[sri ramanuja] Sri Ramanuja Journal Issue 2 Volume 3

[Guest guest]

* SrimathE RAmanujaya namaH*

 

* SrImathE varavaramunayE namaH*

 

* *

 

*Karthikai, Vyaya

Azhvar 2, Acharya 3 *

 

* *

 

*Kaisika EkAdasi*

 

*December 1st 2006*

 

*praLayOdanvadutthIrNNAm prapatthyEham vasundharAm*

 

*mahA varAha damshTRAgra mallIkOSa madhUvrathAm*

 

* *

 

*namasthasmai varAhAya LIlayA uddharathE mahim*

 

*ghuramadhyagathOyasya mErU kaNakaNAyathE*

 

* *

 

*Kaisika EkAdasi is one of the most auspicious celebrations for us. The

relevance of this day is very much dear to our pUrvAchArya's and the

aithihyams' related to kaiSika EkAdaSi has found its place inscribed even in

rahasya granthas. *

 

* *

 

*The sukla paksha ekAdasi of kaRthika month is celebrated as kaiSika ekAdasi.

It is an important occasion according to SrIpAncharAthra agama, named

as uththAna

ekAdasi, since emperumAn wakes up from yoga nidra on this day after the

chathurmasyam period. *

 

* *

 

*Namperumal in SrIrangam performs karpUra paDiyEttham on this day and is a

wonderful feast to the eyes.*

 

* *

 

*Why the name kaisika ekadasi is given to it? Is a very interesting

question. Many people confuse it as kausika ekadasi. But it has nothing to

do with viswamithra maharshi. *

 

* *

 

*The word kaisikam denotes a paNN (swaram)*

 

* *

 

*In the saptha swaras "sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni"*

 

*Each swara has basic octaves and the combinations of the swaras' produce

mela kartha ragas. Among this, nishAdam is divided into three Suddha

nishAdam (Ni), kAkaLi nishAdam (Ni) and kaiSika nishAdam (Ni). This kaiSiki

raga, is favorite to emperuman. But what is kaisika ragam. One can find

kaisiki Ni is found in many ragas, like bhairavi or sankarabharanam. But

what this paNN has to do with the ekadasi, we should come to SrIvarAha

purANam. *

 

* *

 

*During the avathAram as SrI varAha nAyanar, emperuman advises bhUmi

pirATTiregarding thathva

hitha purushArthAs summed up as varAha purANam. Kaisika mAhAthmyam falls as

a Chapter in SrI varaha purANam and swami parASAra bhaTTar have blessed us

with a wonderful lucid commentary on this chapter. *

 

* *

 

*An explanation of why this particular chapter is very close to our heart

can be found in the 85th Suthram of AchArya hridayam*

 

*mLEchchhanum bhakthanAnAl chathurvEdikaLanuvartthikka ……….. uLkalarnthu

thozhukulamAnavan nilaiyArpATalAlE brAhmaNa vELvikuRai muTitthamayum, ………..

aRivArkkirE janmOthkarshApakarshankaL therivathu.*

 

* *

 

*It is the anecdote of nAmpADuvAn makes this day very much important for us

and stressing once again in the glories of bhAgavatha's. *

 

* *

 

*…ippaDiyirukkum SrIvaishNavarkaL yEttham ARinthu ugandhu irukkai..

mumukshuppaDi 116*

 

* *

 

*SrI parASarabhaTTar dearly names him as nampADuvAn, since the puranam as

such does not give any name to this bhagavatha, and calls him as chandAlA or

svapAka (one who eats dog meat). But SrI bhaTTar's choice of the name

nampAduvAn come appropriately with " nam", prefix one can add this

thirunAmam to the category of *

 

* *

 

*namperumAL nam mAzhvAr namjeeyar nampiLLai enpar avaravar tham yEtthatthAl

anpuDayOr chAtthu thirunAmangaL – UpadESa rathnamAlai*

 

* *

 

*The story in a nutshell*

 

* *

 

*SrI varAha nAyanar explains the greatness of the people who sings songs in

front of emperumAn without having any sAdhya sAdhana buddhi " Thuyil ezha

ppADuvAn" to SrIbhUmipirATTi and he explains that such a person, even if he

goes to other lokas', he wont think of the pleasures in such lokas' and keep

singing deeply moved in bhagavath guNa anusandhAnam, so eventually he

acquires moksham. *

 

*"indralOkatthirukkumaLavum ankuLLAr ellAraiyum azhaitth

pATTukELppikkumaLAvantrikkE nammai ninaitthu pADipOrukayAlE, ankunintrum

ivanAi koNdupOY nam periya vITTilE "Ethath sAmagAyannAsthE" ennu eppOthum

namakkE pADi irukkumpaDi vaitthOm kANum ennaruLiccheykiRAR" –From the

commentary of swami bhaTTar *

 

* *

 

*Then bhUmi pirATTi doubts this, how can singing songs be taken as a means

to reach you. Can devareer say an example? Then SrI varAha nAyanAr tells

bhUmipirATTi, 'remember in that place, ThirukkuRunkudi, where we lived in a

small hut, in that place, one incident happened. nampAduvAn, born in a

chandAla yOni, used to come in front of my temple, and stay outside in

accordance to his birth, and sing songs for regardless of me listening or

not. It went like that for 10 years, and one day, during a karithikai

suklapaksha dwadasi morning, nampAduvAn started from his home in the

direction of temple with an urge to do jAgaraNa vritham. But in the midway

he got trapped by a brahma rakshasa. Though the brahma rakshasa immediately

wanted to eat him, nampaduvan pleaded him, that he was having a vritham

called jAgarana vritham, since last 10 years he is not having a break to

that. He requested the rakshasa that, he will return from the temple after

singing the songs to emperuman, and then he can eat. Rakshassa did not

believe the words of nampaduvan and told him that 'you are a liar, have you

ever heard of some one who escaped from the hands of a brahmarakshasa ever

came back'. *

 

* *

 

*Then nampaduvan told him, 'O' brahma rakshass, I don't care about my body,

and you should understand that, even if I am born in a papa yoni, since I

have paramAthma jnAnam, I will never lie and will come back after my

mangalASAsanam'. Since the brahma rakshass did not believe, nampaduvAn

started giving promises, and in the end, nampAduvAn makes a wonderful

promise for which the brahmarakshass had no other chance but to agree

readily. *

 

* *

 

*Nampaduvan says*

 

*I will get the sin of that person, I will catch the durgathi of that

person, who thinks vAsudEva is not the supreme lordship (parathathvam), and

worships other devathantharams if I don't come back. *

 

*Hearing this brahmarakshass had no choice but to agree, and nampaduvan went

to the temple did the mangaLASasanam. *

 

* *

 

*This is reflected in quoted SrIvachanabhUshanam by swami piLLailOkAcharyar,

*

 

*bhagavathapachAramAvathu dEvathAntharankaLODokka, ISvaranAi ninaikkayum……..

303 SrIvachanabhUshanam *

 

* *

 

*nampAduvAn returned with joy, that his thyAjya dEham is going to fall

today. While coming back from the temple, and old man (nambi kizhavan) came

across nampAduvAn and asked, why you are in a hurry, today please tell me

the truth. Then nampAduvAn explained the story to the old man, to which the

old man asked why don't you escape from that pApishTha brahma rakshassa.

nampAduvAn refused this in reply to this nampAduvan praises his manass or

swabhava *

 

* *

 

*nAhamEvam karishyAmi yanmAnthvam parivrichchhasi*

 

*aham sathyE pravrtthOvai SIlam sathyE prathishThitham*

 

* *

 

*Oh! the grand old man, even if I neglect the truth, my nature will not skip

it. *

 

* *

 

*It is like nammazhvAr himself praises his heart in thiruvAymozhi, *

 

