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Sri Sailesa DayA pAthram Taniyan

From the Bhakti List Archives

V. Sadagopan • November 21, 1996 


Dear Members of Bhakthi group :	

Further to the inputs of Srimans Mohan SAgar
and T.A. Varadhan , I would like to add a little more 
of my own "musings " on the above Taniyan . It is interesting to see
how things come together .

The Taniyan used by the Tenkalai SampradhAyam of 
" Srirangam AcharyAs " is  associated with Sri Ranganatha 
himself . May be, he had some thing in mind anticipating 
the tensions of later times .

One intrepretation of the above Taniyan can be as follows :

I offer my salutations to the beautiful MaNavALa mAmuni ,
who was the object of the Daya of Sri Sailesa ( Thiruvaimozhi
PiLLai , his Acharya ). I worship that ocean of Jnanam and 
Bhakthi , who revered Sri RaamAnuja.

Musings :

The reference to the Acharya as Sri Sailesa is intriguing.
Thiruvaimozhi PiLLai is known as Thirumalai AzhwAr 
because of his connection to Thiruppathi . He is different
from Thirumalai Nambi of RaamAnuja's time . Thirumalai 
can be the equivalent of Sri Sailam in Sanskrit , the abode of 
Srinivasan . Sri Sailam hills today are the chain of hills with 
Ahobilam ( Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan ) at one end , Sri Sailam
( Sri BramarAmpikhA sametha MallikArjuna Swamy /Famous 
Siva Kshetram ) in the middle and Thirupathi Srinivasan at  the other end .
By Sri Sailesa , NamperumAL might have used a pun., while referring
to the Acharya KatAksham of Maamuni . 

Dhee( Jnaanam/intellect  ) and Bhakthi normally do not go together.
By combining both and calling atention to Maamuni as the Ocean of GuNAs, 
Sri Ranganatha might be hinting at his own Agatitha Katanaa
sakthi( Sri Oppiliappan Paasurams  of SatakOpa) 
of reconciling the opposites . Maamuni also wrote   
wonderful   commentaries on Bhagavadh GitA called 
Taatparya Dheepam and Jnana Saara Prameyam . His
struggle with the intellectual approach ( Jnana Yogam )and
devotional approach ( Bhakthi Yogam ) and opting out for 
Bhakthi yogam is what reminds me of this section of the Taniyan

Sri Sailesar was devoted to NammazhwAr and RaamAnuja.
He constructed a temple for RaamAnuja at Thirukkuruhur and 
appointed his disciple Maamuni ( a grahasthaa at that time 
known by the name of Azhahiya MaNavALa nAyanAr) as the 
custodian/Aaradhakar . The Acharya created thiruveethis around 
the shrine devoted exclusively to Sri RamAnujA and named it
" Sri RamAnuja Chathurvedhimangalam" . The devout disciple
devoted his energy to the worship of Sri RamAnujaa. The Acharya 
near the end of his own life on earth recognized the greatness
( DheepakyAdhi GuNarNavam  aspect )of his disciple and began to address
his SishyA as Yathindra PravaNar . Later, NaayanAr(maamuni ) took 
the holy asramam of SanyAsam because he could not stay 
away  from worshipping Ranganatha on days of Theetu ,when one 
can not enter the temples for a specified period , when some one in the 
family passes away. These are the rules of a grahasthaa. 

Acharya of Maamuni requested his sishyaa to compose a sthuthi 
on RamaanujA to celebrate latter's devotion to Bhagavadh RamAnujaa .
Thus was born " YathirAja Vimsathi " of Maamuni. 

Now coming back to the related matter, The Taniyan used by 
Vadakalai sampradhyam is :

rAmAnuja dayaapaathram jnana vairaaghya bhushaNam
Srimadh VenkatanAthAryam VandE Vedhaanth aDesikam 

This was created by Brahma Tantra Swatantra Swami ,
the elder to Swami Desikan and at the same time his 
disciple. Sri Sailesa , the Lord of seven hills received 
samAsrayaNam from Ramaanujaa. May be Sri Ranganatha was 
referring to what happened at Sri Sailam.  
  
The reference in the Vadakalai Taniyan refers to Swami Desikan
as Jnaana Vairaaghya BhushaNam. Swami , who declared 
his Vairaaghyam thru the verses of Vairaaghya Panchakam 
is defenitely a model of Vairaaghyam . The reference in the 
Tenkalai Taniyan on Maamuni refers to Bhakthi of this achaarya.
 
Vara Vara Muni sathakam extolls the bhakthi laden life of
Maamuni. His devotion to Azhwaars and their AruLiccheyals 
are legendary. Maamuni in this context spent a year at the 
Ashtaakshara Kshetram ( ThirukkaNNapuram ) and built a 
special temple(Sannidhi ) for Thirumangai Azhwaar.  Maamuni was 
born in Iyppasi Mula nakshatram. At this time ,when the birth month
of Karthigai 0f Thirumangai is  approaching  , it is appropriate to think
of the Azhwaars and Achaaryaas together and heal some of the avoidable 
schisms of the past four centuries and bring a cohesive point 
of view under the wide umbrella of Bhagavad Raamaanuja 
Siddhaantham going back to Natha Muni , AaLavandhAr , NammaZhwaar
and the divya dampathis of Sri Rangam .

Sri VaishNava Daasan 

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchari Sadagopan