Sri Srinivaasa Vaibhavam- PoigaiAzhwAr anubhavam of ThiruvEnkatam- 6 [68th verse]

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

Let us continue to enjoy Poigai AzhwAr

aruLiccheyalgaL…

His Mudhal ThiruvanthAthi 68th verse is the next one:

 

uNarvaaraa runperumai? yoozhithO Roozhi,

uNarvaaraa runnuruvan thannai?, uNarvaaraar

viNNagatthaay! maNNagatthaay! vEngadatthaay naalvEthap

paNNakatthaay! neekidantha paal? 68

 

You are an incomprehensible Lord; there is none who

can claim that he has understood You or has realized

Your true glories in its entirety. Oh Lord! The One

who is at Sri vaikuNtam! The One who takes avathArams

on this earth! The One who is at ThiruvEnkatam! The

essence of four Vedas! Who can perceive Your glories?

Who can know Your form! Even if one studies and

attempts for aeons after aeons- yuga after yuga, he

can not get even an iota of Your infinite glories.

Even Your form- one can not understand. Who can

comprehend the Your reclining posture on milky ocean!

 

You are the Supreme One! You are PERIYAVAN. You are

unparalleled, Peerless One- Parathvam.

 

AndAL says: Periyaay! [in yERRa kalangaL]

PERIYAAI : " You are the one who cannot be understood

even by

the Vedas. " -Apraapya Manasaa Saha " . The joyous Gopis

eulogize the Lord with heightened vigor and recognize

the Lord of their desire as " OoRRamudayAi, PeriyAi ,

Ulahinil ThORRamAi ninRa SudarE " .They recognize Him

as " Dhruda-tara PramANa Siddhan " ( One who is

comprehended with the help of the powerful VedA

pramANams).

 

You are the Primordial Chief. You are Supreme. There

is none equal to You, why to talk superior to You? In

addition to Narayananthvam, Jagathpathithvam, You are

the darling son of the cowherd NandhagOpan is the

Grandest One for You. That itself is enough for Your

Parathvam and sowlabhyam combined. You are the

jyOthiswarUpan. Vedas say: SrEyAn bhavathi jAyamaana:

- in every avatar, You become grander; Your greatness

and grandeur expands (appear to expand). You have

resplendency shining and increasing from strength to

strength every day. You have unbounded effulgence

[apAra thEjas] increasing exponentially everyday. You

are Paranchudar. You are the One showing Yourself so

gracefully and mercifully at this Divya Desam of

ThiruvEnkatam.

 

thEjobirApoorya jagath samagram- Arjuna said in the

battle field- You are the thEjas appeared in this

world. Is there any birth, jAthi (caste) for you? Your

birth is not like ours. Yours is avatar. When one sees

Your bed, (of AdhisEshan) can’t they not realize Your

greatness? There is a nandhaa viLakku (which never

extinguishes) on your bed near Your head. This Bed had

appeared before You appeared in this house. (i.e.

Balarama- Adhiseshan).

 

" MaayOnai " : Our Lord is a MaayAvi. He hinted that much

in Githai: " sambhavaami aathma maayaya " .All the

Maaya ChEstithams from His avathAram at Vada Mathurai

to growth in Aayarpaadi, many leelais in Gokulam and

BrindhAvanam , His serving as the charioteer for

ArjunA, converting day into night in the battle field

of Kuru KshEthram , taking the disc in His hand in

spite of His vow not to use weapons in that war , are

examples of the MaayA of the MaayOn. Abhinava Desikan

describes Maayai as Moola Prakruthi and SankalpAthi

Jn~Anam.As the Controller, commander of this Maayai ,

through His sankalpa visEsham blesses the DevAs and

incarnates as PadhmanAbhan in the milky ocean and

later jumps out of the pillar as Lord Narasimhan, goes

to the Yaaga saalai of Bali as Vaamanan and transforms

into Thiruvikraman and incarnates as KaNNan , the

MaayOn or adhbhuthan.

 

Swamy NammAzhwAr celebrates this Maayam of the Lord,

which He performs through His AchAryAs, who remove the

" Poy ninRa Jn~Anam " of ours and makes us qualified to

receive SadAchAra Jn~Anam through the wondrous act of

" Irumbai ponnAkkuthal " (SaraNAgathi) according to Sri

aNNan Swamy. Our Lord stands on top of this AchArya

Paramparai and is therefore MaayAthi Maayan.

 

Narayana means: Naaram plus ayanam. nArAyaNa as the

supreme entity is unabiguosuly established by paNini's

vyAkaraNa sootra [kind of sanskrit grammar] - where

the “Na " letter of nArAyaNa (called " mooNRu suzhi

'Na' " in Tamil) renders the term nArAyaNa as Supreme

One in the universe. " nArAyaNa " is the ayana of naras

[beings], i.e. the super being from which all else

emanates.

 

vedAhametam puruSHam mahAntam | AdityavarNam tamasastu

pAre |

sarvANi roopANi vicitya dheera: | nAmAni krtvAbhivadan

yadAste ||

[From Purusha sooktha]

(yat) That (dheera:) valorous puruSHa (Aste) who is,

who has (vicitya:) materialized (sarvAni) all

(roopANi) forms, and (krtya:)made (sarvAni) all

(nAmAni) names, (abhivadan) and maintains all of

these, (etam) that (mahAntam) glorious

(AdityavarNam)sun-brilliant (puruSHam) puruSHa, (astu)

who is (pAre) beyond(tamas) darkness, (aham) I (veda:)

Know him.

 

This Purusha sukta is closest to the Srivaishnava

Sampradaya visualization of Sriman Narayana, as

creator and maintainer of all, (refer back to 'namo

bhagavate tasmai krSHNaya adbhuta karmaNe roopa nAma

vibhedena jagat kreedati yo yata:'), full of kalyANa

guNas such as mahimA, brilliant as the sun, and beyond

all darkness. What is the advantage of knowing this

then ? This is explained in later verses. Also, in

sAyaNa's commentary " mantradraSHtA svakeeyam

dhyAnAnubhavam prakatayati " . This mantra is how to

visualize him for meditation, and thus to know him.

Compare this to Vishvamitra in the Ramayana " aham

vedmi mahAtmAnam rAmam satya-parAkramam / vasiSHto api

mahAtejo ye ceme tapasi sthitA: " - I know the great

souled Rama, of deeds beyond measure, powerful in

truth, more brilliant than Vasishta, who protected my

yagnya well " . Or Mandodari's praise of Rama as

Mahavishnu in the same, " tamasa: paramo dhAtA

shankacakra gadhAdara " - O Creator, who bears the

Conch, the Disk, and the Mace as weapons, who is

Supreme above all darkness. The image of the sun here

is especially effective, as the tamas referred to here

is the darkness of the soul, ignorance and inactivity.

 

 

Thus Narayana is the One who manifests everywhere

inside and outside of everything as the indweller.

Anthar bahischathas sarva vyApya naaraayaNasthitha:]

 

nArAyaNA is not merely someone with 4 hands, conch

,chakra etc . nArAyaNA is the paramAtmA who pervades

everywhere with infinite kalyAna gunAs & ever

associated with " Sri " (Lakshmi). " nArAyaNA " refers to

the divyAtma svaroopam which pervades everywhere & He

is the Brahman (source of creation, the maintainer &

in whom it dissolves).

 

nArAyaNA is always personal because of His

infinite kalyAna gunAs. Just because He is all

pervading , it doesn’t mean that He is impersonal .

The same infinitely manifested nArAyaNA takes many

the forms for the pleasure of His devotees & the body

of such forms are made up of the special aprAkruta

material called suddha sattvam amd such incarnations

are out of His own will i.e. Not because of karmA).

The infinite qualities of nArAyaNA are not because of

His form . It is based on His svaroopam & His

dharmabhooda jn~Anam both of which are infinite.

 

Only Yogis can visualize Him and His form in their

heart due to their concentrated devotion and

meditation. But, the greatest & the most merciful

avatAram is the archAvatAram , in which even the

rogues like me, thieves , non-devotees, devotees,

riches, beggars, atheists, animals & all sorts of

living entities can see with their naked eyes the

dhivya mangal archA thirumeni ( divya mangaLa vigrahA

) of Sriman nArAyaNA . This display of immense

Sowlabhyam & Sowseelyam by Sriman nArAyaNA although

being the Param poruL (Supreme Being) is the main

reason for His ardent devotees like AzhwArs to

dive into various devotional moods filled with

mystic experience in communion with the supreme Lord

& in that bliss comes forth their most nectarian

Divya Prabandhams, which is so potent to change even

a stone hearted atheist into a bhAgavathA filled

with all goose pimples during his bhagavath

anubhavam.

 

Thus one can not comprehend His form too in its

entirety. Such most merciful Lord is here standing in

front of our naked eye. ThiruvEnkatam is such a

wonderful Dhivya Desam on par with His Paramapadham,

Milky ocean; His vibhava avathArams (Rama, Krishna et

al), if not even better.

 

{Reference: Sri Anand Karalapakkam Swami’s article on

Narayana and Sri V.Sundar’s translation of Purusha

sukta from www.ramanuja.org ]

 

If one thinks he has understood Brahman clearly, means

he has not understood; if one claims [even after

studying vedanthas and saathrAs] that he has not

comprehended the Lord's glories, he has actually

understood- says sruthi.

 

AzhwAr ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Sri PadmavathI samEtha Sri Srinivasa ParabrahmaNE

namah:

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan