Sri GuNa Rathna Kosam : Part XVIII-- SlOkam 9

[Guest guest]

SrimthE RanganAyakia Nama:

 

Dear BhakthAs:

 

AdiyEn will cover ParAsara Bhattar's conversation

with SriranganAthan about his efforts to sing about

the praise of Sri RanganAyaki in this slOkam :

 

Sriya: SrI:! SrIrangEsaya ! tava cha hrudhyAm BhagavathIm

Sriyam thvathyOucchair vayamiha PhaNAma: SruNutharAm

dhrusou tE bhUyAsthAm sukhataraLathArE SravaNatha:

punar harshOthkarshAth sphutathu bhujayO: kanjkasatham

 

Meaning by Dr.V.N.VedAntha Desikan

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

Oh Lord , who bestows affluence to the storehouse of

affluence (that Lakshmi is)! Oh Lord RanganAthA ! She is

very dear to You. Her, we are going to praise , even better

than You ! (that is , we are going to place Her even

superior to You and we are going to praise Her as even

better than You Yourself can!). Be pleased to listen with

attentiveness ! Definite it is that Your eyes will

revolve in delectation-caused mesmerism. And as You enjoy it ,

You will expand in body ,arms and form as a result of

hearty enjoyment of pleasing poetry on a dear subject.

Your armour will break and shatter to pieces; and mind You,

a hundred armours would be exploded in Your experience of

my exquisite poem on Your dearest consort !

 

Additional Comments by Dr.V.N.VedAntha Desikan :

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

 

It is not clear whether Bhattar sang this praise of Sri

RanganAyaki in front of PerumAL at His sannidhi or

sang it during their sErthi sEvai during a Panguni

Uttharam day . Bhattar does take the liberty of

predicting as to what is going to happen as a result

of the Lord listening with great joy ,the slOkams

of his Sri GuNa Rathna KOsam .

 

Bhattar says: " Thiruvukkum ThiruvAhiya SelvA !

Oh Lord RangA ! Oh Bhagavan! We are going to

sing about Your dharma Pathni , who is shAtguNya-

SampoorNai. She is very dear to You ! You must

have an idea of how I am going to praise Your pathni.

I am going to eulogize Her at a level higher than

You can ! Two meanings are implied here :

(1) I am going to sing about Her to show that

She has qualities that are superior than Yours .

(2) I do not know how Your own praise of Your

PirAtti would turn out to be . But , I am planning

to eulogize Her at a level higher than You .

 

What would be the effect of hearing my superior

sthuthi on You ? The dark pupils of Your eyes

will rotate out of that joyous experience. Your

body will swell with pride and will lead to

Your big shirt to burst. If you were to wear another

shirt that hangs loosely to begin with ,then Your

swelling arms and body will make that shatter too!

Even hundreds of shirts can not fit You as they get

changed because your body would keep on growing

and burst the shirts one after another.You

ofcourse realize the greatnes of Your Devi's

extraordinarily auspicious attributes . You

also realize that my Sthuthi is not an ordinary

one ! Finally , Your capacity to enjoy such a

sthuthi is not common place ! Your raasikyam

(Connoseuirship) is one of the best that we know!

 

With the address of the Lord as " Sriya: Sri: " ,

Bhattar joins the highly celebrated and small group of

Thirumangai AzhwAr ( Periya Thirumozhi : VII.7.1

on TherazhundhUr PerumAL) , AlavanthAr ( SthOthra-

Rathnam:12 )and his own Father , KuREsar ( Sri Vaikunta-

Sthavam:29), who all recognized the Lord as the One ,

who bestows MangaLam on the MangaLa Naayaki Herself

( Sriya: SrI:).All the above four are saluted

therfore as " UdhAra Vaak " .

 

Observations by adiyEn

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

1.Sriya: SrI:

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

Thirumangai salutes Aamuruviappan (Gosakan)

of ThErazhundhUr as " Thiruvukkum ThiruvAhiya

SelvA " with great endearment in his Paasuram.

AlavanthAr asks a rhetoric Question in this context

in his SthOthra Rathnam and answers it himself later:

 

" KassrI: Sriya:? Parama Satthva samAsraya: Ka:?

PuNDarIka Nayana: Ka:? PurushOtthama: Ka:? "

 

(Meaning) : Who is the One that confers MangaLathvam

on the Parama MangaLa Moorthy Herself ? Who is the One,

who is the embodiment of Satthva GuNam without admixture

of even a trace of RajO GuNam or TamO GuNam ? Who is

the One that has PuNdarika nayanan ( eyes defeating

the lotus in their beauty )? Who is that Purushan

that is the supreme most One ?

 

AlavanthAr answers all these question readily

by pointing out that Purushan , who is " Sriya: SrI: " ,

Parama Saathvikan , Aravindha Lochanan (Tasya YathA

kapyAsam PuNDarikam yEvamakshiNI) and PurushOtthaman

is none other than Sriman NaarAyaNan. He bases his

conclusion on the facts that (1) Sriya: Pathithvam

is the top most item among His Parathva Saadhakams.

(2)That Sri RanganAthan is Para Tathvam is proven further by

the fact that He is Parama Saathvikan .(3) PuNDarIkAksham

is uniquely assoicated with Sriya: SrI:and hence

it is another proof of Parathva Lingam (Sign of

Supreme Being ).(4) PurushOtthama Tatthvam celebrated

by VedAs , Upanishads and Bhagavath Geethai

( PurushOtthama Yogam chapter) assert clearly

that Sriman NaarAyaNan , " Sriya: Sri: " alone

has undisputed Parathva Lingam.

 

Sri RangEsaya !

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

 

With the choice of this word, Bhattar salutes

Periya PerumAL enjoying His Yoga NidhrA on

the bed of Adhi Seshan at Srirangam .

 

Tava cha HrudhyAm BhagavathIm Sriyam PhaNAma:

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

 

We are going to eulogize the Lady , who is dear to

Your heart , Sri RanganAyaki, who has the six

attributes ( tejO-Bala-Veerya -Isvarya et al)

befitting Her name as Bhagavathi.

 

BhagavathIm Sriyam TvatthOpyucchai: Vayamiha PhaNAMa:

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

Thirumalai Nallan RamakrishNa Iyengar Swamy translates

this section as " ThirumahaLai Bhagavathiyai ninakkum

mElAha cheppuhinrOm " .

 

SruNutarAM

***********

Oh Sriya: Sri:! Please listen to our Suprior praise

on Your dear consort attentively .

 

What is the effect of such attentive listening ?

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

Sri RanganAthan's eyes rotate with Joy (KaruvizhigaL

PiRazhthiduha / dhrusou tE bhUyAsthAm )arising from

this delectable experience of listening ( SukhataraLathArE

SravaNatha:).

 

What else is going to happen ?

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

 

His pride of being blessed with Sri Devi as

His Piratti and the joyous experience of His son

(Bhattar) singing exquisitely about Her supreme

attributes makes Lord RanganAthan swell up and

burst His shirts adorning His big arms. He keeps

on swelling with pride that even new and larger

shirts suffer the same fate. Limitless indeed is

the Lord's pride as He hears Bhattar's slOkams

eulogizing Sri RanganAyaki ! Marvellous indeed

is the exquisiteness of Bhattar's poetry blessed

by Sri RanganAyaki Herself !

 

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan