Acharya vaibhavam - 35- The Greatest Guru paramparA is ours..

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dearest all,

 

Our Greatest AchArya parampara as mentioned earlier

starts with Sriman Narayanan.

The lineage is:

 

Sriman Narayanan.

Sri Mahalakshmi

Sri VishvaksEnar (sEnai nAthan- commander in chief)

Sri SaTakOpar (nammAzhwAr)

Sri nAthamuni

Sri puNdarIkAkshar (uyyakkoNdAr)

Sri rAmamisrar (maNakkAl nambhi)

Sri yAmunAchAryar (ALavandhAr)

Sri mahApUrNar (Periya nambhi)

Sri rAmAnujar (udayavar- EmperumAnAr- yathirAjar)

 

This AchArya paramparA also is nicely recited by Swamy

desikan in the following Tamil prabhandham.

 

ennuyir thandhaLitthavaraich charaNampukku

yAnadaivE avargurukkaL niraivaNangi

pinaruLAl perumpudhUr vandha vaLLal

periyanambhi ALavandhAr maNakkAl nambhi

nanneRiyai avarkku uraittha uyyakkoNdAr

nAthamuni saTakOpan sEnainAthan

innamudhatth thirumagaL enRu ivarai munnittu

emperumAn thiruvadigaL adaiginREnE.

 

AchArya paramparai anusanthAnam bequeathed to us by

Swami Sri Desikan in AdhikAra Sangraham ( Third

Paasuram ) :

 

I take refuge at the sacred feet of the

ParamAcharyan, Sriman NaarAyaNan through my Acharyan

and their AchAryans in the order of Sri BhaashyakAra,

Periya Nambi, AaLavanthAr, MaNakkAl Nambi,

UyyakkoNdAr, Naathamuni, NammAzhwAr, VishvaksEnar, and

Periya PirAtti.

 

What an excellent sweet prabahndham!

As explained earlier, the Lord helps us in very many

ways: Let us enjoy asmadhAchAryan upanyasam wherein

His Holiness beautifully refers to this. Sri Sadagopan

Swami translated the same in his own inimitable style.

 

 

 

Swami Desikan has brilliantly summarized all

of these upakArams in the first Tamizh Paasuram of

UpakAra Sangraham. Srimath Andavan anchored his first

focus theme on the individual subsections of this

verse that have very rich meanings:

 

anthamilA pErinbham arundha yERkkum

adiyOmai ARIVUDANE yenRum kaatthu

munthai vinai nirai vazhiyil ozhuhAthemmai

munnilayAm DESIKAR TAMM MUNNE SERTTHU

MANTHIRAMUM MANTHIRATTHIN VAZHIYUMK KATTI

vazhippadutthi VAAN YERRI ADIMAIK KOLLA

Tanthaiyena ninRa tanit ThirumAL ThALil

Talai vaitthOm SatakOpan aruLinAlE

 

This work of Swami Sri Desikan is understood as the

VyAkhyAnam for the Sri Sookthi of NammAzhwAr revered

as THIRUVIRUTTHAM and particularly its first paasuram

(poy ninRa Jn~Amum --ViNNaPPamE).

 

The revered AchAryA of Poundrikapuram Aasramam

selected this paasuram of Swami Desikan and dwelt on

the selected words in this paasuram and linked it to

other powerful words from the other paasurams of

NammAzhwAr's ThiruvAimozhi{TVM }, (e-g).,”annAL nee

tantha AAKKAYIN vazhi uzhalvEn " ( TVM: 3.2.1).

 

Sri Andavan pointed out that the Divya Dampathi help

us in every way. Mainly, there are 54 incomparable

upkArams that are performed by them for us, SamsAris,

with the view to join us to Their parama Padham

in the spirit of NammAzhwAr's TVM Vaakhyam :”

Vaikuntham puhuvathu maNNavar VidhiyE”.

 

He reminded us of Sage MaarkanDEyA's Vaakhyam in this

context :lOkAnAm MaathA PithA cha MADHAVA :

 

The reference here was to” Tanthai yena ninRa Tanit

ThirumAL ', section of the above verse to the sarva

vidha Bhandhu, SarvEswaran.

