The Fourth Day of the navAham : A soul's journey : Feb 8, 2000

[Guest guest]

Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha ParabrahmaNE Nama:

Sri NaarAyana YathIndhra MahA DesikAya Nama:

 

Dear BhakthAs : The day dawned over the island formed

by Ubhaya CauvEri . The sacred island populated by

our AchAryAs for centuries woke up to the bustle of a

new day celebrating Sri RanganAthA's glories . From this

day on , the journey followed the foot steps of AchArya

RaamAnujA as the Udayavar SatAri continued its journey towards

MelkOte .

 

The first stop today was at Udayavar Sannahdi , where

" the ThAmE aana ThirumEni " has been consecrated

and worshipped from 1137 A.D. The GaambhIryam of

Udayavar is unimaginable. We see Him as a MahA Purushar

just about to get up and bless us. At a special koil-

AzhwAr next to Him are His AarAdhana Moorthy, Sri

VaradarAjan and Sri HayagrIvan presented by Sarasvathi Devi

at Kashmir in recognition of His writing of the magnum opus ,

Sri BhAshyam . In the sannidhi next to our AchAryA

is the most unusual , gigantic SaaLagramam of

Sri Narasimhan with a five hooded serpent , AdhisEshan

and other ArchA moorthys .

 

We rushed form there to HH Poundarikapuram Andavan's

aaasramam , where the great AchAryan was intrepreting

the 7th vaakhyam of Swamy Desikan's Rahasya RathnAvaLi

containing 30 Vaakhyams. The KaalkshEpa ghOshti of 20

Sri VaishNavAs were enjoying the intrepretation of

the 7th Vaakhyam :

 

" Ippadi aparAdha -anuroopamaaha DhaNdadharanAi

pOruhira SaraNyanudaya VasIkaraNangaLil PradhAnam

sarva-akinchana adhikAramAna Aathma -rakshA-Bhara -SamarpaNam " .

 

After performing Aathma -RakshA -Bhara -SamarpaNam

at the holy feet of asmath AchAryan , 24 hours before ,

it was electrifying to listen to this vAkhyam chosen by

HH ParavAkkOttai Gopaala MahA Desikan during that morning .

 

Swamy Desikan has written an extensive commentary

on His Rahasya rathnAvaLi known as Rahasya RathnAvaLi

Hrudhayam filled with many pramANams . HH inquired about us

all and was pleased to know that many kaimkaryams

are being undertaken by us here . HH blessed the SatAri

of Udayavar with manthrAkshathai . His message at the end

of the discussions was : " Please work TOGEHTER to advance

the cause of Sri VaishNavam " .It was time for HH's anushtAnam

and we took leave.

 

We returned to the gOpura vaasal of ThAyAr sannidhi.

As our car stopped and let us out , my sister pointed

out that KodavAsal Sri SrinivAsa RaagavAcchAr Swamy

was standing there . Swamy is none other than the SravaNa

dhIpam Swamy of Oppiliappan Koil. On the SravaNam days ,

he has carried for four decades now (?) the mangaLa

dhIpam and He becomes Sri Oppiliappan during those moments.

Mnay bhakthAs approach Him to receive answers for their

worries and concerns . Hours after extinguishing the dhIpam ,

the vibrations are with him . Had we arrived a minute later,

we would have missed him . He was about to take off on his

bicycle to return home . That was an extraordinary

coincidence that he was there at the exact moment when

arrived . It appeared to me like Sri Oppiliappan

Himsef was there . adiyEn was so overwhelmed by

this happening that adiyEn fell at his feet and

offered my namaskArams to Sri Oppilappan right there

in front of ThAyAr Gopura vaasal , where the sacred dust

from many AchAryA's feet have collected over the years ,

as they have walked that way to ThAyAr Sannidhi .

Uncontrollable tears welled in my eyes over this

subha sakunam .Swamy placed his hand on my head

to calm me down .He offered to take me to PerumAL

sannidhi for Sevai and said that he would wait for me

at the Dhvajasthambham of PerumAL to take me inside .

 

AdiyEn will continue with the Sevais of PerumAL

and ThAyAr in the next posting . After the salutations

at the Sannidhis , we visited the parents of Sri

MadhavkkaNNan , Sri Anantha NrusimhAchAr Swamy

and spent a few minutes at Sri SravaNa dhIpam swamy 's

house at Srirangam . At the end of these visits , we left

for Chennai in the late afternoon and braved all

the night traffic on the way and arirved home around

10 P.M for night's rest .

 

Next day (the 5th day ), we followed AchArya RaamAnujA's

path to Sri PerumpUdhUr and Kaanchipuram PeraruLALan

Sannidhi.

 

Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan