Sri Srinivaasa Vaibhavam- PoigaiAzhwAr anubhavam of ThiruvtEnkatam- 8 [mudhal thioruvanthAthi-77th verse]

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

Thanks to you for your encouraging words on adiyEn’s

rambling. It is all due to you devout and dedicated

kaimkarya ruchi.. that has made my babble more

palatable.

 

Let us continue to enjoy Poigai muni’s anubhavam on

Srinivasan of ThiruvEnkatam.

 

vEngadamum viNNakarum veqkaavum, aqkaatha

poongidangil neeLkOval ponnakarum, - naangidatthum

ninRaa Nnirunthaan kidanthaan nadanthaanE,

enRaal kedumaam idar [77th verse]

 

Venkatam- Tirupathi

ViNNagaram- Paramapadham (upper world)

Ve:kaa- Thiruve:kaa divya desam

The most fragrant flowered – deep canals(?) of water

[as agazhi] around – in the most beautiful golden city

ThirukkOvaloor

 

If one utters that the Lord is gracefully in standing

posture in ThiruvEnkatam; in sitting posture in

Paramapadham [srI vaikuNtam]; reclining wonderfully

in Thiruve:kaa; [Kanchi]; and walking [to measure the

Universe as Thirvikraman] in ThirukkOviloor

ulagaLandha perumAL; then, all his paapams [sins-

karmic diseases] will get crushed.

 

What a wonderful manner in which AzhwAr expresses the

divinity of Divya Desams and mere utterance that the

Lord stands, sits, reclines and walks in these divya

desams [contemplating of His mercy and dayA on us for

taking such archA roopams for our sake and to bless

us] itself is adequate to get out paapams crushed.

 

Last verse, AzhwAr mentioned saying: going to

ThiruvEnkatam alone is enough. Now he mentions

utterance [from where we are] of His archA roopam in

these divya desams of ThiruvEnkatam, SrI vaikuNtam,

Thiruve:kaa and ThirukkOviloor alone will suffice to

get the sins washed away.

 

Can one not utter this easily? No… It is not easy. The

mind is so fickle and goes behind and runs amuck

behind materials pursuits and worldly pleasures;

hardly remembers Him at anytime.. and hence it is

definitely a blessings and bhAgyam to have even a

thought to mention that He stands in ThiruvEnkatam;

sits in Paramapadham; reclines in Thiruve:kaa and

walks in ThirukkOviloor. Blessed are we to read this

verse and its translation.

 

This is the same as echoed in NammAzhwAr

Thiruvaaymozhi [10.8.1] where AzhwAr says:

 

thirumaalirunchOlai malaimenREn enna

thirumaalvandhu en nenchu niRaiyap pukundhaan…

 

I have just uttered ThirumaalirunchOlai once. He took

this as an excuse [vyAjam] and has entered into my

heart and filled my heart totally and fully.

 

Thondaradippodi AzhwAr also mentions mere utterance of

His divine name as Achutha, Arangaa… is enough for me

and even if I am [i may not be] aksd to rule the upper

world (Srivaikuntam), I do want that even.

 

Achchutha!!! Amararere!!! Ayarthum kozhundhE – ennum

[uttering Achutha, Chief of Nithyasuris! Cowherd Body]

: Acchutha is one of the prime nAmas of the Lord

emperuman Sriman Narayana which means that he is one

who never leaves his devotees. He takes care of his

devotees at any point of time. Since we are more

concerned with him protecting us, it is one of the

nAmas the bhakthas like to utter often. So here alwar

wants to prove to the world the supreme Sriman

Narayanan, who is otherwise called Acchutan never

leaves his devotees to fate and hence he is the only

person who we can trust in all crucial circumstances.

Many people may say, they will save us but will not be

able to keep up their words always, including the

devatas and also the brahma or rudran but the only

saviour at all times is achchutan. People may then

question how alwar can say that the other devatas who

give results quicker than emperuman do not save us so

now alwar then says Amararere thereby proving that

even those devatas are governed only by the supreme

Sriman Narayanan. He is the king of AmarAs(Devargal).

