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Eyewitness account of the celebrations of the thirunakshatram of H.H ParavAkOttai Srirangam PoundarIkapuram Srimad Andavan Sri Gopala Desh ika Maha Deshikar - Part 2

From the Bhakti List Archives

Balaji CG • April 9, 2001 


Sriranganaayaki Sametha Sriranganathan Thiruvadigale Sharanam
Emperumaanaar Thiruvadigale Sharanam
Swamy Deshikan Thiruvadigale Sharanam
Ramanuja Darshana Guruparamparaayai Namaha
Abhinava vasiShTar Srirangam PoundarIkapuram Srimad Andavan ParavAkOttai Sri
Gopala Deshika Maha DeshikAya namaha

This post gives a detailed picture of the celebrations on 30-03-01, the
Thirunakshatram day.
adiyEn kindly requests all the readers to overlook any mistakes that are all
mine.

===============================================================
Part - 2 - Friday 30-03-01 - The Thirunakshatram Day
===============================================================
Swamy Deshikan in his work Bhagavad DhyAna sOpAnam extolls Arangan as
'chintA ratnam' (The Gem to be contemplated upon) and in his work YatirAja
Sapthati celebrates Ramanujar as 'nAyaka ratnam' (nAyaka shrI: - The master
of all Gems) and says that - In a necklace of rare gems, where, every gem
represents one of the AchAryas in the paramparai (lineage), EmperumAnAr is
resplendent as the central gem.

The anubhavams of Swamy Deshikan with respect to Ramanujar could be seen
again (after 750 years). If all the Acharyas of our sampradAyam are gems in
the ratna hAram worn by Aranga, asmadAchAryar Srimad Gopala Deshika Maha
Deshikar who is celebrated as the incarnation of our EmperumAnAr by virtue
of his anuShTAnams, knowledge etc, definitely looked like the 'nAyaka
ratnam' (Gem of gems / Master of all Gems) among these gems.

----------------------------------------------------
30-03-01
--------
ThiruvArAdhanam
---------------
At 8-00 am in the morning Srimad Poundarikapuram Andavan started PerumAL
thiruvArAdhanam with the vEda, prabandha, upanishat and Ramayana pArAyaNams
starting simultaneously. By 9-30 am one could see the arrival of H.H
Rangapriya Maha Deshikan, H.H Parakala Swami, H.H Srirangam Srimad Andavan
Sri Rangaramanuja Maha Deshikan and H.H Srimad Azhagiya Singar.

UpanyAsam
---------
Srimad Rangapriya Swamy spoke first on asmadAchAryar quoting many instances
from RahasyatrayasAram and also on the significance of this great
thirunakshatram.

Srimad Parakala Swamy who spoke on the occassion greatly admired the divine
qualities of asmadAchAryar quoting from NyAsa Vimshati and
RahasyatrayasAram. H.H also spoke about Laksmi Hayagrivar the presiding
deity at Parakala matam and celebrated as to how Hayagrivar manifests
Himself as dashAvatAram with many references from ShwEtAshwatara Upanishat
and other shruthi texts. Srimad Parakala Swamy also mentioned that even a
day before, he had absolutely no plans of coming to Arangam due to certain
health constraints. He continued saying that it was only due to Srimad
Poundarikapuram Swamy's great bhakti towards Lakshmi Hayagrivar and his
desire to perform mangaLAshAsanam to the 'Lord of Vedas' that has brought
him (Parakala Swamy) along with Sri Laksmi Hayagrivar to Arangam that day.

Excerpts from Srimad Poundarikapuram Andavan's upanyAsam
--------------------------------------------------------
Srimad PoundarIkapuram Andavan started with the significance of the
nakshatram RohiNi. H.H mentioned that the incarnation of Lord Krishna in
this nakshatram makes RohiNi a 'thirunakshatram'. Elaborating further H.H
referred to some of the great acharyas who have incarnated in this
nakshatram.
The first one is GitAchAryan - Lord Krishna who blessed mankind with the
most precious of teachings - The Gita.
The next to follow is Thirukacchi Nambi - One of the acharyas of Bhagavad
Ramanuja. It was through him that Ramanujar got answers from
VaradarajapperumAL for "The Six Questions"
The third is KidAmbi Sri RangarAjar (Panguni RohiNi) - One of the ancestors
of Swamy Deshikan and also one of the acharyas in the 'manthrArtha
paramparai'.
H.H then spoke about the significance of an acharya, with some special
references to pErumAL being our first achArya and then elaborated on the
essence of Vedams with some special thoughts on sAma vEdam.
H.H overwhelmed with joy, greatly acknowledged the most noble kainkarya
bhAvams of the assembled vEda, prabandha, sribhashya and other bhAgavatha
gOShTis. H.H mentioned that though he was reluctant to have the celebrations
in such a grand scale however felt very happy on seeing such a huge
SrivaishNava gOShTi, the darshana bhAgyam of which is sufficient to remove
all sins.

