Iraamaanusa Noorandhaadhi Upanyaasam - (Translated in English by VEDICS Team)
From the Bhakti List Archives
• September 8, 2001
Foreword :- ------------ We from VEDICS Iraamaanusa Noorandhaadhi Team would first like to seek the blessings of all bhaagvathaas before proceeding in this small kaimkaryam of translating Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi in English according to the upanyaasam rendered by U.Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy. We also request all bhaagavathhas, mahaanubhaavaas and other learned scholars to pardon us if we have scribbled something that may be incorrect. If we have done so, it is purely because of our ignorance, and lack of sampradaic knowledge. We further submit the forthcoming postings of Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi to the lotus feet of Bhoomi, Neela, Lakshmi Devi sametha, Sriya: pathi Sriman Naraayanan and our beloved Emperumaanar and all Aazhwaars and Poorvaachaaryaas to accept this kainkaryam for themselves and guide us through the entire journey of this kainkaryam. We will not add, delete or modify any of the lines or anubhavams that U.Ve. Velukkudi Krishnam Swamy has given in his upanyaasam. We also seeks the anughrahams of U.Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy in fullfilling this kainkaryam without any hindrance. "RAAMAANUJASYA CHARANAU SHARAM PRAPADYE, SRIMATHE RAAMAANUJAAYA NAMA:" THIRUVARANGATHAMUDANAAR'S IRAAMNUSA NOOTRANDHAADHI - THE PRAPANNA GAAYATHRI -------------------------------------------------------------------- Avathaarikai :- ---------------- Our beloved Lord, Bhoomi Neelaa Sri sametha Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayanan, out of his extraordinary kaarunyam and love for us, has given us this birth as a jeevaathma with its full knowledge and brilliance, according to our karma in our previous births. We the jeevaathmaas are born on this earth as a result of our paapams or punyams we did in our previous births. We are born as a maanusha janma in the first place, because of the punyams we did in the previous births. Even in this janmaa, we are born as a Srivaishnavaa because of the bhakthi and love that we would have shown to Emperumaan in our previous births. We need to understand that we are born as a Srivaishanavaa, in order to perform bhagavan nama sankeerthanam, and earnest service to bhaagavthaas; we also have to perform service to other living beings on this earth and show the same love and affection towards all living beings, the same way as our beloved Lord showers his love and affection on us. Our emperumaan wants us to eradicate all our karma by doing saranagathi to His lotus feet and attain His feet at paramapadam, so that we never return to this ocean of samsaara. We the jeevathmaas waste our time in materialistic pursuits instead, without realizing this fact. Perumaal on the other hand, showers his mercy even through the jeevathma's state of ignorance and yearns for the jeevathma to attain paramapadham. Even if we utter His name once, with sincere devotion, He becomes delighted and runs to our side at once. This states that His affection for us is multifold than the affection we have for Him. But we forget to realize ourselves, and our true state, along with the extreme kaarunyam that emperumaan has towards us. We continue to experience and enjoy various temporary pleasures, without realizing that they are only for the body and not for the aathmaa. The aathmaa is unaffected by impurities. The aathmaa has enormous brilliance and knowledge about its true state. But because of emperumaan's maayai, all the brilliance and knowledge about aathmaa, is hidden to our mind. This barrier can be easily crossed by chanting bhagavan naamaa; doing earnest services to bhaagavthaas and emperumaan who will also help us in understanding our true self. Once we understand our Aathmaa then, we will never go behind earthly pleasures. But we fail to do so; hence emperumaan started thinking of a way to bring all of us (Jeevaathmaas) towards him. He gave all of us the great gift of Four Vedas, Smruthis and Suthraas, Shaastraas and Puraanaas. The jeevaathmaa however, fails to understand the meaning of these scriptures and misinterprets them in unwanted ways. Hence bhagavaan thinks that he failed in his attempt. As a next step, he thinks that, unless he is born on this earth, he cannot achieve his goal. So he takes his vibhavaavathaaram as said in the following verse :- "Meenodu Aamai kezhal ari, kuralaai, muunum iraamanaai, thaanaai, pinnum iraamanaai dhaamodharanaai karkiyum aanaan " Meenodu - (Mathsya), Aamai - (Koorma), Kezhal - (Varaaham), Ari - (Narasimham), Kuralaai (Vaamanam), Munnum Iraamanaai (Parasu Raman), Thaanaai (Rama), Pinnum Iramanaai (Bala Raman), Dhaamodharanaai (Krishnan), Karkiyum Aanaan (Kalki) Here "Thaanaai" denotes Lord Rama. Even though the Lord was born as a normal manushyaa, He still manifested all the divine qualities of the supreme being. Hence aazhwaar considers him as the supreme being itself and uses the word "Thaanaai". U.Ve. Velukkudi Swamy in his Upanyasam under the title "Aazhwaargalum Chakravarthi Thirumaganum" explained this quote during his recent visit to the United States. Thus the lord came down to the earth as ten different manifestations to save us from this ocean of samsaaram, but he still felt that he couldn't attain his objective. Bhagavaan says in bhagavadh gita "Hey Arjunaa! Even after trying innumerable methods to save the jeevaathmaas, they fail to realize that I came all the way to the earth from the heavenly abode to save them and I am the Supreme Being. They see me as that specific avataaram but not the actual Supreme Being who came down to earth as these vibhava avataarams. If I am born as krishnaa they neglect me by saying, "after all this is krishnaa who is born one amongst the people in gokulam"; if I show my power and brilliance from my heavenly abode, they say that I am unreachable. Hence I am neither able to show my supreme form nor the easiest form as a vibhavaavatharam. Since I showed only these two forms, I failed in this attempt. I'm still thinking of a method to save these jeevaathmaas." Hence bhagavaan thinks that he cannot save these jeevaathmaas if he manifests himself as paramaathaa, because both are unequal in their qualities and characteristics. One cannot use the lion to catch the elephant, because the lion will eat the elephant. Hence the jeevaathmaa can be corrected only by another jeevaathmaa. So bhagavaan sends aazhwaars to this earth to save the jeevaathmaas. First comes the avataaram of perumaal's divya amsams as mudal aazhwaars: Poigai, Bootham, Peyaazhwaar and then pugazh mazhisai iyyan, arul maaran, seralar kon, thuyya bhatta nadhan, anbargaal thooli, narpaanan, and narkaliyan who gave us the essence of vedas. They did their duty in translating the vedaas as the Naalaayira Divya Prabandham in Tamil. But they never educated the jeevaathmaas by their guidance and upadesams except through their prabandhams. Instead they were immersed in their extreme love towards emperumaan themselves. They experienced emperumaan within themselves by singing his praise; they cried for liberation from this world, but none of them made an attempt to guide a normal jeevathmaa to make the jeevaathma realize emperumaan. Aazhwaar saw the state of the jeevathmaas and decided that they cannot guide these jeevaathmaas and instead, sought liberation from this world. They cried with love to emperumaan to take them away from this earth and they sang the sacred 4000 and attained the lord's feet at paramapadam. So we had only the Prabandhams that they sung. This made bhagavaan think that he failed in this attempt also. Hence bhagavaan wanted someone to guide the jeevaathmaas throughout their life in understanding the inner meanings and intentions of vedaas, shaastraas, puraanaas and prabandhams. This will make them realize the Supreme Being. Hence bhagavaan thought of sending aachaaryaas who are like aazhwaars, since they were geared towards guiding the jeevaathmaa rather than experiencing the Supreme Being themselves, like the aazhwaars. Hence emperumaan sent Sriman Naathamunigal to the earth first; Naathamunigal was born in Kaatu Mannaargudi. He obtained all the prabandhaams of aazhwaars from Swamy Nammaazhwaar, and along with this, Nammazhwar gave us the gift of our life to Sri Nathamunigal. Swamy Nammaazhwaar gave a Bhavisyadaachaaryar Vigraham of Bhagavadh Ramanuja to Sri Nathamunigal which can be still seen in the Thirukurugoor opposite to the Nammaazhwaar Sannidhi. So Nammaazhwaar already told nathamunigal that Bhagavad Ramanuja will be born in kali yuga to save the jeevaathmaas. Bhagavad Ramanuja will be the lokaachaarya who will correct all jeevaathmaas and destroy the kali. The vigraham mentioned above was created by Sri Madurakavi Aazhwaar at the banks of the river Thaamraparani. When he actually wanted a vigraham of Nammaazhwaar, he got the vigraham of emperumaanaar instead. When asked, Nammazhwar replied that the vigraham appeared out of his own grace and anugraham and he also gave a Nammaazhwaar vigraham to Sri Madurakavi Aazhwaar. This vigraham has been maintained, and worshipped by the aachaaryaas in our lineage in Thirukkurugoor and is still being worshipped today. Swamy Vedantha Desikan in Yathiraja Sapthathi says "Amunaa tapanaathishaayi bhoomnaa yathiraajena nibadhdha naayakasri: mahathi guru pankthi haara yashti: vibhudhaanaam hridyamgamaa vibhaathi:" In the garland of our Guru Parampara, one side is decorated with the rathnaams which starts from emperumaan lakshmi nathan and other mudalaachaaryaas like Nathamuni, Sadagopan, Senai Nathan and on the other side we have the rathnams like nanjeeyar, nampillai etc. Out of all these rathnams our emperumaanaar is like a naayaka rathnam who is in the middle of these rathnams. This is the condensed meaning of the verse above. Swaamy Raamaanujar had a disciple called Sri Koorathaazhwaan. Koorathaazhwaan had a disciple named Thiruvarangathamudhanaar who composed a work called "Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi" on Emperumanaar. This work was heard by our beloved emperumaanaar when it was composed, and was accepted. One can do trikaala sandhyaavandhanam, one can keep performing brahma yagnyam, one can recite vedams but all this will only ensure that one is a true Braahmanaa. But to capture the mind of our beloved lord and become a Sri Vaishnavan, one has to recite the 108 verses of Iraamanusa Nootrandhaadhi every day. This is also called "The Prapanna Gaayathri". If not everyday, we must recite it at least once a week, once a month, once a year or at least once in a lifetime. If one does not recite this at least once in one's lifetime, emperumaan will not give Sri Vaikuntam to the jeevathma as we will not get Raamaanuja Sambandham. This ensures that we become emperumaan's adiyaar, as this has Sri Emperumaanaar's sambandham in it. It has the word "Iraamaanusa" in each verse that establishes our relationship or sambandham with emperumaanaar. As we recite this every time with love and affection towards emperumaanaar, it establishes our sambhandam with emperumaan. Thiruvarangathamudhanaar was born in "Moongirkudi". He was the main kainkaryaparar in the Sri Rangam temple. He used to maintain the temple keys with him and used to read the puraanam for perumaal. But the temple organization was not satisfactory, as witnessed by emperumaanaar. Hence emperumanaar wanted to change the responsibility from Amudhanaar. Emperumaanar was waiting for the right time for this to happen. On the same night, emperumaanaar had a swapnam(dream) where emperumaan Sri Ranganatha came and told that "Amudanaar is entirely dependent on me and does kainkaryam. Hence I leave this issue to you". Emperumaan did not say anything else other than the above sentence. Hence Raamaanuja assumed that emperumaan doesn't want Amudanaar to be removed from the kainkaryam. So emperumaanaar decided to leave Sri Rangam and go to Kancheepuram along with Koorathaazhwaan. But koorathazhwaan thought for a while and said "Emperumaan's wish might not be what devareer thinks. He wanted devareer to correct amudanaar and make him devareer's disciple." Hence emperumaanaar thought that what aazhwaan suggested might be right. So Raamaanujar handed over the responsibility of correcting Amudanaar to Aazhwaan. Slowly aazhwaan corrected Amudanaar and brought him towards the kainkaryam of emperumaanaar. But still Amudanaar had the temple responsibility. Emperumaanaar thought that Amudanaar has to be involved in some other kainkaryam which emperumaanaar had in mind. If he still continued to take the responsibility of temple, he wouldn't be able to fulfill emperumaanaar's wish. In the mean time, Thiruvarangathamudhanaar's mother attained paramapadam. For the 11th day after her death, Amudanaar wanted someone to come to his gruham and participate in the event. On those days, if one goes for the 11th day to any house, they cannot participate in any koil kainkaryam or any festivals for another one year. To be precise they are not eligible to do anything for one year. Hence no one was ready to accept this offer. Amudaanaar approached emperumaanaar for a suitable person to come to his gruham. Emperumaanaar thought of this as the right time and sent Koorathazhwaan, reminding him of his plans to shift the temple responsibility from Amudanaar and correcting him at the same time. Accepting this as a command from his aachaaryan, azhwaan went to Amudanaar's griham for the 11th day kainkaryam. After having food at Amudanaar's house, Amudanaar asked whether Aazhwaan was satisfied with the food and other upachaarams. But Aazhwaan said that he was not satisfied. Amudannar asked aazhwaan as to what would satisfy Aazhwaan. Aazhwaan then asked for the temple keys from Amudanaar and that he should not recite puraanam for perumaal. He obtained both these kainkaryams and handed it over to emperumaanaar. Then emperumaanaar handed over the puraana patanam kainkaryam to koorathaazhwaan and handed over the temple key responsibility to mudaliyaandaan. Amudanaar was totally dejected and was not his normal self, which was witnessed by emperumaanaar. Emperumaanaar's intention was not to steal the kainkaryam from Amudanaar but to correct as per