SRI RANGA SRI E_JOURNAL _ VOL.10 / ISSUE # 09 dated 23rd June 2009

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SrI:

SrimatE Raamaanujaaya Namaha //

SrimatE Nigamaanta Mahaa Desikaaya Namaha //

SrIman! SrI Ranga Sriyam anupadravam anudhinam Samvardhaya/

SrIman! SrI Ranga Sriyam anupadravam anudhinam Samvardhaya//

KAvEri VardhathAm kAlE, kAlE varshathu vAsava: /

SrI RanganAthO jayathu Sri Ranga Sri cha VardhathAm//

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SRI RANGA SRI VOL.10 / ISSUE # 09 dated 23rd June 2009

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IN THIS ISSUE:

 

1. AZHWAARS and SWAMY DESIKAN (2.2- BhoothatthazhwAr and Swamy Desikan)

2. Srivaishnavam – Part 2

 

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ISSUES RELEASED

With this issue, about 296 Regular issues of SRS have been released

so far, apart from numerous " Special Issues " as indicated below:

27 Issues of Vol. 1

15 Issues of Vol. 2

42 Issues of Vol. 3

35 Issues of Vol. 4

28 Issues of Vol. 5

30 Issues of Vol. 6

50 Issues of Vol. 7

36 Issues of Vol. 8

27 Issues of Vol. 9 and

09 Issues of Vol. 10

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1. AzhwArs and Swamy Desikan

2.2- Bhoothatthazhwar and Swami Desikan – Part 2

[ by Sri U Ve Kotthimangalam Gopalachakravartthi Swami]

 

In Acharyakrithya adhikAram, he refers to

 

Paatukkuriya pazhaiyavar…

 

<<>>

In Saarasangraham rahasyam, bhootha sarO vEthAlAn kulasEkara vishNuchittha

bhakthi DhanAn bhakthAm DhrirEnu SaTajith kaliripu munivAhanAnapi bhajAmi –

Swami pays his vandhanam from BhoothtthazhwAr, all ten azhwArs.

 

In SatadooshaNi, 65th vaadham, Swami explains that AzhwArs are none other than

Anantha Garuda, vishvaksEnar et al- Nithyasuris who took such avathArams and

refuted the futile argument that there should not be any azhwAr vigraham in the

temples.

 

In DehaLeesa sthuthi-

 

deepEna kEnachidhaseetha ruchA niseethE

snehOpapanna parisuddha guNArpithEna I

dahrAvakAsa nipiTam dadrushur bahvantham

svAdhyAya yOga nayanA : suchaya: kaveendhrA : II

 

(Anvaya Kramam ) : SvAdhyAya: yOga nayanA : suchaya :

kavi IndrA : , niseeThE aseetha ruchA kEnachidh snEha

upapanna : parisuddha guNa arpithEna deepEna ,

dahra avakAsa nipiTam bhavantham dadhdrusu :

 

(Meaning ) : Those holy men were princes among poets .

With VedAs and yOgA(dhyAnam ) as their two eyes , they

saw You , while you were actively squeezing them in

the small space of the dEhaLi at ThirukkOvalUr during

that celebrated midnight known for its darkness due to

the absence of the lustre of the cool moon . They saw You

with the help of a special kind of lamp , which had snEhA

( ghee, bhakthi ) as the fuel and sathva guNA as the wick .

With this special lamp , they found You pressing

them in the small space of their heart caves .

 

( comments ) :This slOkam celebrates the auspicious event

for which ThirukkOvalUr is famous (viz)., the accidental assembly

of the three great yOgis at the dEhaLi of Mrugandu maharishi

on a dark night and the deliberate squeezing of them by

the Lord of this divya dEsam that resulted in the advent of

the divya prabhandhams from these princes among poets .

 

It is normal for the moon to illumine objects duirng dark nights.

On that special night , there was no moon to assist these Yogis

to find out , who was squeezing them at the dEhaLi . Hence ,

they lit an extraordinary lamp with the help of their deep devotion

and sattva guNAs to have the bhAgyam of His darsanam .

