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Sri GuNa Rathan KOsam : Part XIV--> SlOkam 5

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Sadagopan • November 15, 2000 


Namo NaarAyaNA !

Dear  BhakthAs:

The fifth slOkam of ParAsara Bhattar's eulogy of
Sri RanganAyaki ThAyAr takes this form:

yadhyAvath tava vaibhavam tadhuchitha
 sthOthrAya dhurE spruhA 
sthOthum kE vayam ithyadhasccha
 jagruhu: prAnchO virinchAdhaya:
apyEvam tava Devi! vaangmanasayOr
 bhAshAnabhij~nam padham
kaavAcha: prayathAmahE kavayithum
 svasthi prasasthyai girAm 

Dr.V.N.VedAntha Desikan's translation of the Meaning
*****************************************************

Where is Your greatness? And where am I ?
My qualifications do not justify even my 
harbouring a wish to sing a hymn in Your 
praise.Indeed great sages , even Brahma
included, have declared that they are not 
competent to sing of You. Not withstanding 
all this , I begin my venture ;why? To acquire 
a certain sanctity and auspiciousness for my
tongue and my words , which are otherwise 
faulty and mean .

Additional comments by Sri V.N.Vedantha Desikan Swamy
******************************************************

Oh RanganAyaki ! Oh My Mother ! May all the eforts
of mine as an unqualified poet to praise You become
auspicious ! May they be filled with MangaLam ! May these 
words  coming out of the mouth of a lowly one like me
praise You and as a result confer on me the powers to
create auspicious eulogy about You !

Oh Periya PirAtti ! How great is Your Vaibhavam
and how far spread is that Vaibhavam ! adiyEn ,
who is an ignoramus about Your limitless glories 
is totally unfit to compose a sthOthram that 
adequately captures Your Vaibhavam . Infact ,
adiyEn is a lowly person and as such is far removed 
from even the thought of composing such a sthOthram. 

You  might say : " What is new here ? In ancient times ,
BrahmA and other dEvAs used to disqualify themselves 
as unfit ones to praise us through sthuthis in a 
mood of naichyAnusandhAnam . My child ! Are you
following their route ?"

adiyen replies: " Yes indeed ! Even for BrahmA ,
the act of creating a sthuthi that came close 
to describe adequately Your kalyANa gunams 
was an effort that was far above his capabilities ".

Inspite of this well known deficencies , adiyEn
with my unpious speech tries boldly to eulogize You ,
whose glories can not be comprehended by vaak or manas .
Why do I persist in this impossible task ? adiyEn
persists with my self-assigned task for my tongue and
my words to be cleansed and be blessed with sanctity 
and auspiciousness as a result of association with 
the celebration of your most sacred Vaibhavam.

Additional comments by V.Sadagopan (V.S):
******************************************

Sri ParAsara Bhattar is engaged here in the time honored 
tradition of poets , when they approach their task of
creating sthuthis on BhagavAn and His divine consort.

Echos of Swamy AlavandhAr and KurEsar , the father of
ParAsara Bhattar can be heard in this fifth slOkam of
Sri GuNa Rathna Kosam . 

Swamy AlavandhAr expresses his unfitness even to
approach the task of eulogizing the Lord this way:

yadhvA srama avadhi yathA madhi vaapyasaktha:
sthoumyEvamEva kalu tEpi sadha sthuvantha:
VedAsc chathurmukha mukhAsccha mahArnavAntha:
kO majjadhOraNu kulAchalayO: VisEsha:
--Swamy AlavandhAr SthOthra rathnam: slOkam 8

(comments): Oh Sriman NaarAyaNa ! adiyEn started 
my sthuthi proudly by saying : " na: kula dhanam , 
kula dhaivatham , Aravindhalochanasya paadhAravindham
sthOshyAmi".Then adiyEn recognized quickly that 
a mandha mathi and alpaj~nan like myself making 
a sankalpam to eulogize You is a saahasam  because
even MahAns like BrahmA and SivA fail in their 
attempts to praise adequately even a fraction of 
Your glories. Yet , adiyEn of feeble sakthi 
attempts to praise Your limitless vaibhavam 
to the limit of my abilities with huge struggle.
adiyEn is emboldened in this self-assigned task 
through the rememberance that VedAs , BrahmA and 
others praising You . Their efforts  would be much 
greater than mine and yet in a ocean of Your
kalyANa guNAs , what is the difference between 
a blade of grass and a small object that is sunken 
there ?

Swamy AlavandhAr goes on to state : " mandha buddhE: 
mama thu srama: sulabha:ithi mama cha ayam udhyama:
uchitha:( For me of feeble intellect , this fatigue
is but natural , when adiyEn attempts to praise You .
This makes it appropriate for me to engage in this effort ).

