A SanyAsi ascends to the throne : part 5
From the Bhakti List Archives
• July 12, 1997
Dear Narasimha BhakthAs :
In this posting , I will cover the paasurams through which
AzhwArs enjoyed NrusimAvathAram . I am indebted to
Dr . M.A . VenkatakrishNan , the editor of GeethAchAn ,
who presented a article in the spthathi malar of the 44th
Jeeyar of Ahobilam . I will include his comments and
include additional material to elaborate on the theme
developed by him .
The Beauty of the Lord in NrusimhAvathAram
**************************************************
Although the Lord has chosen to appear in many avathArams,
NrusimhAvatharam is considered an exquistely beautiful
avathAram . The qualifying adjective of " beautiful " is not attached
to any other avahArams according to our poorvAchAryAs . For
instance, Sri VishNu sahasra nAmam describes BhagavAn
NarasimhA as " Naarasimha Vapu: SREEMAAN " . In Naanmuhan
ThiruvandhAthi , Thirumazhisai salutes this beautiful avathAram as
" AzhahiyAn thAnE ariyuravam thAnE " . He is not beautiful because
of having a man's body or lion'ds head . Both these mingle together
to present the most beautiful svarupam like the sugar dissolved in
milk .
Although He is present as ArchA murthy in many divya desams ,
he is saluted as Azhahiya Singam at ThiruvallikkENi alone . Here,
the Lord is present as Bhayankara Svarupam to HiraNyan (Moolavar )
and as the most merciful svarupam to His bhakthan , PrahlAdhan, with
His AahlAdha mudrai in one of his hands asking his dear Baala -
BhagavathA to come near . THAT name of Azhahiya Singam is borne
by the MatAthipathis of AhObila Mutt even today .
The Glory of the Lord in NrusimhAvathAram
*************************************************
The all comprehending NammAzhwAr states that
the special glory of Lord NrusimhA can not be assessed
by us . In the Thiruvaimozhi Paasuram 2.8.9 , he salutes
Lord NarasimhA this way to reveal His special glory and
parathvam :
yengumuLan KaNNan yenra mahanai kaaynthu
ingillaiyAlenru IraNiyan thooN pudaippa
angappozhudhE avan veeyatthOnria yen
SINGAPPIRAAN PERUMAI AARAAYUM SEERMAITTHE
The meaning given for this paasuram by Sri V.N. VedAntha Desikan
is : " The proof that He is all pervasive was established by
PrahlAdhA . He repeated : " The Lord is every where " . The asuran,
HiraNyA , is now to put to test this thesis . He tapped a pillar ,
familiar to him from the moment of its making and positioning .
None could have played any trick . From that pillar , rending it
asunder , the Lord NarasimhA came out . In a moment --nay ,
at the same moment , the asuran melted like gold in the fire.
To prove PrahlAdA's words , " HE is all pervasive " , the Lord
took the male lion-faced avathArA to match the masculine gender
used by PrahlAdan ( uLan ) . Without taking a form , The Lord would
have done away with HiraNyA . But then , the world would only
join the school that says that God has no form . Hence , He took a
visible form . My dear Narasimhan came out , therefore , proving
that He is all pervasive , that He is supreme God , He has a form ,
that He will appear to save His devotees , more so that He will
confirm His devotee's contention . IS IT POSSIBLE TO DESCRIBE
ADEQUATELY HIS GREATNESS ? " .
NampiLLai , who commented on this paasuram in his eedu
was reminded of a Periya Thirumozhi paasuram and another
one from PeriyAzhwAr Thirumozhi and includes them .
Dr.VenkatakrishNan poses the rhetorical question
"Is it not wonderful and appropriate that the blissful experience
of blending the passurams of Thirumangai and PeriyAzhwAr ,
when meditating upon the rare form of the Lord having the features
of a lion and a man ? " .
NampiLLai comments : " When some one says that the Lord is
everywhere, we should fall at the feet of the man , who says that .
If your own son says that the Lord is everywhere , the father
should be doubly happy about the jnAnam of his child.
The reaction of the deluded HiraNyan was just the opposite.
He got enraged at his bhagavathA-son and shouted at him .
NampiLLai is now reminded of the paasuram of Thirumangai
on Telliya Singham of ThiruvallikkENi :
paLLiyOlodhivantha tan siruvan vaayilOr aayira naamam
oLLiyavahippOtha aangathanukku onrumOr porupilAnAhi
piLLayai seeri vehuNdu thooN pudaippa piraiyeyiRRanal
-
vizhippEzhvaai
TeLLiya singamAhiya thEvai ThiruvallikkENi kandEnE
--Periya Thirumozhi 2.3.8
When children come home from their class on the first day
at school , the parents ask with affection for the details of
happenings at school and enjoy the Mazhali vaaku (lisp )of
the child . They are thrilled to have the experience of the child
recollecting and describing the high lights of the day . HiraNyan
on the other hand was mighty angry to hear his child praising
Bhagavan NaarAyaNan as all pervasive and as the supreme
among Gods and Living beings . HiraNyan declared that
PrahlAdan was not his son . Thirumangai , who believes
that any one , who utters the name of the Lord is the sarva
vidha bandhu ( related by everyway ) and identifies with PrahlAdA
as his own son and says " PiLLayai seeri " according to
NampiLLai .
This mad HiraNyan furiously asks his son , : You said
that your Lord is everywhere , Is He in this pillar ? " and
hit a pillar that he chose with his fist. When NampiLLai
is ready to describe the meaning of the above paasuram
of Thirumangai , he is reminded of the anubhavam of
PeriyAzhwAr in the following paasuram ( Periya Thirumozhi :
1.6.9 ) :
aLanthitta thooNai avan thatta aangE
vaLarnthittu vALuhir Singa uruvAi
uLanthotti IraNiyan oNmArvahalam
piLanthitta kaihaLAl sappANi
peymulai undAnE SappANi
MaNavALa MaamunigaL has followed PeriyavAcchAn
piLLai's vyakhyAnam that had disappeared and reproduced
it with emphasis on each word of this paasuram of PeriyAzhwAr.
MaNavALa Maamuni's line-by-line commentary is as follows :
" aLanthitta thONai avan thatta" :HiraNyan had constructed
a victory pillar ( Jaya Sthambham ) in his darbhAr hall .
HiraNyan chose the height and circumference of that pilllar
and had it placed at his sabhA mantapam to remind
him of his many victories over the DevAs . That was the pillar ,
he chose to hit with his hand , while he queried his son
about the whereabouts of the Lord . Bhagavan broke that
pillar and came out of THAT pillar to counter any argument that
He appeared out of any other pillar , where H e(the Lord) was
deliberately hidden inside by some one like a "trojan horse ".
Lord Narasimhan appeared out of the very same trusted pillar ,
which was created by HiraNyan himself .
" avan thatta " : If any one othe rthan HiraNyan had hit the sthampam ,
people might say that they carried inside their palm the miniature
form of the Lord and passed it on to the sthampam .To avoid
any controversy of htis sorrt , the Lord appeared as a sequel
to the asuran's own hand hitting the jaya sthampam .
" avn thatta aangE " : Had the Lord appeared on another pillar
after HiraNyan hit the Jaya sthampam , then people would say
that the Lord was not there , where HiraNyan hit . Therefore ,
the Lord appeared " aangE "( right there ) . The word " AangE "
used by PeriyAzhwAr has a temporal and spatial element attached
to it . We focussed on the spatial element of Him appearing there
so far . AzhwAr seems to have had the time element in mind as well .
The moment HiraNyan hit the pillar with his palm , instantaneously
the Lord appeared to quell the doubts of bahgavadh virOdhis
that the Lord was not there due to any delay in His appearance .
" aangE vaLarnthittu " : Unlike the other growing life forms that
go through stages such as garbha vaasam , gradual growth and
birth as an infant and continued growth thereafter , the Lord grew
instantaneously many sizes larger than the asuran and pounced
on the asuran , who had committed grave bhagavatha apachAram .
The Lord's anger was not quenched even after destroying
the asuran . Poyhai azhwAr describes the fear of MahA Lakshmi
to approach Her own Lord at that juncture: " PoomkodhaiyAL
VERUVA ponpeyarOn maarvidantha VeenkodhavaNNar " .
Piratti hesitated to approach Lord Narasimhan . BrahmA
and the others approached the Lord with PrahlAdhan in front.
The Lord's anger subsided once he saw the child PrahlAdhA
approaching Him . Achaarya RamAnujA is said to have explained
this section of Poyhai's paasuram this way : " Even if the Lioness
is showing its anger at the elephant , it will not stay away from
from breast feeding its own infant " .
Thus , the poorvAchAryAs of our tradition have understood
the unmatchable glory of NrusimhAvathAram and the Lord's
matchless beauty and simultaneous display of anger at
the aparAdhi and compassion for His devotee . Dr . VenkatakrishNan
quotes another paasuram of NammAzhwAr in this context :
sella uNarnthavar selvan tan seeranRikkaRparO
yellaillAtha perumtavatthAl palaseymiRai
allalamaraiccheyuum IraNianAhatthai
Mallal AriyuruvAiccheytha MAAYAMARINTHUME
---Thiruvaimozhi 7.5.8
( Meaning provided by Dr.Vedantha Desikan of Oppiliappan
Kovil ) : " Any one , who has realized what is real goal of life
will not take interest in anything except the great Sri NrusimhA
avathAram . I shall explain why . He is the really affluent Lord
( Mallal ) , the affluence being the attachment to His devotees .
What is His prowess ? He killed as in mere sport ,
the HiraNyA of great valour , who had acquired
many boonsto afflict the DevAs . MY LORD APPEARED
IN A MIRACULOUS MANNER ( maayam) , WITHOUT
VIOLATING CODES (of boon given to the asuran ) ALSO " .
Aasritha vaatsalyam is the wonderful lesson taught by
Lord Nrusimhan . Dushta nigraham and sishta paripAlanam
are interwoven tightly in this avathAram . That is why , PeriyAzhwAr
also celebrated Nrusimhan during his mangaLAsAsanam
in ThiruppallANdu :
" ThiruvONatthiruvizhavil andhiyampOthil ariyuruvAhi
ariyai azhitthavanai panthanai theera pallANdu
yenru paadhuthumE " -- ThiruppallANdu : Verse 6
It is important to note that PeriyAzhwAr as " ananya-
prayOjanar and Bhagavadh prApthi kaamar " saluted
NrusimhAvathAram and its glory in detail first and foremost
in his ThiruppallAndu as Sriman NaarAyaNA appeared
on the sky with His pirattis on the back of Garudan to
bless the AzhwAr , who had won the contest at the court
of PaandyA king to establish the parathvam of the Lord.
NammAzhwar salutes Nrusimhan as " Mallal ariyuru "
in his Thiruvaimozhi paasuram ( 7.5.8) . Mallal means
sampath or Lakshmi . Mallal ari uru means therefore
the form of the Lord as Sri Lakshmi Nrusimhan or
MaalOlan , the nitya AarAdhana moorthy that landed in
the palms of Adhi VaNN SatakOpa Jeeyar , the founder
of the AhObila Matam and travels across the length
and breadth of Bharatha Desam with the peetAthipadhis
of this Matam . NammAzhwAr clearly states that those ,
who clearly understand the purusharthams of life
( Sella uNarnthavar ) will not take interest in any one
other than Lord NrusimhA ( Selvan tan seeranRikkaRpaRO ).
Such a "sella uNarnthavar " is the 45th Jeeyar of AhObila Mutt ,
who has dedicated his life and taken sanyAsa aasramam
to bless us all and to intercede for us as our AchAryA .He is
a great Bhagyasaali and in that aspect , his importance
can be understood from a paasuram of Thirumazhisai
AzhwAr , who never minces his words:
mARAya dhAnavanai vaLLuhirAl mArvirandu
koorAhakkeeriya kOLariyai - vERAha
yEtthi iruppaarai vellumE maRRavarai
saatthi iruppaar tavam
Here , Thirumazhisai states unequivocally that
our ujjevanam 9salvation ) is assured by performing
charaNAgathi /SaraNAgathi at the sacred feet of
the one , who worships NrusimhA as his principal
aarAdhana moorthy . When we worship this aachaarya ,
who worships Nrusimhan , we acquire a unique glory
of our own . Thirumazhisai is referring here to the concept
that it is better to offer our salutations to the adiyArs
of the Lord than to the Lord Himself . May we approach
BhagavAn Nrusimhan with His key devotee Azhagiya Singar
of Ahobila Mutt leading the way just as PrahlAdhA did
at the behest of MahA Lakshmi in approaching the angry
Nrusimhan just after HiraNya SamhAram .
I will cover few more paasurams of Kaliyan on
the divya Desams such as SaaLagrAmam ,
ThiruvEnkatam , ThirunAngoor and ThiruarimEya-
ViNNagaram , which offer their salutaions to
BhagavAn Nrusimhan . Kaliyan's attachment to this
Special avathAram of the Lord is understandable ,
since he was born in Thirukkurayaloor , where the
presiding deity is BhagavAn Nrusimhan Himself .
AzhwAr AachAryAL ThiruvadigaLE SaraNamm
Oppiliappan Kovil VaradAchAri Sadagopan
- Next message: usdeiva: "Noble Personages"
- Previous message: M K Sudarshan: "Re: Feed(back/forward)"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]