PinnAnAr Vanankum sodhi and 8

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SrimathE rAmAnujAya namaha:

 

Dear All,

 

Pranams!

 

The number 8 is quite significant in our sampradayam. Sriyapathi is referred by

AshtAkshara mantram. The mantram directly signifies the fact that He is the one

who is entirely responsible for everything. To portray this fact by various

means to ordinary souls, He decided to come down to earth in archA form. Let us

look into some of the Divya Desams and the correlation to number 8 in this

posting.

 

Srianga mangala nidhim karunA nivAsam, Sri VenkatAdri shikarAlaya kAlamEgam Sri

Hasthisaila shikarOjvala pArijAtam Srisam namAmi shirasAm yadusaila deepam

 

Kovil, Thirumalai and Perumal Kovil are very special Divya Desams in our

sampradayam. Kovil, known as bhoga mandapam is surrounded by ashta thala kaveri

theertham. Thirumalai, known as pushpa mandapam was the place where great mahans

including nitya suris performed kaimkaryam with ashta vidha pushpam. Perumal

Kovil, known as thyaga mandapam was the place where elephants used to come from

all the eight (ashta dikgajam) directions used to come and worship DevAdhirAjan.

Thirunarayanapuram, known as Jnana mandapam is one of the great abhimAna

sthalams in our sampradayam. The water known as Kalyani pushkarani is the

special theertham when compared to water from all the places from eight

directions.

 

There are eight svayamvyakta Kshetrams. They are Salagramam, Badri, Pushkaram,

Naimicharanyam, ThiruVenkatadam, SriMushnam, Srirangam and Vanamamalai. Each of

these Kshetrams represents a letter from the AshtAkshara mantram.

Thirukkannapuram is the Divya Desam that includes all these aksharams and

houses the Thirumantram. Sowrirajan was the one who taught the meaning of

Thirumantram to Thirumangai Azhwar. He is called as ‘Saranya Mukundan’ by

Nammazhwar in Thiruvaymozhi.

 

Thirukkurungudi is the Divya Desam where Nambi is present in all His five forms

(pancha prakaram). He is also present in all the postures (nindru, irundhu,

kidanthu) These two add up to number 8. Thiruvallikkeni is the Divya Desam

where five Perumals (Venkata Krishnan, Mannathan, Gajendra Varadan, Raman and

Thelliya Singam) can be worshipped including 3 postures. Again, these add up to

8.

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

ramanan

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