Srimathe Ramanujaya Namah
11/06/04
Uttara Poorva Dinacharya by Sri T.A. Srinidhi - Kanchipuram - Upanyasam # 4
Srinidhi Swamin continued with poorva dinacharya on the 4th day .
* As said in "vEdaam vallArgalai kondu..." sadAchArya samAsharayanam is
needed to attain Emberuman. As AlwAr says in "minnnin nileyila..." the life is
so
short and we have to attain His tiruvadi for which sadAchArya sambhandham is
needed.
In keeping with this Erumbiappa approached mAmunigaL and then he starts
mAmunigaL's tirumEni soundarya varNanai.
* P.B.Annan swamy in his VaraVaraMuni Shataka says that there is one
similarity between us and EmberumAn. He has AhIna bhOgam as He reclines on
tiruanandAlwAn and we, the devotees of mAmunigaL have aheena (kurai illAda)
bhOgam
which is kainkaryam without limits.
* As in "pItahavAdai pirAnAr..piramaguruvAhi..." EmberumAn came both as
guru and shishya as it was not known to the jeevAs how to be a true
shishya(Badrikashrama ? Nara Narayana avataram)
P.B.Annan swamy in VaraVara muni Shataka says that He himself took avatAra as
mAmunigaL. When He went to Bali Chakravarthi saying "moovadi maN innEtA...".
Then as
AlavandAr says in StOtra Ratna, One Being extended His feet, the other being
washed it ,the water from which went to the head of yet another being thus
purifying
him (kalAnidhi mowli). It is very obvious from this who is the greatest
Being...
In a similar way, due to the srIpAda teertham of mAmunigaL, the shishyAs are
purified and are also kalAnidhi mowligaL. Lot of people think devatAntaras also
can give mOksha and fall to their feet wrongly. TirumaLishai AlwAr's story may
be recalled here. When he was asked by Shiva perumaan what boon he wanted, the
former
replied that it is mOksha that he desired to which Shiva peruman replied that
he was
incapable of it and that only JanArdhana could give mOksha. Further AlwAr tells
him to make
?those who are to die today to die tomorrow? in lighter vein. This makes Shiva
peruman
angry and wants to kill AlwAr. Then Alwar opens his eye in his foot and scares
Shiva peruman who then realizes Alwar's greatness and gives him the name
BhaktisArar.
Thus those who have mAmunigAl's sreepAda theertham on their head are greater
than devatAntaras.
*There SrimannArAyana did trivikramAvatAra and here mAmunigaL came to
transform everyone and release them from the cycle of birth and death. ArurALa
perumaL EmberumAnAr says in JnAnasAra " tirumAmahaL kOLunan tAnEguruvAhi
tannaruLaL mAnidarkai.." He comes down and gives His hand to lift us up.
Similarly
mAmunigAL took birth. Erumbiappa prays to mAmunigAL to accept him.
*Shloka 12-13: In these two shlOkas Erumbiappa says that whatever he
said in earlier shlOkas are absolutely true. He prays that he should be blessed
with the
devotion towards mAmunigaL always and not be attracted towards sense objects.
In Ashta bujAshtakam Swami Vedantachariar says "You came all the way in
response to
the cry of GajEndran who was caught only by one crocodile where as I am caught
by
ten of those in the form of sense organs!?
mAmunigaL himself in Arthi Prabhandham pleads for paramapadam. Similarly
Erumbiappa pleads that he should be looking at mAmunigAL always. Many a time we
do things without willingness at heart. Unlike that he prays for a state when
he can think of mAmunigaL with all his
heart.
AlwAr says in TVM 5th pathu "kaiyAr shakkarathu..." that he simply said
His name outwardly but in spite of that, He gave Himself ("maiyyE
peththOlindEn...")taking my lies. As in "yen adiyAr adu shaiyyAr..." of
PeriAlwAr and "ponnALi kkaiyAN..." of Poygai AlwAr, He does away with our sins
even if we take His name outwardly.
Even if His tirunAmam is used to tease someone or scold someone it gives the
fruit. Just like Tirumantra which fructifies uttered in any way (recall from
mumukshuppadi) becuase He possesses dOsha bhOgyatwam. This is true with AchArya
kripai also. Swami vEdAntAchariar in 'dayAshataka' says
dayAdEvi(personification of EmberumAn's kripai) has a big stomach and her food
is bhakta's dOshAs but is still not full. She can take all our defects inside
and if she comes to him(swami) her stomach will be full and he will be devoid
of all sins!
Erumbiappa says that he should always pray to mAmunigaL with his heart.
When manDodari sees Ravana's corpse, she says that as earlier Ravana
controlled his senses and hence won the three worlds, his indriyAs (senses)
took
revenge on him when he got tempted and destroyed him like an enemy would.
Tondaradippodi AlwAr's "kAvalil pulanai vaithu..." is interpreted in three ways:
1. Because of Indriya nigraha, I received EmberumAn's kripai.
2. kAval+il => I did NOT do indriya nigraha still He protected me.
AlwAr's story can be recalled here when he got tempted by deva dEvi.
3. Kaval => rakshakan (EmberumAn), il => in Him, I kept my indriyAs and got his
kripai.
AlwAr says because I did not keep them under control they kept me in
jail. "kalithannai kadakka pAyndu"
When EmberumAnAr took avatara, kali purushan ran thinking he has no place here
anymore. "namantamarhal talaihal mIdE..." we (srivaishnavas) transformed kali
yuga into krita yuga and stamped on yama?s and his doothas? heads. Why is
plural used here? It is because when they saw Alwar transformed many other
shrivaishnavAs also came and joined him. Alwar then adds "nin nAmam katta..."
this greatness came due to His nAma.
