Sri Alavandhaar's SthOthra Rathnam verse- 42- Sri VishvaksEnar- the One who partakes Bhagavath prasAdham and delegated authority of Sriman Narayanan

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

After describing GarudAzhwAn standing in front of the

Lord, now Alavandhar goes on to enjoy the army

commander in chief- Senaimudhali- VishvaksEnar

standing in the north east corner.

 

tvadeeya bhukthOjjitha sEsha bhOjinaa

tvaya nisrhtAthmabharENa yad yathaa

priyENa sEnApathinA nyavEdhi thath

thathaanujaanantham udhaara veekshaNai [42]

 

[The One] –who consumes partaking only the remaining

prasAdham [food offered to the Bhagawaan] of Yours -

which is still in the container; who has been blessed

by You as the in charge to carry out the duties as

Your delegate and perform the administration; who is

the recipient of Your greatest preethi; whose

execution plan when communicated to You, gets a simple

nod of approval, with Your noble kataaksham (glances)

as accepted and given a signal to proceed.

 

You approve with Your mere glances; whenever and

whatever communication was brought to Your attention

by Sri Vishwaksenar for Your approval, as he is the

delegated authority to whom You have bestowed upon the

execution powers on Your behalf. Sri Vishwaksenar

partakes the remaining food after it is offered and

consumed by You and PiraaTTi and whatever is left in

container, that is the only food partaken by Sri

Vishvaksenar 0 also called as Senai mudhali- army

commander.

 

Having been given the powers, Sri Vishvaksenar does

not act on his own and to his whims and fancies. He

submits the execution plan to Your approval as and

when required and seeks Your approval; You nod with

Your glances Your consent blissfully. Since he takes

Your burden, he is the recipient of Your preethi and

You approve his action lovingly and with great

preethi.

 

Like Garuda, AdhisEshan, Sri Vishvaksenar also is the

Nithyasuri and is the dAsa, sEsha bhUthar; Instead of

mentioning about his service, firstly his partaking of

Bhagavath prasAdham is mentioned by Alavandhar. In

fact, every Srivaishnava does (is supposed to) eat

only the remnant food after consumed by the Lord. When

such is the case, why here something special?

 

Sri Vishvaksenar is the army commander. Senai mudhali.

First the food needs to be supplied to the army

uninterruptedly and without any hurdle for the

defence. So, they can not eat independently and hence

need to partake the food remaining in the container.

 

Also, the food offered to the Lord- is split into two

and one portion is mixed with the main food materials

(available in the kitchen) for others consumption;

while whatever is remaining in the container, only

which needs to be partaken by the Senai Mudhaliar.

(Sri Vangheepuratthu Nambhi – disciple of Ramanuja has

written a beautiful grantham on ArAdhanam based on

Ramanuja’;s Nithya grantham wherein Acharya mentions

this in great detail in moving verses)

 

In the world, none would like to eat the remaining

portion in the container (or plate). Only lowliest of

the lowly would think of doing. Sri Vishwaksenar’s one

of the kalyANa guNAs is also this of being such

bhAgwathOtthama NithyasUri. When he stoops down to

such low level of partaking what is remaining in the

container, the Lord grants him the HIGHEST position of

execution what is His power and duties and empowers

him to do the same. What a great preethi- what mutual

love from each other! Alavandhar exclaims. In eedu

vyAkhyAnam, Bhattar’s discourse narrating this verse

is beautifully explained- says Sri UttamUr Swamy.

 

Also receiving Your Preethi, receiving your

kataaksham, approval, is also consuming and partaking

Bhagavath prsAdham- says SrI UttamUr Swamy.

 

Alavandhaar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan

 

 

 

 

 

 

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