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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00102 Jan 2007

 
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SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya nama:

Dearest all,

LakshmI nAtha samArambhAm nATha yaamuna madhyamaam |
asmadhAcharya paryanthAm vandhE GuruparamparAm ||

I worship the entire guruparamparaa that starts with
Emperumaan, Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayanan; which has
SrI NAthamuni (in between) upto my AchArya (Sri
Ramanuja).

Sri Ramanujacharya with His tall, fair complexioned,
towering personality- majestic, cool merciful glances
with an ever smiling shining face- with dwAdasa
oordhva pUndram (12 ThirumaN), the pristinely pure
saffron sanyaasi robe (that adds beauty to the fair
complexion further), the dark tresses curly hair of
sikhA which is so charming on His moon like Divine
smiling face laden with dayA on us, (Charming Most
graceful Thirumukham), the white bright pooNool
(yagnOpaveedham), the strong thridhaNdam, the lovely
Lotus feet- Oh Lord! What a sight It could have been,
to those Srivaishnavas must have been blessed with! 

How nice it would have been to witness Sri Ramanuja,
walking so gracefully with such an enchanting
personality, with his group of sishyas of calibre like
KooratthAzhwAn, MudaliANdaan, Embaar, Boy Paraasara
Bhattar, Kidaambhi Acchaan, and others. What a sight
it would have been! Once, even Periya Nambhi (who had
initiated Sri Ramanuja with Pancha smaskaram) saw this
group coming in the front and prostrated on the ground
falling flat. When asked, he said "It appeared to me
as if Alavandhaar is coming with his sishyas!  

This scene of Divine Beauty of Sri Ramanuja reminds me
of Embaar's poem on the azhagu of Ramanuja and
declares in the end "illai enaaku edhir; illai enakku
edhir; illai enakku edhirE!  "There is none equal to
me; none equal to me; none equal to me!". True! 

There is NONE equal to us FOR BEING BLESSED WITH Sri
Ramanuja (sampradayam)!     

EmbAr has also painted a memorable  word picture of
the majestic 
beauty of RaamAnujA in his SanyAsa Aasramam :

parpamenatthihazh painkazhalunran pallavamE viralum 
      paavanamAhiya painthuvaraadai pathintha
marunkazhahum 
muppuri noolodu munkailEndhiya mukkOl tannazhahum 
      munnavar tandhidu mozhikaL niranithidu muruval
nilAvazhahum 
karpakamE vizhi karunai pozhinthidu kamalkkaNNazhahum 
      kaarisu tan kazhal soodiya mudiyum kana
naRRsihai mudiyum 
yeppozhudhum yethiraasan VADIVAZHAHU
yeenidhayatthuLathAl 
     ILLAI YENAKKU YETHIR ILLAI YENAKKU YETHIRILLAI
YENAKKETHIRE 

Embar's enjoyment of seeing Sri Ramanujacharya's lotus
 feet , tender fingers reminding one of the creepers,
sacred saffron robe, most auspicious pooNool,
thridandam , His enchanting smile laden with dayA ,
large dark eyes reminiscent of wish yielding kaRpaka
maram (tree), the kudumi (sikhA) formed by abundant
tresses is simply beautiful .  EmbAr declares that
there is no one equal to him; since YathirAjan's
Divine Beauty lingers in his heart.

Let us now Swami Ramanuja?s wonderful divinely
Beautiful ThirumEni.. 
Swami Desika says in the sloka 10 of YathirAja
Sathathi: Swamy Desikan had enjoyed Acharyan?s divine
beauty in his Yathiraja sapthathi sloka:

upaveedhinam oordhva pundravantham 
  trijagadh puNya palam thridhanda hastham I
saraNAgatha saartha vaaham eedE 
  sikhayA sekariNam pathim yatheenAm II

I praise Yathiraja, who shines with a Yajna
Upaveetham, on His chest and with the UrdhavapuNram
who is really the fruit of the Good deeds of all
worlds, who has a thridaNda, in His hand, and finally
has a tuft of hair on the Head. He is the saviour of
the Vaishnavites, surrendered unto Him, guaranteeing
for their salvation

I salute the emperor of SanyAsis, RaamAnujA, who is
resplendent in his appearance wearing the sacred
thread, urdhva Pundrams and beautiful tuft made up of
dense black tresses. He is holding the thridhandam in
his hands as a result of the puNyams accumulated by
the three worlds and is leading the prapannAs to
moksha saamrAjyam. In yet another sloka, Swami Desikan
celebrated the beauty of Sri RamAnujA's hand holding
the JnAna mudhrA.
 
[From asmadhAcharyan?s Tamil commentary of Swamy
Desikan?s YathirAja Sapthathi ? translated into
English by Sri CG Balaji Swami]

Ramanuja sampradayam is not something that emanated
all by itself. It is the true religion that has come
down through the preceptor lineage starting from
Paraman Himself. It is due to this fact that Swamy
Deshikan lauds all the other acharyas in the lineage
before celebrating Ramanuja. Similar to Bhagavad
anubhavam, Acharya anubhavam is equally important for
a disciple. Acharya anubhavam for a disciple would be
to adorn the divine form (thirumeni amaippu or the
vigraham) of an acharya in his mind and to strictly
adhere to his teachings and ordainments. The
consecration and worship of the vigrahams of the Lord
as per the texts of Agamas enable one to remain in His
contemplation always. Though our poorvacharyas are not
present with us now, we can definitely enjoy the
beauty of their self by listening to our ancestors.
Appullar who came down the familial as well as the
disciple lineage of Kidambi Achchan had the fortune of
experiencing and enjoying the divine form and beauty
of Bhagavad Ramanuja. Swamy Desikan was Appullar?s
nephew as well as disciple. He learnt the experience
of seeing Bhagavad Ramanuja and his beautiful
thirumeni from Appullar. Just as we relish our bygone
days through photographs or video, so does Swamy
Desikan celebrate Ramanuja as if he is seeing him in
full animation.

Upaveethinam ? A Brahmana gets actual Brahmanyatvam
only by wearing the upavitam or the sacred thread and
by performance of the ordained duties of
Sandhyavandanam three times every day without fail.
This sacred three-fold thread adorning the majestic
person of Yatiraja, like a lightening streak is what
captivates us first. Here Swamy Deshikan extols the
distinction and supremacy of Ramanuja upon other
ascetics of other philosophies who do not adorn a
yajnopavitam. 

Even Azhwars before attempting to celebrate the
majestic person of the Lord first eulogize His three
fold yajnopavitam as minnu noolum kuNdalamamum maarbil
thirumaRuvum. 

UrdhvapuNdrantham- After having celebrated his
majestic chest, Swamy Deshikan now attempts to glorify
his beautiful 
countenance. He says that the sacred pundram applied
with the holy white mud (thiruman) and the srichuranam
appears resplendently. Having the shape of the feet of
the Lord and upward bound, it is capable of conferring
on Vaishnavas the holy Vishnupadam or Srivaikuntam.

tridhaNdahastham ? Ramanuja, having researched the
Vedic purports very well, showed to one and all that
Vedavedyan that is one who is learnt from the Vedams
is none other than Sriman Narayana who is replete with
infinite auspicious attributes. He also showed by
practice that the consecration and worship of this
Lord Sriman Narayana in temples and homes is a sure
means to elevate oneself. This Sriman Narayana who is
worshipped by mind, word and deed has been invoked by
Ramanuja into his tridandam (staff with three stalks)
and keeps him in his hand all the time. This way,
Ramanujar is not like the other sanyasis who keep only
a single dandam or eka dandam (staff with one stalk).

sikhayA sEkariNam- Just as how kings deck themselves
with a crown, Ramanuja, who is the king of ascetics
has decorated himself with a tuft of mane like the
crown. It has been ordained in the scriptures that an
ascetic shall adorn a tuft of mane (Sikha) just like
how a king has to wear a crown.

Swamy Deshikan by saying -thrijagathpuNya phalam-
intends that the incarnation of Ramanuja who has a
majestic stature with broad chest adorning the sacred
upaveetham, having a tuft of mane like a crown and
with a tridandam in his hand definitely looks like the
consummation of the penances of all the three worlds.
Shankara and others had made many fallacious
interpretations for the charma shlokam of Bhagavad
Geetha. 

SarvadharmAn parityajya- wherein they intend to say
that all the scriptural ordainments such as yajna,
yaga and other karmas as per the varnams like
sandhyavandanam need not be performed. The earthly
habitants were afraid due to the fact that many pious
people had given up the performance of ordained duties
following these teachings. This meant that all earthly
souls would become abdicators of ordained duties or
?karma-bhrashtars? and would have to go to narakam. At
the same time the devas and forefathers lamented
thinking that they might not get their share of
libations if nobody on the earth performed the
ordained duties. 

At this time our Udayavar incarnated and upheld the
teachings of the Gita by saying that ?Sarvadharmaan
Parityajya ?? did not mean the complete renouncement
of all ordained duties. He ascertained with clarity
that the nitya karmas or daily ordained duties should
be performed by everyone as per their varna without
fail. He also quoted the validity of this statement
from the Gita ? sangam tyakthvaa phalam Chaiva
sathyAgassAthvikO matha: 

Using this statement Ramanuja clearly says that the
ordained duties should be performed without fail. But
the same should be performed without the egotistic
feeling in its performance and without expecting in
return any fruits of the same. This is known as
satvika tyagam. In this way Bhagavad Ramanujar is like
the culmination of the fruits of the penances of all
the three worlds.

SaraNAgatha saarThavAham ? Nammazhwar though had the
capacity to attain moksham by following the path of
bhakti yogam, did not follow that path but, instead he
preached everyone to follow the prapatti margam and
practiced the same at the feet of
Thiruvengadamudaiyaan by singing the verse
ahalagillaen iRaiyum enRu alarmael mangai
uRaimaarbhaa!  and performing prapatti through the
words unnadikkeezh amarndhu puhundhEnE.. . 

He also came to be celebrated as ?prapanna jana
santaana kootasthar?. Following the footsteps of our
Azhwar, Yatiraja on the day of Panguni Uttaram,
performed prapatti at the feet of Sriranga
divya-dampathis by singing in his sharanagati gadyam
as ananya SaraNa: SaraNam aham prapadyE.. that is ?Not
knowing any other means to attain moksham, I hereby
surrender at your divine lotus feet?. Having
administered the path of sharanagati to many seekers
at his feet, Ramanuja came to be celebrated as
SaraNagatha SaarThavAha:

In this way Swamy Deshikan extols the vigraham or the
divine person of Bhagavad Ramanuja by experiencing his
epiphany in his heart and at the same time enables all
of us to behold the same divine vision as that of his.

Sri Ramanujasya CharaNou SaraNam PrapadyE
Regards
Namo narayana
dAsan 


 
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