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TiruveLLUr Kaimkarya SapthAham : Seventh & Final posting

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • July 3, 1998 


Dear BhakthAs of Sri VeerarAghavan & Kanakavalli ThAyAr :

It gives me great plesure to come to the stage of 
the seventh& final posting in " this SapthAham " kaimkaryam .
Bhagavadh sankalpam will guide the aasthikAs from here on 
as it has in the past to join in this mahA Kaimkaryam .

I will cover the glory of Sri VeerarAghava PaadhukhAs and 
their MahAthmyam in this posting . 

The special Status of Sesha Sayanam in Divya Desams
*****************************************************

Among the 108 divya desams , 27 EmperumAns offer us
Sayana Sevai . At 60 divya Desams , our EmperuAn
is in ninRa thriukkOlam ( Standing posture ) and in 
the remaining 21 divya desams sung by our AzhwArs ,
He is in veeRRiruntha ThirukkOlam ( Seated Posture )
as Parama Padha Naathan in Sri Vaikuntam .

ThruveLLUr and Srirangam : VeerarAghavan in Yoga NidhrA
********************************************************
The two divya Desams of ThiruveLLUr and Srirangam 
have a special status . We will understand the special
connection between these two divya desams in a while .

Eight Different Sayanams of the Lord at the 27 Divya Desams
***********************************************************
As an aside , I will summarize the different 
kinds of sayanam of the Lord with particular emphasis on
the Bhujanga Sayanam posture as in Srirangam and 
ThiruveLLUr .This information might be useful
to you , when you go on divya desa yaathrais 
as Sriman Paarthasaarathy Dileepan and 
Sriman Anbil Raamaswamy have done thru their 
visits to 106 of the 108 Divya desams. 
The other two, ParamaPadham and ThirppARk Kadal 
are not accessible to us as HUman beings .

The eight kinds of Sayanam at 27 Divya Desams
**********************************************
 
There are 8 kinds of Sayanam pose that the Lord blesses
us with at these 27 sayana kshEthrams . These 8 kinds are :
UdhyOga Sayanam ( Thirukkudanthai AarAvamudhan ) ,
Darbha Sayanam ( ThiruppullANi ) , Sthala Sayanam
( Thirukkadal Mallai ), Bhoga Sayanam ( Thillai 
Thirucchitthira kUtam ) , maaNikka Sayanam ( Thiruneer malai),
Veera Sayanam (ParimaLa RanganAthan at Thiru InthaLUr ) 
and  Bhujanga Sayanams at the 20 remaining divya Desams .

The 20 Bhujanga Sayana Divya Desams
************************************

The 20 emperumAns of ArchAvathaaram blessing us 
with Bhujanga Sayana Sevai are :

1. Srirangam Ranganathan 
2. ThiruevvuLL Veeraraghavan 
3. Thiruvananthapuram Padmanaabhan 
4. Thiru Anbil Vadivazhagiya nampi 
5. Thiru AathanUr ANdaLakkumayan 
6. ThirukkarampanUr PurushOtthaman 
7. Tiruk Kavitthalam  Gajendra Varadhar 
8. ThirukkOttiyUr Sowmya NaarAyaNan
9. ThirukkOLUr Vaittha Maa Nidhi PerumAL
10.Thirucchirup PuliyUr : AruL Maa Kadal PerumAL
11.Thirut Therriamblam : SenkaNNmaal 
12.Thirup PaaRkkadal : KsheerAbdhi Naathan ( VyUham )
13.Thiruppirithi(Joshi Mutt):Parama Purushan
14.Thirup PuLingudi: Kaaicchina vEndhan
15.ThiruppuLLambhUthamkudi:Valli Raaman
16.ThiruppErnahar: Appak kudatthAn
17.ThiruvAttARu : Adhikesavap PerumAL
18.Thiruvillip PutthUr: Vata pathra Saayi
19.ThiruvehhA : YathOktha kaari
20.ThiruveLLIyankudi : Kolavilli Raaman 

Srirangam and ThruveLLUr 
************************

Sri Raamachandran was born as a son of a human
being for the purposes of destruction of RaavANA
and other RaakshasAs . He is an avthAram of 
Sriman NaarAyaNA resting in the middle of the two
Cauveris at Srirangam island . During the Vibhava
avathArAm as Sri Raaman , He worshipped His kula
Dhaivam , Sri RanganaathA at AyOddhi and at the end
of His avathAram entrusted VibhishaNA to perform 
AarAdhanam for Sri RanganaathA . During Vibhava avathAram , 
Sri RaaamA worshipped Sri MaalOlan at AhObilam and composed
Sri Nrusimha PanchAmrutha shtOthram to gain the blessings
of Bhagavaan NarasimhA . 

Sri RaamA stopped at ThiruppullANi and received 
a special bow from Adhi JagannAthan ( ArchA mUrthy )
of that divya dEsam . There , He rested on Darbha
grass bed to seek the help of Samudhra Raajan to build 
the bridge over the  samudhram to cross over to LankhA  
to destroy RaavaNA .

The reason why I refer to the behavior of Sri RaamA as
" a Human being " offering worship to ArchA mUrthys 
is to point out that He wanted the fellow human beings 
to consider Him as a mere human being . He has said ,
" AathmAnam Maanusham manye Raaghavam DasarathAthmajam " . 

