Iraamaanusa nooRRanthAthi- 11th verse- en amudhanaik kaNda kaNgaL marronRinai kaaNaavae

[Guest guest]

SrI:

SrImathE Ramanujaya namah:

 

Dearest all,

 

After PeyAzhwAr’s ThirukkaNdEn pon mEni kaNdEni; [i

am blessed to have seen the golden hued SrI visishtan

Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayanan.], Amudhanaar brings in

the other AzhwAr – ThiruppANAzhwAr who said:

 

arangatthammAn Thirukkamala paadham vandhu yen

kaNNInuL okkinRadhae..after having seen and enjoyed

the lotus feet of Lord Ranganathan,

 

kOvalanaay en amudhanaik kaNda kaNgaL maRRonRinaik

kaaNaavE.. [having been blessed to see my Amudhan

[RanganAthan- sweet nectar] with the eyes, they [the

eyes] would not see anything else. AzhwAt then united

with the Lord then and there at the sanctum sanctorum.

 

 

Emperumaanaar Ramanuja’s involvement on

ThirupPANAzhwAr SrI sookthi and the glory of AzhwAr is

mentioned in this verse of Amudhanaar.

 

Thirukkamala paadham- The Lotus Feet of the Lord is

mentioned. It would also mean the lotus feet that is

gently squeezed by PiraaTTi [Thiru] Sri Mahalakshmi.

Also, EmperumAnAr had mentioned: wherever the Lord is

referred to; PiraaTTi is also addressed…

[emperumaanaai sollumidamellaam Piraattiyaiyum

solliRRaam.]

 

11th verse on PEyAzhwAr:

 

cheeriya naanmaRaich chemporuL chenthami zaalaLiththa

paariya lumpukazp paaNperu maaL,chara Naampathumath

thaariyal chenni iraamaa NnuchanRanaich

chaarnthavar_tham

kaariya vaNmai,en Nnaalchollo Naathik katalitaththE.

11

 

The Greatest ThiruppANAzhwAr sang the lovely pAsurams

in sweet, simple Tamil language; It is the complete

essence of all four Vedic truths, housing the Nature

and most auspicious (KalyANA guNAs) attributes of

SarvEshwaran Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayanan as They

are. Sri Ramanujacharya adorned His Head with the

beautiful Lotus Feet of this AzhwAr. I can not choose

to describe in words the greatness of Bhagawathas (who

have held on to the Lotus feet of Sri Ramanujacharya

in this world surrounded by oceans (of sishyas of

Ramanuja?)) on their strictest adherence to saasthrAs

and their anushtaanam.

 

When MudhalAzhwArs joined at the small corridor of

MrugaNdu maharsihi’s ashramam at Thirukkovaloor, The

Lord Himself appeared and shows Himself to them. Swami

Desikan acknowledges in Srimadh Rahasya Traya Saaram

(AchAryakruthyAdhikAram) the purposeful deed of the

Lord in pressing tightly the three AzhwArs huddled

together in the rEzhi of Mruugandu maharishi's

aasramam this way :

 

pAttukkuriya pazhayavar moovarai(p) pandorukkAl

mAttukkaruL taru mAyan malinthu varutthuthalAl

nAttikkiruL seha nAnmaRai anthi nadai viLanga

veetukkidaikkazhikkE veLikkAttum ammeyviLakkE

 

The Lord of wondrous deeds, who blesses His wealth

(viz) the chEthanAs, pressed Himself tightly once

upon a time at ThirukkOvalUr the three of His great

bhakthAs, who were extraordinarily qualified to sing

about Him . When squeezed tightly by Him in a limited

space , there arose the true lamp of light ( the three

ThiruvandhAthis ), which served to banish the darkness

of false knowledge and helped to illumine the world

with the effulgence of the essence of the four vEdAs

and revealed the two upAyAs, Bhakthi and Prapatthi for

our salvation.

