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Thiruvaaymozhi 9.3- Narayanan- avanE avanum avanum avaum

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Sadagopan • August 27, 1998 


>From: "Madhavakkannan V" 
>Subject: Thiruvaaymozhi 9.3- Narayanan- avanE avanum avanum avaum
>Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 21:53:24 PDT

>
>Sri:    
>
>Dearest Sisters and Brothers,
>
>Emperumaan, (in order to let the AzhwAr enjoy Him and to grant AzhwAr 
>whatever he wishes), shows His NarayaNathvam to AzhwAr. AzhwAr, in this
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>ten is greatly elated in his narration about Sriman Narayanan and His 
>greatest guNAs. 

Dear BhakthAs :

NammAzhwAr must be listening to this wonderful
Saazhals among BhakthAs on the Ananatha KalyANa GuNams of 
Sriman NaarAyaNA going on and is entering the mind of
our Sri MadhavakkaNNan and points out to us through 
his three successive paasurams of this decad (9.3.7-9)
to reflect upon the three divya desa EmperumAns at 
Ahoblam , Thiruppathi and Srirangam in that order !
 
In the seventh Paasuram of this Patthu , the image that
comes first before the mind's eye of NammAzhwAr is
none other than Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan .The next one 
is of the Lord of Thirumalai , who performed SamAradhanam 
for TadhiyALs during the time of His marriage
to Sri Padmaavathi .After that  comes the reference 
to Sri RanganathA lying on AdhisEshA . 

Seventh Paasuram and Sri Narasimhan
************************************

NammAzhwAr in his Thiruvaimozhi 2.6.6 Paasuram has 
already hinted about the ancient nature of Narasimhan
by saluting him as " munnaik kOLariyE mudiyAthatennenakkE ".
Oh The most ancient One standing before me ! Oh PurAdhanA !
What would be impossible for me from now on ? The Key words 
here are " Munnaik kOLariyE ". kOLari is Narasimhan .
Munnai means munnorukkAl , in the most ancient time ,
when You came down from Sri Vaikuntam  and appeared as 
PrahlAda Varadan at AhObila KshEthram .My heart is desirous 
of seeing Your Adbhutha , PurAdhana Adhi mUlam at 
Sri Vaikuntam , Your original , permanent abode says 
AzhwAr longingly  .

 
>7. Bhagawaan, took the form of Nara simha rUpam, and tore the chest of 
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>hiraNyan with His sharp nails and killed him. My mind has been desirous 
                                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
>of seeing Him at ParamAkAsam, Sri Vaikuntam. (The upper Great Space). My
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                          ^^

>heart has been longing to see His permanent place Paramapadham. 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

Thirumangai mannan , who was the last of the AzhwArs ,
had the greatest Bhaagyam of Receiving ManthrOpadEsam 
from the Lord Himself . What does he do immediately ? He starts 
his divya desa yaathrA in the North . In Periya Thirumozhi(PTM)
1.2 , he salutes the EmperumAn of Thiruppirithi , Parama Purushan
and journeyss sequentially to perform MangaLAsAsanams for 
Sri Badari NaarayaNan at BadarikAsramam , 
Sri MUrthy of SaaLagrAmam , Sri DevarAjan
at NaimisAraNyam and finally reaches AhObilam to perform 
MangaLAsAsanam for Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan saluted by 
NammAzhwAr earlier as Parama Padha Naathan . He states
very clearly that without the sahAyam of that powerful
Lord of AhObilam , there is no way of visiting His
Divya Desam : "DhaivamallAl sellavoNNA SingavEL kunRamE ",
just as it is not possible to enter Sri Vaikuntam without
His blessings . In that " sillusillenRellaRAtha SingavEL
kunRam " , Thirumangai describes the nija svarUpam of 
the Lord by saluting Him in his 9th Ahobila paasuram as :

" nallai nenjE naam thozhuthum NAMMUDAI NAMPERUMAAN 
  alli mAthar pulha ninRa  Aayiram thoLanidam --"

First , the salutation is to Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan
( alli mAthar pulha ninRa NAMMUDAI NAMPERUMAAN ).
It has been suggested by AzhwAr according to 
the fine intrepretation of UtthamUr Swamy 
that He does not present Himself easily to those ,
who do not have the full appreciation of His 
dear consort , who pleads for the Jeevan that
has committed so many apachArams .Without that 
merciful intercession ( PurushakAram ) , our Prapatthi
is not accepted by the Lord. He turns His face away 
when our Most Merciful Mother does not intercede .

He is also referred to here as the one with 
Sahasra shoulders ( aayiram thOl udayaan ) . 
The allusion is to Purusha Sooktham and
the Aadhi form .NaarayaNa sooktham follows 
establishing HIM as the Sriya: Pathi and 
para devathai ( Supreme One) .  

The most important reference here is to the Lord of
AhObilam as " NamperumAn " with a prefix " nammudai ".
This is the FIRST celebration of Sriman NaaraayaNA 
as " NamperumAL ". AzhwAr was hinting perhaps about
this MaalOlan  going few hundred years later  
on SanchAram with Soumya Simhams and come to our
(Nammudai ) homes and bless us thru His Aaradhakar's
Rahasya ManthrOpadEsams . In all the VadanAttu Thiruppathis
that he viisted until arriving at AhObilam , AzhwAr 
in the view of UttamUr SwamigaL felt that there was
no traditional Sri VaishNava AarAdhanams . At AhObilam
however , it was more sampradhAic and belonged
to Namm tradition . Hence . UtthamUr SawmigaL says
that Azhwar chose the word "Nammudai" . It is also 
a proud identification , just as a proud father 
saying , namma Paiyyan got the first rank" .That 
kind of "nammudai " is indicated .

>8. Emperumaan  destroys all our good and bad deeds, with no trace of 
>remnant even. Again, He is the One who does NOT let our AthmA enter into 
>another body and start all over again and let us get out of this vicious 
>cycle. He shows Himself at ThiruvEnkadam so gracefully in standing 
>posture and blesses us. When there is ThiruvEnkadam on this earth for 
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
>us, only to reach Him, can we leave the chance? Even Devas come here to 
 ^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>pay obeisance to Him. Hence, there is NO DIFFERENCE between Parama 
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>Padham and ThiruvEnkadam  (Advantage Murali and Sudharshan!)
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Here at SeshAdhri , The Lord of the seven hills 
is worshipped by the DevAs and Humans for the removal
of their two Vinais as VenkatanAthan and cuts the 
SamsAric bond forever for those , who offer their
salutations . This SrinivAsan stands as DayA sindhu 
to bless us on these holy hills . In this Thiruvaimozhi 
patthu (9.3.8) , Sri SrinivAsan gets the attention of AzhwAr 
after Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan. We also know that both 
Sri RamachandrA and SrinivAsan worshipped Sri MaalOlan
for Ishta KaamyA siddhi(?). Sri RamachandrA wanted 
the blessings of MaalOlan for the success in His battle 
with RaavaNan and union with His dEvi. Thiru VenakatamudayAn 
performed the Vaidhika TadhiyAradhanam for MaalOlan's 
blessings to enter into matrimonial state as a grahasthan  
and also for a happy conjugal life on His hills . 
> 
>9. BhagawaanE! I shall bring most beautiful fragrant flowers, pure water 
>to perform Thiruvaaraadhanam to You. But as per You, even this is NOT 
>required and is more than enough. (That shows Your mercy! And greatness, 
>Lord!). EmperumaanE! The One who has AdhisEshan as Your bed! I simply do 
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^        
>not KNOW how to hug Your Lotus Feet and ways to perform my kaimkaryam to 
>You. I am so lowly.

Here , the tribute is to Sri RanganaathA ( Pazhuthil thol 
pukazhp paampaNaip paLLiyAi ) . Naicchiyam of AzhwAr is
abundantly implied here , when he declares his aakinchanyam
and ananyagathithvam . This plea is to bhU lOka Vaikunta 
nAthan , who was worshipped by Sri RamachandrA in AyOddhi .  
>
 
10.>  Your Greatness- Your capacity- Your powers- forever- one can
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                       ^^^^^^^^
>keep praising them for ages at a stretch. How will "I" be able to do
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>justice to that?
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NammAzhwAr proceeded in a particular order and then 
concluded this decad with the appropriate statement ,
" Oh Sriman NaarAyaNA ! How Will I be able to do Justice 
to praise Your anantha Kalyana GuNams adequately ? " 
and went on in the next decad's paasuram 7 to
declare that Narasimha rUpa NaarayaNan has been 
kept by him permanently in his heart and that the Lord
enjoys this "incarceration" . He explains to the Lord that 
He (Lord Narasimhan) is remaining in his 
heart solely for his (AzhwAr's) enjoyment .The Lord has
nothing otherwise to gain by such residence.

Sri Rangarajan has now finished his scholarly and 
deeply devotional postings on Sri Oppiliappan 
in a uniquely personal manner . I am so glad 
that Sri Rengaraajan made the case for me 
regarding " the vakkaalatthu " for 
YengaL PerumAL .My load is now lighter . 

I will post tomorrow one article on 
the greatness of ThiruviNNagrappan 
naturally and attempt to provide a unified perspective 
and make a case for the Lord decorating the Silver
Mantapam worshipped by Soumya Simhams and how that 
MaalOlan makes that mobile Silver Mantapam 
an unparalleled roving "Divya Desam " in its 
own right. 

Tomorrow is AavaNI VisAkam ; this constellation 
is made sacred by NammAzhwAr , who was born on 
a VaikAsi VikAsam day.He arrived at Thiru ViNNagar
and performed his one and only SaraNAgathi
at the Lotus feet of DakshiNa VenkatAchalapathy
standing in His TulasI vanam  Yennappan --
Tanthanan tanathAL NizhalE " .On the banks of 
AhOrAthra PushkaraNI our Lord Stands as 
Sarva Loka SaraNyan and as SaraNAgatha Vatsalan
as well as a PaarijAthA tree blessing 
us all forever and ever . 

AzhwAr  ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,
Oppiliappn Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan