Dear
SrEvaishNavites,
The divine hand of Sri Oppiliappan
magnifies with Lord krshNA's charama slOkam "mAm-yEakam'. The words 'mA-sucha' sparkles in kAnchi.
Sri Sadagopan swAmy who confirms this has
elaborated on how the term 'nE paNitha aruL ennum oL vAL
vuruvi'helped AzhwAr in removing the sins in a
jiffy.
The specila notes written by him is givne
hereunder
dasan
vanamamalai
padmanabhan
Let us reflect further on " nee
PaNittha aruL oLL VaaLL koNDu
eiympulankaL idar ozhitthEn " . What
is this powerful upadEsam ( PaNittha
aruL ) of the Lord to chase away the
troubles caused by the Indhriyams ?
The powerful UpadEsam of the Lord ,
which serves as the unfailing
weapon in the fight against the Five
cognitive Indhriyams is VAIRAAGYAM
born
out of VIVEKAM . The five organs of knowledge (
Jna~nEndhriyams)
are the ear (srOthra) , skin (tvak)
, eye (chakshus) , tongue (jihvA )
and nose ( ghrANa) . Through
sense control ( indhriya nigraham) ,
one develops VAIRAGYAM ; the renunciation of all these
non-lasting
and ultimately grief-yielding
pleasures results from Vairagyam .
The Replacement of
aj~nAnam by true
Jn~Anam results .
Raagam(Kaamam)
and dhvEsham ( hate) leave the
mind . The saadhakan becomes a samadharsini
( equipoised in attitude
) . Once the mind's concentration on the Self (Aathman)
is achieved and the full
control over the
sense organs and the mind
is accomplished ,
Jn~Ana nishtai follows . The
Saadhakan becomes a
sTitha praj~nan to follow
Jn~Ana yOgam or to perform
SaraNAgathy at the sacred feet of the Lord .
Few githA slOkams form the 18th chapter blessed to us by the Lord are
revelatory here
to understand Brahma Sthithi ( A state, where the mind is centered in
Brahman ) :
ahankAram balam darpam kaamam
krOdham parigraham
vimuchya nirmama: saanthO
BrahmabhUyAya kalpathE ---18.53
(Meaning) : " Forsaking egoism , power , arrogance
, desire , wrath
and sense of possession , with no feeling of
" mine" and being tranquil---
he becomes worthy for the state of pure Self and
attains true bhakthi towards
the Lord ( Thereafter , the Saadhakan neither
grieves nor desires . He
attains
supreme devotion to the Lord ) .
bhaktyA Maam abhijAnAti yaavaan
yascchaasmi tattvata:
tathO Maam tatthvathO jn~AthvA
viSatE tadanantharam ---18.55
( Meaning ) : "
Through devotion (Bhakti) he comes to know Me fully ---who I am
and what I am . Thus having known Me in
true form , he then enters in to Me
( attains Me as the Supreme goal of Bhakti yOgam )
. " The emphasis is on
the UpadEsam that single-minded devotion to the
Lord will make it possible
to know the Lord fully and attain Him in
the state of Moksha ( Jn~Atum
dhrashtum
cha tatthvEna pravEshtum cha
paranthapa -- XI.54, GitOpanishad).
Through such a single minded devotion and phala
thyAgam , one attains the eternal
and immutable abode says the Lord ( Madh prasAdhAd
avApnOthi Sasvatham padham
avyayam ---XVIII.56) .
Lord ParthasArathy once again states the
importance of MahA ViswAsam in Him :
Tamm yEva SaraNam gaccha
sarvabhAvEna Bharatha
tath-prasAdhAdth paramam
Saanthim sTAnam prApyasi Saasvatham
--XVIII.62
At ThiruviNNagar , Thirumangai Mannan reflects on
the two powerful slOkams
of the Lord at the battle field and performs his
SaraNAgathy with the utterance :
" tEnE NinnadainthEn ThiruviNNagar
MeyavanE , seRinthEn NinnadikkE
ThiruviNNagar MeyavanE " . The two gitA slOkams in this context are
:
ManmanA bhava MadhbhakthO MadhyAji
Maam namaskuru
Maam yEvaisyasi sathyam tE pratijAnE
priyOsi mE ---XVIII. 65
sarvadharmAn partithyajya MaamEkam
SaraNam vraja
aham thvaa sarvapApEbhyO
mokshayishAmi maa Suchah---XVIII.66
(Meaning ) : Focus your mind on Me; bedevoted to
Me; worship Me;
prostrate before Me ; you shall come to Me. I
promise you truly , for you
are dear to Me .
Relinquishing all dharmAs , seek Me alone
for refuge . I shall release you
from all sins . Do not grieve .
Dr. Chari in his monograph on " The
Philosophy of Bhagavad Gita " has
insightful comments on the Charama slOkam
( XVIII.66) : " The SaraNAgathy
or the surrendering of oneself to paramAthman
seeking Him as the sole refuge
implies according to RaamAnuja , the
relinquishment of the sense of ego as
the doer of deeds ( Karthruthva thyAga) and also
the sesire for their fruits
( Phala ThyAga) . This is what is meant by " Sarva
dharmAn partithyajya "
and not the total renunciation of all karmAs as
Samkara intreprets. By observance
of SaraNAgathy in this mannner , all the sins of
the past standing as obstacles
in the way of attaining ParamAthman will be
removed by His grace . Thus ,
the SaraNAgathy advocated in GitA serves as
an aid (anga) to the Bhakthi
yOgA , which is the direct means to Moksha
".
For a Bhaddha Jeevan( Souls in bondage ) , the
Lord at Kuru kshEthram
explained how the bondage is caused and how they
can snap out of that
bondage to become Muktha Jeevans ( liberated
Souls) and attain Him .
This is the UpadEsam on approaching Him thru
Bhakthi yOgam .
The path of Bhakthi yOgam is not easy for many to
follow . For the benefit
of those , who despair about
their capabilities to practise Bhakthi yOgam
to reach Him , the pParama DhayALu , our Lord
blessed us with the Charama
SlOkam to house His message of Prapatthi or
SaraNAgathy to Him . In VisishtAdhvaitha
philosophy and practise , " the doctrine of SaraNAgathy is accorded an
important
place. The total surrender of one's
self to the Lord with the firm conviction that
He is the sole protector , the means
and goal , is considered as an alternative
and direct means to Moksha for
persons , who are incapable of observing
the rigorous Bhakti yOga ". Acharya RaamAnuja elaborated on the doctrine
of
SaraNAgathy in his SaraNAgathy
gadhyam and showed us the way to perform
Prapatthi at the sacred feet of the
Lord following the path laid out by Thirumangai
AzhwAr and Swamy NammAzhwAr earlier
.
Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri
Sadagopan
SriMath Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
Yahoo! Groups Links
|
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |