AcArya rAmAmRtam - (from SrI ra’nganAtha pAdukA dt. October 08 Part 1)

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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. October 08 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)

 

(Please set your encoding to Unicode UTF-8)

SrImad ANDavan tiruvaDi,

kalyANi kRshNamAcAri

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SrImad tirukkuDandai ANDavan’s SrImad rAmAyaNa upanyAsam

 

katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena ekena tushyati | (ayodhyA. 1.11)

 

A person never went to pArthasArathy temple. He had a baby. That child had the

first birthday. He wrote a letter to his son's in-laws. His son's father-in-law

was a religious person. He had brought gifts like diamond studded pin for

piercing the ear, silk clothes, sari for his daughter etc for the Ayush homam.

 

In the evening, they all went to the beach. The in-law also went. He called

the boy's father to come with him to visit pArthasArathy temple. The boy's

father was not very interested in doing that. But, he went with him, thinking -

'he has brought so many gifts; he is calling me to go to the temple; if I do not

go, he may think something is wrong with me " .

 

He went without any desire of his own. katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena ekena

tushyati - he went only for the sake of his son's father-in-law; otherwise, he

would not have gone.

 

In the temple, someone asked him, " What svAmi! You have come this far " .

 

He replied, " He invited me! Otherwise, I would not have come. Who can come

here? " katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena ekena tushyati - bhagavAn is One who is

pleased with a kaimkaryam done even though it may be done without any desire.

 

katha'ncit, upakAreNa, kRtena ekena tushyati - this is one way of doing anvayam

[prose order of the phrase in the Slokam].

 

There is another person; he has never done any good to anyone. He is a terrible

ingrate as far as PerumAL is concerned. Even in this case, bhagavAn will not

think of him as an ingrate, but keep looking for anything good he may do and

bless him happily.

 

katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena - this is another anvayam. He is pleased with the

least goodness done.

 

There is another brahamaNa; he is used to taking bath only at 11 o' clock. He

will take the washing soap with him when he goes to take a bath. He will go to

the side bank [of the river] and wash his upper garment and lower garment. Then,

he will take a bath. He will not do Acamanam [washing mouth and hands with

water]. He will wring out the loin cloth and place it on his sacred thread

(audience laughs). He will come out of the bank and wring out his garments. He

will go home and eat. He will not do sandhyA or mAdhyAhnikam [noon sandhyA].

 

He died at last. PerumAL asked His dUta-s to give him His lokam. When they

said that he had not done anything, He said, " Yes, he has done " . What did he

do? He came out of the bank and wrung out his dhoti and upper garment. At the

spot where he was doing that, there was a tulasi plant that got water from his

dhoti and kept growing.

 

katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena ekena tushyati |

 

He did not water the tulasi. BhagavAn took his act of wringing water out of his

dhoti and treated it as a good act. He felt satisfied that the man had offered

water to tulasi. katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena ekena tushyati |

 

 

PerumAL went to the river bank for tIrttavAri [sacred water rite]. It was a

wonderful event. In that bank, a fisherman was fishing; he was asked to leave

to give way for PerumAL. He refused to leave saying there are a lot of fish

coming there to eat the dirt in the legs of men standing in the water and he

would be fishing only in that spot. And he did exactly that. tIrttavAri was

over.

 

That fisherman got old and died. VishNu dUta-s came to get him. Question was -

this person was causing disturbance during tIrttavAri; was he getting VishNu

lOkam?

 

Yes, he fished during tIrttavAri time. He caught a big fish in his net. In

order to make sure that the fish did not escape, he dived into the water and

held on to its tail. Exactly at the same moment, bhaTTar (high priest) dipped

PerumAL into the water.

 

PerumAL took account of who all took a bath when He was doing avabhRta snAnam

[done at the end of yAgam or festival]. He made a note that this fisherman also

was one of them. katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena ekena tushyati | Even if a

person commits a good act without even liking it, He considers it as an act done

with great desire.

 

A person's daughter was getting married. He went to buy silk saris etc.

Everything was costly. But, he saw an advertisement that kAncIpuram saris are

being sold at kAncIpuram price. He thought, 'it is very costly here; let me go

to kAncIpuram.' The city has stores like SrInivAsa silk, varadarAja silk etc;

so he went to kAncIpuram. He bought the saris and went back home. PerumAL

ordered that he should be credited with having come to kAncIpuram GaruDa sEvai.

When he was buying silk saris in the store, perumAL was taking His street rounds

in ADison pETTai. Even though this person folded his hands in respect from the

store itself and went home after finishing his purchases, tEpperumAL calculated

that he came for GaruDa sEvai and blessed him. katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena

ekena tushyati |

 

There was a lawyer dealing with installment cases. He did not get any case at

all. He was looking for a good one. He was sitting in his front porch. A car

arrived. Four people got down from the car. The lawyer immediately became

alert and told his wife, 'clients are coming; give coffee; give raw banana bajji

[deep-fried snack]; bring them to eat'.

 

The people came close. He welcomed them, 'Please come! Be seated!' They all

washed their hands, ate bajji and drank coffee. The lawyer asked them what the

reason of their visit was. They said, " There is going to be kumbAbhishekam

[consecration ceremony] in the temple! We have to come to collect money " .

(Laughter in the audience).

What was this man thinking originally? He thought they were coming to present

him with a case. Just as he thought of people coming to ask for donations for

temple consecration as those who came for giving a case for him, PerumAL

considers those who came for sari purchases in the store as those who came for

GaruDa sEvai.

 

Even though the person did not come to see Him [in kAncIpuram] and came only for

sari purchase, He saw him - katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena ekena tushyati - He

changed the purpose of his visit to one of coming to see Him and blessed him.

That is His nature.

 

rAghava's nature is like that.

 

There was a person who had a habit of drinking coffee at 6 o'clock when the sun

rose. What should he do? He has to buy milk. But, it was not available in

time. So, he bought a cow. The cow provided him with wonderful milk. One day,

he did not get his 6 o'clock coffee. He asked for it and found that the cow had

not been milked. So, there was no coffee.

 

He was angered that he had paid 500 rupees for that cow. He woke up the cow;

because of the speed with which he did that, the cow broke loose from the stump

and started running. He kept running and chasing after the fleeing cow and he

finally gave up and came back to his front porch. He decided to sell the cow

even if it ever came back. He was in extreme anger and did not feel the need

for the cow any more.

 

The time for him to die came. VishNu dUta-s came to get him. Why? When he was

chasing and running after the cow going around the temple, PerumAL took it as

this person circumambulating His temple. This person had done one mile of

running around the temple at that time. PerumAL ordered moksham for him.

 

katha'ncit upakAreNa kRtena ekena tushyati |

 

bhagavAn considers an act done by a person to have been committed for Him, even

though the person did not do it for that purpose. He looks for some act that

the person does and thinks of it as having been done for Him. katha'ncit

upakAreNa kRtena ekena tushyati | rAma has such kind of kalyANa guNa.

 

na smaratyapakArANAm Satam apyAtma vattayA | (ayodhyA.1.11)

 

Only these two Slokams; I will go faster after that. [srImad ANDavan says]

 

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(To be continued)