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thiruk kaNNan kudi - part 6 - pancha nArAyaNa kshEthram

From the Bhakti List Archives

Rengarajan • Sun May 03 1998 - 11:35:20 PDT 


Bhaktha kodi bAgawathAs, adiyEn's namaskArams to your
thirup pAtha kamalanagaL.

Pancha Sriman nArAyana kshEthram :

There are four kshEthrams around this divya dEsam within   the
vicinity of 4 miles. Most of them are situated in the south of 
this divya dEsam. Those 4 sthalams and this thiruk kannan kudi   
divya dEsam  are all  collectively called and known as "pancha 
Sriman nArAyana kshEtthram". Though the other 4  sthalams  are 
not part of 108 divya dEsams there is a speciality  associated 
with this group of  5  that each Srivaishnava  must visit them 
without  fail.  This  divya dEsam thiruk kaNNan kudi alone has 
the unique nature of being both a "pancha Sri krishna  aaranya 
kshEthram" and "pancha Sriman nArAyana  kshEthram". There  are  
also "pancha Sri Ranga kshEthrams" that  adiyEn  have  written 
about in  the  past  in  this  net in addition to the  "mukthi 
offering 12 Srinivasa kshEtrhams". Interested readers may read 
it from the archives.  The "pancha sriman nArAyana kshEthrams" 
are:

1. In south west Sri Varadha nArAyanan in periya aalatthoor 
2. In South west Sri dAmodara nArAyanan in thiruk kaNNan kudi 
3. In South west Sri yAdava nArAyanan in keevaLoor
4. In Southwest, Sri Deva nArAyanan in dEvoor 
5. In South Sri Aanatha nArAyanan in Abarana thAri

It is conceived that the five "Swaroopa niroopaka vishEshanam"
of Lord Sriman nArAyana are related to each one of this pancha
Sriman nArAyana kshEthram. A simple attempt is made to present
some definitions on the "Swaroopa  niroopaka  vishEshanam"  in 
the  following.  Without attempting to reveal the   identities 
individually for each of these ksEthrams, it  is  left to  the 
readers  to  learn  from  the  self explanatory definitions to 
corelate. 

vishEshaNam:
EmperuMan  has unlimitted and unmeasurable guNAs in HIM. Every
objects has some charecter or the other in it. If some of such 
charecters  alone  differentiates  that objects from the other 
then  such  charecter  or  gunams  are  known  as vishEshanam. 
A closer word may be uniqueness or speciality. 

EmperumAn's "eswarath thuvam" is differentiated from jivAtma's
or chEthanan's guNams and its association  with achEthanam, by 
the "vishEshaNams" or uniquness of the paramAtma. 

Such 'vishEshaNam' of paramAtmA  are classfied in to two types
genrally in scriptures. 
1. Swaroopa niroopaka vishEshanam
2. niroopith swaroopa vishEshanam (*)

It is imperative to explain the swroopam or nature of a  vastu
by certain vishEshana guNam of that vasthu. Without explaining
these guNas  it is impossible to understand the nature of that
vasthu. Such  vishEshana gunAs that are a must for identifying  
the  nature  or swaroopam  of such vasthu or known as swaroopa 
niroopaka vishEshnam. 

Having identified and explained the true nature  or  swaroopam
of  a vasthu,  it is  required to  use  certain other gunAs to 
explain  the  pride  and  utthama  thuvam of that vasthu. Such 
gunAs are known as niroopitha swaroopa vishEshanam.

EmpurumAn's swaroopam or true nature is often explained in the
scriputures  using  five  vishEshanams  known as "HIS swaroopa 
niroopaka vishEshanams". They are explained in Swami dEsikan's
arttha panchagam as follows:

"amalan aviyaatha sudar aLavillA Aramutham"
                        .............  1. Arttha panchagam

1. Amala thuvam: 

A state that has no 'dhOsham or kuRai'. ie., 'kuRai onRum illA 
govindhAn'.  "Amalan  aathi  pirAn"  delivered  by thirup paan 
AzhwAr has  more details on the state of "amalan".  It  is not 
possible to simply include the entire details of each of these 
gunAs in this series (**). 

2. sathya thuvam:  Always  unchanged nature.  This is cited by 
the word  "aviyAtha"  in  the  above  pAsuram. ie invariant in 
nature.

3. NyAna thuvam:  A state of having complete knowledge always. 
Such state is cited by the word "sudar" in the above  pasuram.

4. ananthath thuvam:  A  state  in  which  it is impossible to 
state by pointing to a desam that "HE is here"; 

and a state  in  which it is impossible to indicate a time and 
state that "HE is present in this time";

and a state in which it is impossible to identify a vasthu and
state that "HE is in this vasthu";

Such unmeasurable and unquantfiable and  unidentifiable  state
are collectively known as "anantham". Such  state is explained 
by  the word "aLavillAtha" in the above pasuram.

5. Aanantha thuvam:  As  one  who is always an Aanantha (Bliss 
ful or one with immeasurable happiness) swaroopi. 

Sri pancha Sriman nArAyanan thiruvadikaLE saraNam
Sampath Rengarajan

note:
(*) 2. niroopitha swaroopa vishEshanam - sowseelyam, vaatsalyam, 
and kaaruNyam are  some of the infinite thiruk kalyAna gunAs of
the Lord  that   constitute HIS "niroopith swaroopa vishEshanam
gunAs".

(**) Interested persons may read from poorvaacharya vyaakyaanams
and commentaries from Sri VS, Sri AR and adiyEn.  adiyEn is  not 
quoting these personal works as references  due  to  mere  self 
propagandae or of that sort. adiyEn is  not  aware of  anyother 
suitable references that are easily  available  for  interested 
readers. That is all.  adiyEN  donot  have  the time to present 
this  monograph  currently   as  adiyEn  have  other  tasks  in  
Sri bagwath vishaym  that  are  to be  fulfilled.  Most  of the 
learned scholars are aware of such.  So please  forgive  me for 
quoting such references  often.  There  are  many  readers  who 
often follow up by requiring further details.