Acharya vaibhavam - 42- PiraaTTi Sri Mahalakshmi- Our next Acharya.. in Acharya parampara

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dearest all,

 

After Sriman Narayanan, Goddess Mahalakshmi is our

Acharya. Sri Mahalakshmi is equal to the Lord in all

aspects.

 

In the PancharAtra smahitA, SrI Maha Vishnu explains

to his senior disciple VishvaksenA, the nature and

attributes of His consort, Sri Mahalakshmi. He states

that She is the resting place of all Gurus, ruler of

all worlds, eternal and imperishable. He elaborates

further on their relationship: Just as the Universe is

pervaded by me both in essence and quality, all this

is pervaded by Her also . Therefore, She is the

disposer and ruler of all.... She is pervaded by me

and similarly, I, the Lord, am also pervaded by Her.

The difference between me and Her is that She, who is

the ruler of all is subservient to me on Her own

accord being sahadharmachaarinI.. To Her as well as

the Universe that I am the Lord, is well known in

Vedas.

 

Swami Desikan in his 2nd verse of YathirAja saptathi:

 

sahadharmachareem saurEh sammantritha jagadhitham |

anugrahamayeem vandhE nithyam anjnAtha nigraham ||

 

I now pay obeisance to the Spouse of the Lord,

MahAlakshmi, who is never ever separated from the

Lord; who is incapable and also unaware of any

punitive action / treatment whatsoever and who is the

embodiment of gracious benediction, and who always

exchanges plans with the Lord for the good of the

Universe and beings.

 

Let me prostrate at the unparalleled pair of Lotus

Feet of Goddess Mahalakshmi – who is the embodiment of

benign compassion, who does not punish anyone at all

[she does not know any nigraham at all], who showers

Her blessings on the whole of humanity, who is the

inseparable consort of God MahavishNu [saurih – son of

Sura or Vasudeva and who is the Presiding Deity i.e.

Lord of KaNNapuram in His archA form. ]

 

About the works [granthas] as handed down to us from

the preceptor Goddess Mahalakshmi, are the

Thiruppaavai and Naachiyaar Thirumozhi are unqiue

because GodhA PiraaTTi is none other than Goddess

Mahalskhmi Hersefl. [saakshaath kshamaam… ]

 

She along with PerumAL is the Parathvam and the Eka

sEshi for us. Eka Seshitvam refers to both Sri Devi

and Bhagawan together as the means and the goal

(upAyam and UpEyam ).

 

SitA PiraaTTi says: [to Anjaneya when AnjanEya wants

to kill those raakshashis who were torturing her

earlier]

 

paapaanaam vaa ...na kaschin na aparaadhyathi ||

 

Oh AnjanEya! Whether good or bad, one should be very

cautions in coming to a final decision. A wise,

learned, compassionate, merciful discerning man must

first of all truly magnanimous and full of sympathy

with regard to erring humans; for non one here is

perfectly free of faults.. Being a righteous and noble

personality, you should sympathize with these innocent

ogresses. “ Who has not committed apacharams?

 

Goddess Sita PiraaTTi points out the Srivaishnava mode

of utterly merciful attitude, showing the importance

of utterly merciful attitude, and forgiving the erring

individual.

 

ajnAtha nirgraham- is KEY word. She DOES NOT know

punishment at all. She does not even know how to

scold. All that she know is ONLY dayA, dayA and dayA.

Forgiveness is her breath.

 

Sri Mahalakshmi is forever united with the Lord Vishnu

[sahadharmachariNeem] –

Recall the famous statement of King Janaka [from

Srimad Vaalmeeki Ramayana]: iyam seetha mama suthA

sahadharmacharee thava |

 

In the VishNu puraaNa – it is told- nithyaivaishA

jaganmAthA vishNO: SrIranapaayinee .

 

Goddess Mahalakshmi appeals to her Lord to be

considerate to the Jivas; The famous Thaniyan of

Parasarabhatta on Thiruppaavai

 

nILA tungasta nagiri taTI sUptam udbOdhya kRshNam

pArArthyam svam sRti Sata Siras siddham adhyApayantI|

svOccishTAyAm sraji nigaLitam yA balAtkRtya bhunktE

gOdA tasyai nama idamidam bhUya EvAstu bhUyah ||

 

The simple meaning of the taniyan is " KaNNan is

sleeping blissfully with His head on nIlA devi's tiru

mArbu. GodA wakes Him up from His sleep to share

with Him through the 30 pAsuram-s of tiruppAvai, what

has been stated in hundreds of vedAnta vAkya-s

(declarations in the vedAnta-s) - that we are all

subservient to Him, that we belong to Him, that our

sole duty in life is to do kaimkaryam to Him, that the

jIva is related to the paramAtmA as it’s ananyArha

Sesha bhUtan. She bound Him (enslaved Him) by her

devotional outpouring through the 30 pASurams, and

enjoyed Him as she willed, and gave Him to us as well.

This tiruppAvai is the remnant of the

outpouring from her mouth (ucchisTham) which is

available for our

enjoyment " .

 

Sri CG Balaji Swami writes [in his translation of His

Holiness Srimad PaRavakkOttai Andavan Swami’s

YathirAja Saptathi’s divine Tamil commentary: ]

 

Swamy Deshikan in this verse celebrates the glories of

Periya Piratti, the consort of Lord Srimannarayana.

The Lord is adored as “kamalAgruhamEdhinam”, one who

enshrines Periya Piratti in His chest. A mother always

has more love and affection towards her children than

the father. Periya Piraatti also comes in the line of

upadesha paramparai as an acharya and so Swamy

Deshikan has praised her virtues in a separate verse.

“After the great dissociation (maha pralayam), in

order to uplift the Jeevatmas who were totally

helpless without any knowledge of the Supreme Being,

Chaturmukha Brahma was created and through him the

Jeevatmas were provided the physical bodies with its

characteristic attributes and Vedas were being taught

to them.

 

It was my intention to see that they understand the

purport of the Vedas and adopt the means of bhakti and

prapatti yogams described in them and finally attain

salvation from the samsaric world and come to our holy

abode here. But due to inappropriate and misleading

company, they have interpreted the Vedas incorrectly

to mean that maya or illusion is the truth, shoonyam

is the tatvam, Brahman is true but the Jeevatmas and

the world (jagat) are untrue. The result of this is

that the Jeevatmas are suffering in the samsaric world

without authentic knowledge of the means to attain

salvation. How do we mend their ways and uplift them?”

So did the Lord discuss the welfare of the Jeevatmas

with Periya Piratti.

 

“At this time, Maran Shathakopan has incarnated at

Thirukkurugur. He is a parama saatvika. We shall go

together and teach him all the truths and through him

we shall enlighten the rest of the Jeevatmas?” said

the Lord. To this Piratti said “Oh Lord! If we go in

person and tell them that we are the Supreme beings

and the cause of this world, we are the praapyam and

the prapakam, we are the Veda and Vedyargal, then they

will not believe us.

 

Just as an elephant is controlled and subdued using

another elephant, let us have a Jivan to mend the ways

of other Jivas and teach them the truths”. To this

said the Lord “Our Senapathy (army commander),

Vishwaksena is a superlative Jivan”. To this Piratti

says, “Yes, you teach him all the tatva, hita and

purusharthas and ordain him to go to Maran and teach

him all the esoteric truths”.

 

“Devi! You are the one who instructs all our subjects

regarding the kainkaryams suitable to their status.

So, please initiate Senapathy Azhwan, the commander of

our army, to all the truths and ordain him to impart

these to MaaRan and thereby effect the spiritual

upliftment of all the other Jivas through

MaaRan’s teachings” said Lord Srimannarayana.

 

Thus, Piratti is one who along with Perumal, brings

about the upliftment of the Jivas and looks after

their welfare. Moreover she has anugraham (blessings)

and karunai (compassion) only as her innate qualities

and pondering on how to do good to the subjects comes

as a natural responsibility to her.

 

The Lord is “dandadharan”, that is one who punishes

and mends the ways of Jivas. But Piratti on the other

hand doesn’t even know what indignation (nigraham) is.

She therefore is totally incapable of inflicting any

afflictions on the Jivas.

 

“One who surrenders at my feet and performs

sharanagati, whoever it might be, that Jivan shall be

protected, I give my word on this”, promised the Lord.

Piratti stays with the Lord all the time and ensures

that this “sharanagatha samrakshana dharmam”, the

policy of protecting the surrendered is always

effected. She also makes sure that the Lord’s tendency

to punish and mend the ways of Jivan doesn’t dominate

and so stays with Him without separation even for a

second.

 

asmadhAchArya paryanthAm vandhE GuruparamparAm

 

Regards

Namo Narayana

dasan