Other upanyAsams
----------------
The vice chancellor of Venkateshwara University - Sri Ramanuja TatAchAriar
swamy speaking on the occassion glorified the virtues of asmadAchAryar and
said that true to H.H's name Gopala ..., Swamy has rendered great service in
protecting certain Sri sooktis and propagating the same among the well
deserving.
(gO - which also means divya sooktis or sri sooktis of acharyas and pAla: -
one who protects. gO-pAla: - One who protects the Sri sookti-s)
He also mentioned that GitAchAryan, has re-incarnated again as Srimad Gopala
Deshika Maha Deshikar in order to give further teachings to mankind not
possible during His avatAra kAlam.
He also referred to slokam "EkaEva gurOrdrShtyA ... kasyachit" from
SubhAshita nIvi - sadAshrita paddhati and glorified that one glance of
anugraham of an acharya on the student is always greater and never equal to
even pErumAl's glance with both the eyes or Brahma's glance with eight eyes
or even Indra's glance with a thousand eyes.

Book releases
-------------
H.H Srimad Poundarikapuram Andavan then released the book "Gems of Spiritual
Thought" specially authored for the occassion by U.Ve Dr. NSA Swamy of
Bangalore. The same was later distributed freely to all the bhaktas.
A special edition of PEraruLALan featuring Srimad Poundarikapuram Swamy's
articles on YatirAja Sapthathi was also released.

SARRumuRai
----------
It was now time for periya sARRumuRai. The acharya sambhavana which was
conducted was a real thriller. Sambhavana for all the Acharyas from
Thiruvarangan and ThiruvaranganAyaki till the present day acharya were
conducted with detailed procedures at a few places like NammAzhwAr,
Ramanujar, Swamy Deshikan, Thirukkudanthai Deshikan, Upanishat BhAshyakArar,
PeriyANdavan and Narayana Maha Deshikan. Detailed sambhavana was also
conducted for the three achAryas of asmadAchAryan - SrinivAsa Maha Deshikan,
SrinivAsa Maha Deshikan and Srimad Abhinava Ranganatha Brahmatantra
Swamtantra Parakaala Yatindra Maha Deshikan. SambhAvana for the presiding
deities of all the matams and Ashramams were conducted - Laksmi Hayagrivar,
Laksmi Nrusimhan, Sri VenugOpalan, Sri Sita Rama Lakshmana AnjanEya.
A detailed sambhAvana for H.H Srimad GopAla Deshika Maha Deshikar followed.
The vEda sARRumurai included RigvEdam, Shukla Yajur vEdam, Krishna Yajur
vEdam and Upanishat, followed by thiruppAvai sARRumuRai conducted in great
style.

Divyadesha maryAdai
-------------------
H.H was honoured with anugrahams and maryAdais from several divya deshams.
To quote some - Arangam, Kanchipuram, Thirumalai, RajamannAr koil
(Mannargudi), Thanjai koil, Oppiliappan sannidhi, Vaduvoor, ThirukkandiyUr,
Thiruvananthapuram, ThiruvaNparishAram, ThiruvattAru, ThirunArAyaNapuram,
Thiruvaheendrapuram etc. The most beautiful thing about this event was that,
prior to the samarpaNam of the anugraham and maryAdai, the AzhwAr pAsurams
of that particular Divya Desham was sung aloud.
Then followed maryAdai and anugrahams from Laksmi Hayagrivar, Laksmi
Nrusimhar, Sri Venugopalan and Sri Sita Ramar.

A very high decibel singing of AchArya taniyan followed this.

All the acharyas present, prayed to divya dampathigaL Sri RanganAyaki
samEtha Sri RanaganAthan to grant good health and long life to Srimad Gopala
Deshika Maha Deshikar.

Teertha gOShTi
--------------
Theertha gOShTi followed this. All the assembled bhaktAs received pErumAl
teertham, Sri pAda teertham and prasAdams with akshatai and a photo of H.H.
Special tadIyArAdhanai at many places in Arangam was conducted.

SambhAvana Vidwat Sadas
-----------------------
At around 4-30 pm in the afternoon, the acharyas assembled at the sabha
mantapam. A grand sambhavana vidwat sadas was conducted.

Let us sincerly pray to Sri RanganAyakI sametha Sriranga to grant all our
AchAryas a life of 100 years with good health.

Ramanuja Darshanam vAzhi !!!
Swmamy Deshikan Thiruvadigale Sharanam !!!
vAzhi vyAkhyAmuddirak kai !!!

--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
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