AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. Nov 07 Part 1)

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SrImate ra’ngarAmAnuja mahA deSikAya nama:

SrImate SrInivAsa rAmAnuja mahA deSikAya nama:

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SrI ra’nganAtha divya maNi pAdukAbhyAm nama:

 

AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. Nov 07 Part 1)

 

English Translation of

SrImad rAmAyaNa upanyAsam in tamizh by SrImad tirukkuDandai ANDavan

 

As published in SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA by

SrI u.ve. nATTEri KiDAmbi rAjagopAlAcAriyAr (Editor of SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA)

 

SrImad ANDavan tiruvaDi,

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

=====================================

SrImad tirukkuDandai ANDavan’s SrImad rAmAyaNa upanyAsam

 

They ate vegetables and roots available on the ga’nges banks and kept going in

the afternoon and reached the town of visAlA. rAma and lakshmaNa asked,

“svAmi! What town is this?” “Now that You are asking… this is where diti did

penance”.

 

“diti devI! Why did she do penance?” “There was a mahaRshi named durvAsar.

He went to vaikuNTham, actually to kshIrAbdhi. It was a Friday. It was a

Friday in the month of tai; he went and praised lakshmI with SrI sUktam. He is

not an ordinary mahaRshi. He chanted the stotram. Immediately, mahAlakshmI

gave Him a garland. She was wearing on her head. durvAsar came back very

happy carrying that garland.

 

“bhUta nAyakan, puvimagaL nAyakan, malar magaL nAyakan, Ananda nAyakan – that

great a bhagavAn; lakshmI is residing on His chest; how much tapas have I done

to get Her garland – yAn peRa ettavam Seydanan kol – I got this!” He was

extremely pleased.

 

As he was returning, he came to devalokam. indran was coming in a procession

on his elephant airAvatam. He was sitting in a golden mandpam set on top of the

elephant. It is called svarNAsavAri. It was navarAtri vijayadaSami day. In

Mysore state, it is called jambU savArI, do you know!

 

indran was coming in a golden mandapam. Thirty three crores of devas were

coming behind him along with musical instruments. In the front was indran.

durvAsar offered that garland to indran. indran looked.

 

tanai ovvAdavan magizhcciyAl vAsavan tan kai

vanaiyum mAlayaiyum nITTalum tOTTiyAl vA’ngi

tunai valattu ayirAvadattu eruttiDait toDuttAn

panai Sei kaiyinAl paRittu aDip paDutttadu appagaDu

(kamban – agaligaip paTalam 3-10)

(indran gave it to his elephant, and it threw that garland down and trampled on

it)

 

tanai ovvAdavan – durvAsa mahaRshi was one with no equal. Kambar will use this

phrase ‘tanakku nigar illAdavan’ – one who has no equal - in several places.

We have to give the meaning for that. nArAyaNan is the only one who has no

equal. Kambar uses the term ‘tanai ovvAdavan’ here for durvAsar. In one

place, he wrote – ‘tanai ovvAdavan’ for A’njanEyar – that he has no equal. He

writes that there is no other person who is on the same level as him. We have

to say the meaning in an intelligent manner. There is no one equal to durvAsar

as far as his anger is concerned. There is no one equal to AnjanEyar in his

devotion to rAman - Like that. durvAsar got very angry.

 

bhUtanAyakan puvimagaL nAyakan, poru il

vEda nAyakan mArbagattu inidu vIRRirukkum

AdinAyaki viruppuRu teriyal koNDu aNainda

mAdarALvayin peRRanen muyanRa mA tavattAl

(kamban – agaligaip paTalam 3-13)

 

Somebody told me I should be quoting a lot of Kambar songs. So, I am quoting.

 

“How much penance have I done to receive this garland! You insulted the

garland I brought from vaikuNTham. Whose garland is it? This garland belongs

to lakshmI, the special lady, who is seated nicely on the chest of AdinAyakan,

vELvi nAyakan, vEda pratipAdyan; I was so happy to receive that thinking how

much blessed I am! And you threw it?

 

InRu nin perum Sevvi kaNDu uvagaiyin Inda

manRal am toDai igazhndanai ninadu mAnidhiyum

OnRu alAda pal vaLa’ngaLum, uvari pukku oLippa

kunRi, nI tuyaril kiDa ena uRaittanan koDiyOn

 

“Looking at your aiSvaryam, I gave you the special garland of lakshmI, thinking

that you should get lakshmI kaTAksham – Her blessing.”

 

Sometimes, when we give tAyAr’s garland to some eminent people, they will take

it and tie it in the front of the car; there would be some symbol like a lion,

tiger or svastik in the front; he would tie the garland around that. When the

car is going fast, the garland would fall down and animals will trample over

that. Next time he comes, he will not be the minister; that is all.

 

durvAsar cursed indran saying that he will lose all his wealth and he will

suffer penniless. Will a person curse like this? Will one commit a mistake

with durvAsar? It may okay to commit apacAram towards other Rshi-s, but not

with durvAsar. He cursed - “onRu alAda pal vaLa’ngaLum uvarip pukkoLippa

kunRi, nI tuyaril kiDa”. He gave the curse because he was ‘koDiyOn’ (very

anger-driven).

 

indran lost everything. He became penniless. He could not bear it.

Immediately, he did penance towards perumAL. “If you churn kshIrAbdhi ocean

using the mandara mountain, you will get amRtam – nectar. When you churn, the

churning rope must be one with a life”.

 

If you buy a rope in the store, will it have life? Where can one go for a rope

with life? Finally, they approached vAsuki (snake).

 

Why a rope with life? I learned by experience. If the rope has life, even if

you keep using it and it keeps deteriorating, it will grow eventually. If you

keep pulling a lifeless rope, it will deteriorate and get cut; only when it has

life, it will grow.