*! nenchamE nallai nallai unnai petrAl encheyyOm !1.10.4 thiruvAymozhi*

 

* *

 

*To this the old man was so happy, and graced him (amalankaLAka vizhikkum)

with the big lotus eyes (" vizhikkum AmalankaLAka") of him and asked him to

leave. emperumAn says to bhUmipirATTi, don't think who that old man was, It

is the same person who is praised as purushaH pushkarEkshaNa: *

 

* *

 

*When the brahma rakshass saw nampaduvan coming back he got wonderstruck,

and asked nampaduvan, 'I can spare your life for one thing, give me the

punyas you have accumulated by singing songs so that I will get my sapa

vimoshanam, and you can go with your life'. But nampaduvan refused it, and

said 'our agreement was only my body you can take that not the falam for the

songs'. Then brahmarakshass kept bargaining, half falam, Falam of one YAma

kalam, falam of one song etc. Finally brahmarakshass stopped bargaining and

fell to the feet of nampAduvAn, and requested him to help so that his

rakshassa janma is removed. Seeing the SaraNagatha, nampAduvAn, asked why

did you happen to get into such a brahmarakshasa birth. Then the rakshassa

explained, he was a greedy Brahmin, named somasarma, and was performing a

yaga, while he died in between the yaga without finishing it. Because of

this he born as a brahma rakshass. And requested nampaduvan to help him.

nampAduvAn being a srivaishNava, immediately melted seeing the plight of the

brahmarakshass and told him, tonight, I sung a song in kaisika rAgam, with

the falam of that you will be relieved from this rakshassa yOni. Accordingly

the brahmarakshassa immediately got SApavimoshanam and was born in a

srivaishnava family. Nampaduvan too lived for long and attained moksha in

the end of his life. *

 

*Explaining this story SrI varAha nAyanar, said to bhUmi pirATTi, look

pirATTi, who ever sings in kaisika ragam on karithikai suklapaksha ekadasi,

who ever hears it, who ever reads this charithram of nampaduvan, I will take

them all to the moksha sAmrAjyam. *

 

**

 

 

 

**

 

*Commentary of kaisika purANam*

 

* *

 

*Swami parASarabhaTTar wrote a wonderful commentary to kaisika purANam. The

Avatharika prakaranam itself is wonderful, where he elevates the glory of

varAha avathAra and compares with the other avathara's quoting from Azhvars

aruLicheyalkaL. Then he comes to the out pouring's of AndAL in fact he

traces the varAhAvathAram being the root cause to AndAL's avathAra. Just to

follow this adbhutha charithra of nampAduvan, and perform the gAna rUpa

upAya bhUmi pirATTi took birth as AndAL. The last paragraph is full of

thiruppAvai pasurams where swami had seleced the pasurams contains the word

' pAdi'. The commentary to each sloka is not at lengths all are in crisp and

sweet maNipravALam.*

 

* *

 

*The Drama Enacted*

 

* *

 

*Since the incident occurred in thirukkuRunkuDi divyadEsam, the

thirukkuRunkuDi nambi himself appeared as the old man, nambi kizhavan. The

whole incident is enacted by the bhagavathas in thirukkuRunkuDi every year

in the eve of kaisika dwAdaSi. The original script of the drama is said to

be written by veerabhadra naTTuvanar, in 13 th century. It is said that the

drama is a wonderful feast to the eyes. Unfortunately over 50 years the

performance of natakam got stopped which was revived in 1998 and continuing

since then. This year's natakam will be performed on December 1 st at

thirukkuRunkuDi. *

 

* *

 

*Nambiyai then kuRunkuDi nintra achemponE thigazhum thirumUrtthiay*

 

*empirAnai en cholli maRappanO*

 

* *

 

*athi lamghitha sarvalOka sAmyam varayE vaishNava vaibhavAvathAram*

 

* *

 

*Varavaramuni dAsargaL*