* Both Swamy PillaiLOkAcharyar(in mumukshuppadi) and Swamy Vedantachariar(in
sankalpa
sooryOdaya) talk about the greatness of divya desams. People take dips in holy
waters to get purified and earn puNya. When EmberumAN's tirumEni has both
qualities
there is no need to do that. An AchArya submits the shishyA's Atma to EmberumAn
and He will reside in the shishyA's heart. Similarly, Erumbiappa says that
he should keep thinking of mAmunigaL and automatically EmberumAn will reside in
his heart.
In VaraVaraMuni Shataka P.B.Annan Swamy says fish always keep their eyes open.
Similarly mAmunigaL's shishyAs keep their eyes open to make sure no one is
doing the wrong thing in the name of this rich sampradayam.
ShlOka 14 and 15:
>From shlOka 14 the daily routine of mAmunigaL is described.
As in "shitram shirukAlE ..." and "brAmhE mahUrtE...", mAmunigaL wakes up early
morning thinking of EmberumAn, guruparamparA taniyan and the three
rahasyas namely Tirumantra, Dvayam and, CharamashlOka. As in mumukshuppadi
"prapattiyilE yilindavargalukku..." and in Tiruppavai "karaivaigal pinshenru"
verse,
a prapanna takes Emberuman ONLY as upAya. This is analogous to the story in
which a king asks his people to bring a bag and that he would fill it up with
gems/gold for them. One of them returns without a bag and when asked why, he
replies saying that when the king can give all the treasure can he not give a
mere bag too. In Tirumantra five important meanings are embedded. They are the
atma swaroopa, Ishwara swaroopa, upAya swaroopa, phala swaroopa and
virOdhi swaroopa.
Our AchAryAs say before learning this they are not considered
as being born. Dvayam tells about kainkarya at the divine feet of EmberumAn and
Piratti with piratti's purushakAram without which He will not do the needful.
In that respect dvaya mantram is superior to Tirumantra. Pillai PerumAL IyengAr
says He
is more like mother than father. Piratti transforms the chEtana by her aruL
(grace),
and EmberumAn by Her aLagu (beauty). CharamashlOka tells about the
charamOpAya(ultimate means).
Then mamunigal would recite and contemplate on nadadoor ammAL?s... paravyooha
..antaryAmi..(paratvaadi panchakam) and then think deeply about Udaiyavar.
ShlOka 16: mAmunigaL did his daily anushtanams. When Bhattar stays in
tirukkOttiyUr for some time he is in distress to be missing NamperumAL.
Nanjeeyar knows that his state of mind. It is then that he composes the
Taniyans on Alwars(bhootham sharshcha...) and Andal(NeelAtunga...). He will be
longing to go and have dip in kAvEri. "adiyEn" is the term for the Atma when it
is
devoid of ego and it shows the servitude of the Atma. Once nadAdur ammAL tells
tiruvaLLarai swami to go to engaLAlwAn. When he reaches there upon enquiry from
Engal alwan as to who is at the door, nadadoor ammal says ?naan?. For this
EngalAlwAn says "nAn sheththu vArum" ...here, by "nAn" he meant the ego.
Like mAmunigaL himself says in upadEsha ratna mAlai "JnAnam anushtAnamivai..."
he was
one such AchArya. He would perform all the prescribed anushtAnams.
ShlOka 17 and 18: He would then arrive at his maTam and perform
tiruvArAdhanam to aranganagarappan. EmberumAn lends Himself to be archaka
parAdhIna
and stays at various divya dEsams waiting for chEtanAs. What is more surprising
is that He takes different forms in our residences even though we do not follow
any elaborate rituals and even greater than this is that He accepts the
apachArams we do as upachArams.
Once a srivaishnava comes to Bhattar to learn about niyamas to be followed in
doing bhagavad tiru ArAdhanai. The whole process of explanation took more than
12 hours. After listening he wondered how Bhattar had time to do all that. So
he went to Bhattar's house to find out and was surprised to see that Bhattar
finished up everything in a few minutes. When he enquires with Bhattar's mother
AndAl, she says "For you the day long procedure was too less but for Bhattar
even those few minutes was too much!". She said that Bhattar would get into
anubhavam and swoon if he spent too much time in tiruvAradhanai. This was the
connection he had with Emberuman.
Although we keep modifying our tiru ArAdhanai as we please, He still accepts
everything due to His grace.
Tirumalai AnandAlwAn says ?why did we come here for a lowkeeka job?! It is
better to be in divya dEsam even if it amounts to doing a donkey's chore.
MAmunigaL did tiruvArAdanam to his perumAl and stayed there to perform pancha
samskAram when ever shishyAs came to him. Just like one?s thoughts are
portrayed by one?s facial expressions, as we do more kainkaryam to Emberuman
and He gets happy, then on seeing that we get happy from inside, then this
happiness is shown as a sparkle through the face. Since Emberuman enjoyed and
was very happy to receive Mamunigal?s kainkaryam, Mamunigal was always happy
and this was seen in his divine face that was happy all the time. His face
would always have a smile. This would also show that he is so ready to take
the jeevatmAs across this samsAram.
ShlOka 19: ShishyAs such as koil annan took care of his bodily protection. With
the purushakAra of other shishyAs he did dvaYOpadEsham to Erumbiappa.
Shloka 20,21: In Rahasya Traya SAra Swami Vedantachariar says there is nothing
equal to dvayOpadEsham. As Swamy PLC says in SVB, for an AchArya, ultimate good
of the shishyA's Atma should be the main goal in this and should be performed
as a representative of his own AchArya. Also for an acharya it is important to
have a shishya with lakshanams so that the shishya can perform mangalasasanams
to the acharya. The shishya should be in a position to do mangalasanams to
his/her acharayan always.
To be continued?
rAmAnuja aDiyArgaL
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