NOTE: Readers having difficulty in reading the text may need to change their encoding to UTF-8. ---------------- srI: SrI upakAra sangraham ? 68 --- adikAram ? 1 poorva upakAra paramparai (The Foremost Series of Favours) --- SECTION ? 5 (23) (27 Favours of the Lord leading to the means for MOKSHAM) ----- We just saw that the Lord does favour in making the sincere disciple to have a firm faith in whatever he learnt from his AchArya, without being carried away by the arguments of poorva-meemAmsakas who speak like nAstikas (non-believers in God). Once this stage comes, the disciple acquires a determined wisdom, which is pointed out in this sub-section by SwAmi Desikan: (23) ?anRunAn piRanthilEn; piRanthapin maRanthilEn? , ?inRAka nAlaiyEyAka iniccirithu ninRAka ninaruL enpAlathE? enkiRapadiyE, vivEka-vyavasAya-vishEShangkaLaip piRappitthathuvum; Here, SwAmi Desikan opens the sub-section with two quotations from the Divya Prabandam: ?ninRathu enthai oorakatthu, iruunthathu enthai pAdakatthu, anRu vehkaNaik kidanthathu, ennilAtha munnelAm, anRu nAn piRanthilEn piRanthapin maRanthilEn, ninRathum irunthathum en nenjuLE.? (Thirucchantha-viruttham, 64) (My Lord took the standing posture in Thiruvoorakam; the sitting posture in ThirupAdakam; and the lying-down posture in ThiruveHkA. At that time, I was not born since I didn?t acquire wisdom of my being a servant of the Lord; now, after getting the knowledge, I have not forgotten it. Hence, the Lord has taken these postures of standing, sitting and lying-down in my heart. ) In this first quotation, SwAmi Desikan shows that the sAttvik jIva feels that he is born only when he acquired the spiritual wisdom of his being a shESha of the Lord. Before that even if he had been moving about in the world, it was an un-realized person. Once he got the wisdom of discrimination, that is, the ability to see what is right and what is not, he feels as if he is born just now. SrI Thirumazhisai AzhvAr teaches us a supreme lesson through this verse. All our studies under a sadAchArya will become a waste if we don?t acquire the special wisdom, which is mentioned by Swami Desikan as ?vivEka-vyavasAya-vishEShangkaL?. Here, ?vivEka? means wisdom, i.e., discriminatory knowledge. ?vyavasAya? means determination or firmness; and ?vishEShangkaL? means skills. Mere literary knowledge of the scriptures is not enough. He should meditate on the knowledge he obtained from the AchArya to develop it into an unshakable firm faith. Then only he is supposed to have acquired the special skill of discriminatory knowledge. A question may arise: How can we say that it was due to the Lord that the AzhvAr got this wisdom? That is why the AzhvAr makes it clear that he got this wisdom only because the Lord came down to these holy places or wherever he went and made Himself present in different postures with the idea of capturing the AzhvAr. He captured the AzhvAr by showing physical beauty in the archA form in these holy places. But, we have evidence in scriptures about the Lord enchanting many by His qualities. Was it not a favour done by the Lord to such a sAttvika soul? LakShmaNa speaks to HanumAn about how he was enchanted by SrI RAma: ?ahamasyAvrO bhrAtA guNairdAsyam-upAgatah / krutaj~nasya bahuj~nasya lakShmaNo nAma nAmatah //? (KiShkindhA-kANdha, 4-12) (I am his younger brother, LakShmaNa by name, who have been compelled by His virtues to become His slave, appreciating as He does the services, rendered to Him and making much of even small services.) Here, one is reminded of the saying of SrI nammAzhvAr: ?appanai enRu maRappan? ennAkiyE, thapputhalinRit thanaikkavi than colli, oppilAt theevinaiyEnai uyyak koNdu, ceppamE ceythu thirikinRa ceer kaNdE.? (ThiruvAimozhi, 7-9-4) (He got through me poems sung on Himself; He did this to enchant me, the worst sinner I am; How can I forget Him, after witnessing His virtues; Who has been doing only good to me?) SrI Thirumazhisai AzhvAr?s verse reminds us of a scriptural statement in this regard: ?asannEva sa bhavati / asad brhamEti vEda cEt / asti brhamEti cEt vEda / santamEnam tatO viduh /? (TaittiriyOpanishad, Anandavalli - 6) (If one knows that there is no Brahman, he himself becomes non-existent. If any one knows that the Brahman does exist, then he thinks that he exists on account of that knowledge.) Thus, the disciple?s knowledge gets deepened by this discriminatory wisdom. The second quotation which SwAmi Desikan mentions is from the nAn-mukan ThiruvanthAthi, which is also of SrI Thirumazhisai AzhvAr: ?inRAka nALaiyEyAka inicchiRithum ninRAka ninaruL enpAlathE -- nanRAka nAn unnai anRi ilEn kaNdAi nAraNanE neeyenai yanRi yilai.? (nAnmukan ThiruvandAthi, 7) (nArAyaNa! Today or tomorrow or even later, Your grace will be on me in full measure. Because, I do not exist without You; nor do You without me.) The AzhvAr means that both cannot be without each other. By naming the Lord as ?nArAyaNa?, the AzhvAr reveals his knowledge about the significance of this name. The name is formed by the combination of two words, ?nAra? + ?ayana?. ?nAra? signifies jIvas. As He is both the means and the goal, He is called ?nArAyaNa?. The AzhvAr tells the Lord, through the expression, ?inRAka nALaiyEyAka inicchiRithum ninRAka ninaruL enpAlathE? -- By this he means that the Lord has to, by virtue of his being one with the AzhvAr, shower His grace on him. But, it may happen at any time, today, or tomorrow itself. If it is even later, it doesn?t matter, because, His grace will sure to come to him any way. Our ParamAchArya, SrI AlavandAr, in his StOtra-ratnam, says in the same way: ?tadaham tvddrutE na nAthavAn maddrutE tvam dayaneeyavAn na ca / vidhinirmitamEtamanvayam bhagavan pAlaya mA sma jeehapah // ? (stOtrarathnam- 51) (Therefore, without Thee I have none as my Lord; and without me Thou have not a worthy recipient for Thy compassion; preserve this relation, Oh Lord; spurn me not!) Thus, this kind of firm and determined wisdom comes to the disciple, as a favour of the Lord, says SwAmi Desikan in this sub-section. (To continue) dAsan Anbil S.SrInivAsan --------- ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan http://www.sadagopan.org Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:Oppiliappan-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mailto:Oppiliappan-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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