That the Para Vaasudevan, Sriman NaarAyaNan resting at 
Srirangam took the avathAram of Sri Raghuveeran of 
ThiruveLLUr is indicated by one of the PaadhukhA sahasra 
SlOkams of Swami Sri Desikan :

nirvruttha Raakshasa chamU  mrugayA vihArO
  RangEsvara : sa Kalu Raagava Vamsa GOpthA I
Vamsa kramAth upanatham padham aadhadhAnO
  maanyam puna: tvayi padham nidhadhE svakeeyam II

          -- NiryAthana Paddhathi : Slokam 22

(meaning ) : Oh , PaadhukhE ! Lord RanganAthA incarnated
as VeerarAghavan for avathAram purposes and travelled to
LankhA to kill all the RaakshasAs and their king , RaavaNA ,
and then returned to AyOddhyA claim his heriditary crown ;
thereafter , He returned His lotus feet back to You 

 Swami Desikan is referring here to the fact that 
VeerarAghavan did not wear the PaadhukhAs 
during His vana Vaasam and LankhA vijayam because He
had given them to His brother BharathA for 14 years 
to rule over the Land . When He returned triumphantly 
to AyOddhi after destroying RaavaNA , He had the union 
with His beloved PaadhukhA  .

Based on this slOkam , we can take the poetic liberty
of recognizing that Sri RanganaathA and Sri VeerarAghavan 
are one and their Bhujanga Sayanam pose provides additional
support for this view . The pattAbhishEkam before AchArya
VasishtA can be equated to the MahA SamprOkshaNam at
ThiruveLLUr conducted by AchAryAs and Yathi Saarva BhoumAs .   
The special honoring of the 350 AdhyApAkAs of Divya Prabhandham 
can be closely connected to the salutation to Naatha Muni
as suggested by the inner meaning of another
Sri RanganAtha PaadhukA sahasra SlOkam :

BharathAya param namOsthu tasmai
prathamOdhAharaNAya Bhakthi bhAjam I
Yadhupagyam asEshatha: PruthivyAM
prathithO Raaghava PaadhukhA prabhAva: II
 
   --PrasthAva Paddhathi : SlOkam 2 

( Meaning ) :The world came to know about 
the full magnitude of the power of Sri Raama
PaadhukhAs only because of Bharathan  who ruled
the land as its deputy during the Lord's stay
in the forest for 14 years . Therefore , I offer
my deep salutations to BharathAzhwAr .

( Commentary ) : Swami Desikan states in Sankalpa-
SooryOdhayam that the word Bharatha is the symbolic
name for Naatha Muni , since he was the first one
to combine Bhaavam , Raagam and Taalam ( Bharatham )
for the Divya Prabhandha sEvai and taught that 
to his nephews , which later got established as arayar 
sEvai at Srirangam and other divya desams .
By the way , there will be an arayar sevai
for ThiruvELLUr paasurams of Thirumangai 
during the MahA SamprOkshaNa uthsavam 
on Sri Naatha Muni's birthday . Deva Ghana
PerumAL Arayar Sri Raam aBharathi will 
take part in the Arayar Sevai tomorrow ( July 4)
in front of the Divya Dampathis at ThiruveLLUr .  

Just as BharathA illustrated the greatness of 
Raama Paadhukhai ( SatAri ) , Naatha Muni ,
the other BharathA made known the greatness of 
Satari Suri ( nammAzhwAr).

Thus the glories of Raghuveera-Ranganatha Satari
( PaadhukhA/NammAzhwAr) was revealed to the world by 
Bharatha during RaamAvathAram and by Naatha Muni
in Kali yugam . The Paaramparya trustee of
ThiruveLLUr temple , His Holiness , SrimathE 
Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha Divya PaadhukhA 
Sevaka , SrivaNN SatakOPa Sri NaarayaNa Yatheendhra
MahA Desikan will be presiding over the JeerNOtthAraNa
MahA SamprOkshaNa Kaimkaryam . The 473 Kalasa 
Thirumanjanam will take place on Sunday , July 5
and the MahA SamprOkshaNam will be performed 
during Simha Laganm between 9.15 AM to 10.15 AM
on Monday , Aani 22 (July 6 ) . That will be around 
midnight here in USA for us to particpate thru 
dhyAnam .

The conclusion of this posting is that the Bhujanga Sayana 
mUrthy resting as VeerarAghavan is the same as Sri RanganAthA ,
of Srirangam . He  is going to be enshrined at His new
temple here at Pomona later this year ,when His temple 
construction is completed .

Let us offer our collective salutation to that
AbhirAma GuNAkara Daasarathi , who STANDS at 
Thriuppathi , ThiruviNNagar and 58 other KshEthrams
as SrinivAsan , RESTS at Srirangam and 26 other 
Thiruppathis as Sesha Saayee and is SEATED at
AyOdhi , AhObilam and 19 more KshEtrams as 
Parama Padha Naathan .

Thank You all who are particpating in  
in this MahA samprOkshaNa Kaimkaryam . We are now 
at the $2,885 level ( 57.7% of the target ) of
the Kaimkaryam . Hope to hear from You , who
are planning to particpate in this rare
Kaimkaryam blessed by BhagavAn , AchAryAs 
and Bhagavatha SirOnmaNis . 


I am thankful to the saraNya Dampathis to
become  part of this SapthAham Kiamkaryam to
share with You the glories of Sri Kanakavalli
SamEtha Sri VeerarAghava Parabrahmam .

Sriman NaarAYaNaayEthi idham Kaimkaryam SamarpayAmi ,
Subhamasthu ,Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchari SadagOpan