 

Whereas, PaaNan was mentally enjoying His dhivya

mangaLa vigraham everyday from afar. [Extract from Sri

Muralidhar Rangaswamy’s wonderful write up:] Since

the Azhwar could not go to the Temple, he used to come

to the banks of the Cauvery river and sing about the

glory of Ranganatha and lose himself in a trance like

state. On one of those days,when he was totally

oblivious to his surroundings, the temple priest of

Lord Ranganatha came to the river to collect water

for the tirumanjanam of the Archa Moorthy. He saw our

Azhwar and thought that since he was a man of lower

caste and therefore, he should move away to permit the

collection of the water for the daily Tirumanjanam of

Sri Ranganatha without pollution. The name of the

priest was Loka Saranga Muni. He was called a Muni by

the residents of Sri Rangam because of his

scholarship and devotion. He devoted every moment of

his life to the service of the Lord at Sri Rangam.

 

The Azhwar was lost in the thoughts on the beauty of

Lord Sri Ranganatha and did not hear the shouts of

Loka Saranga Muni asking him to move away. The priest

got irritated at the non-response and threw a small

stone at the Azhwar to wake him up from his trance.

The pebble missed the water and hit the Azhwar in on

the forehead and opened a wound from which blood began

to gush forth.

 

The Azhwar woke up and realized the situation,

apologized for his unawareness and moved away. The

priest collected the water in his pot and reached the

inner sanctum of Lord Ranganatha. There , he saw to

his sorrow and astonishment blood oozing from the

forehead of the Lord at the same site, where the

Azhwar had a wound earlier. The Muni recognized his

apacharam and went home and had restless sleep.

 

In his dream appeared the Lord of Sri Rangam and

commanded the priest to bring the Azhwar to the temple

next day as a praayaschittam for the Bhagavata

apacharam to the Azhwar. The priest woke up at that

dawn and rushed to the banks of Cauvery and saw the

Azhwar pouring his heart out to Sri Ranganatha

through his songs.

 

The Muni conveyed to the Azhwar , the message of the

Lord to come to HIS temple. The Azhwar refused , since

he felt that as a man of lower caste, he was not fit

to set foot in the holy city of Sri Rangam or enter

the most sacred sanctum of the Lord there. Loka

Saranga Muni was desperate to make amendments for his

boorish act and persuaded the Azhwar to ride on his

back, despite the latter's protests to the sanctum of

the Lord to avoid touching the sacred ground of Sri

Rangam

 

Azhwar was thus transported to the sanctum and earned

the title as Munivahana. During this ride, the Azhwar

closed his eyes thinking about the blessings of the

Lord. On reaching the inner court of the Lord of Sri

Rangam , the Azhwar descended from the back of the

elderly priest, opened his eyes to feast on the beauty

of the Lord and burst forth in a song known as

AmalanaadhiPiran, which is a reflection of the

Sampoorna Bhagavad Guna Anubhavam of the beauty of the

Lord from HIS Lotus feet to HIS crown.

 

At the end of this tribute, the Azhwar declared that

the eyes that have seen his amudhan Lord Rangan will

never rest on anything else, and thus having said,

after seeing the Lord of Sri Rangam and he united with

the Lord right there and then.

 

Kondal Vannanai Kovalanaai: Lord Ranganatha is the

supreme emperor of the whole world and all the people

(residing there); he who is of the black color of the

clouds as well as the nature of the clouds; who ,as

Lord Gopala, ate butter with his mouth; who has stolen

my mind and heart; and who is my immortal ambrosia; my

eyes that have looked at His beauty; these eyes, that

have seen my Nectar, will never see anything else.

 

His verses are the essence and seed of all Vedas; like

the praNavam which is the essence of all Vedas. His

ten verses – the first three of which start with the

letter a… [amalanaadhipiraan], u [uvandha

uLLatthanaay]; and ma [mandhipaay.. ].

 

SaraNaam padmatthaariyal- Alas! We are not blessed to

have AzhwAr’s legs as our garland around our neck

like Sri Loka saranga muni was blessed with!- that was

EmperumAnaar ThiruvuLLam [enjoyment].

 

kadalidatthE- in the world surrounded by oceans; also

meaning- the Lotus feet of EmperumAnAr in this world

surrounded by the oceans of sishyaas. In this cosmic

material world of prakruthi sambandham, EmperumAnAr

lotus feet alone is our refuge.

 

AzhwAr EmpermAnAr Desikan ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan