Kulasekara PerumAn thirunakshathram today- Let us pay our praNamams to this great AzhwAr

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

KulasEkarAzhwar was born as a prince to ChEra king

Dhidavrathan and nAdhanAyagi in the month of mAsi and

the nakshatram of punarpoosam (same as that of Lord

Rama). Today is this AzhwAr’s Thirunakshathram. The

child when born looked divine and made everyone

happier and cheerful. The entire kingdom was in a

jubilant mood. The child was named kulasEkaran and

when he grew he was taught all sAstrAs, epics, arts,

Tamil and Sanskrit and was

also given training on fighting, Horse riding,

Elephant riding, etc. In each

endeavour, he excelled and came out in flying colours.

When Dhidavrathan

became old, kulasEkaram ascended the throne and since

then he was ruling like Lord Sri Rama and brought in

RamaRajyam to his kingdom. People were very happy and

here was rich harvest throughout the year; there were

regular rains and there was only subheeksham. Hence

the citizens had great amount of love and respect for

their king kulasEkarA.

 

Once without knowing kulasEkarA's strengths, the

neighbouring kings (Chola and pAndyA) came to fight

and during the battle kulasEkaran won with no

difficulty. Impressed PandyA king gave his daughter to

kulasEkarA for marrying her. kulasEkarA was blessed

with a son (whom he named dhidavradhan) and a daughter

ILai.

 

One night, The Lord wished to divert kulasEkarA's

attention to Him and he appeared as Lord Tirupati

Venkatachalapathi in the king's dream and blessed him.

The king was overwhelmed with the Lord's love and

became silent and was only thinking of the Lord at all

times. He became totally like water in Lotus leaf

(Water never wets the Lotus leaf) and was ruling the

kingdom without any attachment; He was spending his

time more and more on ThiruvArAdhnam and Bhajans and

listening to stories of Rama and KrishNa. He even

started disliking the battles since he did not like to

see more loss of lives in the battle. He started

singing in Tamil and sanskrit with full of love and

Bhakti in praise of the Lord.

 

He spent his most of the time only on religious

activities and attending discourses. Once when the

UpanyAsakar was narrating Rama RavaNa yuddham where

the battle was going on for a long time and RavaNa was

giving a tough fight, kulasEkara was so much attached

to the story and it the discourse he ordered his Army

General to immediately organise to send the soldiers,

elephants and horses and the king was also making

himself ready for the battle to give a helping hand to

Sri Rama. The upanyAsakar and all others were totally

perplexed and could not say anything. The upanyAsaker

at last came to the king and said " O, mighty king, We

need not go. The Lord Rama has already killed rAvaNa

and is on his way back to AyOdhyA for his

pattAbhishEkam " . That made the king silent and he came

to normalcy; Such was kulasEkarA's bhakti for Rama. It

is told Lord Rama appeared in his dream that night and

said " kulasEkarA, I am deeply moved by your readiness

to offer me help in the battle. Since you are having

blind affection and live for me , you did not realise

my Strength and parAkramam. We can win asurAs with no

effort; You are acting just like LakshmaNA, who is

also attached to me deeply. From today you will be

called kulasEkara perumAL like ILayaperumAL LakshmaNA.

Even today he is revered as kulasEkara perumAL. The

pAsurams he sang were compiled under " perumAL

thirumozhi " . One can see his feeling of deep regret

for not being born during RamA's time in his pAsurams.

 

As he was getting more and more involved in Bhagavadh

Bhakti and Bhagavadha Bhakti and was spending all his

time in such activities, the ministers were not clear

as to how to bring the king back to his

administration. The king had even consecrated a Golden

statute of Sri Rama in the palace where he was

spending most of the time with other pundits and

upanyAsakALs.

 

Once during a Ramanavami day (the birthday of Sri

Rama), the king was astonished to see a big nice

Navaratna mAlai which had adorned Sri Rama missing. He

was confused as to how someone can come inside the

palace with so much security and so many people

around. The ministers were asked;

 

One of them (may be the chief minister) hesitantly

stammered to say " May be ..O .king........one of

upanyAsakALs, or these scholars

....could..........have.....taken.... " He did not even

finish his statement. The king was shivering and was

literally shocked to hear that statement as if he has

stepped on a Red hot burnt iron; He could not believe

his ears as to how these minister can even think of

these GREAT BHAKTAAS as ones who could have flicked;

" What are you saying? Are you talking about these

adiyArs of Sriman NARAYANA. Are you not ashamed to say

that? Is your tongue still alive? How dare you think

them as thieves when their love is only for the Lord

and they consider the Gold and dust the same; Those

UTTHAMARGAL - Do you think they have stolen the

MAALAI? . He did not stop with that. He called someone

to bring a pot wherein he had arranged to place a

poisonous snake; Bewildered ministers obeyed. He

showed them the pot with the snake inside. He said and

prayed to the Lord " If the mAlai has been taken by one

of the BhaktALs, let the snake bite me; If not, I will

come out unscathed. " He put his hand inside the pot.

The snake NEVER TOUCHED his hand. The minister came

out openly saying " we are very sorry and we beg your

pardon. We are the ones who removed the MALAI and put

the blame on BhaktA so that you will start disliking

them and will concentrate on administrative matters.

Please forgive us for this irresponsible act. "

 

Such was his love and reverence on Bhagawathas. He has

written special ten for Bhagawatha sEshathvam in His

perumAl Thirumozhi.

 

In one of his paasurams , he revealed to us that those

, who wear the dust from the feet ( Thondar adippodi)

on their heads do not need GangA snAnam to wash away

their sins :

 

aadip paadi arangavO yenrazhaikkum

ThondaradippodiyAda naam peRil ,

Gangai neer kudainthAdum vEtkai yennAvathE ?

 

In another paasuram, Azhwar states that his hairs

stand on end over the thought of those BhagavathAs ,

who enjoy Sri Ranganaathan as the SaarnghaPaaNi and

get goose pimples:

 

...tiNNa maamathiL TennaranganAm meysilaik

karumEhamonRu tamm nenjil ninru thihazhap pOy mey

silippavar tammayE

ninainthu yenn manam mey silirkkumE

 

In another paasuram of PerumAL THirumozhi, AzhwAr

expressed his deep desire. He revealed that his prayer

was to lose his mind in devotion to the BhagavathAs,

who sing and dance with aanandha paravasam about the

glories of the Lord of Sri Rangam with the beautiful

eyes reminding one of the beauty of the soft, red

lotus flower. He wanted to become one of the

BhagavathAs to get closer to the Lord of Sri Rangam

(Thondar vAzhvukku maalayuRRathen nenjamE ).

 

Let us get back to his history. Sorry for the

digression. We were lured by the Bhagawatha sEshathvam

of AzhwAr.

 

KulasEkarA thought silently after listening to all

this and understood the underlining concern of his

ministers for the kingdom and the rule. He immediately

decided to bring his son into the picture and trained

him for some time before he started off his Divya

Desam pilgrimage throughout India singing Lord's

Glories and GuNAs.

 

He visited almost all the temples and he lost his

heart for Sri Rama. He has sung lullabies for Sri Rama

as " RaghavanE ThAlElO! " . He has even sung pAsurams on

Devaki's misfortune of not able to enjoy kaNNan's

leelA's and " thollai inbam " (naughty Kannan’s divya

chEstithangaL) which yasOdhA was blessed with.

 

One can greatly be moved by his pAsurams where in he

longs for being born as a step in Tirupathi Lord's

temple or a fish in the Holy pushkaraNi or a seNbhaga

tree in Tirupathi(standing in front of the temple) or

a Big stone which can not be removed so easily; He

even wished to be born as a servant holding the Golden

Bowl in front of Sriman nArAyaNan to spit the water

after washing, gargling and cleaning His mouth in the

morning. Such was his desire to serve the Lord

ceaselessly and that too from a king!. [One can

imagine our plight with so little(or no) material

possessions and with that few pennies in our wallet we

walk with so much pride, with arrogance with even a

very little achievement in our lives (which too is

possible only with His grace).]

 

He lived till 67 years and then reached His abode and

it is also told that his daughter ILai followed her

father kulasEkara perumAn and was also blessed with

the Lord's ThiruvaruL.

 

As mentioned earlier, this AzhwAr had dreamt about

pilgrimage to Srirangam every day from his kingdom. He

gave up his kingdom finally and moved to Srirangam and

reached the Lord's sacred feet there. He blessed us

105 marvellous pAsurams in his PerumAL Thirumozhi

known for their depth of Bhakthi. The first three of

his ten decads are about Azhagiya MaNavALan Sri

RanganAthan.

 

In the first decad, KulasEkarA longs for the day, when

he would be able to stand in the courtyard of Sri

RanganAthan hugging the two ThirumaNatthUNNkal (huge

pillars in His sannidhi)- that one can see even today

in Srirangam. These two pillars are known as the

marriage pillars. They are recognized as a pair

representing the fragrance of Sri RanganAthan. The

BhakthAs overcome by the Lord's beauty hold on to them

to maintain their balance, when the flood of the

Lord's beauty hits them as they stand in the

ThirumuRRam of the Lord :

 

KadiarangattharavaNayil paLLIk koLLUM MaayOnai, maNat

thUNE paRRi ninru yenn vaayAra yenru kolO vAzhtthum

nALE

 

(when will that day arrive, when I can stand holding

the two marriage pillars in the sannidhi of Sri

RanganAthan and praise Him with all the power

of my tongue?).

 

In the third decad , AzhwAr explains the

transformation in him as his mind fell in love with

the BhaagavathAs of Lord RanganAthan . He says that he

developed VairAghyam [detachment] and lost interest in

pomp and circumstance and discarded all perishable

pleasures that are fleeting. He says that he avoided

from then on all those who confuse their body with

their AthmA and equate the perishable worldly

pleasures with the divine Bliss of relating to the

Lord. In the sixth paasuram of this

decad , Azhwar states with conviction:

 

yemparatthar allArodum kUdalan

umbar vAzhvai onRak karuthalan

TampirAn amararkku , Aranganahar

EmpirAnukku Yezhumaiyum pitthanE

 

(Meaning ) : I will not associate with those, who have

are not the servants of the Lord like me. I will

always stay intoxicated with the love for my Lord of

Nithya Sooris, who is at His Periya Koil

at Srirangam .

 

A sample pAsuram to taste the sweetness and longing

desire of AzhwAr for ThiruvEnkatamudaiyaan and be

there in Tirumala in any form whatsoever.

 

AznAtha selvatthu arambaiyargaL thaRsoozha/

vAnALum selvamum; maNNarasum yAn vENdEn/

thEnAr poonchOlai thiruvEngadatthu chunaiyil/

meenAi piRakkum vidhiyudaiyOnAvEnE/

 

Such a wonderful pAsuram. adiyEn requests all those

who can read Tamil to read these 105 pAsurams of

PerumAl Thirumozhi today and it takes only about 30

minutes at a maximum. adiyEn’s daring and rash desire

to start the anubhavams of these verses as next

kaimkaryam.

 

May AzhwAr bless the kaimkaryam and grant me strength

to take up his divine verses for sharing with you all

soonest

 

kulasEkara perumAn thiruvadigaLE saraNam

 

Regards

Namo narayana

dAsan

Reference: Sri Satakopan Swami write up and Sri SMS

Chari's book on Alwars.

 

 

 

 

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