||    A SanyAsi ascends the throne of Ahobila MaTam    ||

Sri Lakshmi Nrusimha Divya PaadhukhA Sevaka SrivaNN SatakOpa Sri NaarAyaNa Yatheendhra MahA Desikan is the 45th and current Jeeyar of Ahobila Matam. He completed on November 21, 1996 his Seventieth birthday. This special anniversary (Sapthathi) was celebrated by all aasthikAs, Vaidhikha SreshtAs and AchAryAs at Thirupathi. A commemorative souvenir celebrating the scholarship and Kaimkaryams of this most merciful Aacharya Saarvabhouman was released at that Mahothsavam in Thirupathi.

Sri Krishna Kalale met the Jeeyar recently and brought back two souvenir issues. H.H, the Jeeyar instructed Sri Krishna Kalale to make some of the extraordinary infromation assembled in this souvenir on the internet for the benefit of Sri VaishNavAs of the World. Sri Kalale wrote to me and asked me to undertake this Kaimkaryam.

The wish of H.H, the Jeeyar is my command and therefore I have notified Sri Kalale that nothing will please me more than fulfilling the wishes of our most revered Jeeyar. I will begin the postings with this note. What is assembled in the souvenir is of wide interest to all Sri VaishnavAs rooted in Bhagavadh RaamAnuja SiddhAntham. Hope you will find these postings useful as valuable source material. I seek the special blessings of H.H , the Jeeyar at the outset to complete this Kaimkaryam that is dear to his heart.

In an earlier posting, I included details on the peetathipathis of four Acharya paramparais of Sri VaishNavism, all of which are derived from Sri Bhagavadh RaamAnujA and his poorvAchAryAs going all the way upto Sriman NaarAyanan Himself. Please add the ParakAla Matam tradition as the fifth AchArya parampara that I missed to mention.

The links among these uninterrupted chains of AchAryAs are profound and sacred. In each of these AchArya paramparAs, by Bhagavadh sankalpam, a great AchArya is "found" and he ascends the throne of that particular Acharya Paramparai and serves as a beacon for SadAchAram , Saddharmam and SanmArgam. Such AcharyAs remind us through their many daily activities that Bhagavadh, Bhagavatha sEvA is the ultimate goal of a human being.

Tirelessly, such AchAryAs travel to the divya desams and homes of the sishyAs, bring their aarAdhana Moorthys to these blessed homes, perform pancha samskArAs during these Vijaya YaathrAs, give pravachanams, initiate scholarly sadas to preserve the fine points related to the tattvams and most of all through ManthrOpadesams make all of us become the brides of Sriman NaarAyaNA through their power of tapas. This sacred act of our wedding to Sriman NaarAyaNA performed by our most compassionate AchAryAs has been celebrated by AzhwArs in their Sri Sookthis and by Sri RaamAnujA through his SaraNAgathi Gadhyam and other AchAryAs of his tradition in many of their granthams and sthothrams.

In this context, Swami Desikan has been prolific and has blessed us with many saraNAgathi granthams and eulogies such as NikshEpa RakshA, NyAsa TilakA , NyAsa DasakA , NyAsa Vimsathi , SaraNAgathi Deepikai , AbhayaprAdhAna saarA , Adaikkala patthu in Tamil (Praptthi dasakA in Sanskrit), GithArtha sangrahA , Charama sloka surukku , paramapadha sObhAnA , Achyutha SatakA , Rahasya SikhAmaNi and finally the magnum opus , Sri Rahasya Traya Saaram.

In Achyutha Sathakam set in PrAkruthA language, Swami Desikan appeals movingly to the Lord of Thiruvaheendrapuram for help and succor and begs the Lord to accept him as "the bride" at the marriage function of BharanyAsam( Aathma NikshEpam , SaraNAgathi , Prapatthi ). In the Rahasya grantham , Rahasya SikhAmaNi , Swami Desikan deals with the greatness of the Prapatthi doctrine and reminds us that the PrapannA, who has performed Prapatthi under a SadAchAryA need not of his or her own accord peform anthimasmrithi at the last moments of their lives on this earth.

I would like to make reference to yet another work of Swami Desikan known as the (Sri) SampradhAya Parisuddhi in the context of my postings related to the 70th birthday souvenir of H.H , The Jeeyar of Ahobila Matam. In this work, Swami Desikan discusses the importance of AchAryAs in our sampradhAyam, the tattvAs and AchArya Paramparai from NammAzhwAr to Sri RamAnujA and his successors. A paasage quoted often from (Sri) SamprAdhAya Parisuddhi that emphasizes the unity of thought that runs thru the different AchArya ParamparAs that are based in Sri Bahgavadh RaamAnuja samprahdAyam is as follows:

" Sri BhashyakArarudaiya sishya sampradhAyangaLil onrilum artha-virodham illai ; VakhyayOjanAbhedhamE uLLadhu "

Swami acknowledges that there is no basic conflict of thought in substantive tattvAs among the different Sri Vaishnava achArya paramparAs and the differences are limited to interpretative aspects. This passage is often cited to celebrate the significance of the Guru ParamparA and their undrlying unitive relationships.

H.H, the Jeeyar of Ahobila Mutt deeply believes in the above statement of Swami Desikan and respects "the unity in diversity" theme that runs through the different sampradhAyAs of Sri VaishNavism and works closely with the other AchAryAs to spread the message of Bhagavadh RaamAnujA SiddhAntham. All the Jeeyars of other paramparAs were present at the 70 th anniversary of the H.H, the Jeeyar of Ahobila Mutt to celebrate his scholarship and Kaimkaryam and wish him pallANdu.

One of the most moving articles in the Sapthathi malar is the one describing his acceptance of SanyAsa Aasramam from the hands of his AachAryA, H.H, the 44th Jeeyar of Ahobila Mutt on October 21, 1991 at the age of 64. The 44th Jeeyar is the great MahAn, who built the south gopuram for Sri RanganAthA, which could not be completed even by kings for hundreds of Years.

I met H.H, the 45th Jeeyar at Bangalore soon after his initiation and he jokingly referred to his acceptance of the Aasramam at the time, when people are retiring from active life and that he was taking on the full administrative and spiritual leadership responsibilities for the 600 year old Matam. Since that time, he has provided extraordinary leadership and has traveled across India to bless His SishyAs many times that culminated recently in the opening of the new Ahobila Mutt building at Thirupathi, a function presided over by the President of India. The illustrious kaimkaryam of H.H, the 45th Jeeyar was applauded by the President of India as matchless.

It is not often that we have the opportunity to learn about the details of the Aasrama SveekaraNam function of a Yathi that includes Jeeva Srardham, prEksha manthra upadesam and the other rigorous rites of pasage into the order of Yathis. These infromation points would be of interest to many of you. I will cover this topic and other items covered in the Sapthathi malar such as Pancha SamskAra ceremonies performed by this AachArya Saarvabhouman, the tightly orchestrated daily activities of the AchAryA , which were described movingly earlier by Sri jagannAthan during his travels with his/this AchArya.

There are many invited scholarly articles by great Sri VaishNavAs in this malar. I will include excerpts from them as I make progress with my lekhana Kaimkaryam.

I will start with the salutation to the many MangaLa Moorthys that are enshrined in the silver mantapam of the Ahobila Matam, where Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan (MaalOlan) presides. He is surrounded by many ancient divya mangaLa aarAdhana moorthys of our poorvAchAryAs.

I am hoping that many of the rare pictures of the Aasrama SveekaraNam and ArchA moorthys of the Divya Desams could be added to the archives of the Ahobila Matam home page and the CD Rom project archives on the 108 Divya Desams respectively. Sri ParthasArathy Dileepan should be back soon from his archival material collecting trip to India on the 106 Divya Desams for the CD ROM project and can relate to these valuable image archives.

ahObilE gArudasaila madhyE krupAvasAth kalpitha SannidhAnam I LakshmyA samAlingitha vAmabhagam Lakshminrusimham SaraNam prapathyE II

I will commence this series with a paasuram from Sri Adhi VaNN SatakOpa Yatheendhra Maha Desikan Adaikkala Patthu. This verse is part of a ten verses performing prapatthi to the First Jeeyar of Ahobila Matam, who was initiated into SanyAsa Aasramam at Ahobilam by Lord Narasimhan Himself. This verse is also one of the verses used in the Sri Sannadhi Saatthumurai Kramam:

aadhimaraiuruvAna adhippuLL verpathanil sodhiyenavulahelAm sukam peravE vandhutthittha adhigurunarasinghan aruLAlEyogiyAna adhivaNNseer SatakOpan adiiNaiyen mudimaNiyE

with the split of the compound words , the paasuram flows this way for easy comprehension:

aadhi marai uruvu aana adhi puLL verpu tanil sodhi yena ulahellAm sukam peravE vandhu udhittha aadhi Guru Narasinghan aruLAlE yogi aana aadhi vaNN seer SatakOpan adi iNai yen mudi maniyE

The paasuram refers to a wonderful event that happened at Ahobilam some 598 years ago.