 

It is also common practise for people to take an earthern or

metallic vessel , fill it with ghee or oil , set a wick in that vessel

and light the wick and use it to see objects around in dark nights .

What these yOgis did was quite contrary to this common

practise . Poygai made the world as the lamp vessel , the seas as

the ghee and used Suryan as the wick to illumine the dark dEhaLi .

PutattAr used his deep affection for the Lord as the vessel ,

his intense longing to see You as the ghee and made his

reflections on His auspicious guNAs ( dhyAna -janitha chinthanA )

as the wick and created the light to see Him . Pey aazhwAr saw that

the darkness was banished by the two lamps lit by his peers

and hence with out any effort other than his own pristine bhakthi

saw the Lord and His consort amidst them . The divine speech that

flowed from took the form of the celestial songs constituting

the first three prabhandhams .

 

Oh Lord! Great pristine seers, namely, Poigai, Bhutham and Pey azhwars had a

vision aided by Vedic knowledge and yogic mastery. Pure at heart, they longed

for the vision of God. Their yearning, their thirst was so insufferable that you

condescended to give them Your vision. You chose a dark rainy night; You

`sought' admission into the narrow room wherein they were put up to the brim;

You entered and made them feel and experience Your presence. Nevertheless, they

would not derive satisfaction till they could physically `see' You, whom they

had only experienced by touch and congestion within a narrow room of `dehali'.

 

Figuratively they lit a lamp and `saw' You. The record is that Poigai lit the

lamp of earth as the Bowl, Sea as the Oil and Sun as the Lamp. BhoothatthazhwAr

lit the lamp, so to say, of Love as Bowl, intense longing passion as Oil and the

mind as Wick.

 

They `saw' You, although in the mental plane,. It must have been truly an

experience that was vouchsafed to them.

 

Dehaleesa sthuthi- 7th verse:

 

" Oh Lord DehaLeesa! You are verily a special quality sugar cane, I would dare

say. The three sage-poets, Poigai, Bhootham and Pey AzhwArs enjoyed a special

squeezing experience with You in the narrow `DehaLi' on that rainy day's dark

night. You were perhaps squeezed into an extraordinary variety of juice that

precipitated a novel sugar-candy by admixture with the nectar exuded by the

lotus flowers that your feet are.

 

Neither the starting material – sugar cane - , nor the product is the ordinary

one. The special sugar candy is most delectable to the special category of

Bhakthas, referred to as ParamaikAnthins (i.e. Those who spurn any God or any

goal other than You)

 

9th verse-

 

chithram na tath thrishu mithAni padhEshu yath thE

viswAnyamUni bhuvanAni visankatEshu I

bhakthai: samam kvachithasou bhavanaikadEsE

maathi sma mUrthiramithA tadhihadhbhudham na: II

 

( anvaya Kramam ) : ViswAni amUni bhuvanAni visankatEshU

thE thrishu padhEshu mithAni yath tath na chithram amithA

asou mUrthi: bhakthai: samam kavachidh bhavana EkadEsE

mAthisma , tath iha na: adhbhutham .

 

Oh Lord! Your size, the size of Your feet- were all evidently so mammoth that

the worlds – all of them, indeed – were not able to measure upto your size! Thus

the measuring instrument far exceeded the object sought to be measured.

 

But that's not a mystery or surprising. There is even greater wonder. This

feature of Yours of immeasurably mammoth size in stature, could just appear

within the small ante-chamber, dehali- and could find itself accommodated along

with the three AzhwArs.

 

16th verse-

 

In this verse , Swami Desikan celebrates the advent

of the Three ThiruvanthAdhis by the Mudhal AzhwArs .

 

svacchandha vikrama samunnamithAth amushmAth

sthOthrathrayam yadhabhavath tava paadhapadhmAth I

vEthALa BhUtha SarasAm apadisya vAcham

peAyENa tath prasava bhUmim avApa bhUya : II

 

O Lord DehaLeesA ! The flood

of sacred waters that flowed out of Your own sankalpam

from Your uplifted feet branched off into three divisions

and reached dEva lokham , Manushya Lokham and

the nether world . Those three streams then took on

the form of the three thiruvandhAthis associated

with Poygai , BhUtham and pEy aazhwAr and finally

returned to Your sacred feet . Swami suggests

that they started liek Ganga at His sacred feet and

returned to them .

 

The triple stream of GangA ( srOthAsthrayam )

is compared here to the three floods of divine

utterances that emanated from the three aazhwArs .

The Lord's celebrated feet , the origin of

GangA in TrivikramAvathAram , is the goal of the

parama bhakthAs assembled in the DehaLi

of ThirukkOvalUr sthOthra priyan .

[Translated by Sri Satakopan Swami, USA]

The unanimity of thought and purpose of the three

AzhwArs is compared to the three branches of

the same river ( srOthasthrayam ) . The tradition

is to enjoy these three prabhandhams in unison .

They have the tatthva trayam with the extraordinary

beginnings , which are echoes of one another :

 

The Ganga of three – streamed flow that You generated from Your lifted foot,

which raised to the BrahmA's world by a free sport, has according to honest

assessment comes back to Your Feet as a kind of verbal flow, from the triad of

AzhwArs – Poigai, Bhootham, Pey – in the form of Supreme Tamil poetry.

 

The three hundred verses of the three azhwArs are homogenous literature, that

speak of Your Feet, that praise Your Feet and point at them as the Goal and the

way.

 

Swami says that the original Ganga employed the pretext of the three AzhwArs, to

become Tamil literature. Because, not withstanding our mechanical identification

of hymns with particular authors (AzhwArs, Desika et al) evidently all owe their

creation and origin to the Lord. NammzhwAr repeatedly asserts that the Lord led

Him, He uttered word and verse, which simply repeated and he was merely the

" gover' not the `author'.

 

17th verse-

 

The Lord loves divine sports, especially with his dearest devotees. The one

sport He indulged in with the first three AzhwArs has been referred to earlier.

To enter into a small room in which they were riveted to a standing posture! He

entered and caused congestion and perhaps asphyxiation too!

 

You should suffer the situation in order to feel how uncomfortable it would be!

He got what He wanted. Sweet Tamil poetry, that would elevate people at large,

make them resort to a sane path of deliverance, flowed from their intellectual

tongues.

 

Having done this and having achieved a great positive result, he desired that

they too should not be left to come by the congested devayana path carved out

for Mukthas. He, therefore created through His left –thumb toe a golden yellow

illumination that directly elevates them to Sri vaikunta in a star lighted

upward path – called swaathi –path –preferring it to the conventional archraadhi

maargam, hallowed as the traditional choice path for mukthas. Lo! What a great

preference for your favored bhakthAs !

 

BhoothathazhwAr in sampradayam is referred to as siras of Nammzhwar, (Nammazhwar

as avayavi; other azhwArs as his avayavam)

 

kadanmallai kaavalanE bootha vEnthE

kaasinimE laippasiyi lavitta naaLvanN

thidarkadiyunN thaNkOva lidaika ziccen

RiNaiyillaa moovarumaa yisainthE niRka

naduviliva roruvarumen RaRiyaa vaNNa

naLLiruLin maanerukka nanthaa NYaanac

sudarviLakkER RiyanbE thakaLi yaana

thodainooRu menakkaruLsey thulanga neeyE.

 

Sri Brahmathanthra swathanthra jeeyar composed:

 

thulA sravishtA sambhootham bhootham khallOlamaalina: |

dheerE pullOtha phalAn mallA puryA meetE kathAmsakam ||

 

Third Brahmathanthra swathanthra jeeyar blessed us with:

 

anbE thagaLiyA viLanga ninRaan vaazhiyE

Arvatthai neyyaakki aLittha piraan vaazhiyE

inburugu sinthai idu thiriyaan vaazhiyE

iyal jnAnacchudar viLakkai yeritthu vaitthAn vaazhiyE

anbE thagaLi nooRu aruL seydhaan vaazhiyE

aippasiyil avittatthil sagatthudhitthAn vaazhiyE

inpugazh sEr kadanmallai avatharitthAn vaazhiyE

yengaL vaippAm bhoothatthaar iNaiadigaL vaazhiyE

 

 

AzhwAr EmperumAnAr Desikan ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo narayana

Narayana dAsan madhavakkannan

 

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2. SRIVAISHNAVAM – Part 2

 

It is my humble attempt to jot down all that I have heard and read about Sri

VaishNavam. Though it is nothing new for our group, all of these topics have

been covered sometime or the other, it is still my sincere intent to reach the

beginners and novices like me who are just in Kinder gardens of Sri VaishNavam;

I have attempted to translate from Oppiliappan Koil Navaneetham Swami Sri UVe VN

Gopaladesikan Swami's booklet on Srivaishnavam with my free translation; It is

most likely to have errors; Please forgive me; It is all mine; any positive and

good points in them- the credit goes to Swami's write up and our rich

traditions/scriptures. (It is requested that we should stick and abide by what

our scriptures and AchAryALs say to the greatest possible

extent). I have added some additional comments.

 

Second part follows:

 

AZHWARS:

 

AzhwArs, 12 AzhwArs appeared in South India and composed Tamil pAsurams (about

4000) that are considered EQUAL to vEdAs. The Naalaayira Divya Prabhandham were

composed for us to learn and understand the vEdAs in Tamil. As mentioned by

Swami Vedanta Desikan " theLiyaadha maRainilangaL theLiginROmE! " . By reading

these 4000 pAsurams, our concepts get clarified and we get to understand the

incomprehensible vEdAs clearly. They are hence, called Tamil vEdam.

 

AzhwArs were 12 in numbers. Since they always were immersed (aazhndhu) in

kalyANa guNAs (the Most Auspicious attributes) of Emperumaan Sriman NarayaNan,

they are called AzhwArs. They were PoigaiAzhwAr, BhUthathAzhwAr, PEyAzhwAr,

ThirumazhisaiAzhwAr, NammAzhwAr, PeriyAzhwAr, MadhurakaviAzhwAr,

ThondaradippodiAzhwAr, KulasEkharAzhwAr, ThiruppANAzhwAr, AndAL, &

ThirumangaiAzhwAr.

 

NammAzhwAr is considered the Most important and the Greatest AzhwAr; for his

prabhandham (of Thiruvaaimozhi of 1000 pAsurams) which glorifies the prapatti

(the surrender concept). He took refuge at the Lord's feet and performed

prapatti. Hence, for all of us, VaishNavAs, NammAzhwAr is the Chief, since he

leads us by example for performing prapatti at the Lord's Lotus Feet. He is also

addressed as the Prapanna santhaana koodasthar. His Thiruvaaimozhi's commentary

is called Bhagavadh Vishayam. It is a Grantham that one has to do kAlakshEpam

under the feet of his AchAryA.

 

Guru paramparA:

 

Sriman Narayanan is the first AchArya for all of us. He is the Adhi

Guru. Next comes Periya Piratti MahAlakshmi. VishvaksEnar (Senai

Mudhali)( -no connection with Mudhaliar caste of present times) is the next

AchAryan. He is the Chief of the Lord's army (sEnai). Next is NammAzhwAr.

VishvaksEnar, it appears had come down to the earth to teach NammAzhwAr.

Nathamuni is His sishyA. UyyakkoNdaar, MaNakkaal Nambi, Yamuna Muni

(Alavandhaar), Periyanambi come in that lineage. Periya Nambi's sishyar is Our

Most reverred YathirAjar, Sri RamanujAchAryA (lakshmaNa Muni). He is the Most

important AchArya of VaishNava Siddhantham. He is also called Bhagavadh

RamanujA. Rest is all that you are aware of and we can trace down to our present

AchAryA. (ask your parent, if you are not sure who your present AchAryA is.)

 

More in next.

 

Regards

 

Namo narayana

dAsan

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