Guest guest Posted June 25, 2007 Report Share Posted June 25, 2007 Srimathe ramanujaya Namaha Srimad Vara Vara munayE Namaha Ani, Sarvajith Azhvar 9, Acharya 2 " midhunam svAthijam vishnO: radhAmsam thanvina: pure prapatyE svasuramvishnOr vishNuchittam purassikam " Periazhvar's Divine Service Periyaazhvar was born in pandiya nAdu, Srivilliputtur in Aani month, swathi thirunakshatram, in vEyar kulam and was named vishnuchitta. Due to the divine grace of vadaperunkoil udaiyAn, was blessed with the divine kainkaryam to the lord. Analysing what would please the lord, to choose as kainkaryam, remembering the story of malakara in krishnavatara, to whom Krishna went on his own requesting for garland, periazhvar cultivated a garden and started making garlands for the lord. Message from Pandiya King One day, the king of Madurai, belonging to the pandiya clan, named srivallabhadeva, went in the night for nagarasOdhana. He saw a person lying outside a house. The king in disguise waked him and asked 'who are you'. The person answered that he was a brahmin and was returning after divine dip in the Ganges. The king asked: " Then tell me some dharma/moral that you know " Brahmin replied: For the usage during the rainy session we are supposed to earn in the rest of the 8 months; For the sake of night earn in the morning; For the sake of old age earn during your youth; For the sake of paraloka earn all in this birth Pandiya calls for a sadhas The king was intelligent and hence he immediately started thinking " For me, I have all the pleasures in this world but how to earn for the paralokam? " Not being able to come to a conclusion, in the morning the king called his purohita selva nambi and asked, " How do we find out the paratattvam that is capable of giving all the 4 types of purusharthas? " Nambi said, " Call all the vidwans and they will tell you how to do 'paratattva Nirnayam' " The king accepted and made a bag full of gold and hanged it infront of the sabha mandapam (courtyard) and announced that " whoever establishes the paratattvam with pramanas (vaidhika pramanas) will be gifted with this bag of gold. Many pandits from all over the world were crowded in the hall. Vishnuchitta's dream At that time, the lord in srivilliputtur wanting to show the paratattvam to the world as told by the vedanthas through vishnuchitta appeared in the dream of visnhuchitta and ordered, " you go to Madurai immediately and prove to the king that sriman Narayana alone is the paramAtma (supreme lord) and get the bag of gold " Vishnuchitta enquired, " Oh! Lord I am an ignorant person with no knowledge of the sastras. How can I do this? " Lord replied, " Why are you bothered about that? Is that not my worry? " And the lord disappeared. Vishnuchitta proves the Vishnu paratvam Amazed by the dream, vishnuchitta decided to do as per the orders of the lord and proceeded towards the pandiya's court. On seeing vishnuchitta, the king and the purohita both had a special feeling and hence they welcomed vishnuchitta with special honors. The other pandits out of jealously objected this but selva nambi silenced all of them and requested Vishnuchitta to proceed to do paratattva nirnayam. Meditating on the ultimate grace of the supreme lord in his dream, vishnuchitta was able to visualize all the great sastrarthas in his mind. Thereby, with innumerable pramanas from sruthi, smrithi, itihasas and puranas, vishnuchitta raised a lot of question and answered himself and established that, Srivaishnava philosophy is The philosophy Sriman Narayana alone is The paratattvam The best way to attain the ultimate goal is doing saranagathi unto the divine feet of the supreme lord. After the long elaborated lecture by vishnuchitta, no vidwan over there could even open this mouth. The king and selva nambi fell down and prostrated vishnuchitta, admiring his deep knowledge and clarity. The bag of gold automatically fell to azhvar's feet which azhvar accepted as the grace of god. Vishnuchitta becomes pattarbiran and gets darshan of emperuman Seeing that the king, the purohita and all the other pandits prostrated azhvar and made him sit on the royal elephant and they themselves did services like holding the umbrella, fanning etc and went in procession through the streets. Since vishnuchitta proved to be head of all pandits, the king adorned with a special name 'pattarbiran' and greatly celebrated him. Many divine instruments were played (thiruchinnam, conch of victory) and there was a great celebration (mahotsavam). When such a celebration was happening for his devotee, can the lord keep quiet? HE came running from paramapadam along with his consort on top of periya thiruvadi (garuda) and gave darshan to azhvar. Azhvar sings Thiruppallandu Azhvar was not proud or amazed to see the lord as he felt like parents coming to enjoy the victory of their son. Before immersing himself in the all pervading, omnipotent, omnipresent nature of the supreme lord, azhvar first immersed himself in the divine beauty and personality of the lord and thereby diving deep into the devotion thereby forgetting himself and the supremacy of the lord, " Oh! The lord of paramapadam the place of eternal bliss has come down to this land of samsaram, filled with evil spells. What will happen to him? " feared azhvar, " Oh! May this divine beauty be devoid of any evil eyes " Thereby azhvar started doing mangalasasanams by using the bells on the elephant to be the tAla (cymbals) and sang the divyaprabhanda " Thiruppallandu " Birth of Periazhvar thirumozhi Later, azhvar made the king who surrendered to him as a part of bhagavatha ghosti and returned back to srivilliputhur. He used the bag of wealth, to build the gopura in srivilliputhur and continued his nandavana kainkaryam. Since, azhvar was involved deeply in krishnavataara, he couldn't stop his devotion that overflowed as a divyaprabhanda called " Periazhvar Thirumozhi " . Azhvar gives weath to Ranganatha Azhvar on an Adipooram day found a child in his garden under a tulasi plant. He named the child " kOdhai " and brought her up. She was a divine child who helped her father with all his divine services to the Lord. And when age came she aspired to marry Krishna (her father's beloved deity) about whom she has heard so much from her father. Due to her deep wish to marry the Lord, she used to wear the garland that was supposed to be taken to the temple and then keep in back in place without the knowledge of periazhvar. Once azhvar saw that and considered that to be a great mistake, but the Lord appeared in his dreams and said that he enjoyed wearing the garlands that was worn by kOdhai. From that day she was called " soodikkoduththa nAchiyAr " , " Andal " . Later as per the order of the lord, periazhvar gave andal in wedding to ranganatha and thereby he became, " svasuraamaravanthyam " father in law of the lord like janaka. Why did pattarbiran get the name periazhvar and the droplets from his divine paasurams and their commentaries will continue in the next issue. PeriAzhvar thiruvadigalE sharaNam Varavaramunidasargal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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