Guest guest Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 SrImate SrI ra'nga rAmAnuja mahA deSikAya namaH. tAtparya ratnAvaLi - Submission 5 - Slokam 3 of avatArikA. Slokam 3: pA'ncAlI gAtra SobhA-hRta hRdaya vadhUvarga pum bhhAvanItyA pAyau padmA sahAye praNayini bhajatah preyasI pAratantRyam | bhaktih SR'ngAra vRttyA pariNamati muneh bhAva bandha prathimnA yogAt prAg uttarAvasthitir-iha viraho deSikAs-tatra dUtAh || One of the very first things that svAmi deSikan emphasizes is the nAyikA bhAvam that is assumed by nammAzhvAr in finding expression to his intense devotion and love towards emperumAn. His inability to bear the separation from bhagavAn leads to his outpourings through SR'ngAra bhAvam. In the case of nammAzhvAr, he assumes the role of parA'nkuSa nAyaki, and expresses the agony of separation from emperumAn through many of his pASuram-s. This is the topic of this Slokam by svAmi deSikan. The natural question can arise in people's minds as to how nammAzhvAr, who is the personification of bhakti nishThA, can be distracted by thoughts such as assuming the role of a female deeply in love with bhagavAn, feeling the pangs of separation, and indulging in activities such as sending the birds etc. as messengers. To understand these, one has to have a feel for how a bhakti yogi's mind acts, what the bhakti yogi goes through as part of his/her meditation, and what the bhakti yogi's sole goal in life is. This is what svAmi deSikan explains to us in this Slokam, and thus explains AzhvAr's nAyikA bhAvam etc. draupadi was not an ordinary mortal. She was born out of the homa kuNDam. As such, she excelled in beauty that made her female friends feel intensely attracted to her beauty, to the point that they wished they could assume the forms of males so that they could enjoy her beauty. svAmi deSikan gives this analogy to describe the assumption of nAyikA bhAvam by the AzhvAr-s – they feel intensely attracted to emperumAn to the point that they want to enjoy Him by assuming the role of His nAyikA-s or consorts. BhagavAn's tirumEni is so beautiful that the AzhvAr-s are overwhelmed by it, to the point of their feeling like embracing Him tightly. One upanyAsaka praises this unique aspect of the devotional outpourings in the SrI vaishNava sampradAyam, where the nAyikA bhAvam gives the intimacy to AzhvAr-s where they can take liberty with Him to embrace Him, to chide Him, to quarrel with Him, etc., and thus enjoy Him in many different ways. Let us look at a more detailed meaning of the Sloka. - pA'ncAlI gAtra SobhA-hRta hRdaya vadhU varga pum-bhAvanItyA – Just as the close friends of pA'cAlI who saw her beauty as they were taking bath together, were attracted to her so much that they started assuming the role of males in their minds - patyA, praNayini padmA-sahAye preyasI pAratantRyam bhajatah muneh – SrI parA'nkuSa muni, whose devotion and dedication to emperumAn who is the Lord of all and the loving Consort of padmA (mahAlakshmi) developed into the level where he prayed for complete subservience to bhagavAn - bhAva bandha prathimnA – and since his attachment to bhagavAn grew to such an extent that - bhaktih SR'ngAra vRttyA pariNamati – his natural love to emperumAn in the form of his natural devotion (bhakti) started manifesting itself in the form of love towards him that resembled the love that His Consort would have towards Him (SR'ngAra bhAvam – intense attraction). - The yogAt prAg uttarAvasthitir-iha viraho deSikAs-tatra dUtAh - In AzhvAr's pASuram-s, we see that sometimes he feels close to emperumAn, and feels happy, and at other times, he feels the intense separation from Him, and starts sending messengers in different forms to bhagavAn, to inform Him of his longing for union with Him. What does all this mean? In the fourth line of this Slokam, svAmi deSikan explains that for one in bhakti yoga, the times when the bhakta is immersed in deep and concentrated meditation of Him, this is the time of association with Him (samSlesham), and the intervening states when this concentration is broken, it is a feeling of intense separation from Him (viSlesham). They undergo the experience of intimate and full enjoyment of Him during their periods of intense meditation, and when they are not in meditation, they long for that same union with Him physically, and since that does not materialize, it manifests itself in the form of their intense feeling of separation, which turns into expressing themselves in their nAyikA bhAvam. Since the AcArya-s show the path that will result in the continued state of meditation on Him for prolonged intervals without interruption, they are called `messengers' or dUta-s in our tradition. This is what svAmi deSikan points out in the fourth line – yogAt prAg uttara avasthih iha virahah; deSikAs-tatra dutAh. Thus, in a nutshell, svAmi deSikan explains the concept of nAyikA bhAvam that is so common and widely prevalent in our AzhvArs' compositions, the cause of samSleshham (union with Him) and viSlesham (separation from Him) that AzhvArs exhibit repeatedly, and the role of the AcArya-s in our tradition, all in the four short lines of this Slokam. -dAsan kRshNamAcAryan (To be continued) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.