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Part XII: Swamy Desikan's Taathparya RathnAvaLi: Tenth SlOkam

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Sadagopan • December 25, 2001 


Monday , Dec 24 , 2001
 
Keezh Vaanam VeLLenRu ThiruppAvai Dinam

ANDAL ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam
                 
SrI:

Dear RasikAs of Swamy NammAzhwAr's Dhivya Prabhandhams:

On this Ninth ThiruppAavi day , adiyEn will continue with 
the Tenth SlOkam of DTR: 

icchA-SaaraTya-sathyApitha GuNa KamalAkAntha gIthAntha--
siddhUdhyacchudhAnthaAchAra suddhair-iyam-anaga guNagranTi-
                                      BhandhAnubhaddhA
Tatth-thAthruk-ThAmraparNi-taDagatha SaThajith dhrushta
sarvAya-saakhA ghAtA-taathparya-rathnAvaLi: akhila 
                        --bhayOtthAraNI dharaNIyA 

(Extended meaning ): The Lord out of His own volition(svEcchai) 
determined to take on the role of the charioteer (Saarathy)
for Arjunan and displayed thus His soulabhya GuNam 
(ease of access by any one) and blessed us with 
GithOpanishad as His HithOpadesam for us and concluded with
the Charama SlOkam to show us THE UpAyam to attain Him.
He instructed us clearly at the end of His HithOpadEsam 
through His Charama SlOkam about two main things :
(1) ananya Seshathva Jn~Anam and (2)its fruit (phalan ):
ananyOpAyathna Jn~anam . The first tatthvam is about 
the need for realization ,that we are unconditional leige 
(eternal servant ) of Him (Sriman NaarAyaNan) only 
and not any others .The second tatthvam is about the need 
for the recognition and acceptance  of Him alone as
the means for Moksham . A full comprehension of these 
two Tathtvams would lead us to perform Saanga prapatthi 
with MahA VisvAsam and become a Prapannan and conduct 
the life prescribed for the prapannan after the performance of
Prapatthi . They become pure. Such a performance of
Prapatthi recommended to us by the sage SaThakOpar ,
who is the embodiment of KrishNa ThrushNai ( longing 
for KrishNa BhagavAn) . SaThakOpar incarnated on the banks of
TamraparaNi river and distilled the essence of ancient
Sanskrit VedAs and Upanishads and Gitai in Tamizh language for
the benefit of ALL of us , independent of the caste or gender
or scholarshp levels through His ThiruvAimozhi with its message 
as DhIrga SaraNAgathy (extensive/extended SaraNAgathi to the Lord).

Swamy Desikan goes on to say through this tenth and 
the conclusive verse of the introductory section
of ten verses that his DramidOpanishad Taathparya RathnAvaLi 
is the summary of the messages of Swamy NammAzhwAr
about SaraNAgathy tatthvam , the ways to perform it and 
thereby attain the paripoorNa anugraham of Sri VaikuntanaTan 
as a muktha Jeevan (librerated soul). Swamy Desikan also
points out that he has set the slOkams in the sacred 
Sragdharaa metre and the recitation of DTR slOkams
will free one of all samsAric fears and these slOkmas 
of DTR are like a rathna maalai containing the gems(meanings)
of the individual paasurams , the dasakams and the sathakams.
He instructs us that this rathnAvaLi should adorn our
hearts to help us understand the significance of
each word of the individual Paasurams and comparitive 
analysis of their collective meanings so that we can
gain a clear comprehension of the upadEsam of Swamy
NammAzhwAr for our benefit.

Swamy Desikan states that his RathnAvaLi is made up 
of the blemishless kalyANa  guNams of the Lord 
( anaga guNa granTi BhandhAnuBaddhA ).He points out
further that the content of the RathnAvaLi is of 
the form of the KrishNa prEmai  , which voluntarily
took the form of the Charama SlOkam as the fitting
finale for His HithOpadEsam of GithOpanishad on
the battle field of Kuru KshEthram using Arjuna as
a vyAjam ( icchA SaaraTya-sathyApitha guNa KamalAkAntha 
GithAsiddhyacchudhvAnthanthA aachAra  suddhai:iyam 
anaga guNa granTiBhandhAnuBaddhA).  

In the introductory ten slOkams , Swamy Desikan 
saluted Swamy NammAzhwAr , His divine Sri Sookthi of
ThiruvAimozhi , the scope of his Sri Sookthi (DTR)
about SaThAri Soori's aruLiccheyal and who should
learn DTR and what SrEyas will come their way as
a result of such a study .

>From hereon , Swamy Desikan proceeds to cover the deep 
meanings of the Mudhal ThiruvAimozhi (1.1): " UyaRvaRa 
uyar nalam udayavananyavanavan--" to the last
ThiruvAimozhi(10.10): MuniyE NaanmukhanE MukkaNNappA".
Swamy Desikan's coverage of these ten sathakams 
emerged as 120 more slOkams .

adiyEn may not be able to cover all of the 120 slOkmas 
due to the need for being breif . Hence adiyEn will
content myself with three dasakams (1.1 , 6.3 and 10.10).

The ten paasurams of 1.1 deal with Swamy NammAzhwAr's 
celebration of the ten guNams that deal with the Parathvam
of the Lord and His intense desire for his mind to 
be engaged in the worship of the Lord's sacred feet .
He commanmds his mind to engage in such a worship.

The ten paasurams of 6.3 deal with his special  salutations 
to ThiruviNNagarappan ,the presiding deity of OppilA Appan Koil.
Here Swamy NammAzhwAr performs his SaraNAgathy to
ThiruviNNagarappan .

10.10 deals with the bliss of his union with the Lord 
at Sri Vaikuntam , which is one of the two decads 
sung during Swamy NammAzhwAr Moksham day (Dec 29 
at Sri RanganAthA Temple this year at the end of
the Thiruadhyayana Uthsavam). 

After coverage of these DTR slOkams , adiyEn will
focus on the second shorter Sri Sookthi of Swamy 
Desikan (26 slOkams) of DhramidOpanishad Saaram.

Finally , adiyEn will provide an introduction to
AchArya Hrudhayam and include excerpts on additional
Thirumozhis dealing with Lord RanganAtha and 
ThiruvEngadamudayAn as well as ThirukkuruhUr ,
the avathAra Sthalam of Swamy NammAzhwAr.         

Sri RanganAyaki SamEtha Sri RanganAtha ParabrahmaNE Nama: 
Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil VardAchAri SaThakOpan 



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