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vaikunda Ekaadasi

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Badri Seshadri • December 19, 1996 


Today is vaikuNda Ekaadasi. I live in nangainalloor, chennai.
Srimad azhagiya singar of ahObila matam is camping a street
away from me at the Lakshmi Narasimhan Temple here for the
month of Margazhi. He is performing upanyasam everyday by
explaining the thiruppaavai paasuram of the day.

On the last day of kaarththigai, he gave an introduction
about why one should listen to the thiruppaavai commentary.
It seems once Srimad Ramanuja's students asked him to give
a discourse on aaNdaaL's paasurams. To that Sri Ramanuja
replied that he wouldn't have any problems in giving a
discourse on nammaazhvaar's work, or of mangai aazhvaar's
work, but it is very difficult to do so for aaNdaaL.
The person giving the discourse should be pure in his heart
and his audience should also be so likewise. Srimad azhagiya
singar then talked about the varaha charamslokam and linked
aaNdaaL to bhoomidhEvi and how bhoodhEvi requested the
varaha to help her children escape the samsara saagara.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to attend the 
upanyasams everyday with my work commitments. If I do go
to them and if I have time, I will try to summarise whatever
little I learn from them.

--badri

[azhagiya singar also talked about performing mass
samasrayanam and bharanyasam in mylapore. He was quite
happy that even little children were assembled there.
However, I am not very comfortable with this concept.
There seems to be an utter disregard among the
sri vaishnava community regarding the rahasya arthas behind
the ashtakshara, dvaya mantras and the charamasloka. It
is not the mere ritual of branding the disc & conch on
either shoulders but rather learning the mantras and
their various meanings from the acharya that should be
highlighted. I am a bit disappointed.]