 

 

Even in Thirumangai Alwar’s Thirunedundandagam he says

?Mai vanna ????. Devarendru anjinome.. [though he is

beautiful, one who is standing in front of me but I

fear if he is a deva who is unapproachable by ordinary

human]. So it is natural tendency of a human to fear

while thinking of a deva. So if achchutan is

devadhEvan(king of kings) then we will never go near

him. But then alwar says though he has supreme powers

he has a great guna called sowlabhyam which makes him

to come to us and play his leela with us like one

among us. So thereby the alwar proceeds to talk about

the Krishna- Ayar thum kozhundhE.. [From Smt

Sumithra’s excellent post on Tirumaalai series -

Thanks to her]

 

AzhwAr elaborates Thirukkoviloor with a long adjective

about its beauty, fragrance, flowers etc.. why AzhwAr

has such an affinity for this Divya Desam?

 

Naturally so.. as this is the place where AzhwAr along

with the other two AzhwArs – was blessed with a divine

darshan of the Lord in the dhEhaLi- rEzhi [corridor]

and hence the Lord is called dhEhaLessan.

 

Swamy desikan composes a sthOthra on this Lord of

ThirukkOviloor- called dhEhaleeesa sthuthi. Let us

enjoy one verse in reference to this verse. [From Sri

Satakopan Swami’s wonderful translation.

 

Swami Desikan celebrates the advent of the Three

ThiruvanthAdhis by the Mudhal AzhwArs.

 

svacchandha vikrama samunnamithAth amushmAth

sthOthrathrayam yadhabhavath tava paadhapadhmAth I

vEthALa BhUtha SarasAm apadisya vAcham

peAyENa tath prasava bhUmim avApa bhUya : II

 

( Extended Meaning ) : Oh Lord DehaLeesA ! The flood

of sacred waters that flowed out of Your own sankalpam

from Your uplifted feet branched off into three

divisions and reached dEva lokham , Manushya Lokham

and the nether world . Those three streams then took

on the form of the three thiruvandhAthis associated

with Poygai , BhUtham and pEy aazhwAr and finally

returned to Your sacred feet . Swami suggests

that they started like Ganga at His sacred feet and

returned to them .

 

The triple stream of GangA ( srOthAsthrayam )

is compared here to the three floods of divine

utterances that emanated from the three aazhwArs .

The Lord's celebrated feet , the origin of

GangA in TrivikramAvathAram , is the goal of the

parama bhakthAs assembled in the DehaLi

of ThirukkOvalUr sthOthra priyan .

 

The unanimity of thought and purpose of the three

AzhwArs is compared to the three branches of

the same river ( srOthasthrayam ) . The tradition

is to enjoy these three prabhandhams in unison .

They have the tatthva trayam with the extraordinary

beginnings , which are echoes of one another :

 

Vyaam tahaliyA , AnbE tahaLiyA and ThirukkanDEn .

 

Similarly , Tattva , Hitha and PurushArtham ,

another triad , is connected to the AzhwAr's

Parabhakthi , Paraj~nAnam and Parama Bhakthi .

Sri D.Ramaswamy Iyengaar points out this

connectivity and reminds us that these andhAthis are

affectionately named " VyatthandhAthi , AnbhandhAthi

and ThiruvandhAthi " .

 

Sri D.R IyengAr also speculates that Kumaara

VaradAchAr , the son of Swami Desikan might have been

inspired by this verse to consider Srimadh Rahasya

Thraya Saaram of his AchAryA as " sthOthra Trayam " :

 

vigAhE NigamAnthArya VishNupaadha SamudhbhavAm I

Rahasya thraya sArAkhyam thrisrOthasamakalamashAm II

 

He salutes his father's ( AchAryA's ) magnum opus as

originating like the GangA with the three branches

( the three andhAthis of Mudal AzhwArs ) from the

sacred feet of Sriman VishNU NaarAyaNan

 

AzhwAr ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Sri PadmavathI samEtha Sri Srinivasa ParabrahmaNE

namah:

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan