Guest guest Posted December 1, 2005 Report Share Posted December 1, 2005 srImathE SaTakOpaya namah srImathE rAmAnujAya namah srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah srImathE vara vara munayE namah dear bhAgavathAs, svAmi vEdAnta dEsika says in a stOTra on the Lord VaradarAja of kAnchipuram - "asthi mE hasthi SailAgre vasthu paithaamaham dhanam" - rough translation is "There exists in the hill of hasthigir, the greatest wealth beqeathed to me by my forefathers". Lord VaradarAja has been key to our sampradAyam - It was He who looked after Ramanuja during His formative years; it was He who gave Ramanuja the absolute truth about our philosophy through the six aphorisms via svAmi thiru- k-kachchi nambi. It was He, who nurtured svAmi vEdAnta dEsika; Our AchAryAs also believe that svAmi piLLai lOkAchArya is His avatAram; It can be argued that without Lord VaradarAja, our sampradAyam would not exist as we know today. So, the statement of svAmi dEsika is something that applies to perhaps every one of us - our greatest wealth is the Lord of Hasthigiri. Lord VaradarAja also nurtured perhaps the greatest srIvaishNava AchArya of the past century - srI prathivAdhi bhayankaram aNNangarAchAriAr. He, perhaps, is the embodiment of all of our AchAryAs - Just like svAmi vEdAnta dEsika, svAmi aNNangarAchariAr wrote numerous stOtrAs on the Lord and AchAryAs and wrote several great works on vEdAnta establishing the supremacy of visistAdvaita; Just like svAmi maNavALa mAmuni, svAmi aNNangarAchAriAr wrote commentaries on pUrvAchAryA works - in fact, like vyAkhyAna chakkaravarti svAmi periyavAchchAn piLLai, svAmi aNNangarAchAriAr wrote commentaries on just about all pUrvAchArya works - be it aruLichcheyal of the AzhvArs, the stOtras of the AchAryAs or the itihaasa purANas. This is a translation of svAmi aNNaNgarAchAriAr's commentary on dEvaraaja ashtakam. svAmi thiru-k-kachchi nambi's dEvarAja ashtakam Salutations to Sri thiru-k-kachchi-nambi: srImath kaanchee munim vandhE kamalaapathi nandhanam varadhaanGhri sadhaa sangha rasaayana paraayaNam I offer my respects to kaanchipoorNa (thiru-k-kachchi nambi, in Tamizh), who is immersed in the "rasaayana" service of having unceasing, uninterrupted love and devotion at the feet of Lord Devaraja (Lord Varadaraja), and who is the son of kamalaapathi. The word "kanchee munim" in the saluatation denotes "kaanchee poorNa munim" (kanchee poorNa is the samskrit name for thiru-k-kachchi nimbi). From this salutation, we can infer that the name of sree thiru-k-kachchi nambi's father should have been "kamalaapathi". Even though one can interpret the sloka according to the vyutpaththi – "kalamaapathim nandhayatheethi kamalaapathi nandhana:", and learn the meaning as "one who does things that makes the Lord happy" for the phrase kamalaapathi nandhana, it is not clear that congruity (ouchityam) exists for that meaning. {In samskrit, ouchityam is one of the attributes used to determine the exact meaning of a word in a sentence}. The meaning of the second sentence is very apt (one who is always with Lord Varadaraja – varadhaanGhri sadhaa sangha) as kaanchee poorNa performed the fanning service for the Lord, and was physically present with Him always without any break. "Rasaayana" is a word used to denote a specific medicine in AyurvEda. It is said that those who eat the "rasaayana", they will gain great strength that is unfleeting. For kaanchee poorNa, the unceasing devotional service at the feet of Lord Varadaraja is the "rasaayana", and it gave him great strength. dhEvaraaja dhayaapaatram sree kaanchee poorNam uththamam raamaanuja munEr maanyam vandhEham sajjanaasrayam I worship sree kaancheepoorNA, who is the container for the grace of Lord dhEvaraaja, who is very special and worthy of devotion of Ramanuja, and who is the place of refuge for all good qualities. Kaanchee poorNa is worthy of devotion of Ramanuja (raamaanuja munEr maanyan) due to the following, and other incidents – per the request of Ramanuja, Svami thiru-k-kachchi nambi obtained the six basic