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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00075 Apr 2005

 
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SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:
Dearest Srivaishnavas,

Let us continue to enjoy Poigai AzhwAr
aruLiccheyalgaL? 
His Mudhal ThiruvanthAthi 68th verse is the next one:

uNarvaaraa runperumai? yoozhithO Roozhi,
uNarvaaraa runnuruvan thannai?, uNarvaaraar
viNNagatthaay! maNNagatthaay! vEngadatthaay naalvEthap
paNNakatthaay! neekidantha paal?             68

You are an incomprehensible Lord; there is none who
can claim that he has understood You or has realized
Your true glories in its entirety. Oh Lord! The One
who is at Sri vaikuNtam! The One who takes avathArams
on this earth! The One who is at ThiruvEnkatam! The
essence of four Vedas! Who can perceive Your glories?
Who can know Your form! Even if one studies and
attempts for aeons after aeons- yuga after yuga, he
can not get even an iota of Your infinite glories.
Even Your form- one can not understand. Who can
comprehend the Your reclining posture on milky ocean!

You are the Supreme One! You are PERIYAVAN. You are
unparalleled, Peerless One- Parathvam. 

AndAL says: Periyaay! [in yERRa kalangaL]
PERIYAAI :" You are the one who cannot be understood
even by
the Vedas."-Apraapya Manasaa Saha". The joyous Gopis
eulogize the Lord with heightened vigor and recognize
the Lord of their desire as" OoRRamudayAi, PeriyAi ,
Ulahinil ThORRamAi ninRa SudarE ".They recognize Him
as "Dhruda-tara PramANa Siddhan " ( One who is
comprehended with the help of the powerful VedA
pramANams).

You are the Primordial Chief. You are Supreme. There
is none equal to You, why to talk superior to You? In
addition to Narayananthvam, Jagathpathithvam, You are
the darling son of the cowherd NandhagOpan is the
Grandest One for You. That itself is enough for Your
Parathvam and sowlabhyam combined. You are the
jyOthiswarUpan. Vedas say: SrEyAn bhavathi jAyamaana:
- in every avatar, You become grander; Your greatness
and grandeur expands (appear to expand). You have
resplendency shining and increasing from strength to
strength every day. You have unbounded effulgence
[apAra thEjas] increasing exponentially everyday. You
are Paranchudar. You are the One showing Yourself so
gracefully and mercifully at this Divya Desam of
ThiruvEnkatam. 

thEjobirApoorya jagath samagram- Arjuna said in the
battle field- You are the thEjas appeared in this
world. Is there any birth, jAthi (caste) for you? Your
birth is not like ours. Yours is avatar. When one sees
Your bed, (of AdhisEshan) can?t they not realize Your
greatness? There is a nandhaa viLakku (which never
extinguishes) on your bed near Your head. This Bed had
appeared before You appeared in this house. (i.e.
Balarama- Adhiseshan). 

"MaayOnai": Our Lord is a MaayAvi. He hinted that much
in Githai: " sambhavaami aathma maayaya" .All the
Maaya ChEstithams from His avathAram at Vada Mathurai
to growth in Aayarpaadi, many leelais in Gokulam  and
BrindhAvanam , His serving as the charioteer for
ArjunA, converting day into night in the battle field
of Kuru KshEthram , taking the disc in His hand in
spite of His vow not to use weapons in that war , are
examples of the MaayA of the MaayOn. Abhinava Desikan
describes Maayai as Moola Prakruthi and SankalpAthi
Jn~Anam.As the Controller, commander of this Maayai ,
through His sankalpa visEsham blesses the DevAs and
incarnates as PadhmanAbhan in  the milky ocean and
later jumps out of the pillar as Lord Narasimhan, goes
to the Yaaga saalai of Bali as Vaamanan and transforms
into Thiruvikraman and incarnates as KaNNan , the
MaayOn or adhbhuthan.

Swamy NammAzhwAr celebrates this Maayam of the Lord,
which He performs through His AchAryAs, who remove the
"Poy ninRa Jn~Anam " of ours and makes us qualified to
receive SadAchAra Jn~Anam through the wondrous act of
"Irumbai ponnAkkuthal" (SaraNAgathi) according to Sri
aNNan Swamy. Our Lord stands on top of this AchArya
Paramparai and is therefore MaayAthi Maayan.

