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Sri Badrinarayan's question on the absence of palasruthi

From the Bhakti List Archives

V. Sadagopan • November 13, 1997 


Dear Sri Badrinarayan  : 

Yes , Swami Desikan has commented on the absence
of the palasruthi usually seen on the prabhandhams like this .
It is in his vyAkhyAnam on Muni Vahana Bhogam that 
Sri Mani Varadarajan has referred to many times . 

As a part of the series that I am writing on Thirukkudanthai
Desikan 's AparyApthAmrutha sOpAnam , I was going 
to cover it at length . I will write about this section now .

As we know from the many postings on AmalanAdhipiraan ,
Swami Desikan had a great affection for these moving verses
and created Bhagavadh DhyAna sOpAnam , Muni Vaahana
BhOgam out of his extraordinary revenerence for ThiruppANar . 

Thirukkudanthai Desiakna considered as an aparaavatharam
of Swami Desikan modelled his great affection for ArAvamudhan
taking his cue from Swami Desikan's works and 
blessed us with his AparyApthAmrutha sOpaanam .

Both Swami Desikan's Bhagavadh DhAyana sOPaanam and 
Thirukkudanthai Desikan's works include a pala sruthi verse to 
respectfully stay away from the unique experience of 
ThiruppANa Naathan , where he merged with the Lord 
after stating " yennamuthinai kanda kaNNgaL 
maRRonRinaikkANAvE " . 

In the above quoted passage , AzhwAr does not say 
Yenn amuthanai kanda YENN kaNNgaL . He states
" yenn amuthani kanda kaNNgaL " . unitl this paasuram , 
he has been referring to himself as adiyEn , adiyEn .
At this stage of his anubhavam of the sarvAngha 
soundharyam of periya perumAL , the afiliation with
himself is gone . He forgets his name , his place of
origin . It has  been suggested that Lord RanganaathA 
made sure that there is no distraction to the AzhwAr in
the deep  experience of HIS athayantha soundharyam and 
lAvaNyam . It has  been stated that the one  who gained 
moksha saamrAjyam sings saama ghAnam according to
Upanishads . AzhwAr engaged insuch an incomparable
experience could not come down to refer to his coordinates 
or the fruits of the blessings of reciting his paasurams .

He was " too far gone " to turn around to say a word of
advise as an AchAryA . He was being pulled fast forward 
by the Lord's beauty and was hastening to merge with 
the AdhimUlam resting on the AdhisEshan at the 
kshEthram known as BhulOka VaikunTam . 

In the second line of the final paasuram , he states as to
what had happened to his mind : YennuLLam kavarnthAnai
----( kanda kaNNgal maRROnRinaikkANAvE )  ". The heart has been
stolen . The Lord's property hasbeen returned to the Lord . There is
nothing left to talk about the erstwhile state as ThiruppANan
from UrayUr . 

AzhwAr acknowledges that his eyes can not see anything or
anybody else after experiencing the beauty of the Lord with his
eyes. Swami Desikan points out that the AzhwAr was in
the state of ananya prayOjana kaashtai ( the boundary of 
the state of not expecting any fruits other than the Lord ) 
and that led to declaring " kanda kaNNgaL " instead 
of  " kanda yenn kaNNgaL "  in the spirit of nispruham ,
nirahankAram and nirmamathvam . 

Swami Desikan quotes two examples to compare the
AzhwAr's exraordinary mental state of bliss . One is 
the statement of AnjanEyA to Sri RamachandrA " Bhakthisccha
niyathA veera bhAvO NAANYATHRA GACCHATHI " . AnjanEya ,
the greatest of Rama chaithanyA , says that his Bhakthi to
Sri Raman is nithyam ( unchanging and eternal ) ; he adds 
that his thoughts do not go even go to Sriman NaarAyaNA 
in Vaikuntam , but are rooted in Sri Ramaa and Him 
alone ( anyathra na gacchathi ) . 

The other example quoted by Swami Desikan is 
the Thiruvaimozhi paasuram of NammAzhwar ( 4.9-.10):

kandu ketuRRu mOnthu undu uzhalum eimkaruvi
kanda inbam ----kanda sathir kandozhindhEn 
adainthEn un thiruvadiyE " 

( short meaning ) : After experiencing the limitless beauty 
of You both as Divya dampathis and as Nithya sEshis 
in Sri Vaikuntam with your own blessings , I have 
abandoned with joy the persihable alpa sukhams born out
of the activities of the panchEndriyAs and the kaivalya
sukham coming from athmAnubhavam . I have now
firmly grasped Your lotus feet as the one and only
lasting and incomparable sukham in all the worlds . 

In the final tamizh paasuram of Munivaahana bhOgam ,
Swami Desikan pays tribute to the  " kadiya kaathal
of PaaNN perumAL " and describes his prabhandham as
" pazha maRayin poruL " ( the essence of the ancient vedAs 
dealing with the relationship between Iswaran and Jeevan ) :

kaaNpanavum uraippanavum maRRonRikk-
kaNNanayE kanduraittha kadiya kaathal
paNN perumAL aruL seytha paadal patthum 
pazha maRayin poruL yenru paravuhinROm .

In his pala sruthi on MunivAhana BhOgam ,
Swami Desikan hints at his composiiton as
equal to " muktha isvarya rasOpama: " ( equivalent
to the brahmAnandham experienced by the Muktha Jeevans
and Nithya sUris in Nithya VibhUthi / Sri Vakuntam ) .
That is because of the subject matter deals with the
singular aanndhAnubhavam to the exclusion of all the
others by ThiruppANAzhwAr at the bhUloka Vaikuntam 
that made him declare " amudhinaikkanda KaNNgal
maRRonRinaikkANAvE " . 

Swami Desikan , ThiruppANNAzhwAr thiruvadigalE SaraNam
Oppiliappan koil Varadachari Sadagopan