tenets of our Religion from Lord Varadaraja and gave them to Ramanuja. The above two salutations that are recited traditionally, are present in a work called "sree kaanchee poorNa sathakam", that was composed by a sishya of Svami piLLai lOkam Jeeyar named "iraamaanusa-p-piLLai". pEraruLaaLan PerundEvi thayar thiruvadigaLE saraNam DEVARAAJAASHTAKAM namasthE hasthisailEsa sreeman ambuja lOchana saraNam thvaam prapannOsmi praNathaarththi haraachyutha 1 The Lord of the hill of hasthigiri! The divine consort to Sri PerundEvi thaayaar! The Lotus eyed One! The One who makes the sadnesses/difficulties of His devotees go away! The One who never lets the devotees down! Salutations to You! I become the one who has surrendered to You! It is well known that there are five forms for the Lord – (i) para (ii) vyooha (iii) viBhava (iv) archcha and (v) antaryaami. In this sloka, one can enjoy those five forms of the Lord. The five exclamative words in the sloka (hasthisailEsa!, sreeman!, ambujalOchana!, praNathaarththihara! and achyutha) refer to the Lord in those five forms. The exclamative "hasthisailEsa" denotes the archcha form; sreeman! refers to the para form paravaasudEva, as is evident from the sloka - "vaikuNtEthu parE lOkE sriyaa saarththam jagadpathi:! aasthe.."; ambujalOchana! refers to the Lord's viBhava forms where the Lord took reincarnations on this earth as Rama and KrishNa – the referral to the beauty of the Lord's eye (Lotus eyed one! AmbujalOchana) should be taken as referring to the complete beauty of the Lord's different parts of the body when He was on this earth in these forms; "praNathaarththihara" refers to the vyooha form where the Lord is present in the divine milk ocean (ksheera saagara) – the Lord stays in the milk ocean (just outside of sree vaikuNTa) only to be ever ready to listen to His devotee's distress calls and take away their difficulties; achyuta! refers to the antaryaami form – the meaning of the word achyuta is "one who is present everywhere, without any exceptions". samastha praaNi santhraaNapraveeNa karuNOlbaNa vilasanthu kataakshaasthE mayyasmin jagathaam pathE 2 The One who has the skills to save all souls! The One who is full of grace! The Lord of all the Universes! May your graces brighten this soul! This sloka can be considered as expounding on the two exclamatory words in the previous sloka – sreeman! ambujalOchana!. As He is sreemaan (the divine consort of Sree), he is bound by duty to save all the souls; With this meaning in mind, svaami thiru-k-kachchi nambi composed the first line (samastha praaNi santhraaNapraveeNA karuNOlbana); As He is "ambujalOchana", with the meaning "May the beautiful lotus eyes blossom upon me" svaami thiru-k-kachchi nambi composes the second line (vilasanthi kataakshaasthe mayyasmin jagathaam pathE). Instead of separating the word "praveeNa" {praveeNa means "clever, skilled or well versed with", in this context, it refers to the meaning}, we can also enjoy the first line as one word; in that case, the meaning becomes "The One who is very superior as He has the Supreme Grace that is capable of saving all the souls". nindhithaa chaarakaraNam nivrththam krthyakarmaNa: papeeyaamsam amaryaadham paahi maam varadha praBhO 3 Oh the Lord who grants all boons! Please save adiyEn (this soul), who always does the deeds that are prohibited by the saasthraas, who stays away from the deeds that are enjoined by the saasthraas, who has accumulated uncountable sin, and lives beyond the boundaries of behaviour (defined by the saasthraas). This sloka seems to expound on the exclamative word "praNataarththihara" that is present in the first sloka. The saasthraas are of the nature where they say "Do this, Do not this". One should be of the nature where he does the things that are enjoined, and refrains from doing the things that are prohibited. You should reinforce (?) Your divine nature of removing the sorrows of Your devotees by saving me, who acts opposite to the nature of soul described above. samsaara marukaanthaarE dhurvyaaDhivyaaGhraBheeshaNE