AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. July 08 Part1)

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SrIH

SrImate ra’ngarAmAnuja MahA deSikAya namaH

SrImate SrInivAsa rAmAnuja MahA deSikAya namaH

SrImate VedAnta rAmAnuja MahA deSikAya namaH

SrI ra’nganAtha divya maNi pAdukAbhyAm namaH

 

AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. July 08 Part1)

 

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)

 

(Please set your encoding to Unicode UTF-8)

SrImad ANDavan tiruvaDi,

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

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

SrImad tirukkuDandai ANDavan’s SrImad rAmAyaNa upanyAsam

 

lakshmaNA'gaccha bhadraM te UrmiLAmudyatAM mayA |

pratIcchha pANiM gRhNIshva mAbhUt kAlasya paryayaH ||

(bAla. 73.35)

Janaka mahArAja said, " lakshmaNa! This is a good lagnam! Do pAnigrahaNam with

this UrmiLA " .

 

Them,

tamevamuktvA janakaH bharataM ca abhyabhAshata |

gRhANa pANiM mANDavyAH pANinA raghunandana ||

(bAla. 73.36)

 

bharata! Do pANigrahaNam with mANDavi!

 

SatrughnaM cApi dharmAtmA abravIt janakeSvaraH |

SrutakIrtyA mahAbhAho! pANiM gRhNIshva pANinA ||

(bAla. 73.37)

 

‘Satrughna! Take the hand of SrutakIrti!’

 

VasishThar performed the wedding for all four of them. Can you imagine how

those marriages would have been!

 

The marriage function was over.

 

atha rAtryAM vyatItAyAM viSvAmitro mahAmuniH |

ApRshTvA tau ca rAjAnau jagAma uttaraparvatam ||

(bAla. 74.1)

 

When it dawned the next morning, ViSvAmitra said, " svAmi-s! I am taking leave;

Janaka mahArAjA, daSaratha cakravartI - I am leaving " .

 

The four sons were asked to prostrate to him.

 

ASIrbhiH pUrayitvA ca kumArAmSca sa rAghavAn |

 

viSvAmitraM gate tasmin rAjA ca jagatIpatiH |

ayodhyAdhipatiH SrImAn vaidehaM mithilAdhipam ||

(bAla. 74.1, 2)

 

He gave his blessings to all and left for HimAcalam - jagAma uttara parvatam.

He left for doing penance. Why? He had accomplished his mission of uniting the

divine couples; he can now meditate on them as daivataM dampatI naH and look for

ways to attain salvation. After this, till paTTAbhishekam, there is no talk

about ViSvAmitra in the remaining 21,000+ Sloka-s. He did not even come for the

paTTAbhishekam; he saw that from where he was.

 

Four days passed by. daSaratha cakravarti said he will take leave. Doesn’t

courtesy require that one should say good-bye and leave by oneself!

 

Janaka mahArAjA said, " okay " .

 

dadau kanyA pitA tAsAM dAsIdAsamanuttamam |

 

hiraNyasya suvarNasya muktAnAM vidrumasya ca||

(bAla.

74.6,7)

 

Janaka gave a lot of dowry. He gave silver, gold, blankets, gems, corals,

pearls, male and female servants, elephants etc., and requested daSaratha

cakravarti to take everything with him.

 

With great happiness, daSaratha cakravarti took his four daughters-in-law. The

chariot started moving. The army started moving. He left for ayodhyA.

 

gRhapraveSam is going to take place later in a grand way. daSaratha gets into

his chariot and leaves. VasishTha gets into a palanquin and goes.

 

Suddenly, daSaratha says: “Stop the palanquinâ€; he saw some bad omens, and

got down. VasishTha asked the reason. daSaratha said that there were bad omens

and asked him what to do.

 

ghorAH sma pakshiNo vAco vyAharanti tatastataH |

 

bhaumAScaiva mRgAH sarve gacchhanti sma pradakshiNam ||

(bAla. 74.11,12)

 

" What svAmi! I do not know what to do! Birds are all making noises, and it

sounds inauspicious! It looks like bad omen to me! On the other hand, all the

animals on the ground are coming around us in pradakshiNam [an auspicious

indication]. What kind of omen is this? I don't understand the reason. What

is going to happen? We see good omens as well as bad omens. What will be the

consequences? I do not know " .

 

It is obviously a difficult situation. There is a SAstram called Sakuna (omen)

SAstram. It is very difficult to predict based on this SAstram. It says, " If

there are a lot of good omens, take them as bad omen; if theree are lot of bad

omens, take it as a good omen " .

 

" atyapaSakunaM Sakunam, atiSakunaM ca apaSakunam "

 

Too many good omens mean bad omen! Too many bad omens mean good omen! Sakuna

SAstram is a very hard one to interpret.

 

There is a Slokam. Direct meanings are not given by the Sloka-s. The meaning

will not be easy to figure out as well.

 

At the time of departure for some place,

 

akuberapurI vilokanam adharAsUnukaraM param |

ata tat parihAra hetave adamayantIpati locanaM smara ||

 

Can someone come forward to give the meaning of the Slokam!?

 

akuberapurI vilokanam – If one looks at ‘akuberapurI’ when leaving - If

one looks at the object represented by the word that is obtained by adding a- to

the place that is name of ‘kuberapurI;

 

adharAsUnu-karam param - the result will be what is indicated by adding the

letter a- to the word representing ‘dharAsUnu – bhUmi’s son’, followed

by the word ‘karam’.

 

ata tat parihAra hetave – the parihAram (the act for nullifying the effect of

this bad omen) is;

 

a-damayantIpati locanam smara – Meditate on the one who has eyes resembling

the word that results from adding –a to the word that stands for the

‘consort of damayantI’.

 

Here is the decoding of the Slokam!

 

akuberapurI vilokanam - When one is starting from the house with some purpose in

mind and happens to see 'akuberapuri' (kuberapuri, the abode of kubera is

'alakA'; add an 'a-' in front of 'alakA'; it becomes analakA - a widow). If you

look at a widow as you are starting for some place;

 

adharAsUnukaram param - add an 'a-' in front of the word representing bhUmi's

son (dharA sunu is bhUmi's son - SevvAi graham – planet Mars, called

ma~Ngalam in samskRt); adding a- to the word ma~Ngalam, one gets the word

‘ama~Ngalam’ – ama~Ngalakaram - inauspicious. [so far, the meaning is:

‘Seeing a widow when one leaves for some place is inauspicious’].

 

ata tat parihAra hetave - what should be done as parihAram [the act that will

nullify the bad effect of this omen] for that?

 

adamayantIpati locanam smara - add an 'a-' in front of the name of damayantI's

husband (nalan/naLan); it becomes anala.– Thus, ‘anala locanam smara’ is

the parihAram specified in the Slokam. ‘anala’ means ‘fire’. anala

locanan is a reference to the ‘fire-eyed person’ (ParameSvaran). ‘Meditate

on ParmeSvaran in order to nullify the effect of the bad omen resulting from

looking at a widow as you leave for some place’ – that is the interpretation

for the Slokam from Sakuna Sastram! The Sakuna Sastram does not explicitly say

‘ParameSvaran’ because his name should not be said explicitly - he is

devatAntaram – anya devatA! (slight laughter in the audience).

 

It is very hard to predict based on Sakuna SAstram. daSaratha tells VasishTha -

ghorASca ca pakshiNo vAcaH vyAharanti samantataH - When we are starting to leave

to our places for gRhapraveSam, birds are all making very loud and terrifying

sounds! [a bad omen].

But if you look down on the ground, there are good omens.

 

bhaumAScaiva mRgAH sarve gacchhanti sma pradakshiNam - down on the ground, all

the animals are circumambulating us clockwise [a good omen]!

 

When akrUrar went to fetch kRshNa, " pradakshiNaM mAm pracaranti amI mRgAH - says

bhAgavatam, and says this is a good omen indicating that akrUrar is going to be

successful in seeing kRshNa.

 

Kambar describes the above incident of daSaratha asking VasishTha about the

omens :

 

ninRE neRi uNarvAn, oru ninaivALanai azhaiyA,

'nanRO? pazhudu uLadO? naDu urai nI, nayam' enna

kunRE purai tOLAn edir puLLin kuRi koLvAn

'inRE varum iDaiyURu; adu nanRAi viDum' enRAn

(paraSurAma vadaip paTalam - 6)

 

Kambar says -

ninRE neRi uNarvAn - predicting Sakunam - reading omens - must be done after

weighing everything. It will depend on the particular instance. VasishTha

bhagavAn looked – in the sky, birds are all creating sounds indicating bad

omen; but, on the ground, animals are coming around in a clockwise fashion

(which is a good omen). kunRE purai tOLAn edir, puLLin kuRi tErvAn - VasishTha

says - " 'inRE varum iDaiyURu adu nanRAi viDum'- a big obstacle is going to

appear for us; but, that will be rectified immediately. Because the birds in

the sky are raising bad omens, the danger will be posed by some deva(s), and

because animals on the ground are producing good omens, that danger will be

overcome by our boys on this earth. "

 

'inRE varum iDaiyURu adu nanRAi viDum' - because of bad omen, a danger will

occur; but, because of the good omen, 'adu uDanE viDum', that will go away -

says kamban in this great pASuram.

 

ninRE neRi uNarvAn, oru ninaivALanai azhaiyA,

'nanRO? pazhudu uLadO? naDu urai nI, nayam' enna

kunRE purai tOLAn edir puLLin kuRi koLvAn

'inRE varum iDaiyURu; adu nanRAi viDum' enRAn

 

Suddenly, it became dark. Sand storms started blowing. Have you seen " Andhi "

(sand storm) in Delhi? It was pitch dark. Nothing could be seen in any

direction.

 

All on sudden, there was a brilliance standing in front of them, holding a bow

and an axe! Who was that?

 

krodhAgniM jamadagni pIDana bhavaM santarpayishyan kramAt

akshatrAmiha santataksha ya imAM triH sapta kRtvA kshitim |

datvA karmaNi dakshiNAM kvacana tAmAskandya sindhuM vasan

abrahmaNyamapAkarotu bhagavAn AbrahmakITam muniH ||

(daSAvatAra

stotram - 7)

 

dadarSa bhImasa'nkASam jaTAmaNDala dhAriNam |

 

bhArgavaM jAmadagnyaM taM rAjarAja vimardinam |

kailAsamiva durdharshaM kAlAgnimiva duHsaham | (bAla. 74.20)

 

jvalantamiva tejobhiH durnirIkshaM pRthagjanaiH |

skandhe cA''sajya paraSuM dhanurvidyutgaNopamam |

pragRhya SaramukhyaM ca tripuraghnaM yathA puram || (bAla. 74.21)

 

This person came like the fierce parameSvaran who came to conquer tripurAsuran.

 

His matted hair was shining with radiance.

 

irunila mannar tammai iru nAlum eTTum

oru nAlum onRum uDanE

ceru nudalUDu pOgi avarAvi manga

mazhuvALil veNra tiRalOn

peru nilamangai mannar malar mangai nAtar

pula mangai kELvar pugazh SEr

peru nilamuNDumizhnda peru vAyarAgi

avar nammai ALvar peridE!

(tirumangai AzhvAr in periya tirumozhi 11.4.6)

 

This person killed twenty one generations of kings on this earth, svAmi!

irunila mannar tammai iru nAlum eTTum oru nAlum onRum uDanE - did you count?

 

irunila mannar tammai iru nAlum eTTum

oru nAlum onRum uDanE

ceru nudalUDu pOgi avarAvi manga

mazhuvALil veNra tiRalOn

 

Using a single axe, he killed the evil kings belonging to ((2 x 4) + 8 + 4 + 1)

= 21 generations. Why?

 

kArta vIryArjunan killed this person's father, jamadagni. In retaliation, he

killed twenty one generations of kings, collected their blood as a pond and did

tarpaNam for his father using the hairs of the kings as darbham. Look what kind

of a person this was! He has that much anger in him.

 

He wreaked vengeance because kArtavIryan killed his father -

 

vaDivAi mazhuvE paDaiyAga vandu tOnRi mUvezhukAl

paDiyAr araSu kaLai kaTTa pAzhiyAnai, ammAnai

kuDiyA vaNDu koNDuNNak kOla nIlam maTTugukkum

kaDiyAr puRavil kaNNapurattu - aDiyEn kaNDu koNDEnE !

(tiruma'ngai in 8.8.6)

 

AzhvAr says that he saw that paraSurAmap perumAL in tirukkaNNapuram.

 

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To be continued …..