108 Divyadesams -- Part 1 (Introduction -1)

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

 

Dear Bhagavatas,

Pranams,

 

With the divine grace of Sri Andal Sametha Sri Parthasarathi emperuman and with

the blessings of our acharya HH Sri Vanamamalai Kaliyan Ramanuja Jeeyer

swamigal, adiyen wishes to take up the kainkaryam of shedding some light

about our 108 divya desams. Adiyen requests all bhagavatas to keep giving

their uninterrupted feedback so that this humble effort can be refined further.

 

Introduction

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Sriyapathi: Sriman Narayanan out of his kindness, is adopting various methods to

liberate the jeevatmas from their worldly affairs (Samsaram) and take them

to his divine abode. He, who is the paramAtma, in the paramapadam, is

inaccessible to anyone, other than the nitya sooris. So, by his apAra kArunyam

emperuman descended down to the pArkadal(vyuha moorthi). He then took 4 vyuha

forms- Vasudeva, sankarshana, pradhyumna and aniruddha and started doing

shrusti, sthithi and samhAra. Again, these vyuha moorthis also were not

accessible to the common man. So the jeevatmas, who had remained dormant for

long and now who have been made active by the paramAtma, started getting

involved in all lowkika activities and totally forgot about bhagavan. So, like a

father trying to correct the mistakes of his son, bhagavan gave various sastras

through which he thought the jeevas would realize the existence of

emperuman and the real nature of the soul. But the jeevas then, refused, even

to accept the sastras, where is the question of following it !!!

 

In kruth yugam the rishis were capable of meditating on the lord inside them,

the antaryami. But, as the days passed and when trutha and thrEtha yugams came

, people gradually lost that capacity. So emperuman like a king, who comes on

his own after the effort of sending a messenger becoming futile, decided to

come down to earth for taking various vibhava avatArAs. So now bhagavan due to

his sowlabhyam took rama, Krishna avataras so that he can be accessible to even

a common man(even innocent, ignorant aychis in AyarpAdi), but even then many

refused to accept his supremacy (kamsa, rAvanan, sisupAlan and others).

 

After the vibhavA avatars were over, people in kali became abhakyshAlis. Will

perumal leave his kids like that? So he took number of archa forms and settled

in various places so that people in kali can have access of him without much

difficulty. "Variety is the spice of life" is our day to day mantra. We want

variety in anything and everything, else, we get bored. So emperuman took

various archa forms and settled in various places so that we never get bored to

have darshan of him.

 

Alwar says "pinnAnAr vanangum jOdhi thirumOzhikalaththAnAi". Here pinnAnAr

refers to we people in kali who have taken birth after the vibhava avatArAs and

thirumOzhikalaththAnAi refers to the emperuman in thirumOzhikalam(here alwar

gives thirumOzhikalam as a representative of all the divya desams). Our

poorvAcharyas says that Sri ranganatha, the representative of all

archAvatarams, has taken a vow not to leave Srirangam until there is no other

jeevatma left in this leela vibhuthi and hence he has lied down as in

satyAgraham.

 

In Srivachanabhooshanam, Sri pillai lokacharya says,

SVB-40

 

"bhoogatha jalam pOlE – antatyAmithvam; Avaranajalam pOlE – parathvam; pArkadal

pOlE – vyuham; perukkAttru pOlE – vibhavangal; adhilE thEngina madukkal pOlE –

archAvadhAram"

 

AntaryAmi is like the ground water, though it is available just under our legs

still will not be used to quench our immediate thirst. First we have to realize

that there is water underneath, and then we have to dig deep to get the same.

 

Parathvam is like a water in the clouds.

It is inaccessible unless it falls down as rain.

 

Vyuham is like pArkadal. We can see the ocean but can that water

be used to quench our thirst?

 

Vibhavams are like flood water, which will disappear as the floods drain off.

 

But archAvatarams are like the ponds formed due to the rivers, which store the

water during rain and floods and make water readily available to us when we

need them.

 

In mumukshupadi, PL says,

Sootra 139 and 140

 

"engu sonna sowlabhyaththukku ellai nilam archAvatAram"

"edhu thAn para vyuha vibhavam pOl andrikkE kannAlE kAnalAm padi erukkum"

 

Sowlabhyam is one of the greatest kalyAna gunas of emperuman. Though he is the

supreme paramAtma he is still accessible by all. It is difficult for us to see

the para, vyuha and vibhava moorthis today, but the archai is visible to even a

nastika(whether he accepts him as bhagavan or not is a different issue). Not

only the moorthis in the temple, but even all those in each one of our houses

including the photos we have in our pooja are archavatarams. So now we realize

how low emperuman has made himself to come and stay in whatever form we

bhakthas want him to be("thamarugandhadhu evvuruvam avvuruvam thane" says

peyAzhvar).

 

In thiruvAimozhi nootrandhAdhi, Sri manavala mAmunigal shows how Sri Namamzhvar

has shown to us the sowlabhyam of archAvarAram,

 

"seiyya parathuvamAi seerAr vyuhamAi

tuyya vibhavamAi thOndriya vattrul- Aidhumavarkku

ennilaththil archAvadhAram elithenrAn

pannu thamizh mAran payindru"

 

But among the innumerable archAvatArams of emperuman, we Srivaishnavas consider

only 108 as the most important. We call them divya desams because they are

blessed with the mangalAsAsanams of the alwars, the divya sooris, in their

divya prabhandams, generally called arulicheyals.

 

We will see more about these divya desams in the forth-coming postings.

 

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan

 

Varadarajan