Thuppul PiLLai- 56- Paramapadha sOpAnam

[Guest guest]

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,

Let us continue to enjoy other granthas of Swamy Desikan in summary form:

PARAMAPADA SOPAANAM (article on this was written by Sri U Ve VS Karunakaran

swamy for Sri Poundarikapuram Srimad Andavan151st Jayanthi malar )

 

Paramapada sopanam is one of Rahasya Granthas of Swamy Desikan. Rahasya

granthas mean Secret texts, which are meant to be studied at the feet of a

qualified preceptor by disciplined students with devotion. Swamy Desikan

used maNipravALam medium here.

 

Title: According to Srutha prakAsika, the word Parama Pada mean:

 

i) Supreme Lord Sriman narayanan

ii) His eternal abode that can be inhabited only by the emancipated soul.

 

Sopanam in Sanskrit means stair case. So the title Paramapadha sopanam means

Stair case to reach the Parama padham.

 

Sources of Inspiration:

 

Tradition has it that Sri Ramanuja once stated that a winding stair case

could have been erected for all souls to climb to the eternal abode of the

Lord if only he and his paramacharya Alavandhar had had the opportunity to

live together for some time. There is another anecdote attributing Bhattar

as having stated that only if he could live for some more time, he would

have erected a winding stair case to the Parama padham. In Vajapeya

sacrifice, it is prescribed that the sacrificer climbs the Yupasthamba with

the help of a ladder and chants manthras with both hands up saying “I

reached the heavenly abode”. Swamy Desikan might have blended the anecdotes

with this act prescribed in Vajapeya sacrifice and built this concept of

stair case to Parama Padham. One may incidentally note that the rahasya

called archiraadhi of Pillai Lokacharya and Paramapadha sopanam of Swamy

desika complement each other.

 

Structure of the text:

 

The text if made up of nine chapters. Chapters are called “parvas” meaning

steps keeping in line with the name “stair case “ given for the work. The

nine steps are:

1.vivkea (Discrimination)

2.Nirveda (disgust)

3.Virakti (dispassion)

4.Bheethi (Sensitization)

5.Prasadana (Pleasing or Propitiation)

6.Utkiramana (Departure)

7.Archiradhi (the route starting)

8.Reaching the divine region

9.Union with the Supreme

 

The study of this grantha will

reveal that it is almost a very useful epitome of Rahasyatraya saram the

magnum opus of Swamy Desikan.

 

Structure of the text:

 

The text if made up of nine chapters. Chapters are called “parvas” meaning

steps keeping in line with the name “stair case “ given for the work. The

nine steps are:

1. vivkea (Discrimination)

2. Nirveda (disgust)

3. Virakti (dispassion)

4. Bheethi (Sensitization)

5. Prasadana (Pleasing or Propitiation)

6. Utkiramana (Departure)

7. Archiradhi (the route starting

8. Reaching the divine region

9. Union with the Supreme

 

The nine steps can be grouped into three sets, say landings. The first four

steps (viveka to bheethi) make the soul qualified to try emancipation.

Hence, they are known as Adhikarana Petika. The fifth step forms one set

called Upaaya petika.

 

Steps sixth to ninth with the phala that is, the fruits enjoyed by the soul,

in the process of emancipation and after it attains emancipation. These

steps can rightly form a box or petika that can be captioned Purushaartha

Petika.

 

The summary of the text:

 

A soul should gain analytical knowledge. This is the first step to be

climbed. This analytical knowledge enables him to discriminate the three

components of the universe i.e. the individual soul, the inanimate (achith)

and the supreme (Sriman Narayanan). The Properties and nature of each of the

three should be understood. Once the seeker understands his limitations,

realizes that all other souls are as limited as he, appreciates the bondages

created by his attachment to achith, and appreciates that only Sriman

Narayanan can protect and free him from the bondages, he becomes qualified

to climb the next step.

 

The seeker feels for having wasted all his time in pursuit of materialistic

prosperity and the consequent sins and the inevitable stay in hell. He is

disgusted with the past foolishness. This leads the seeker to the third step

which brings in detachment from all the mundane pleasures and prosperity.

 

This takes him to the fourth step where he is highly sensitized. He is

scared of his future – after this life is over. He has to do something to

ensure that he is liberated from his oscillations between heaven, hell and

earth , by pleasing the Lord.

 

Bhakti and Prapatti Yoga are means of such propitiation. Bhakti yoga needs

knowledge, capacity and qualification by birth, etc. It gives results only

in a leisurely manner; prapati has no such limitation. Fruits can be

achieved at the specified by the seeker. The seeker can choose between the

two. Adopting any of the two means forms the fifth step.

