

>bliss and incapable of taking his eyes away to see mundane sights. It is

>this pinnacle of joy that made Sri PANanAthan too exclaim, " en amudinai

>kaNda kaNgaL mattrondrinai kANAvE".

>

>It is thus that we should "see" Emperuman, with each of His perfect aspects

>leaving an indelible impression in our eyes and hearts. We should let

>ourselves be swept away by the wonderful waves of splendour emanating from

>the Lord, letting His beauty seep through each and every pore of our body,

>making us weak with delight, with our eyes filling with tears of joy and

>yet affording an uninterrupted view of the Lord's magnificence, our voices

>aquiver with uncontainable emotion, each individual hair on our head and

>body erect in enthrallment, with the palms automatically folding themselves

>in supplication and the head bowing in an involunatary gesture of

>submission and veneration. There should be thoughts in our mind only for

>the Lord, only about His glorious form and endearing exploits, with all

>other contemplations banished for the nonce, the mind verily an abode of

>pure love reserved solely for the Divine Inhabitant. In sum, the sight of

>the glorious Lord should reduce us to a state of utter incapability to turn

>our eyes, ears and other faculties away from Him even for a second, for

>fear of missing that second's delight. This state of bliss is described

>vividly by Sri Kulasekhara Perumal thus-

>

>"baddhEna anjalinA, natEna sirasA, gAtraischa rOmOdgamai:

> kanttEna svara gadgadEna nayanEna utkeerNa bAshpAmbunA

> nityam tvat charaNAravinda yugaLa dhyAnAmrita AsvAdinAm

> asmAkam SaraseeruhAksha! satatam sampadyatAm jeevitam"

>

>If we are able to achieve this sort of vision and emotion while in the

>Lord's presence, the delectable experiences Sri Azhwan and Swami Desikan

>were able to imbibe from the arcchavatara, prompting them to contemplate

>foregoing eternal bliss in Paramapadam, would definitely be ours too. We

>would be awash with the same sort of ecstasy and endless delight as Azhwars

>and Acharyas, if only we cultivate the habit of truly "seeing" Emperuman,

>instead of merely looking at Him as a showcase doll . This sort of

>experience which dedicated devotees undergo is extremely difficult to

>describe to third-parties. To sceptics who might feel all this to be

>exaggeration and embellishment, Sri Nammazhwar's advice is to look at the

>Lord through his (Azhwar's) eyes and heart, viz., eyes filled with devotion

>and a heart brimming with love and affection-"en nenjinAl nOkki kANeer". "

>Cast away your glances full of avarice, scepticism, half-belief and

>insincerity and look at the glorious Lord through eyes like mine, filled

>with genuine emotions, and you would definitely see Him truly and

>experience the indescribable bliss it affords" says Sri Nammazhwar to us,

>in a homily worth its weight in gold.

>

>Finding his plodding friend seeing everything that he himself does, but not

>deriving the same incisive and didactic insights therefrom, Sherlock Holmes

>tells Watson, "Alas, Watson! You see, but you don't observe". Such is our

>plight too, it would appear. We do see the Lord, but we fail to let the

>spectacle make an indelible impression on us. The next time we stand before

>the Lord in any sannidhi, we would definitely find the difference if we try

>emulating even one-hundredth of the Azhwar's attitude.

>

>Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta

>Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

>Dasan, sadagopan

>

>

>

 

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Srirangasri-