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Thiru viN Nagaram - oppu illA appan kOil - part 3 - sErAtha poruL ellAm sErththa perumAL

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Sampath Rengarajan • July 11, 1997 


Dear bAgawthALs,

I am reposting this thala purANam with some additions. I thank Sri
KrishnamAchAri for his feedback. This thread is expected to go up to
atleast 10 parts. I can understand the eagerness in many (I received
feedbacks so far on the first 3 parts from 3 persons) as Lord
Oppiliappan is their kula daivam. I appreciate all the sentiment and
encourage all of them to come out and write about their understanding
of our kula deyvam.  In the meantime let me assure you that my previous
post on this thalam contained many such information and that I will try
to cover the details to the best of my knowledge. I am ready to include
any new information that anyone wishes to add to this effort. Sriman
Sreyesh sArangan is working on the complete web site of this thala
purAnam and the site is expected to be ready by end of this month, as
per Sri VS.


Regards
SR

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part 3 - sErAtha poruL ellAm sErththa perumAL

	At the time when NammAzhvAr arrived here, it is said that he
	was kind of wondering about 80 of his own pathams used in his
pAsurams that he had delivered already and felt that certain aspects of
these paasurams were not quite clear to himself.  It is believed that
the Lord appeared to NammAzhvAr here and cleared NammAzhvAr's doubts on
such paaurams that had "munnukkum pinnukkum muranaana poruL". (i.e.
certain pAsurams had certain meanings that may be derived as
contradicting one another; It is conceived that the very purpose of
NammAzhvAr avathAram was to deliver "theLiyAtha maRaiyellam thELiya
Othi". i.e., vedhams were interpreted by each samayam in their own way
to validate their own path.  NammAzhwAr delivered thamizh vdham to
clarify all these and validate that Sriman NArAyana is the only param
as per vedham. Keeping this in mind, the blessings Lord Oppiliappan
made to NammAzhwAr is the most important step in NammAzhwAr's mission
of "theLiyAtha maRAiyellAm theLiya Othi").  The Lord also made him
realize that HE is present in those paasurams as antharyaamim. Hence
NammAzhwAr sung in praise of the Lord as "sEraatha poruLkaLellaam
sErththa perumaL".

	It seems the Lord was overjoyed and embraced Azhwaar here and
pOkaatha oorkaLin (i.e. Divya Desams) sevaiyellam saathithaar.
Besides, Lord also offered NammAzhvAr the darshan of various other
kshEthrams here itself in viNNagaram in the forms of the LORDS of
various other kshEthrams that NammAzhwAr hadn't gone.  NammAzhvAr delivered
pasurams only on 36 kshethrams of the 108 DD's.

The Lord also offered the five darshans of HIMselves here to NammAzhwAr
(incidentally the four such avathaarams due to their placement with
respect to thirviNNagaraan in the center can also be equated to his "4
vyookams" or the expanse of the universe in either direction. Vishnu is
one who is ever and "all" pervasive in these forms in the universe). As
per "pancha ratra" and as accepted by all the three major schools
(advaitha, vishitaadavithaa and dvaitha) Lord Vishnu was the only
present at the time of creation and everyone else were created from
HIM. This statement is validated by the paasurams of thirumangai on
this Lord which explains the order of creations unfolding from HIM and
also the ending of such creations in HIM. In essence these pAsurams of
thirumangai envelopes the entire "cosmic universe" and all the
"science" that has been discovered so far and to be discovered.

	In his pAsurams, NammAzhwAr also defines various attributes
(SathGunAs) of the Lord in both "nErmaRai" and "ethirmaRai".  It is
beleived that these 10 exclusive and brilliant nammAzhwAr pAsurams form
the basis in validating Sri VishishtAdvaidham over Sri Advaitham on the
interpretation of "gunA" aspect (popularly known as attributes) of
param in the vedham.  Some of the arguments presented by Swami Desikan
in "satha dhOshAni"  can be derived from these 10 pAsurams itself. (it
is not satha dhooshani as known to many. Many non srivaishnavas who are
not familiar with this, are of the opinion that there 100 dhooshanais
or insults inflicted on other mArgams, by hearing a name like this and
interpreting it this way. But in satha dhOshAni, ie., Swami dEsikan
came out with 100 dhOshams or attributes or gunAs for brahmam as
derived from vEdham and hence it is named as satha dhOshAni) There is a
Desikan sannithi prior to crossing the dwaara baalakas (who look real
to me) and I often meditate to the Lord in front of Swami Desikan.

Sri Boomi Devi Naachchiyaar samEtha Sri sErAtha poruL ellAm sErththa perumAL
Oppiliappan thiruvadikaLe saraNam.
Sampath Rengarajan


note : Two years back Sri PD had a "desire" to do kainkaryam for Swami
Desikan's pasurams. I also had such "desire" (simultaneously) to do kainkaryam
for Swami Desikan's pasurams, when I was at this place in front of Swami
Desikan. I conveyed this to Sri PD when I returned from India and he said he
had this in mind for sometime and we both worked together, typed and presented
Swami Desikan's entire prabandam in electronic form in our web. I am thankful
to Sri PD for his leadership and Sri Mani for offering the site and
encouragement for this project.