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Sri Parthasarathi thunai
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha
Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Dear Bhagavatas,
Pranams,

With the divine grace of Sri Andal Sametha Sri Parthasarathi emperuman and with
the blessings of our acharya HH Sri Vanamamalai Kaliyan Ramanuja Jeeyer
swamigal, adiyen wishes to take up the kainkaryam of shedding some light 
about our 108 divya desams. Adiyen requests all bhagavatas to keep giving 
their uninterrupted feedback so that this humble effort can be refined further.

Introduction
=========================Sriyapathi: Sriman Narayanan out of his kindness, is 
adopting various methods to liberate the jeevatmas from their worldly affairs 
(Samsaram) and takethem 
to his divine abode. He, who is the paramAtma, in the paramapadam, is 
inaccessible to anyone, other than the nitya sooris. So, by his apAra kArunyam 
emperuman descended down to the pArkadal(vyuha moorthi). He then took 4 vyuha 
forms- Vasudeva, sankarshana, pradhyumna and aniruddha and started doing 
shrusti, sthithi and samhAra. Again, these vyuha moorthis also were not 
accessible to the common man. So the jeevatmas, who had remained dormant for 
long and now who have been made active by the paramAtma, started getting 
involved in all lowkika activities and totally forgot about bhagavan. So, likea 
father trying to correct the mistakes of his son, bhagavan gave various sastras 
through which he thought the jeevas would realize the existence of 
emperuman and the real nature of the soul. But the jeevas then, refused, even 
to accept the sastras, where is the question of following it !!! 

In kruth yugam the rishis were capable of meditating on the lord inside them, 
the antaryami. But, as the days passed and when trutha and thrEtha yugams came
, people gradually lost that capacity. So emperuman like a king, who comes on 
his own after the effort of sending a messenger becoming futile, decided to
come down to earth for taking various vibhava avatArAs. So now bhagavan dueto 
his sowlabhyam took rama, Krishna avataras so that he can be accessible to even 
a common man(even innocent, ignorant aychis in AyarpAdi), but even then many 
refused to accept his supremacy (kamsa, rAvanan, sisupAlan and others). 

After the vibhavA avatars were over, people in kali became abhakyshAlis. Will 
perumal leave his kids like that? So he took number of archa forms and settled 
in various places so that people in kali can have access of him without much 
difficulty. "Variety is the spice of life" is our day to day mantra. We want 
variety in anything and everything, else, we get bored. So emperuman took 
various archa forms and settled in various places so that we never get bored to 
have darshan of him. 

Alwar says "pinnAnAr vanangum jOdhi thirumOzhikalaththAnAi". Here pinnAnAr 
refers to we people in kali who have taken birth after the vibhava avatArAsand 
thirumOzhikalaththAnAi refers to the emperuman in thirumOzhikalam(here alwar 
gives thirumOzhikalam as a representative of all the divya desams). Our 
poorvAcharyas says that Sri ranganatha, the representative of all 
archAvatarams, has taken a vow not to leave Srirangam until there is no other 
jeevatma left in this leela vibhuthi and hence he has lied down as in 
satyAgraham.

In Srivachanabhooshanam, Sri pillai lokacharya says,
SVB-40

"bhoogatha jalam pOlE ? antatyAmithvam; Avaranajalam pOlE ? parathvam; pArkadal 
pOlE ? vyuham; perukkAttru pOlE ? vibhavangal; adhilE thEngina madukkalpOlE ? 
archAvadhAram"

AntaryAmi is like the ground water, though it is available just under our legs 
still will not be used to quench our immediate thirst. First we have to realize 
that there is water underneath, and then we have to dig deep to get the same.

Parathvam is like a water in the clouds. 
It is inaccessible unless it falls down as rain.

Vyuham is like pArkadal. We can see the ocean but can that water 
be used to quench our thirst?

Vibhavams are like flood water, which will disappear as the floods drain off.

But archAvatarams are like the ponds formed due to the rivers, which store the 
water during rain and floods and make water readily available to us when we
need them.

In mumukshupadi, PL says,
Sootra 139 and 140

"engu sonna sowlabhyaththukku ellai nilam archAvatAram"
"edhu thAn para vyuha vibhavam pOl andrikkE kannAlE kAnalAm padi erukkum"

Sowlabhyam is one of the greatest kalyAna gunas of emperuman. Though he is the 
supreme paramAtma he is still accessible by all. It is difficult for us to see 
the para, vyuha and vibhava moorthis today, but the archai is visible to even a 
nastika(whether he accepts him as bhagavan or not is a different issue). Not 
only the moorthis in the temple, but even all those in each one of our houses 
including the photos we have in our pooja are archavatarams. So now we realize 
how low emperuman has made himself to come and stay in whatever form we 
bhakthas want him to be("thamarugandhadhu evvuruvam avvuruvam thane" says 
peyAzhvar).

In thiruvAimozhi nootrandhAdhi, Sri manavala mAmunigal shows how Sri Namamzhvar 
has shown to us the sowlabhyam of archAvarAram,

"seiyya parathuvamAi seerAr vyuhamAi
tuyya vibhavamAi thOndriya vattrul- Aidhumavarkku
ennilaththil archAvadhAram elithenrAn
pannu thamizh mAran payindru"

But among the innumerable archAvatArams of emperuman, we Srivaishnavas consider 
only 108 as the most important. We call them divya desams because they are 
blessed with the mangalAsAsanams of the alwars, the divya sooris, in their 
divya prabhandams, generally called arulicheyals.

We will see more about these divya desams in the forth-coming postings.

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam
Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan

Varadarajan




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