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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00001 Sep 2004

 
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SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest srivaishnavas,

Traditionally and also in accordance with saasthrAs,
one needs to approach the Lord through Acharya alone
and during the grantha kaalakshepam also, one has to
pay first his obeisance to his respective Acharya
parampara and also ends the same with Acharya
vandhanam. Alavandhar also starts and ends the
sthOthram in the traditional way of salutations to his
AchArya. Swami Desikan states that this gem of a
sthothram is placed in the beautiful pot or vessel of
Acharya sthuthi. The pot generally has a narrow top
[neck] and also goes down in width at the bottom;
similarly, Alavandhar starts with three slokas on
Acharya first; and final end sloka on Acharya. The top
generally has a large narrow path; while the bottom
expands quickly. Hence three at the top and one at the
bottom. Not for others, Alavandhar has composed this
sthOthra. He has made the slokas appear as if he is
speaking for himself. And whenever every one who
recites this, it would given the reciter a feeling of
his own self praying in such moving manner to the Lord
and hence again, this verse is thus the grandest
moving One. 

Beginning to praise the Acharya first, then
YamunAchArya, starts to praise the Lord. He becomes
diffident about his qualifications for the task and
yet wants to eulogize Him in the manner of VedAs and
Upanishads. His resolution gets diluted and he laments
over his lack of 
qualifications and inadequacies and performs akinchana
[helpless] SaraNAgathi at the lotus feet of the Lord.
He then comforts himself by reflecting that even a
small deed as the means [upAyam] such as SaraNAgathi
can yield major auspicious results and that his goal
in performing SaraNAgathi is to do eternal service
[nithya Kaimkaryam] at the feet of the Lord in
SrivaikuNtam. He recognizes that the great sins that
he has  accumulated obstruct  progress in the
attainment of his desired goal. He states that he is
however not discouraged as a result of his awareness
of the Lord's DayA, mercy, compassion, vaathsalyam. He
appeals movingly to the Lord to strengthen his
SaraNAgathi efforts and to protect him from the
obstacles that stand in his way towards the
realization of his goal. He goes on to the next step
of prayer, where he begs the Lord to grow his Bhakthi
towards Him and to bless him to live with BhagavathAs
and to live in  a state of utter humility KaarpaNyam
devoid of egotistic thoughts. He pleads with the Lord
for Acharya Sambhandham to realize the fruits of the
glorious Prapatthi and declares his MahA viswAsam in
the Lord's KshamA and anukampA to bless him with the
fruits of Prapatti. 

The meaning of Dwayam is deftly interlaced in the body
of this sthOthra Rathnam - gem among hymns composed by
ALavandhAr. In the previous work,
Chathussloki, our Acharya made [recommendation request
?surrender] Purushakaara Prapatthi to Sri Mahalakshmi-
Periya PiraaTTi. Thereafter, as he starts to perform
BharanyAsam at the holy feet of the Lord, he completes
guru paramparAnusanthAnam as the first step as a
prerequisite. He elaborates next on the meaning of
NaarAyaNa sabdham and follows the arc of Dwayam and
completes the SaraNAgathi at the sacred feet of Sriman
NaarAyaNA. Thus, the slokams of Sthothra Ratnam can be
considered to cover the full meaning of  the sacred
Dwaya Manthram. Earlier, we had already mentioned that
this sthOthram is also the Rahasya thraya saaram as
well.  

Two Invocatory verses (Taniyans) for Sthothra Ratnam

Taniyan 1 :

svAdhayan iha sarveshAm thryyanthaartham sudurgraham I
sthothrayaamasa yogeendra: tam vandE YaamunAhvayam II

I salute Yaamuna Muni ( Yamunai Thuraivar ) , the
preeminent among the Yogis for blessing us with the
gem among sthothrams. He gave us this eulogy so that 
we can all enjoy the delectable taste of the meaning
of the VedanthA, which in this world is very difficult
to realize on our own.

Taniyan 2 :

namO namO YaamunAya YaamunAya namO nama: I
namO namO YaamunAya YaamunAya namO  nama: II

There are many nama: word [sabdhaas] in this Taniyan.
Each of the nama: sabdhaas have their own meanings.
The five meanings of the nama: sabdham are : My [mind]
Maanasa, [speech] Vaachika and Kaayika [Body]
namaskArams to Sri yAmuna Muni; In addition to these
three Upaaya namaskArams, I salute yAmuna muni [who is
there] in Parama Padham for making it possible to reap
the benefits of my Prapatti [Saranagathi]. May the
fruits of these namaskaarams not belong to me, but
only to Sri Yamunacharya as the [Master] Seshi. Thus
my namaskaram itself is swayam prayojanam. 

Let us enjoy the verses from next post.
Alavandhar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Regards
Namo Narayana
dAsan



                
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