[Fwd: Ashtasloki - 1 - Bhattar's Tanian and Verse1]

June 19, 2005

Dear Sriman Mohan,

Nice to see the mail. I have a humble observation:

purOhita means one who has hitam as his priority. A priest is considered to be purOhita as people believe that the pUjAs and rituals are beneficial to the society.

In case of AchAryas like Bhattar, they are always "SrIrangESa purOhita"s. This can be interpreted in two ways:

1. One who has the hitam or well-being of SrIrangESa as his prime concern. Since SrIrangESa is avAptasamastakAma, only thing realized souls like Bhattar do is wishing His well-being always due to the extremity of their love for Him. Hence doing hitam is nothing but mangaLASAsanam.

2. One who has the hitam done by SirangESa as the prime concern. Lord SrIrangESa (nArAyaNa) has given three valuable messages (thirumantram, dvayam and charama SlOkam) to the mankind on different occsaions. He explained their meaning in Tamil in the divya prabandham assuring the suffering chEtanas that they need not worry about their mOksha and just keep faith in Him as their means for deliverance. SrI parASara bhattArya was instrumental in carrying forward this message as he summarized these meanings in his ashtaSlOkI and also made several divine qualities of the supreme being clear in his other works like bhagavad guNa dapraNam etc.

3. The superstitious aspects of astrology do not go well with the spirit of ashtaSlOkI. Hence I doubt whether he was really reciting panchAgam in front of the Lord. If at all he was reciting, he might be doing so as a temple practice. But still, he deserves to be called SrIrangESa purOhita because of 1 and 2. In bhattar's own words, Lord is purandara:, as He removes our fears associated with planetary positions etc.

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

Vishnu

, Madhuri and Mohan wrote:Swami Sri PARASARA BHATTAR's Thanian*Sri Parasara Bhattaryaha Sri Rangesa purohithahaSrivatsanga sutha sriman sreyasey mesthu bhooyasey*May Sri Parasara bhattar, son of Srivatsanka (Sri KoorathAzhvan),who was dedicated in the service of Lord Ranganatha as purohitha(one who reads the panchangam before the lord every morning),may he grant the knowledge which will give me shreyas.

Sports Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football