The first line of the paasuram refers to two of the three mountains at Ahobilam. These three are known as GarudAchalam, vEdAchalam and achalacchAya Meru. The salutation in this paasuram is to vEdAchalam, or the ancient vEdAs that took the form of the mountain named vEdAchalam (aadhi marai-uruvu aana verpu) and did penance and received the boon of protection from Lord narasimhan. The first line also refers to GarudAchalam (PuLL = Veda purushan, Garudan), where Garudan performed tapas and got the boon of being the vaahanam for the Lord. Achalaachala Meru is the mountain between VedAchalam and GarudAchalam. Thus all the three mountains of Ahobilam are covered here as the sacred seat of BhagavAn Narasumhan.

The sacredness of these three mountains covered next by the second line and most of the third line of the paasuram:

sOdhi yena ulahellAm sukam peravE vandhu udhittha aadhi Guru Narasinghan

This hills are sacred because of the avathAram of the resplendent jyothi (JwAlA Narasimhan) in nine forms (Nava Narasimhans) for giving comfort to the people of the world as the ancient Guru. The poet states that Lord Narasimhan vandhu udhitthAn. He chose the site, arrived there and revealed His auspicious forms for saving PrahlAdhA and the people of the world as the primordial Guru.

The rest of the pasuram deals with another miraculous event that occured at Ahobilam some six hundred years ago in Lord NarasimhA's role as the aadhi Guru:

---aadhi Guru Narasinghan aruLAlE yOgi aana aadhi vaNN seer SatakOpan adi iNai yen mudi maNiyE

This portion of the paasuram celebrates the event, which relates to the acceptance of SanyAsa Aasramam by a young man in his early twenties by the name of Kidaambi SrinivAsan born in ThirunArAyaNapuram. He was commanded by BhagavAn Narasimhan to come to Ahobilam. SrinivAsan arrived at Ahobilam and was met by Lord Narasimhan, who appeared as a old sanyAsi and initiated SrinivAsan into sanyAsa Aasramam at the sannidhi of Achaarya RaamAnujA .The Lord appointed Kidaambi SrinivAsan as the first peetthipathi of the Mutt revered as Ahobila Mutt today. BhagavAn Narasimhan also gave the daasa naamam for Srinivasan as Sri SatakOpa Jeeyar. This incident is referred to in the paasuram as "aadhi Guru Narasinghan aruLAlE yOgi aana aadhivaNN seer SatakOPan".

This paasuram concludes with a salutation to the first jeeyar of Ahobila mutt: aadhivaNN seer SatakOpan adi iNai yen mudi maNiyE". The poet and devotee of aadhivaNN SatakOpan points out that the sacred pair of feet of his aachAryA rests on his head as sirOrathnam or mudi maNi or the jewel on the top of his head.

In the next posting , the sacrednes of AhObilam and the life of Aadhi vaNN SatakOpa Yatheendhra MahA Desikan as the first AchAryA of Ahobila Mutt will be covered.

peRRA thAyAi battharukku bedhamillA tanthaiumAi maRRumuLLa suRRamumumAm manniya ponni raasiyumAai yetthisaiyum yennudaya innuruvAm bhakkiyamAai uRRamuni SatakOpa ! unn kazhalgal ahalEnE

(Meaning): Oh , Aadhi vaNN SatakOpA ! You are the biological mother to Your devotees , the unquestionable father , the one who exists as the rest of the relatives and the golden auspiciousness that befall them . I have obtained as a great blessing your beautiful body (subha tanu, subhAsrayam) for my meditation. Oh , great AachArya ! Oh , my bhAgyam ! I shall never ever separate from your sacred feet. I will cover in this posting the sacred Divya Desam of AhObilam , the murthys there and the life of Adhi vaNN SatakOpa MahA Desikan , the first AchAryA to ascend the Ahobila Mata peetam and the Paasurams of Thirumangai AzhwAr, who performed mangaLAsAsanam of Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan of this most sacred kshEthram.

