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AakAra Thraya SampannAm---

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • April 5, 1999 


Dear BhakthAs :

One of you had asked about the meaning of the famous
slOkam that we recite daily :

aakAra thraya sampannAm aravindha nivAsinIm 
asEsha jagadhIsithrIm vandEh Varadha vallabhAm 

This is a slOkam from prapanna PaarijAtham blessed
to us by NadAthUr ammAL or Varadha Vaatsya Guru ,
the guru's guru (prAchAryAL ) of Swami Desikan .

AakAram means aspects or mental dispositions or capacities .
The three distinguishing dispositions of MahA Lakshmi 
( Aravindha NivAsini or the One , who resides on a Lotus 
flower )are :

(1)She  displays PurushakArathvam prior to the acceptance of our 
SaraNAgathi at Her Lord's feet .She serves as the mediatrix and 
intercedes(pleads) for us before Her Lord , who is angry with 
our MahA aparAdhams .The Lord is angry and is in a mood of nigraham 
as opposed to anugraham.His nigraham is an UpAya VirOdhi , which will
interfere with the fulfilment of our wish for the acceptance of 
the UpAyam of SaraNAgathi . This negative effect is known as 
PrApthi VirOdhi ( enemy of fulfillment ).Our Mother pleads
with Her Lord and changes His mind set and He goes along
with Her plea for anugraham. 

(2) During the anushtAnam of Prapatthi ,she enhances 
the Jn~Anam and power of Her Lord for us to realize the full
power of prapatthi.She accepts the Bharam of the Prapannan
and says MokshayishyAmi thru Her own sankalpam .Her Bhara SveekAra-
Sankalpam and Her Lord's sankalpam reinforce one another . 
She becomes a SahakAri here and enriches the Lord's
power by amalgamating Her sankalpam with His.
 
(3) After Mukthi , She enhances the muktha jeevan's Para Bhakthi ,
Para Jn~Anam and the Parama Bhakthi .Thus , She enhances 
further the desire of the Muktha Jeevan to engage in kaimkarya 
VisEshams at Sri Vaikuntam .She increases the kaimkarya
ruchi of the Muktha Jeevan . 

The second line of this famous salutation recognizes this Varadha-
Vallabhai ( the Beloved One of the boon-granting varadarAjan )
as asEsaha jagadhIsithrI ( the ruler of the all worlds):

asEsha JagadhIsithrIm VandhE Varadha VallabhAm 

The condensed meaning of the SlOkam is : " I salute the Consort
of the boon-granting BhagavAn , who by being the most beloved
of Her Lord , assumes the role of the mediatrix for erring chEthanAs,
who are bending from the weight of their huge load of sins
and thus are unworthy of Her Lord's anugraham . Through Her DayA
for Her erring children , She pleads with the Lord to overlook 
their sins and pleads with Him to bless them with His anugraham .
She promotes mercy and dayA in Her Lord and fosters jn~Anam ,
energy and power in Him at the time of our performane of the Prapatthi .
After blessing the Bhaddha Jeevan to become the Muktha Jeevan ,
She enhances the ruchi for Kaimkarya VisEshams for the Multha
Jeevan in Sri vaikuntam . She is thus endowed with three 
capacities -UpAyathvam(being the means), UpEyathvam 
(being the end) and purushakaarathvam ( being the mediatrix
or pleader ).

This is the SiddhAntham of AlavandhAr (ChathusslOki ), 
AchArya RaamAnujA ( Gdhyams ) and KurEsA ( Sri Sthavam )
and NadAdhUr ammAL following the way shown by ParAsara
Muni in his VishNu purANam . 

With salutations to the AakAra Thraya sampannai ,
AdiyEn, Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan 
BhaudhAnya Panguni Anusham , KrishNa Paksha Panchami