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Sri GuNa Rathna Kosam : Part XVIII--> SlOkam 9

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Sadagopan • November 21, 2000 


SrimthE RanganAyakia Nama:

Dear BhakthAs:

AdiyEn will cover ParAsara Bhattar's conversation
with SriranganAthan about his efforts to sing about
the praise of Sri RanganAyaki in this slOkam :

Sriya: SrI:! SrIrangEsaya ! tava cha hrudhyAm BhagavathIm 
  Sriyam thvathyOucchair vayamiha PhaNAma: SruNutharAm
dhrusou tE bhUyAsthAm sukhataraLathArE SravaNatha:
  punar harshOthkarshAth sphutathu bhujayO: kanjkasatham 

Meaning by Dr.V.N.VedAntha Desikan 
***********************************
Oh Lord , who bestows affluence to the storehouse of 
affluence (that Lakshmi is)! Oh Lord RanganAthA ! She is
very dear to You. Her, we are going to praise , even better 
than You ! (that is , we are going to place Her even
superior to You and we are going to praise Her as even 
better than You Yourself can!). Be pleased to listen with
attentiveness ! Definite it is that Your eyes will 
revolve in delectation-caused mesmerism. And as You enjoy it ,
You will expand in body ,arms and form as a result of 
hearty enjoyment of pleasing poetry on a dear subject. 
Your armour will break and shatter to pieces; and  mind You,
a hundred armours would be exploded in Your experience of
my exquisite poem on Your dearest consort !

Additional Comments by Dr.V.N.VedAntha Desikan :
************************************************* 

It is not clear whether Bhattar sang this praise of Sri
RanganAyaki in front of PerumAL at His sannidhi or
sang it during their sErthi sEvai during a Panguni
Uttharam day . Bhattar does take the liberty of 
predicting as to what is going to happen as a result
of the Lord listening with great joy ,the slOkams
of his Sri GuNa Rathna KOsam .

Bhattar says: " Thiruvukkum ThiruvAhiya SelvA ! 
Oh Lord RangA ! Oh Bhagavan! We are going to
sing about Your dharma Pathni , who is shAtguNya-
SampoorNai. She is very dear to You ! You must 
have an idea of how I am going to praise Your pathni.
I am going to eulogize Her at a level higher than
You can ! Two meanings are implied here :
(1) I am going to sing about Her to show that
She has qualities that are superior than Yours .
(2) I do not know how Your own praise of Your
PirAtti would turn out to be . But , I am planning
to eulogize Her at a level higher than You .

What would be the effect of hearing my superior 
sthuthi on You ? The dark pupils of Your eyes 
will rotate out of that joyous experience. Your
body will swell with pride and will lead to
Your big shirt to burst. If you were to wear another 
shirt that hangs loosely to begin with ,then Your
swelling arms and body will make that shatter too!
Even hundreds of shirts can not fit You as they get 
changed because your body would keep on growing
and burst the shirts one after another.You
ofcourse realize the greatnes of Your Devi's 
extraordinarily auspicious attributes . You
also realize that my Sthuthi is not an ordinary 
one ! Finally , Your capacity to enjoy such a
sthuthi is not common place ! Your raasikyam
(Connoseuirship) is one of the best that we know!

With the address of the Lord as " Sriya: Sri:",
Bhattar joins the highly celebrated and small group of 
Thirumangai AzhwAr ( Periya Thirumozhi : VII.7.1 
on TherazhundhUr PerumAL) , AlavanthAr ( SthOthra-
Rathnam:12 )and his own Father , KuREsar ( Sri Vaikunta-
Sthavam:29), who all recognized the Lord as the One ,
who bestows MangaLam on the MangaLa Naayaki Herself
( Sriya: SrI:).All the above four are saluted
therfore as "UdhAra Vaak".

Observations by adiyEn 
***********************
1.Sriya: SrI:
*************
Thirumangai salutes Aamuruviappan (Gosakan)
of ThErazhundhUr as " Thiruvukkum ThiruvAhiya
SelvA " with great endearment in his Paasuram.
AlavanthAr asks a rhetoric Question in this context
in his SthOthra Rathnam and answers it himself later:

" KassrI: Sriya:? Parama Satthva samAsraya: Ka:? 
  PuNDarIka Nayana: Ka:? PurushOtthama: Ka:?"

(Meaning) : Who is the One that confers MangaLathvam
on the Parama MangaLa Moorthy Herself ? Who is the One,
who is the embodiment of Satthva GuNam without admixture 
of even a trace of RajO GuNam or TamO GuNam ? Who is
the One that has PuNdarika nayanan ( eyes defeating
the lotus in their beauty )? Who is that Purushan 
that is the supreme most One ? 

AlavanthAr answers all these question readily
by pointing out that Purushan , who is "Sriya: SrI:",
Parama Saathvikan , Aravindha Lochanan (Tasya YathA
kapyAsam PuNDarikam yEvamakshiNI) and PurushOtthaman
is none other than Sriman NaarAyaNan. He bases his
conclusion on the facts that (1) Sriya: Pathithvam
is the top most item among His Parathva Saadhakams.
(2)That Sri RanganAthan is Para Tathvam is proven further by 
the fact that He is Parama Saathvikan .(3) PuNDarIkAksham
is uniquely assoicated with Sriya: SrI:and hence 
it is another proof of Parathva Lingam (Sign of
Supreme Being ).(4) PurushOtthama Tatthvam celebrated
by VedAs , Upanishads and Bhagavath Geethai
( PurushOtthama Yogam chapter) assert clearly
that Sriman NaarAyaNan , "Sriya: Sri: " alone
has undisputed Parathva Lingam.

Sri RangEsaya !
***************

With the choice of this word, Bhattar salutes
Periya PerumAL enjoying His Yoga NidhrA on
the bed of Adhi Seshan at Srirangam .

Tava cha HrudhyAm BhagavathIm Sriyam PhaNAma:
*********************************************

We are going to eulogize the Lady , who is dear to
Your heart , Sri RanganAyaki, who has the six 
attributes ( tejO-Bala-Veerya -Isvarya et al) 
befitting Her name as Bhagavathi.

BhagavathIm Sriyam TvatthOpyucchai: Vayamiha PhaNAMa:
****************************************************** 
Thirumalai Nallan RamakrishNa Iyengar Swamy translates
this section as " ThirumahaLai Bhagavathiyai ninakkum
mElAha cheppuhinrOm ". 

SruNutarAM
***********
Oh Sriya: Sri:! Please listen to our Suprior praise
on Your dear consort attentively .

What is the effect of such attentive listening ?
************************************************
Sri RanganAthan's eyes rotate with Joy (KaruvizhigaL
PiRazhthiduha / dhrusou tE bhUyAsthAm )arising from
this delectable experience of listening ( SukhataraLathArE
SravaNatha:). 

What else is going to happen ?
******************************

His pride of being blessed with Sri Devi as 
His Piratti and the joyous experience of His son
(Bhattar) singing exquisitely about Her supreme 
attributes makes Lord RanganAthan swell up and
burst His shirts adorning His big arms. He keeps
on swelling with pride that even new and larger 
shirts suffer the same fate. Limitless indeed is
the Lord's pride as He hears Bhattar's slOkams
eulogizing Sri RanganAyaki ! Marvellous indeed
is the exquisiteness of Bhattar's poetry blessed
by Sri RanganAyaki Herself !

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SatakOpan

 
    


     
   



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