 

When such a seeker’s soul departs from the body, the departure can be either

in uttarayaNam or dhakshiNAyaNam. His puNyas and papas are distributed to

his friends and enemies respectively. The Lord provides him with memory of

His Feet while the soul departs from the body. The eleven organs and the

praana are all assimilated and converged in the subtle form at the soul. The

soul with all these is amalgamated with the five basic elements in their

micro form. The soul with this group takes rest with the Lord residing in

the heart so that it gets relaxed. (I heard that there is tremendous pain

when these five elements are extracted from the neck bone and is mixed, the

Lord gently hugs the soul in order to lessen the suffering. How

compassionate is our Father!) Then the Lord in the heart – the Haarda guides

the soul to the “Exit” sign from the body thorugh the sushumna naadi by

opening the Brahma Randhra (which is supposed to be in the center of the top

of the head.)

 

Now the seventh step. The departed soul is offered homages enroute Parama

padham by the controlling deities of the Fire, The Day, the waxing cycle of

the Moon, the Uttarayana, the six months during which the Sun travels in the

direction of north the Year and the wind. They receive the soul and guide it

through their region with all respect. Then the soul pierces the Sun’s

orbit. It reaches the Moon, with its guidance the soul reaches the Amanavan

who takes the soul through the abode of Varuna, Indra, Prajapati. Amanava

accompanies the soul to Lord Sriman Narayana’s eternal abode. The ones who

leave the mundane world this route will not be born again.

 

This takes the soul to the eighth step. The river “viraja” flows between the

mundane (prakritha) region and the eternal region (aprAkritha), the Parama

Padham. The soul crosses the river bi its will and reaches the Parama

Padham. Here the soul enjoys the scenery of celestial ladies throng to

receive the soul and decorate the soul. The soul now is full of Divine odour

and splendor. It sees the Lord seated on Adi seshan.

 

The final step is the union with the Lord. The soul enjoys the Lord from His

top to toe. The Lord crowns the soul with His Feet. Clinging to His Feet the

soul climbs the Divine seat of the Lord. There takes place a conversation

between the Lord and the emancipated soul. The soul narrates to the Lord all

the blessings he had received from him and prays to the Lord to accept his

service. The soul gets the divine grace of the divine couple and is full of

Para Bhakti, ParajnAnam, and Parama Bhakti. He becomes as close as the

shadow of the lord performs all types of services at all times as

Adhiseshan, Garudan, Vishvaksenar et al. perform.

 

This work thus is a history of the Travel of the soul. This work like any

other work of Swamy Desikan is a well planned and beautifully presented one.

Each of the parvas starts with a Tamil verse and concludes with a Tamil

verse that serves as a synopsis of the Parva. The main objective of the work

is to teach us the taste of Lord’s physical form and His abode. Swamy

Desikan composed a Sopanam “The Bhagath DhyAna Sopanam” in Sanksirt on Lord

Ranaganathan, for easy meditataion of Lord Rangan’s form.

 

But Paramapadha sopanam, where enjoying the Lord in Parama padha is

described, is a blend of Sanskrit and Tamil verses mostly with the phrases

of AzhwArs. This goes well with the declaration of Swamy Desikan that the

language of communication of emancipated souls in Vaikunta (where medium of

communication is needed only for the mere pleasure of communication as the

emancipated do not need any medium of communication, because of their fully

blossomed state of Dharma bhUtha jnAnam) is only Tamil. J

 

In this work he sings that in Parama Padham, we will sing only Pallandu.

 

The Great Acharyas of Kanchi have been so fascinated by the description of

Lord in Paraapti Parva in this text, that they have prepared a moving

Thirumanjana Ghattiyam for Lord Varadan borrowing literally from this work,

which is recited before Lord Varadan during abhishekam. No doubt Swamy

Desikan himself declares this work as “Swabhava chithram”- very beautiful by

nature, in the final sloka of Parama padha sopanam. One of the thaniyans of

text says that in the pretext of Parama padha

sopanam, Swamy Dseikan brought out all the Gems of Vedantha Saasthra. Any

reader of the text will understand that this is not a flattery; BUT TRUTH. A

study of this text will reveal that it is almost a very useful epitome of

Rahasyatrayasaram the Magnum Opus of Swamy Desikan.

 

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

 

_______________

Get 10mb of inbox space with MSN Hotmail Extra Storage

http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-sg