ThiruvahIndhrapuram RathnAngi Series:Part 75: SlOkam 31-32 of Sri DevanAyaka PanchAsath

[Guest guest]

SrI:

 

Dear BhakthAs of Lord Dhaiva Naayakan :

 

Thirty First SlOkam ( The Abaya Hastham )

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akshOpaNeeya karuNAmbhudhi vidhrumAbham

bhakthAnuranjanam AmartyapathE Thvadheeyam

nithyAparAdha-chakithE hrudhayE madheeyE

dhatthAbhayam sphurathi dakshiNa paaNi padhmam

 

General Meaning:

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Oh Dhaiva NaayakA! Your uplifted right hand grants

freedom from fear (abhayam) to Your adiyArkaL and

makes them happy. This abhaya hastham is like the coral

born from the Ocean of Your mercy and with its red hue

shines with exquisite and divine beauty. This sacred hand

of Yours stands firmly in adiyEn's heart and comforts adiyEn,

who constantly acquires pApams and is afraid of their fruits.

 

Additional Comments:

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Lord's KaruNA samudharam (KaruNAmbhudhi) is described

as " AkshOpaNeeyam " or one which is imperturable or unagitated.

That ocean of Mercy is vast and still. Out of that Ocean of mercy

and compasison for His adiyArs rises the right hand of the Lord ,

which is like the beautiful red coral (VidhrumaAbham) born out of

that ocean of KaruNA. When a suffering jeevan sees that

reassuring abhaya hastham , all his sorrows are forgotten

and his mind is filled with joy ( Bhaktha anuranjanam Thvadheeyam

DakshiNa PaaNi Padhmam).That powerful hand of Yours offering

protection to all janthus shines in my heart , which is afraid

of the daily trespasses to Your saasthrEic injubctions .

 

That Abhaya Hastham ( outstretched Palm)appears to say halt ;

that gesture suggesting to stop indicates that it

is enough to perform SaraNAgathy to the Lord only once

and there is no need to repeat that performance of SaraNAgathy

to be assured of His protection. He seems to say through His

abhaya hastham , " alam " (pOthum /enough).He is easily satisfied

with that one time SaraNAgathy through AchAryAs and does

not need any more persuasion to protect the Jeevan after

that act of Prapatthi (UpAya anushtAnam ).

 

PerumAL has a title as SaraNAgatha Samrakshakan

and that He demonstrates through His abhaya hastham.

It is the manifestation of His DayA Kaaryam.

 

Swamy Desikan salutes the Lord's inner hand (abhaya

hastham) as having the hue of a red coral. To comprehend

the origin of the redness of His Abhaya Hastham pointed towards

the SaraNagatha Janams , one has to refer to the SrI VardarAja

Sthava slOkam of KurEsar(46th SlOkam). Here KUresar

gives three reasons for the Lord's palms having a tender

red color (like Coral or the tip of a creeper). The AchAryan

wonders whether that coral like color was acquired during

KrishNAvathAram , where He had to crawl on His knees

and hands as an infant at the houses of the Gopis ,

which led to the reddening of His palms (Vraja sadana anganEshu

rinkhAtha kim?) . He wonders whether another contributing

factor for the reddening of the Palms could be due to

the constant handling of the stick (kOl) used for grazing

cows and leaning heavily on it ( gOpa gOshtyAm gOyashti

grahaNavasAth vaa?) . Yet another reason is given

to us holding the ropes and prodding stick (Haya naya

tOtthrayOr vaa?) as PaarthasArathy at Kuru KshEthram .

 

SlOkam 32: (The Beauty of the Chest of the Lord )

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dhurdhAntha dhaithya visikha ksahtha-pathrabhangam

verasya tE ViBhudhanAyaka Baahumadhyam

SrIvathsa Kousthubha RamA VanamAlikAnkam

chinthAnubhUya labhathE charithArTathAm na:

 

General Meaning

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Oh Dhaiva NaayakA! The unrighteous asurAs fight with You

in battles and wound Your chest with their arrows. You

destroy them and yet bear the welt originating from

those arrows of the asurAs like a reminder of those

victorious battles. These arrow marks criss crossing

each other on Your chest appear like a varNakkOlam

( geometric patterns with different hues).On the same

Chest are seen the blue birth mark ( maRu) celebrated as

SrIvathsam, the red gem known as Kousthubham ,

the wild flower garland revered as VanamAlai

( Garland made up of wild flowers) and on top

of every thing adorning Your chest is the golden-hued

MahA LakshmI , who defines Your auspicious svabhAvam

and Svaroopam . All of these special adornments on

Your chest shed multiple reflections on the VarNakkOlam

caused by the asurA's arrows . AdiyEn's mind enjoys

the Sevai of that Valorous chest marked by so many

auspicious lakshaNams and considers itself as

the most fortunate among all chEthanams.

 

Additional Comments:

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As the Lord of DEvAs, SrI DevanAthan took many

VibhavAthArams (Raama, KrishNa) and fought with

dhushta asurAs ( DhurdhAntha dhaithyA:). In the fierce battles

with these asurAs like RaavaNa , Lord Raamamchandra recieved

powerful arrows from His enemy's bow and had wound marks on His

chest and these wound marks criss crossed each other and

looked like a multihued geometric design ( Dhaithya visikha

kshatha pathra bhangam). Visikha kshatam means the welts

arising from the arrows of the enemies ( ambhhaLinAl

uNDAkkappatta TazhumpuhaL).These welts are reminders

of Your immense victories over these unrighteous

asurAs. On that valorous chest are also seen other

signs like SrIvathsam, Kousthubha gem , MahA Lakshmi

and the never fading Vana Maalai known as Vaijayanthi ,

all of which mark Your SarvEsvarathvam.Our minds(na:chinthA:)

enjoy (anubhooya) Your heroic chest housing many subha

LakshaNams and attains parama soubhAgyathathvam ( charitArTathAm

labhathE).

 

NamO SrI DevanATAya,

Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan

 

P.S: May the Abhaya Hastham of Lord DevanAthan

inspire you to join in His RathnAngi Kaimkaryam.

adiyEn has acepted the sponsorship of the abhaya hastham

of Lord DevanAthan's RathnAngi. We are looking for Sponsors

to be linked with the creation of new Sudarsanam

and Sankham on the Lord's upper hands.These aayudhams

were offered by the Bhattars to this Kaimkaryam .They are

no longer able to . The sponsorships of the Sankham and

Chakram as well as rthe Gadhai of PerumAL on the left

lower hand has been freed now for individual sponsorship

and anyone intersted in sponsoring these weapons of the Lord

as a aprt of the RathnAngi Kaimkaryam are requested to

let me know at your earliest convenience so they can be

reserved for you. One bhakthar has accepted responsibility

for the rathna Thiruvadi of the Lord of ThiruvahIndhrapuram.