 

Before He joins us to Sri His Vaikuntam for nithya

kaimkaryam, ThirumAl performs many upakArAms that is

hard for us even to keep track off (NaaraNan maayayai

aRibhavar yArO --TVM: 1.3.3, AtthA nee seythana naan

aRiyEnE!).

 

His upakArams are giving us aakkai (sarIram) to house

the Jivan ; He bleesed the Jivan to be eternal (

nithyan ) in svarUpam and blesses the Jivan with

Dharma BhUtha JnAnam and makes it the Jivan's nithya

guNam and protects thus the Jivan's svarUpam and

SvabhAvam.This is the connection to the paasura

pasage,” adiyOmai yenRum aRivudanE kaatthu” in the

UpakAra sangraham.

 

Srimath Andavan went on to explain the other key

passages in that important paasuram of Swami Desikan.

The meanings are :

 

anthamilAp pErinbham arundha yErkkum adiyOmai = for

us, who are fit to enjoy the limitless bliss of the

great Moksha anubhavam

 

arivudanE yenRum kaatthu, munthai vinai nirai vazhiyil

ozhuhAthu emmai munnilayAm Desikar tamm munnE sErtthu

=

 

blessing and protecting us with the eternal dharma

bhUtha Jn~Anam and also protecting us from drowning in

the timeless flow of the river of karmAs and getting

us to the safety of the bank by uniting us with

SadAchAryAs for--

 

manthiramum manthiratthin vazhiyum kaatti

vazhippaditthi = (by uniting us with the sadaachAryAs

)for upadesam of Your redeeming sacred manthram, the

AshtAksharam and for learning about the inner meanings

of that manthram (viz)., the middle section of the

manthram (nama: sabdham) denoting Prapatthi and the

end luptha chathurthi vibhakthi

standing in for Bhagaavdh Kaimkaryam. The greatness of

this acquisition of knowledge through upadesam has

been celebrated many times by AzhwArs and AchAryAs:

 

iha sangrahatha: SrimAn GopthA sEshi samAdhika

dharidhra: SaraNam sarva sarIri prApya; sEvyasccha

saadhubhirbhAvya :

 

-- Srimath Rahasya Thraya Saaram, Moola

manthrAdhikAram

(Meaning): Briefly, the Moola manthram recognizes our

Lord as Sriya: Pathi (Srimaan )through akAra sabdham

and rakshakan (protector with many upakArams ), in

luptha chathurthi as sEshi, and as one who has no

equal or superior, in namas sabdham as upAyam (

prapatthi ), in NaarAyaNa sabdham as sarvAntharyAmi

and in the final chathurthi as the One to be

worshipped by Saadhu Janams as PrApyan and Sevyan.

 

Srimath Andavan referred to the paasura vAkhyam,

MaamAyA ! mikkAr otthAr ilai! There is no one equal

to You or greater than You (samAdhika Dharidhra: in

the above Rahasya Thraya SlOkam).

 

The VedAntha Jn~Anam imparted to us by SadaachAryAs

(Mantharitthin vazhiyum kaati) is another of these

MahOpakArams of the Lord since it leads to the

ultimate bliss of ascent by archirAdhi maargam (

vaanERRi adimaik koLLa) and nithya kaimkaryam. That is

the nall Vaazhvu referred to by Thirumangai in his

ThirunedumthANDakam (TNT ) paasuram passage :

 

anthaNar maattu anti vaittha MANTHIRATTHAI

MANTHIRATTHAAL maravaathu YENrUM VAAZHUTHIYeL VaZHALaM

--TNT pasuram :4

 

(Meaning ): Oh my foolish mind ! If you enjoy the

Thirumanthiram, the saaram of the Vedantham, which is

the wealth of the Brahmins, and if you reflect upon

the meanings of that sacred manthiram, you will surely

attain sadhgathi ( nall Vaazhvu ).

Unquote

 

This mantra is taught and the disciple is initiated

into the Rahasya thraya mantra during Pancha samskaram

or SamasrayaNam [about which we will see now and then

subsequently enjoy Guruparampara anusanthAnam]

 

AsmadhAchArya paryanthAm vandhE GuruparamparAm

Regards

Namo Narayana

dasan