Eyewitness account of the celebrations of the thirunakshatram of H.H ParavAkOttai Srirangam PoundarIkapuram Srimad Andavan Sri Gopala Desh ika Maha Deshikar - Part 2

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Sriranganaayaki Sametha Sriranganathan Thiruvadigale Sharanam

Emperumaanaar Thiruvadigale Sharanam

Swamy Deshikan Thiruvadigale Sharanam

Ramanuja Darshana Guruparamparaayai Namaha

Abhinava vasiShTar Srirangam PoundarIkapuram Srimad Andavan ParavAkOttai Sri

Gopala Deshika Maha DeshikAya namaha

 

This post gives a detailed picture of the celebrations on 30-03-01, the

Thirunakshatram day.

adiyEn kindly requests all the readers to overlook any mistakes that are all

mine.

 

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Part - 2 - Friday 30-03-01 - The Thirunakshatram Day

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Swamy Deshikan in his work Bhagavad DhyAna sOpAnam extolls Arangan as

'chintA ratnam' (The Gem to be contemplated upon) and in his work YatirAja

Sapthati celebrates Ramanujar as 'nAyaka ratnam' (nAyaka shrI: - The master

of all Gems) and says that - In a necklace of rare gems, where, every gem

represents one of the AchAryas in the paramparai (lineage), EmperumAnAr is

resplendent as the central gem.

 

The anubhavams of Swamy Deshikan with respect to Ramanujar could be seen

again (after 750 years). If all the Acharyas of our sampradAyam are gems in

the ratna hAram worn by Aranga, asmadAchAryar Srimad Gopala Deshika Maha

Deshikar who is celebrated as the incarnation of our EmperumAnAr by virtue

of his anuShTAnams, knowledge etc, definitely looked like the 'nAyaka

ratnam' (Gem of gems / Master of all Gems) among these gems.

 

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30-03-01

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ThiruvArAdhanam

---------------

At 8-00 am in the morning Srimad Poundarikapuram Andavan started PerumAL

thiruvArAdhanam with the vEda, prabandha, upanishat and Ramayana pArAyaNams

starting simultaneously. By 9-30 am one could see the arrival of H.H

Rangapriya Maha Deshikan, H.H Parakala Swami, H.H Srirangam Srimad Andavan

Sri Rangaramanuja Maha Deshikan and H.H Srimad Azhagiya Singar.

 

UpanyAsam

---------

Srimad Rangapriya Swamy spoke first on asmadAchAryar quoting many instances

from RahasyatrayasAram and also on the significance of this great

thirunakshatram.

 

Srimad Parakala Swamy who spoke on the occassion greatly admired the divine

qualities of asmadAchAryar quoting from NyAsa Vimshati and

RahasyatrayasAram. H.H also spoke about Laksmi Hayagrivar the presiding

deity at Parakala matam and celebrated as to how Hayagrivar manifests

Himself as dashAvatAram with many references from ShwEtAshwatara Upanishat

and other shruthi texts. Srimad Parakala Swamy also mentioned that even a

day before, he had absolutely no plans of coming to Arangam due to certain

health constraints. He continued saying that it was only due to Srimad

Poundarikapuram Swamy's great bhakti towards Lakshmi Hayagrivar and his

desire to perform mangaLAshAsanam to the 'Lord of Vedas' that has brought

him (Parakala Swamy) along with Sri Laksmi Hayagrivar to Arangam that day.

 

Excerpts from Srimad Poundarikapuram Andavan's upanyAsam

-----------------------

Srimad PoundarIkapuram Andavan started with the significance of the

nakshatram RohiNi. H.H mentioned that the incarnation of Lord Krishna in

this nakshatram makes RohiNi a 'thirunakshatram'. Elaborating further H.H

referred to some of the great acharyas who have incarnated in this

nakshatram.

The first one is GitAchAryan - Lord Krishna who blessed mankind with the

most precious of teachings - The Gita.

The next to follow is Thirukacchi Nambi - One of the acharyas of Bhagavad

Ramanuja. It was through him that Ramanujar got answers from

VaradarajapperumAL for " The Six Questions "

The third is KidAmbi Sri RangarAjar (Panguni RohiNi) - One of the ancestors

of Swamy Deshikan and also one of the acharyas in the 'manthrArtha

paramparai'.

H.H then spoke about the significance of an acharya, with some special

references to pErumAL being our first achArya and then elaborated on the

essence of Vedams with some special thoughts on sAma vEdam.

H.H overwhelmed with joy, greatly acknowledged the most noble kainkarya

bhAvams of the assembled vEda, prabandha, sribhashya and other bhAgavatha

gOShTis. H.H mentioned that though he was reluctant to have the celebrations

in such a grand scale however felt very happy on seeing such a huge

SrivaishNava gOShTi, the darshana bhAgyam of which is sufficient to remove

all sins.

