Fifth Day of the trip: Following AchArya RaamAnujA's sacred steps : Trips to SriperumbhUdhUr and Kanchipuram, Feb 9 ,2000

[Guest guest]

Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha ParabrahmaNE Nama:

 

Sri MalOla PaadhulA Sevaka Sri NaarAyaNa

YathIndhra MahA DesikAya Nama:

 

Dear BhakthAs : Today was the day adiyEn's original

plans were to travel to Azhagar Koil for Akkara Vadisil

SamarpaNam for Sri SundararAjan and from there on to

Sri VilliputtUr to attend the SamprOkshaNam .

After Srirangam , due to the pressure of time ,

adiyen concluded that ANDAL would understand

a shift in plan to reroute the trip to AchArya

RaamAnujA's birth place and Kanchipuram , where

He received SanyAsa DhIkshai in front of Lord VaradarAjan,

His AaarAdhana Moorthy .The memories of October 1998

visit to SrivilliputthUr to present the RaaNi KoNdai

and Vasthram are still green in adiyEn's memory .

 

SriperumbhUdhUr

***************

 

here , We had the sevai of AdhikEsavapperumAL and

His divine consort , YathirAjavalli ThAyAr .

There was SaatthumuRai at Udayavar Sannidhi

in which adiyEn participated .Among the two

Jeeyars (HH EmbAr Jeeyar and HH Varada Yathiraja Jeeyar )

adorning this abhimAna sthalam , HH EmbAr Jeeyar

attended the SaatthumuRai and Theertham . He

blessed the SatAri for Udayavar .

 

At Udayavar Sannidhi , where the archai is known as

" Thaamm uhantha ThirumEni " because of AchArya

RaamAnujA's personal approval of the likeness of

the archA vigraham with His own ThirumEni.AchAryan

is said to have embraced it and performed

anupravEsam of His sakthi into that sacred

image that we worship today. At the conclusion of

His stay at ThirunArAyaNapuram ,Udayavar acceded

to the request of His sishyAs (tamars) , who were

grief stricken over the prospect of Udayavar leaving

ThirunArAyaNapuram for Srirangam at the end of the twelve

year long stay .The most merciful Udayavar had an archA

vigraham created and let His sakthi enter that

vigraham as well ;that archai is being worshipped even today

at ThirunArAyaNapuram .This ArchA moorthy of Udayavar

is revered as Tamar uhantha ThirumEni . Thus we have

ThAmE aana ThirumEni at Srirangam ,Thaam uhantha ThirumEni

at SriperumbhUthUr and Tamar uhantha ThirumEni

at ThirunArAyaNapuram .

 

At SriperumbhUthur, the temple according to

sthala purANam was built by Bhoothams overnight .

Here was born our great AchAryan in the year 1017 A.D .

His parents were Bhumi PirAtti and Aasuri Kesava SomayAji.

BhUmi PirAtti was the sister of Thirumalai

Nampi (sishyar of ALavandhAr) , who named the child of

his sister as " RaamAnujan " , who is considerd as

the avathAram of the nithyasoori AdhisEshan :

 

Anantha: Prathamam roopam LakshmaNasthu tatha: param

Bhalabhadra: ThrithIyasthu kalou kascchidh bhavishyathi

 

(please see the recently released AchArya RaamAnujaa

CD ROM for a wonderful graphics on this theme )

 

(meaning): The primordial form is AadhisEshan .

Later AdhisEshan incarnated as LakshManan .

The next avathAram (second) was that of BalarAman.

The third avathAram of AdhisEsahn is RaamAnujA

in Kali Yugam .

 

This great AchAryan received SanyAsa aasramam

from Lord VaradarAjaa ( archithArtha ParidhAna

Dheekshithan) and was made Udayavar ( possessor

of the Ubhaya VibhUthi Vaibhavam ) by Lord

RanganAthA later. It is this AchAryan's ThirumEni

that all of us worship at SriperumbhUthUr .

 

At Udayavar's sannidhi , the Aaradhakar consecrated

the SatAri and pointed out to adiyEn that the proper

way of carrying the RaamAnuja SatAri to ThirunArAyaNapuram ,

its final destination , is not by carrying it in

a box . The most kind Archakar inspired by years of

aarAdhanam to Sri RaamAnujA went inside the sannidhi and

took the upper garment ( KaashAyam ) worn by AchArya

RaamAnujA and wrapped the SatAri in that blessed vasthram

and gave it back to adiyEn .It was the most moving experience

and subha soochakam in that it was considered as a command

by udayavar during the final leg of the journey of His SatAri.

 

The archakar also mentioned that Udayavar vigraham at

SriperumbhUdhUr has a bejewelled ThridhNdam that is used

only during the uthsavams .During every day alankAram , a silver

thridhaNdam adorns the hand of Udayavar . The archakar mentioned

that this thridhaNdam used daily needs to be replaced

since , it shows the signs of age . AdiyEn agreed

to replace this ThridhaNDam with a new one approved by

the Koil AdhikAris and the Bhattar during this year .

 

The blessing of having a ThridhaNdam in the hands of

Udayavar at SriperumbhUdhur the year around except

on Uthsavam days is one of the greatest blessings

as SamarpaNam in one's life time . AdiyEn will

keep you posted on developments . Some of you might wish

to join adiyEn in this kaimkaryam . AdiyEn is debating

whether nine gems representing the nine Sri Sookthis

of AchArya RaamAnujA (as illustrated in

the recently released AchArya RaamAnujA CD ROM )

can be enmeshed (Izhaippu) in the body

or the flag portion of the ThridhaNdam .

 

The thridhaNdam and the SatAri of AchArya RaamAnujA

have been described by the AchAryan Himself in His life time

as Mudali AaNDAn . Our AchAryan's pavithram is

recognized as KurEsan . Hence, adiyEn considered it

as our Bhaagyam to be asked to replace the TridhaNdam

in the hands of our Udayavar , who has both the VibhUthis .

 

Getting slightly ahead of the narration of this journey ,

adiyEn is thrilled to share with You another blessing

that happened two days later at ThirunArAyaNapuram .

During the occasion of SatAri SamarpaNam there ,

the Bhattars mentioned that Two of the silver

Pancha paathrams used in the daily AarAdhanam

for ThirunArAyaNan (SnAnIya and Arghya Paathram )

had become khilam ( worn out ) and had developed cracks .

The Archakars mentioned that adiyEn should help

replace those ancient silver AarAdhana Paathrams

used in daily worship of the Lord at ThirunArAyaNapuram .

AdiyEn accepted this archaka muka niyamanam

(Command of the Lord through His senior Archakar)

immediately . Two of these vessels that were presented

earlier by the Mysore MaharAjAs will be replaced by

a new set that are being prepared at Chennai now.

These two vattils (AarAdhana Paathrams) will

be presented as samarpaNam to ThirunArAyaNan

on the coming Vairamudi day (March 16 )or the day before

as samarpaNams to commemorate my Parama Padha Vaasi parents

( Srimathi PerughavaazhunthAn Alamelumangai and

Sri Poundarikapuram Bruhaspathi VaradAchAr Swamy ).

My eldest nephew , Sri Mukundha Mani will hand carry

those two silver vattils on our behalf on March 15

to ThirunArAyaNapuram .

 

After the worship of Udayavar at His birth place,

adiyEn left for Kaanchipuram to have the sevai of

DevarAja PerumAl standing on top of Hasthigiri,

who blessed AchArya RaamAnujA in every way .

 

Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradachAri SadagOpan