namperumaal's wish. One day when the Sapthaavaranam utsavam was being held where Pillai Thiruvaraga Perumaal araiyar, of Azwaar thiruvaranga Perumaal's lineage, was reciting prabandham in the arayar sevai. Emperumaanar went towards him and asked him for bhikshai. Immediately surprised by this, arayar asked what he can do. Emperumaanar requested that the first 3000 should be recited by people of araiyar tradition as araiyar sevai, and the rest 1000 (Iyarpaa) along with Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi will be recited by the kainkaryaparars from the Amudanaar's lineage. Even now, because of the lack of people in Amudanaar's tradition, the Iyarpaa is recited by normal adhyaapaka ghoshti and the rest 3000 by Araiyars. As requested, the araiyar accepted this offer and emperumaanaar handed over this kainkaryam to Amudanaar immediately. Thinking of this mahopakaaram that emperumaanaar has done for him, Amudanaar became extremly happy and wanted to compose a prabandham on emprumaanaar. He composed a prabandham on emperumaanar which says that emperumaanar is the supreme being, emperumaanaar is ranganaathar, emperumaanar himself is devaathi rajan. After composing this, amudanaar showed it to emperumaanaar, but seeing the way the prabandham was composed; emperumaanaar rejected the prabandham saying that he doesn't want a prabandham composed in this manner. Dejected by this, amudanaar thought of composing a prabandham on emperumaanaar somehow. He took a oath to compose a prabandham in andhaadhi style, having the name "iraamaanusa" in each verse. The first half will have the name of a mahaanubhaavar who was worshipped by emperumaanar, and the second half will contain verses that says the mahaanubhaavar's thiruvadi is emperumaanaar, so that emperumaanar can accept this prabandham. Amudanaar chose a place near the adaiyavalanthaan veedhi, which is a coconut farm where he sat and wrote the nooranthathi. At the time of completion even without Amudanaar's knowledge, emperumaanar along with empaar, aazhwaan and mudaliyaandaan appeared and saw amudanaar composing this prabandham. At that time amudanaar had composed 105 verses and was about to start the famous saatru paasuram "Iruppidam, Inbutra, and Angayal paai" verses. Seeing this emperumaanaar felt that somehow amudanaar had established his wish of composing a prabandham on emperumaanar, which was also up to Emperumaanar's expectations. Hence amudanaar with the kataaksham of emperumaanaar composed the last three paasurams. To mark this occasion, unlike the traditional way where only last 2 paasurams will be recited during satrumurai, here the last three passurams were considered to be saatruppaasurangal with emperumaanaars anugraham. One day, namperumaal decided that this prabandham should be propogated and asked emperumaanaar in his swapnam not to attend ghoshti on the sapthaavaranam day. The next day Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi was recited in the absence of emperumaanaar with namperumaal's command. Even the naadhaswaram was stopped. From that day onward, on the Sapthaavaranam festival, only the Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi will be recited as per namperumaal's command by normal adhyaabhaaga ghoshti rather than araiyar sevai. Thus amudanaar's prabhandam was very happily accepted by namperumaal since it was compsed on emperumaanaar. Even though initially amudanaar was the disciple of koorathaazhwaan, gradually by the brilliance and kaarunyam of emperumaanaar, he became his disciple and offered this great "Prapanna Gaayathri" at the lotus feet of his Aachaaryan; this work was accepted and blessed so that it is propogated for the entire people of later generations and be the best amongst all prabandhams. This journey of Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi will continue and let us take an oath that we will do a japam of this "Prapanna Gaayathri" everyday, if not once in a month, or once in a year or at least once in a each one of our lifetimes by reciting it with love and affection towards our beloved emperumaanaar and obtain raamaanuja sambandham. "RAAMAANUJASYA CHARANAU SHARAM PRAPADYE, SRIMATHE RAAMAANUJAAYA NAMA:" (Thodarum.. Will Continue..) VEDICS Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi Team Bhaagyaa Murali Thirumalai, Narayanan K. Veeraraghavan & Mukundan Pattangi http://www.radioramanuja.com/talks/velukkudi/rnoot/ -------------------------------------------------------------- - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH - To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
- Next message: Vedaraman Sriraman: "New Member Introduction"
- Previous message: K. Sadananda: "Re: Could somebody clarify this?"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]