 

When I used to walk, my leg muscles would wear off. Then, when I rest in some

place, the flesh will start growing. That is when I realized He asked for a

rope with life. This is a true experience. That is why they got vAsuki for

the rope (the skin of the snake will keep growing and shedding!)

 

malai Amai mEl vaittu vAsukiyaic cuRRi

talai Amai tAn oru kai paRRi alaiyAmal

pIRak kaDainda perumAn tirunAmam

kURuvadE yAvarkkum kURRu (nAnmugan tiru. – 49)

 

They churned the ocean using mandara mountain. amRtam came. What else came?

Poison and the moon came. He gave both to paramaSivan. He gave the kaRpaga

tree, kAmadhenu, the apsaras women etc., to devendran. lakshmI came. perumAL

married Her. terivai mArvil aNindanan SrIdharan mUrti. A big ratnam – stone –

came - Kaustubham – perumAL kept that also. PerumAL kept all the special ones.

They kept churning. Nectar arrived. The asura-s snatched it and ran away.

deva-s didn’t know what to do. perumAL asked them to relax. He took the form

of a mohini and walked along the ocean beach. Very intriguing form.

bhAgavatam, harivamSam and laksmI tantra samhitai describe this wonderful

incarnation. It is described that He was wearing only white colored sari. He

had exquisitely beautiful hair. Bees were trying to smell His lotus like face.

He is trying to push them with His finger nails of His left hand. The upper

part of His sari is blowing in the wind. He is wearing a six-yard sari. asura

cetAmsi mathayan – the minds of the asuras were stupefied. His sari floating

in the beach wind is being described in a wonderful manner. virocanan, the

asuran, came.

 

kAsi tvam kasya vAmoru! “Lady! Who are you? Why are you walking on this ocean

beach? Who are you? ‘kasya tvamasi?' – Who are your people? Are you married

or not? I do not know! You are wearing six-yard sari! (AcAryar and the

audience laugh) Not sure if you are married or not! Kasya vA tvam asi – who do

you belong to?” He said - asmAkam cetAmsi unmatnantI tvam ekA carasi. – you

are driving our minds mad by your beauty. She said, “I came to see the beach

in the evening time. Why are you asking?”

 

“We have this vessel containing amRtam. Distribute what is in it to us and to

them”.

 

“Look, it is not good to give the job of arbitration to ladies. They will be

very partial. If they like somebody today, they may not like them tomorrow.

“nUtnam nUtnam vicinvatAm” (bhAgava. 8.9.10) – mohini says. I am not saying.

She says, “Women do not like the same thing for two days; they will keep

desiring new things. I may like you today; tomorrow, I may like the deva-s”.

 

Virocanan said, “You can distribute any way you like”. Mohini said okay and

had the asura-s sit on one side. She kept dancing bharata nATyam. The asura-s

were dumb-founded. She gave all the nectar to all the devatA-s and the vessel

was becoming empty. At last one of the asura-s understood what was happening,

and came to the side of the deva-s and got the nectar. It is said he was rAhu-

ketu. Then, She clapped Her hands and said that distribution was over. asuras

complained that they did not get any.

 

Mohini said, “Why were you just watching?” A big battle ensued. Every person

started fighting with the other. nAradar came and said, “Why are you fighting

now? What is the use? Now try to bring down that devendran somehow”. The

asura-s gave up and left. All the nectar was gone. The devatA-s got all the

nectar.

 

tErazhundUr ANDavan was doing upanyAsam on this story one day. One person was

working in tanjAvUr Engineer’s office. He was doing kAlakshepam along with me

under tEraznundUr ANDavan’s tiruvaDi. He was a very naughty person. How else

would he be if he was doing kAlakshepam with me? (AcAryar is laughing

slightly). He listened to this story. He came closer to svAmi and said,

“There is something very wrong with this story! There were 66,000 asuras who

churned using vAsuki, and with great difficulty; will so many people be fooled?

This story is very wrong! You also say this story! Will AcAryas say like

this? And, this AcAryan is said to be so special. The asuras who went through

so much labor – would they have been fooled like that?”

 

SrImad tErazhundUr ANDavan said he also had the same doubt, and said he will

think about it for one day and let him know. So, that friend left. He came

back one early morning at 3 O’ clock, ten or fifteen days later. It was the

first day of the month at 3 a.m. AcAryan asked him why he came at 3 a.m. since

the kAlakshepam was only at 8 a.m.

 

“No! I would have normally gone to ta’njAvUr and then come back. Yesterday, I

had kept some money in my wallet – 150 rupees; I lost the money; so I did not

have money for the train ticket, and came straight here.”

 

“How did you lose it?”

 

“I got my salary - first day of the month. I went to see a drama; somebody

stole it there”.

 

“How many days had you worked”?

 

“One month”.

 

“Will anyone work hard for one month and then lose it all in a drama!”

 

“The dance was very interesting. The one playing the king was dancing; I was

watching that and lost the money”.

 

“Did you lose the whole of one month’s salary of 150 rupees”?

 

“Yes”.

 

“You worked for one month! You lost all that”?

 

“Yes, the drama was that great”.

 

“If you lose 150 rupees in this dance, wouldn’t the nectar be lost if perumAL

dances”? (laughter in the audience) said SrImad tErazhundUr ANDavan. The

answer to that friend’s question was very obviously shown to him in his own

experience.

 

“Yes, svAmi! What I said was wrong”.

 

Then ANDavan got someone to give him money for the train charge, and then he

went to tanjAvur and came back.

 

His money got pick-pocketed just for this dance. How do you think it will be

if perumAL Himself dances!

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To be continued …..

 

 

 

 

 

 

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