Swamy AaLavandhAr follwed the example set by Pokai Piran
( avaravar thaanthAmaRinthavAREtti) and Swamy NammazhwAr
( tangaLanbhAratthamathu SOLVALATTHAAL  talai tali siRanthu 
poosippa ). ParAsara Bhattar follows the path of AaLavandhaar
and his father KurEsar in humbly acknowledging his futile
effort to praise the kalyANa guNams of Sri RanganAyaki.

The father of Bhattar, Sri KuResar ( linked to the AchArya
lineage of AaLavandhAr-Periyanambi-RaamAnujar) addresses
Sri Devi in his Sri Sthavam and comes out with thoughts
identical to Swamy AaLavandhAr , when he refers to
the futility of the effort to praise adequately the anantha
kalyANa guNams of Sri RanganAyaki (Sri Devi). He says:
Oh Sri Devi! " taavakA: guNA: VaachAm manasaam cha 
durgrahathayA khyAtha:" (Your limitless auspicious guNAs
are famous in that they can not be accessed by mind or 
speech ).Those can  not be described even by the Master of 
speech,BrahmA ( Tvath sathguNArNonidhou thaadrusI vaak 
VAACHASPATHINAA API SAKYA RACHANAA KATHAM ?).

KurEsar goes onto say that PirAtti's kalyANa guNams
are such that it would be laughable to attempt to engage
in praising them( haasyam na manmahE). In a mood of 
naicchAnusnadhAnam ,KurEsar describes himself to 
Sri Devi as a dim-witted one (aj~na:), low ( neechan) 
and with mean mind ( dushta buddhi).He says that inspite of 
all these deficencies , he is going to attempt
to praise Sri Devi just as a dog is not afraid
to lick the waters of the most sacred GangA river. 
The dog's thirst is quenched by that attempt and 
no harm comes to the glory of GangA by the contact 
of the tongue of the lowly dog (BhAgIrathi sunA 
leeDaapi nahi dhushyEth; Suna: aarthisthu saamyEth).
KurEsA's naicchAnusandhAnam serves to focus on 
the kalyANa guNams of Sri Devia as GangA PravAham ,
limitless and svathassuddham.The Sunaka sparsam 
leading to sukha sparsam for the Sunakam (Dog) 
is reason enough . ParAsara Bhattar follows 
the lead of his great father and his prAchAryans.

The phrases and thoughts used by Swamy AaLavandhAr,
KurEsar and ParAsara Bhattar are almost identical.

We will conclude this posting with the insight 
provided by KurEsar (Sri Sthavam )and AaLavandhAr 
(ChathusslOki)in their sthOthrams about Sri Devi:

BrahmEsAdhi suravrajas sadayithas tvath daasa daasI gaNa:
SririthyEva naama tE Bhagavathi BhrUma: katham thvAm Vayam ?
--Swamy AaLavanthAr , ChathusslOki: SlOkam 1 passage 

( Oh Mother! BrahmA , the DevAs and their wives
are Your assembly of servants; You are addressed by
the most glorious name of Sri Devi with the connation
of ShaadguNya sampoorNai .How can we ( the lowly ones )
dare to speak about you and attempt to praise You ?)

yasyAstE mahimAnam athmana iva tvath vallabhOpi Prabhu:
naalam maathumiyatthayA niravdhim nithyAnukoolam savtha:
--Swamy AaLavanthAr ,ChathusslOki : SlOkam 2 pasage

( Oh LokaikEswari! LokanAtha dayithE !Your Lord 
Sriman NaarAyanan of limitless prabhAvam Himself 
is unable to assess as to how great Your vaibhavam is .
He becomes asakthan in these efforts. If that is so ,
what about our ( poor ones) lot , when it comes to
eulogizing You ?).

Devi tvanmahimAvathir na HariNA naapi thvayA Jn~AyathE
-- KurEsar in Sri Sthavam

{ OH Sri Devi! Your Lord is Sarvaj~nan and Sarva Sakthan
(Omniscient and Omnipotent). Even He can not fully
assess Your prabhAvam to His satisfaction. If that were 
to be so, we are not even fit to open our mouth 
in any effort to praise Your limitless auspicious
attributes .}

PirAtti's dayA is "SvathO nithyAnukoolam "
(always inherently comforting and dayA-laden) .
Keeping this  assuaging thought in mind ,
ParAsara Bhattar proceeds with his sthOthram
on Sri RanganAyaki in the way shown by his
father and Swamy AaLavanthAr. Swamy Desikan
will follow the panthA (path) shown by 
ParAsara Bhattar in his Sri Sthuthi.

SrimathE RanganAyakyai Nama:
Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan 









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