vishayakshudhra gulmaaThyE thrushaapaadha paSaalini 4 putradhaara gruhakshEtra mrugathrushNaambu pushkalE kruthya akruthya vivEkaanDham pariBhraanthamithasthatha: 5 ajasram jaatha thrushNaarththam avasannaangam akshamam ksheeNa SakthibalaarOgyam kEvalam klESasamsrayam 6 santhaptham viviDhai: dhukkai: dhurvchairEvamadhiBhi: dhEvaraaja dhayaasinDhO dhEva dhEva jagathpathE 7 tvadheekshaNa suDhaasinDhu veechi vikshEpaSeekarai: kaaruNyamaaruthaaneethai: Seethalai aBhiShincha maam 8 Oh dEvaraaja who is an ocean of mercy! dEvaadhi dheevaa (The Lord of the all the dEvaas)! The mother and the father of the Universe! In the wicked, unbearable forest that is the cycle of birth and death (i) which is very dangerous due to the presence of tigers that are the wicked diseases (ii) which is full of short shrubs that the material things (iii) which is full of trees that are the material desires (iv) which is filled with mirages that are relatives and friends, wife, children, house,land etc., I am present. I am undergoing indescribable suffering as (i) I do not have the intelligence and judgement to decide "this is to be done, this is not to be done" and hence I am wandering here and there in circles (ii) I am always tired (iii) I am with a very weak body (iv) I am not intelligent to do the right things and I do not have any strength of mind, strength of body and health and (v) I am full of bad qualities. May the cool, pleasant flood of nectar of Your grace, which is pushed by the wind that is Your kindness, wet this soul that is undergoing tremendous suffering (as described above). As the five slOkas (slOkAs 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8) give a unified meaning, this composition structure is called "kulakam". Svaami thiru-k-kachchi nambi prays for the Lord to cool him (who is full of fevers due to the cycle of birth and death) with the pleasant rain of nectar of the Lord's grace. The word "samsaara" denotes this Universe that gives ignorance to everyone in it. Svaami thiru-k-kachchi nambi analogises this samsaara to a very wicked, dangerous forest. In a forest, there are dangerous animals like tigers and lions. In the samsaara, those dangerous animals are the dangerous, insufferable diseases. In the forest, there are many small shrubs that pull within themselves anyone who steps on them. Samsaara has material things that attract the senses as the shrubs. In a forest, there are many different kinds of trees. In samsaara, the different material desires are the trees. A forest has many mirages that create delusions. In samsaara, these mirages are the relatives and friends that stand in the way between the soul and the Lord (aabhaasa bandhu). Some people raise the following question – Svaami thiru-k-kachchi nambi describes the samsaara as "samsaara marukaanthaarE" (maru = sandy desert); while that is so, he also describes the samsaara as "thrushaapaadha pasaalini" (containing trees that provide shade for the thirsty?); how can that be so? Elders provide the following reconciliation – Even though there is no possibility for a desert to contain large trees that provide shade, it does have dry trees, bald trees and trees that have no leaves. One may assume that svaami thiru- k-kachchi nambi had those trees in mind when he described the samsaara as such. Just as those who are suffering from extreme heat will derive pleasantness and coolness from rain that falls on them, svaami thiru-k-kachchi nambi prays to Lord dEvaraaja to bless him with the rain of the Lord's grace so that the insufferable heat of samsaara that he is now experiencing can be cooled. With this prayer, svaami thiru-k-kachchi nambi completes his stOtra on Lord varadaraaja. Thiru-k-kachchi nambigaL thiruvadigaLE saraNam pEraruLaaLan PerundEvi-th-thaayaar thiruvadigaLE saraNam srI prathivAdhi bhayankaram aNNangarAchAriAr thiruvadigaLE saraNam, adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan, varadhan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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