Uttara Poorva Dinacharya by Sri T.A. Srinidhi - UpanyAsam 7

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AlwArs and AcharyAs consider themselves to have been born only when they

received Bhagawad anubhavam as reflected in ‘anru naan priandileen, pirundapin

marandilEn’ and ‘pahal kandEn naarananai kandEn’ (alwAr saw the Sun who never

sets which is EmberumAN). There is no kurai for Bhagawad anubhavam. For

example. in the first pashuram of Tiruppavai---the inner meaning of neeraada is

Bhagawad avagAhanam. We should do Bhagawad anubhavam in the form of kainkaryam

always. Recall Tirumaale pashuram and Alavandar’s Stotra ratna slokam, which

reflect the same thought

that if we have a birth it should be conducive to kainkaryam. AlwAr says that

he does not want status of Indra etc and that he discards it like salted water.

We should always dwell in Bhagawad and Acharya anubhavam. There are no

upakaarakas greater than our Poorvachharyas. Each of them is greater than the

other – it is not possible to say who amongst them is the greatest. By their

jnAna each of them has done yeomen service to the humanity.

Similarly having abhimanam and love for the ponnadi of Mamunigal, which is the

savior for us, itself brings us mOksham. Ksheerabdhi, Sri Vaikuntam and

Dwarakai are all present in the tiruvadi of one’s acharyan itself. We should

always have anubhavam/chintai of MamunigaL’s tirumEni who is the

aparaa-avataram of Swamy Emberumanar In vaartaamaalai (by TKT Nambi), the six

virodhis (V) for a prapanna are mentioned – 1) Asrayana V ( the thoughts

related to ‘me’, ‘mine’, lack of faith in the Lord, etc); 2) Sravana V (

Spending ones’ time listening to the stories of anya devatas, it is one thing

to be not thinking of EmberumAn but it is totally wrong to be thinking of anya

dEvathas. Our poorvAchAryas compare this to a wife going to another man which

is an unpardonable sin compared to just being away from her husband for some

time.)3) Anubhava V (vishaya anubhavam – being

attached to material things for one’s own pleasure. All the bhogams such as

flowers, sandal paste, perfume etc should be only for Emberuman – not for us)4)

Swaroopa V (trying to be independent of Emberuman) trying not to follow either

seshatvam (Lakhmana) or paaratantriyam (Bharata aalwan). One can recall the

anubhavam by Swamy Vedantachariar in Sri Paduka Sahasram who says that even

Bharatalwan did not have paaratantriyam because he refused to take up the

throne as ordered by Chakravarthi tirunmagan. The real paaratantriyam was that

of the Padukas. 5) Paratwa V (thinking that devatas are equal to Sarveswaran)6)

Praapti V (instead of being immersed in Emberuman anubhavam, indulging in

kaivlAnubhavam i.e., enjoying AtmAnubhavam from which there is no return.)

The parihaaram for these six virodhIs is nothing but acharya sambandham.

Veda purushan does sharanagati to the one who gave birth the 4 faced and taught

the Vedas. Divya Prabandam explains the meanings that are not clear in Vedas.

We should spend time in understanding alwar arulicheyyals.

Sloka 28After upadesham, Swamy Mamunigal would give the sisyas Sri Paada

Tirtham. The nivrutti for the paapams or sins is Sripaada tirtham. It is to

be taken with the belief that it will clean up all the dirt that is covering

our true swaroopam. Tirtham gives us anandam – quenches thirst. There is no

need to add parimalam to acharya sri paada tirtham. It is more special than

Perumal tirtham.

Sloka 29After this, MM would do tiruvaradhanam . Even today Mamunigal’s nitya

tiruvaradhanai Perumal called aranganagarappan who could be seen in his matam

in Srirangam just like EmberumAnAr’s nitya Aradhanai perumal “pErarulALan” can

be seen next to his sanndihi in Srirangam.

The greatest kripai of Emberuamn is that He resides in our homes enabling us to

do kainkaryam. He comes as a divya mangala vigraha just for us in our homes

where He becomes paratantran to us. If we delay or do the tiruvaradhanam early

any day, He accepts it happily. He takes whatever name we give Him. In divya

dEsams we see children imitating the utsavams of the temples. They play with

dolls and do even the vaahana porppaadu. According to the Divya desham

calendar, they change the name for the Perumals (Varada, Srinivasa, SriRanga,

etc. This sheela gunam of EmberumAn is the greatest. One can recall Swamy

Emberumanar witnessing the children playing on the Cauvery banks mimicking

tiruvaradhanam. Swmay gladly accepts the sand as prasadam after doing danda

samarpanam.

Swamy Embar says that three aapattus (troubles) came upon Emberuman – Draupadi,

Prahlada and Gajendran. Why are they His troubles? - Because if He had not

responded to these devotees the vishvasam(faith) devotees have in Him would

have gone down. Yengal alwan says to Nanjeeyar that His (nanjeeyar’s) Perumal

came in his dream asking for naval palam and also mentioned the name “Ayar

devu” that Nanjeeyar had lovingly given Him. Nanjeeyar was so amazed that

Perumal not only came in yengal-alwan’s dream but also revealed him His secret

name that Nanjeeyar had given Him).

When Kannan left from Dwaraka He said that He would be in the divya mangala

vigraha always). Mamunigal in the TVM NTD mentions the five states of Emberuman

and talks about the greatness of the archa murti. For sharanagati this is the

complete form and all the Alwars did sharanagati to archai.

After Tiruvaradhanam, Mamunigal would accept the prasadam (anuyaagam) and then

give the sesha-prasadam to his sisyas. This sesha-prasadam is seldom given to

us.

Here the pari baashai (the special language) among Sri Vaishnavas is remembered

– for example ‘adiyen’ (even if adiyen is used it can mean only ‘I’ if the

necessary ‘naichyam’ is not absent and on the other hand even if ‘I’ is used

humbly it would be equivalent to using ‘adiyEn’. Some of the other examples of

such terminology is amudhu saiyal, etc.)

Tiruppavai pashuram 15 - Naaneethaan-aayuduga---Bharata blames himself for

Rama’s banishment and not Mantra or Kaikeyi or Chakravarti Tirumagan.)

Sloka 30After amudushaiyal (anuyaagam) Mamunigal would be in ekaantam and

contemplate on Emberuman.

Sloka 31In padmaasanam – very beautifully Mamunigal would keep contemplating on

dwaya maha mantram. The sishyas would do kainkaryam with vinayam (utmost

humility). Kabir Das’s story is recalled here. Being a Muslim by birth he

faced a lot of difficulties to approach a guru – Sri Ramanand-acharya. The

acharya would keep chanting the rama nama always. Once he planned to lie down

on the ground when the acharya came for his early morning bath. That way the

acharya’s tiruvadi would touch him and he would also hear the rama nama from

the him which would make him a shishya. When people questioned how a Muslim

could become Ramanand’s sishya, he replied that he got connected through the

divine feet of the guru and also heard the rama mantram from him which

qualified him to be his shishya. The moral that we learn from this story is

that we need to get acharyan sambhandam.

Sloka 32After this yoga, Mamunigal would concentrate on Swamy Emberumanar and HIS vaibhavam.

(Anubhavam: How can we say Kannan and Swamy Emberumanar are the same?-Kannan

destroyed Siva Peruman’s garvam – Baanasura episode-Swamy Emberumanar won over

Adi Sankara’s views

-Kannan brought brightness to the Yadava kulam-Swamy drove away the darkness of Yadavaprakasar

-Kannan finished off the a-paarthas (kauaravas)-Swamy did Sruti-apaarthan

(removed the misinterpretations given to Vedas)

Although all our AchAryas had pratipatti towards EmberumAnAr, only Mamunigal was

given the title Yatindra Pravanar by his own AchArya.

This concludes the Purva Dinacharya.

A Glimpse of Yatiraja Vimsati before starting Uttara Dinacharya

Introduction:

In Tirunarayanapuram on his Tirunakshatram Swamy goes to kalyani and get

chandana kaapu and then returns to the temple with Iramanuja NTD goshti by both

kalai goshti. When Swamy comes to Sri vEdantachariar sannidhi, NTD continues

outside by thennars and Yatiraja Saptati occurs inside by Vadakalai goshti.

Then both re-join for NTD. Then Swamy goes to Mamunigal sannidhi, NTD continues

outside by vadakali goshti, then the thennars go inside for Yatiraja Vimsati

goshti. This Yatiraja Vimsati is spectacular with deep meaning and simple

words.

TVM Pillai (Manunigal’s acharya wanted to make a sannidhi for Emberumanar in

alwar tirunagari. TVM pillai made the chaturvedi mangalam around this

sannidhi. He made Mamunigal in charge and gave him the name Yatindra Pravanar

and requested to chant a stotram. This was how the great Yatiraja Vimsati

originated. If Mamunigal is Swamy Emberumanar himself why does he worship

himself? Just like Chakravarti tirumagan worshipped Sriman Narayana (Periya

Perumal) as aaraadya devata. This was done for avatara poorti only. Each

stotram in Yatiraja Vimsati is a gem. One needs to go experience all of

Yatiraja Vimsati. But since there is no opportunity for that in this series of

upanyasam, here is the gist of just one slokam - Mamunigal says our

mano-vaak-kaaya i.e., mind, tongue and limbs should be only for Swamy

Emberuamnar kainkaryam. (Once when people saw Embar standing

outside a prostitute’s house, sisyas doubted and questioned him. Embar replied

that he was attracted to the song that the woman was singing about Emeberumanar

that mesmerized him to the extent of standing there itself to listen). One

can experience EmberumAnAr with mind and tongue. But how does one do it using

their limbs (kainkaryam) as he is not accessible now? The answer is, perform as

much kainkaryam as possible to his archa tirumEni in tAnAna, tAnuganda, and

tamrugandha tirumEnIs.

Swamy Emberumanar took the three tirumenis for our benefit so that we can do

kainkaryam to him at Tirunarayanapuram, Sriperumbudur and Srirangam. This

would be the subject of uttara dinacharya. mAmunigaL prays that he should

immerse all his senses in serving EmberumAnAr. Emberuamanar has all of

Emberuman’s superior gunas. Some of these are:

Daya-which makes Emberuman feel for the chEtanas’ suffering-He cried when Jatayu

was killed. Shanti-He pardoned kakasuraOudaryam- generosityMaduran-iniyan for

anubhavamThese guNas of EmberumAn are highly cherished by sharaNagathas and all

these are present in EmberumAnAr also. This is the gist of the first Shloka of

Uttara Dinacharya.

 

To be continued with Uttara Dinacharya

 

rAmAnuja aDiyArgaL.

 

 

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