Arthi Prabandham-9(Part-1)

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Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha l Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

 

Due to the divine grace of our Divine Father and Mother we have been blessed

with an Acharya, who has made us realize that everything in this world is

temporary and that we are all destined to attain the divine kainkaryam of God in

the nithya vibhuti after shedding this body due to the nirheduka krupa of God.

 

But then even after this realization we have to still live in this world till

the last day comes. What shall we do? Sri manavala mahAmuni, vishadhavAk

sikAmani clears our doubt and says, “THIRUVARANGAM THIRUPATHIYE ERRUPPAGA

PETTROM”. God has blessed all of us with divya desa vAsam. Srirangam, is

considered as the bhooloka vaikuntam.

 

Thondaradi podi alwar in a poem refuses even paramapadam if he could just sit in

a corner in Srirangam and call the divine names of God. But in the very next

paasuram he says, “vedha nool pirAyam…….pini pasi moopu thunbham AdhalAl piravi

vEnden arangamAnagarulAnE” Perumal listened to both the poems and got confused.

He asked alwar, “Oh! Alwar I possess only two vibhutis, one is the leela vibhuti

and other the nithya vibhuti. In the first peom you refused coming to the nithya

vibhuti so I thought you want to be in this leela vibhuti but now you are saying

that you do not want to live here too then whatelse can I grant you?” Alwar

replied, “you are mistaken Oh! Ranganatha you have one more vibhuthi, the third

one, Srirangam, where the miseries of this leela vibhuti will never enter and

the joy will be more than that even experienced by the nithya sooris in

vaikuntam.

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Thus our alwars and acharyas considered Srirangam to be a third vibhuti of

perumal different from the other two. But Srirangam is still in leela vibhuti,

how can we say that it is different?

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Life in Srirangam (here srirangam can be considered a representative of all

divya desams) is totally different. People schedule themselves only

corresponding to the schedules of Sri ranganatha. Always the temple has some

utsavam or the other and hence people are always engaged with some kainkaryam or

the other. Even if they don’t engage themselves physically, all minds are

always with ranganatha and his leelas. So people never care for hunger, sleep

or their health. Only rangan comes first the rest are taken care only later.

So their minds always linger around rangan. If there comes a time when they

slightly forget him, then rangam comes in front of their houses and reminds them

that they are living for rangan and hence should always be filled with only joy

and the samsAric miseries should never touch them. So though Srirangam is part

of the leela vibhuti, periya perumal is protecting it in such a way that the

word misery can never enter it in any form.

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Ok. Then how is it different from nithya vibhuthi?

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Anyone can go to Srirangam at any time and have darshan of periya perumal and

namperumal if they wish to do so. But can we have the darshan of

Srivaikundanathan in the similar manner. Namperumal is accessible even by the

nasthikas but paramapada nAdan is not accessible so easily even to srivaishnavas

till they shed this body here and go to paramapadam. We enjoy so many utsavams

in each divyadesam today but we are not aware if such utsavams exist in

vaikundam. Sri parasara bhattar before attaining paramapadam said, “I will go

over there and see and if I am unable to see the same beauty of namperumal with

kaviththa mudi, mugamum muruvalum (beautiful face with a pleasant smile) anjEl

endra kaiyum (hands which give abhayam) AsanapadmaththilE azhuthina

thiruvadinilaigal (the divine feet on the Asanapadmam), then I will pitch a hole

at one end and jump back to this world. Such was the experience of our

acharyas. They were so involved with ranganatha that they never wanted to go

even to Srivaikuntam.

 

So divya desa vAsam is a blessing for all. A devotee wants to live in a divya

desam not because it will fetch him something else but a divya desa vAsam itself

is a boon, a joy for all.

 

Jai Sriman Narayana | Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai, Sumithra Varadarajan