DIVYA DESAM OF AHOBILAM

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Sri Dileepan had posted earlier a detailed description of this sthalam and has followed it up with a special feature on the 108 Divya Desam CD ROM Project archives with lovely images. I will therefore add complimentary information on this sthalam and include the meanings of the paasurams of Thirumangai on Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan, the presiding deity of this ancient Divya Desam.

I will start this posting with a slokam from Sri Lakshmi NarasimhAshtakam composed by Sri Vaadhikesari Azhagiya MaNavALa Jeeyar before summarizing the meanings of the ten paasurams of Thirumangai AzhwAr on Ahobila KshEthram. The Jeeyar's slOkam begs the paripoorNa, parisuddha, lustorous moorthy, Narasimhan, to rescue him from the ocean of SamsAram, where he (the Jeeyar) is immersed and is sinking fast:

Srimadh akalanga paripoorNa sasikOti Sridhara ManOhara satApatalakaantha paalaya krupAlaya bhavAmbhudhi nimagnam daithyavarakAla Narasimha Narasimha

Thirumangai AzhwAr's paasurams on AhObilam

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Sri Sampath Rengarajan and Sri Dileepan have encoded the Tamil paasurams from NaalAyira divya prabhandham in Sri VaishNavA home page maintained by Sri MaNi VaradarAjan. Hence, I will confine my kaimkaryam to giving the meaning of the ten awe-inspiring paasurams of AzhwAr here. These pasurams are found in between the AzhwAr's Periya Thirumozhi (PTM) paasurams on NaimisAraNyam (PTM 1.6) and Thiruvenkatam (PTM 1.8). The almost intimidating beauty of this Kshethram and the difficulties in getting there are described by the AzhwAr in his paasurams. These paasurams are set by the AzhwAr as conversations with his mind (Maanasa Sambhodhanam).

Paasuram 1 (AnkaN yjAlam anja --)

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O My mind ! Let us offer our salutations to the Lord , who appeared as Narasinghan out of the pillar that the egotistic HiraNyan stuck with his fist. Our Lord had a form at that time , which was half-lion and half-man. That Nara-Simha roopam frightened all the denizens of this earth known for its beautiful places. The rising fury of Lord Narasimhan impelled Him to tear with His sharp nails, the body of HiraNyan , who offended the parama bhagavathA , PrahlAdhan , who was His dear devotee.

At this sacred kshEthram, the lions of the forest with eyes red from their anger pull apart the ivory tusks of the green-eyed elephants and hasten to Lord NarasimhA's sannidhi and present those tusks to Him out of their bhakthi and salute Him . Oh, my mind! let us offer our salutations to the Lord at this AhObila KshEthram.

The asurA king, HiraNyan , was bloated with pride about his valor. When his son , PrahlAdA , asserted that the Lord is everywhere (Hari yengum uLan), HiraNyan disputed that statement of his son and challenged his son to show that the Lord was inside the sthampam (pillar) that he hit with his fist . The word Hari (ari inTamil) means lion and uLan refers to Parama Purushan , who is pervasively present everywhere. The Lord did not want to make the words, " ari yengum uLan " false and he appeared out of the pillar to validate His devotee's statement. The ear shattering sound associated with His avathAram frightened all the jeevans and the devAs of the world. They feared for their own lives. The Lord's fury was focused however on the offending asurA king.

This paasuram states that the lions from the forests surrounding Ahobilam came to the temple to honor their kula naathan, who presided over their land . They came with upahArams of their own choice (viz)., the precious ivory tusks for use in the service to the Lord . Just as their Lord had the combination of ugram (ferocity displayed at HiraNyan) and Vaatsalyam (affection for His devotee , PrahlAdan) , the lions of the forest had the simultaneous display of anger at the elephants and affection for their Lord. The lions killed the elephants and pulled out their valuable tusks, cleaned them and brought them to the sannidhi of the Lord as kaaNikkai to demonstrate their reverence.

Thirumangai's mangaLAsAsanam celebrates this kshEthram as "SingaveL kunram". SingavEL has been intrepreted by Sri Utthamoor SwamigaL as "SingavEzh kunram". He interprets the meaning two ways. In one intrepretation, the Singha + Yezh (SingavEzh) means the seven peaks just as in thriupathi (Yezhu malai); in another intrepretation, "yEzh" refers to the ascending peak hititng the sky as Giri Raajan.

