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The Fourth Day of the navAham : A soul's journey : Feb 8, 2000

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Sadagopan • February 24, 2000 


Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha ParabrahmaNE Nama:

Dear BhakthAs : The day dawned over the island formed 
by Ubhaya CauvEri . The sacred island populated by 
our AchAryAs for centuries woke up to the bustle of a 
new day celebrating Sri RanganAthA's glories . From this 
day on , the journey followed the foot steps of AchArya 
RaamAnujA as the Udayavar SatAri continued its journey towards
MelkOte . 

The first stop today was at Udayavar Sannahdi , where 
 " the ThAmE aana ThirumEni " has been consecrated 
and worshipped from 1137 A.D. The GaambhIryam of 
Udayavar is unimaginable. We see Him as a MahA Purushar 
just about to get up and bless us. At a special koil- 
AzhwAr next to Him are His AarAdhana Moorthy, Sri 
VaradarAjan and Sri HayagrIvan presented by Sarasvathi Devi
at Kashmir in recognition of His writing of the magnum opus ,
Sri BhAshyam . In the sannidhi next to our AchAryA 
is the most unusual , gigantic SaaLagramam of 
Sri Narasimhan with a five hooded serpent , AdhisEshan 
and other ArchA moorthys . 

We rushed form there to HH Poundarikapuram Andavan's
aasramam , where the great AchAryan was intrepreting 
the 7th vaakhyam of Swamy Desikan's Rahasya RathnAvaLi
containing 30 Vaakhyams. The KaalkshEpa ghOshti of 20
Sri VaishNavAs were enjoying the intrepretation of 
the 7th Vaakhyam :

" Ippadi aparAdha -anuroopamaaha DhaNdadharanAi
  pOruhira SaraNyanudaya VasIkaraNangaLil PradhAnam 
  sarva-akinchana adhikAramAna Aathma -rakshA-Bhara -SamarpaNam ".

After performing Aathma -RakshA -Bhara -SamarpaNam 
at the holy feet of asmath AchAryan , 24 hours before ,
it was electrifying to listen to this vAkhyam chosen by 
HH ParavAkkOttai Gopaala MahA Desikan during that morning .

Swamy Desikan has written an extensive commentary 
on His Rahasya rathnAvaLi known as Rahasya RathnAvaLi
Hrudhayam filled with many pramANams . HH inquired about us
all and was pleased to know that many kaimkaryams 
are being undertaken by us here . HH blessed the SatAri
of Udayavar with manthrAkshathai . His message at the end
of the discussions was : " Please work TOGEHTER to advance
the cause of Sri VaishNavam ".It was time for HH's anushtAnam
and we took leave. 

We returned to the gOpura vaasal of ThAyAr sannidhi.
As our car stopped and let us out , my sister pointed 
out that KodavAsal Sri SrinivAsa RaagavAcchAr Swamy
was standing there . Swamy is none other than the SravaNa
dhIpam Swamy of Oppiliappan Koil. On the SravaNam days , 
he has carried for four decades now (?) the mangaLa 
dhIpam and He becomes Sri Oppiliappan during those moments.
Mnay bhakthAs approach Him to receive answers for their
worries and concerns . Hours after extinguishing the dhIpam ,
the vibrations are with him . Had we arrived a minute later,
we would have missed him . He was about to take off on his  
bicycle to return home . That was an extraordinary 
coincidence that he was there at the exact moment when
arrived . It appeared to me like Sri Oppiliappan
Himsef was there . adiyEn was so overwhelmed by 
this happening that adiyEn fell at his feet and 
offered my namaskArams to Sri Oppilappan right there
in front of ThAyAr Gopura vaasal , where the sacred dust 
from many AchAryA's feet have collected over the years ,
as they  have walked that way to ThAyAr Sannidhi . 
Uncontrollable tears welled in my eyes over this 
subha sakunam .Swamy placed his hand on my head 
to calm me down .He offered to take me to PerumAL 
sannidhi for Sevai and said that he would wait for me 
at the Dhvajasthambham of PerumAL to take me inside . 

AdiyEn will continue with the Sevais of PerumAL
and ThAyAr in the next posting . After the salutations
at the Sannidhis , we visited the parents of Sri
MadhavkkaNNan , Sri Anantha NrusimhAchAr Swamy 
and spent a few minutes at Sri SravaNa dhIpam swamy 's
house at Srirangam . At the end of these visits , we left 
for Chennai in the late afternoon and braved all
the night traffic on the way and arirved home around
10 P.M for night's rest .

Next day (the 5th day ), we followed AchArya RaamAnujA's
path to Sri PerumpUdhUr and Kaanchipuram PeraruLALan
Sannidhi. 

Azhagiya Singar ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam 
Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan