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Thiruvananthapura Paasurams : TVM -10.2: Part 1

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • September 29, 1998 


Dear BhakthAs : In this post , I will add auxillary 
material to the most recent posting of Sri MadhavakkaNNan 
on Swamy NammAzhwAr's ten moving paasurams .

Divya Desam 
************
The Lord's name is Anantha PadmanAbhan and Madhavan . 
ThAyAr's name is Sri Hari Lakshmi . Under His HemakUta
vimAnam , the Bhujanga Sayana mUrthy rests in His gigantic form .
The Garbha graham is so huge that it is split into three 
gates or openings . On the extreme left , we are blessed 
with the darsanam of the Thirumukha Mandalam (face )
of our Lord , in the middle opening , we have the 
darsanam of chathurmukha Brahma seated on the Lotus 
arising out of the Naabhi Kamalam of the Lord giving Him His
name , Padmanaabhan . On the extreme right opening ,
we have the darsana soubhAghyam of the sacred feet of the Lord . 
Sri PadmanAbhan faces eastwards .

As we circumambulate (do prathkshiNam ) , we come across
Sri Narasimhan's sannidhi and KaNNan sannadhi in 
the prAkAram . Here is MadhavakkaNNan just behind 
the Garbha graham .

Few miles away is ThiruvaattARu , another Divya Desam of 
MalayAla naadu , where we worship AadhikEsava PerumAL 
and Marakathavalli ThAyAr under AshtAnga VimAnam , which is 
very similar in appearance to the HemakUta VimAnam 
of Thiruvananthapuram . Interestingly enough , 
the Lord here is also gigantic in size and has 
a huge garbha graham that has three openings . The only
difference is that we have the darsanam of the face of this 
Lord at the extreme right , the Lotus and BrahmA in the middle 
and the Padha sEvai at the extreme left .The order is just 
the opposite of the sevA kramam at Thiruvananthapuram .
Adhi Kesava PerumAL is also facing East .

It is interesting to observe that NammAzhwAr in his 
first Paasuram asked us to recite the name of Kesavan
at Thiruvananthapuram , where the name of the Lord 
is Madhavan and Anantha PadmanAbhan .Whenever the naamam
of Madhavan is invoked , Dhvaya Manthram has to be 
invoked simultaneously . We will try to gain   
some insights later into why NammAzhwAr talks about 
Kesavan and recommends Kesava naama sankIrthanam to us
at Thiruvananthapuram  , when there is an ArchAmurthy 
at ThiruvAtturu with Adhi Kesava naamam 
resting in the same gigantic Bhujanga Sayana Poisture 
offering His darsanam.

MaNavALa Maamuni's Thiruvaimozhi NooRanthadhi paasuram
******************************************************
In the 92nd paasuram , Vara vara Muni points out that
NammAzhwAr wanted to perform Nithya Kainkaryam 
with the BhagavathAs to Ananatha PadmanAbhan , what he
was hoping to do at parama Padham for Sri Vaikuntanaathan.

The Paasuram is as follows :

kedumidarvaikunthatthaik kittinAppOlath
tadamudaya Anaanthapuram tannil , padavaravil
kaNdyuil mARkAtcheyyak kaathalitthAn MaaRan
uyar viNdaniluLLOr viyappavE 

(Meaning ): To the utter astonishment and delight 
of the nithyasUris , NammAzhwAr wished to perform
nithya Kaimkaryam of the kind to Ananatha PadmanAbhan
of Thiruvananthapuram as he would perform (later) 
nithya niravadhya Kaimkaryam to Sri VaikuntanAthan 
in His land that is free from sorrow of any kind
(viz)., Parama padham .

For the Lord sleeping on the Hooded serpent Adhi sEshaa ,
( padam aravil kaNN thuyil mARkku )Nammaazhwar desired 
to do eternal service of the kind that he was going
to perform at Sri Vaikuntam (kedum idar Vaikunthatthai 
kittinArp pOla Ananthapuram Tannil aaLL seyya kathalitthAn) .
AzhwAr saw the archA mUrthy of Ananatha PadmanAbhan as
though He was Sri Vaikunta Naathan and longed to perform
the Kaimkaryam right there at Thiruvanathapuram , what 
he was eagerly thinking of doing at Parama padham .

Acharya Hrudhaya GranthA points out that 
the Thiruvananthapura Paasurams are UpadEsaparam 
or ParOpadEsam. SakshAth Swami goes one step furhter
in his analysis and points out that the first five 
paasurams of this decad are upadEsam to others as 
an AchAryA and the last five are pleas to his own 
men (bhagavahtAs) to join together with him to 
perform service to the Lord of Thiruvananthapuram .
 
PannIrAyirapadi points out that AzhwAr was in
Mukthi nilai and the Lord was in a hurry to show
His parama BhakthA the looks of His parama Padham 
( bhOgya SthAnam )right here at His leelA Vinhuthi
(Earth )at Thiruvananthapuram as though it was a 
demo of tastes to come .

(To Be continued )
V.Sadagopan