 

Other upanyAsams

----------------

The vice chancellor of Venkateshwara University - Sri Ramanuja TatAchAriar

swamy speaking on the occassion glorified the virtues of asmadAchAryar and

said that true to H.H's name Gopala ..., Swamy has rendered great service in

protecting certain Sri sooktis and propagating the same among the well

deserving.

(gO - which also means divya sooktis or sri sooktis of acharyas and pAla: -

one who protects. gO-pAla: - One who protects the Sri sookti-s)

He also mentioned that GitAchAryan, has re-incarnated again as Srimad Gopala

Deshika Maha Deshikar in order to give further teachings to mankind not

possible during His avatAra kAlam.

He also referred to slokam " EkaEva gurOrdrShtyA ... kasyachit " from

SubhAshita nIvi - sadAshrita paddhati and glorified that one glance of

anugraham of an acharya on the student is always greater and never equal to

even pErumAl's glance with both the eyes or Brahma's glance with eight eyes

or even Indra's glance with a thousand eyes.

 

Book releases

-------------

H.H Srimad Poundarikapuram Andavan then released the book " Gems of Spiritual

Thought " specially authored for the occassion by U.Ve Dr. NSA Swamy of

Bangalore. The same was later distributed freely to all the bhaktas.

A special edition of PEraruLALan featuring Srimad Poundarikapuram Swamy's

articles on YatirAja Sapthathi was also released.

 

SARRumuRai

----------

It was now time for periya sARRumuRai. The acharya sambhavana which was

conducted was a real thriller. Sambhavana for all the Acharyas from

Thiruvarangan and ThiruvaranganAyaki till the present day acharya were

conducted with detailed procedures at a few places like NammAzhwAr,

Ramanujar, Swamy Deshikan, Thirukkudanthai Deshikan, Upanishat BhAshyakArar,

PeriyANdavan and Narayana Maha Deshikan. Detailed sambhavana was also

conducted for the three achAryas of asmadAchAryan - SrinivAsa Maha Deshikan,

SrinivAsa Maha Deshikan and Srimad Abhinava Ranganatha Brahmatantra

Swamtantra Parakaala Yatindra Maha Deshikan. SambhAvana for the presiding

deities of all the matams and Ashramams were conducted - Laksmi Hayagrivar,

Laksmi Nrusimhan, Sri VenugOpalan, Sri Sita Rama Lakshmana AnjanEya.

A detailed sambhAvana for H.H Srimad GopAla Deshika Maha Deshikar followed.

The vEda sARRumurai included RigvEdam, Shukla Yajur vEdam, Krishna Yajur

vEdam and Upanishat, followed by thiruppAvai sARRumuRai conducted in great

style.

 

Divyadesha maryAdai

-------------------

H.H was honoured with anugrahams and maryAdais from several divya deshams.

To quote some - Arangam, Kanchipuram, Thirumalai, RajamannAr koil

(Mannargudi), Thanjai koil, Oppiliappan sannidhi, Vaduvoor, ThirukkandiyUr,

Thiruvananthapuram, ThiruvaNparishAram, ThiruvattAru, ThirunArAyaNapuram,

Thiruvaheendrapuram etc. The most beautiful thing about this event was that,

prior to the samarpaNam of the anugraham and maryAdai, the AzhwAr pAsurams

of that particular Divya Desham was sung aloud.

Then followed maryAdai and anugrahams from Laksmi Hayagrivar, Laksmi

Nrusimhar, Sri Venugopalan and Sri Sita Ramar.

 

A very high decibel singing of AchArya taniyan followed this.

 

All the acharyas present, prayed to divya dampathigaL Sri RanganAyaki

samEtha Sri RanaganAthan to grant good health and long life to Srimad Gopala

Deshika Maha Deshikar.

 

Teertha gOShTi

--------------

Theertha gOShTi followed this. All the assembled bhaktAs received pErumAl

teertham, Sri pAda teertham and prasAdams with akshatai and a photo of H.H.

Special tadIyArAdhanai at many places in Arangam was conducted.

 

SambhAvana Vidwat Sadas

-----------------------

At around 4-30 pm in the afternoon, the acharyas assembled at the sabha

mantapam. A grand sambhavana vidwat sadas was conducted.

 

Let us sincerly pray to Sri RanganAyakI sametha Sriranga to grant all our

AchAryas a life of 100 years with good health.

 

Ramanuja Darshanam vAzhi !!!

Swmamy Deshikan Thiruvadigale Sharanam !!!

vAzhi vyAkhyAmuddirak kai !!!