Thuppul PiLLai- 14- Swamy Desikan on help [upakAram] rendered by Divya Dampathi

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SrI:

SrImathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya namah:

SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI |

vedAntAcArya-varyo me sannidhattAm sadA hRdi ||

 

May the glorious Venkatanatha, the greatest of teachers of Vedanta, and the

lion among poets and debaters, reside forever in my heart.

 

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

During one of the upanyasams delivered by asmadhAchAryan, Swami mentioned

beautifully about the upakAram [help] rendered by the Divya Dampathi on us-

as explained by Swamy Desikan in his upakAra sangraham.

 

Swami Desikan has brilliantly summarized all of the upakArams in the first

Tamizh Paasuram of UpakAra Sangraham. His Holiness 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).

 

asmadhAchArya pointed out that the Divya Dampathis 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 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, Sriya: Pathi

Sriman Narayanan .

 

Before He joins us to Sri His Vaikuntam for nithya kaimkaryam, The Lord

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 eteranl 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 may 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 , otthAr mikkAr illAdha

maamaayaa! ! 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 ).

 

Srimath Andavan continued with the explanation of the fourth paadham of the

UpakAra Sangraha SlOkam :

 

Tanthai ena ninRa tanit ThirumAl ThALil thalai vaitthOm SatakOpan aruLAlE

 

The Lord stood as the Forever-caring Father , who performs great upakArams (

tanthai ena ninRavan ). He is a matchless EmperumAn with the mahimai of

PaadhAravindham that ha s no comparison in its redemptive and anugraha

qualities ( Tanit ThirumAl ThALil ) .

 

Next Srimath Andavan explained as to what happened at these sacred feet of

the Lord as a result of the grace of NammAzhwar our Prapanna SanthAna Jana

kUtasthar. The paasura Vaakhyam is : Tanit ThirumAl ThALiltalai VaitthOm

SatakOpan aruLAlE . Through the Parama KrupA of NammAzhwAr , we got to Sri

Vaikuntam and laid our feet at the sacred feet of Sriman NaarAyaNA as the

ultimate step in Moksha Siddhi rsultign from SadAchArya Sambhandham and

BhagavAn's paramOpakArams .

 

NammAzhwAr is the One , who showed us the way through his Prabhandhams. He

used the purvOpakArams done by the Lord to anticipate the future upakArams

to come and showed us the way . He was blessed with Bhakthi and Jn~Anam from

the Lord of Nithya Sooris . His enjoyment of the Lord blossomed as the Four

divya prabhandhams . Thiruviruttham was the first

of the Four prabhandhams .Here , he describes his varalARukaL (Virutthams

)and thus this prabhandham came to be known as Thiruviruttham . In the very

first paasuram ( Poy ninRa Jn~Amum-- ViNNappamE ), NammAzhwAr reflects on

the purvOpakArams (or the upakArams done earlier through conferral of aathma

Jn~Anam , Dharma BhUtha Jn~Anam )and sets that up as Infrastructure for the

ensuing paasurams and prabhandhams containing his requests for other

upakArams that culminate in Moksha Siddhi at the end of ThiruvAimozhi.

 

In this Thiruviruttha Paasuram , NammAzhwaar addresses the Lord as ImayOr

talaivA ( sarva Seshi ) and himself as adiyEn ( sesah bhUthan ).

The sEsha-sEshi Sambhandham , Artha panchakam are covered here .

The connection of Artha panchakam with brahma SvarUpam is known as Shadatha

nirUpaNam . That was what NammAzhwAr instructed .Swami Desikan wished to

show us the paramount of this central message and created UpakAra Sangraham

..

 

Srimath Andavan of PoundarIkapuram Aasramam selected this verse deftly as

the first theme in his upanyAsam . We are indeed blessed.

[The above translation of His Holiness upanyasam was done by Sri Satakopan

Swamy, USA- about four years ago- Thanks to him for granting permission to

send in this series for our enjoyment]

Swamy Desikan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo narayana

dAsan

kavi-tArkika-simhAya kalyANa-guNa-SAline |

Srimate venkateSAya vedAntagurave namaH ||

 

Salutations to Sri Venkatesa, in whom all perfections reside, who is the

teacher of Vedanta and the lion among poets and debaters

 

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