Narayana means: Naaram plus ayanam. nArAyaNa as the
supreme entity is unabiguosuly established by paNini's
vyAkaraNa sootra [kind of sanskrit grammar] - where
the ?Na" letter of nArAyaNa (called "mooNRu suzhi
'Na'" in Tamil) renders the term nArAyaNa as Supreme
One in the universe.  "nArAyaNa" is the ayana of naras
[beings], i.e. the super being from which all else
emanates. 

vedAhametam puruSHam mahAntam | AdityavarNam tamasastu
pAre |
sarvANi roopANi vicitya dheera: | nAmAni krtvAbhivadan
yadAste ||
[From Purusha sooktha]
(yat) That (dheera:) valorous puruSHa (Aste) who is,
who has (vicitya:) materialized (sarvAni) all
(roopANi) forms, and (krtya:)made (sarvAni) all
(nAmAni) names, (abhivadan) and maintains all of
these, (etam) that (mahAntam) glorious
(AdityavarNam)sun-brilliant (puruSHam) puruSHa, (astu)
who is (pAre) beyond(tamas) darkness, (aham) I (veda:)
Know him. 

This Purusha sukta is closest to the Srivaishnava
Sampradaya visualization of Sriman Narayana, as
creator and maintainer of all, (refer back to 'namo
bhagavate tasmai krSHNaya adbhuta karmaNe roopa nAma
vibhedena jagat kreedati yo yata:'), full of kalyANa
guNas such as mahimA, brilliant as the sun, and beyond
all darkness. What is the advantage of knowing this
then ? This is explained in later verses. Also, in
sAyaNa's commentary " mantradraSHtA svakeeyam
dhyAnAnubhavam prakatayati". This mantra is how to
visualize him for meditation, and thus to know him.
Compare this to Vishvamitra in the Ramayana " aham
vedmi mahAtmAnam rAmam satya-parAkramam / vasiSHto api
mahAtejo ye ceme tapasi sthitA:" - I know the great
souled Rama, of deeds beyond measure, powerful in
truth, more brilliant than Vasishta, who protected my
yagnya well". Or Mandodari's praise of Rama as
Mahavishnu in the same, " tamasa: paramo dhAtA
shankacakra gadhAdara" - O Creator, who bears the
Conch, the Disk, and the Mace as weapons, who is
Supreme above all darkness. The image of the sun here
is especially effective, as the tamas referred to here
is the darkness of the soul, ignorance and inactivity.


Thus Narayana is the One who manifests everywhere
inside and outside of everything as the indweller.
Anthar bahischathas sarva vyApya naaraayaNasthitha:]

nArAyaNA is not merely someone with 4 hands, conch
,chakra etc . nArAyaNA is the paramAtmA who pervades
everywhere with  infinite kalyAna gunAs & ever
associated  with "Sri" (Lakshmi). "nArAyaNA" refers to
the divyAtma svaroopam which  pervades everywhere & He
is the Brahman (source of creation, the maintainer &
in whom it dissolves).

nArAyaNA is  always  personal  because  of His
infinite kalyAna gunAs. Just because He is all
pervading , it doesn?t  mean that He is impersonal .
The  same infinitely manifested nArAyaNA takes  many 
the forms  for the pleasure of His devotees & the body
of  such forms are made up of  the special aprAkruta
material called suddha sattvam amd such incarnations
are out of His own will i.e. Not because of karmA).
The infinite qualities of nArAyaNA are not because of
His form . It is based on His svaroopam & His 
dharmabhooda  jn~Anam both of which are infinite. 

Only Yogis can visualize Him and His form in their
heart due to their concentrated devotion and
meditation. But, the greatest & the most merciful 
avatAram  is the archAvatAram , in which  even the
rogues like me, thieves , non-devotees, devotees,
riches, beggars, atheists, animals & all sorts of
living entities can see with their naked eyes the
dhivya mangal archA thirumeni ( divya mangaLa vigrahA
) of Sriman  nArAyaNA . This display  of  immense
Sowlabhyam &  Sowseelyam  by Sriman nArAyaNA  although
being  the Param poruL (Supreme Being)   is the main
reason  for  His  ardent devotees  like  AzhwArs to 
dive into various devotional moods  filled with 
mystic experience  in communion with  the supreme Lord
 &  in that  bliss comes forth their  most nectarian 
Divya Prabandhams, which is so potent to change  even 
a stone hearted  atheist  into  a bhAgavathA filled 
with all goose pimples during  his bhagavath
anubhavam. 

Thus one can not comprehend His form too in its
entirety. Such most merciful Lord is here standing in
front of our naked eye. ThiruvEnkatam is such a
wonderful Dhivya Desam on par with His Paramapadham,
Milky ocean; His vibhava avathArams (Rama, Krishna et
al), if not even better. 

{Reference: Sri Anand Karalapakkam Swami?s article on
Narayana and Sri V.Sundar?s translation of Purusha
sukta from www.ramanuja.org ] 

If one thinks he has understood Brahman clearly, means
he has not understood; if one claims [even after
studying vedanthas and saathrAs] that he has not
comprehended the Lord's glories, he has actually
understood- says sruthi. 
 
AzhwAr ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam
Sri PadmavathI samEtha Sri Srinivasa ParabrahmaNE
namah:
Regards
Namo Narayana
dAsan

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