Paasuram 2 (Alaittha pEzh vaai---)

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The ferocious form of the HiraNya SamhAra Murthy is visualized by the AzhwAr in this paasuram. He salutes this kshEthram as the place of residence of the Lord. AzhwAr has the darsanam of the Lord with His mouth as big as a deep cave ( pEzh vaai ) and there he witnesses the gigantic tongue moving from side to side inside that mouth the AzhwAr sees the brillantly shining teeth of the Lord in that mouth. He has the anubhavam of the Lord chasing HiraNyan with His majestic gait and witensses the Lord piercing the chest cavity of the mighty HiraNyan with His sharp nails. The AzhwAr reminds himself that Ahobilam is indeed the HiraNya SamhAra Kshethram.

Here, the AzhwAr experiences other commotions during his visit. He describes that scene as well to his mind. He says : ' Oh, my mind ! Please offer your worship to the Lord of this divya desam, where the hunting tribes of Ahobilam with their bows, arrows and snare drums fight noisily with the groups of pilgrims climbing the hills to have the darsanam of their Lord". The AzhwAr suggests that the enduring affection and bhakthi of the pilgrims, who overcome their fear of the natives, who wish to protect their territory from " invading tribes " and save the Lord , the one who married one of their daughters , chenju Lakshmi , from any harm that may befall Him.The hunters try to scare the groups of pilgrims, but do not succeed. The courage of the pilgrims to brave the dangers on the road to Ahobilam overpowers their fears and they undertake their pilgrimages.

Paasuram 3: (yEndha pEzh vaai ---)

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Here, the AzhwAr describes the perils that the pilgrims encounter on their journey to this divya desam besides those caused by the members of the local hunting tribes. There are lions , tigers , wild elephants and other dangerous animals in the forests surrounding the narrow and rock-strewn path up the hill to the temple. The time is mid-day, when the Sun is shining fiercely and the heat is setting fire to the dry bamboo trees in the forest adjoining the pilgrim's path. Dark smoke and loud noise from exploding bamboo trees accompany the fire. The animals of the forest are lying low. The grass under feet is smoldering from the forest fire. The heat from the fire is shattering the stones on the road and the stones are cracking and flying apart.

Inspite of these dangers and obstacles, the pilgrims proceed with their determined journey up the hills to have the darsanam of the majestic Narasimha moorthy who has the giant jaws that match one another in their strength, a cave-like mouth and frightening cannine teeth jutting out of that mouth.

The devout pilgrims recognize this Narasimhan as the Lord of this KshEthram and as the one, who tore apart the mighty HiraNyan's body with His sharp nails alone. They salute this kshEthra nAthan as the Veda Purushan, who never lets down His dear devotees and punishes the wicked , who harm His bhakthAs.

Paasuram 4: ( yevvam vevvEl---)

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Here, Thirumangai through a series of frightening and evocative images reminds us that this KshEthram is not easy to travel to by AvaishNavAs ( avaishNavAnAm aprApyam ). Just as parama padham is hard to reach by those, who do not have the spiritual riches (avaishNavAs), AhObilam is not easy to reach by any one , who does not have the depth of devotion to the Lord. Those, who have that wealth of Bhakthi are guided and protected by the Lord of AhObilam to climb up and reach His sannidhi.

The kshEthram is described as generally accessible only to the DevAs and people with deep devotion to the Lord . Here, the Lord tore into pieces the body of HiraNyan sporting a sharp spear in his hand and waving it at the Lord rushing at him. The Lord got hold of him and kicked the spear off and placed him in His lap and cleaved the asurA's chest and destroyed him for his offense against His Bhakthan, PrahlAdhan.

The AzhwAr describes a scene on the way up the hill during his pilgrimage to remind us of the terrors of the journey to the inaccessible place of residence of the Lord. The time is midday. The heat is scorching. People are staggering in that heat and fall down on the road side. The waiting dogs and the vultures lunge at them . Only those with Bahgavadh katAksham proceed further. Rest of the avaishNavAs do not make progress in their efforts to complete their pilgrimage to this awesome kshEthram. Only those with a pure mind filled with devotion for the Lord complete their pilgrimage to this "unreachable" kshEthram and others have many obstacles that interfere with their plans.

Paasuram 5: (Menra pEzh vaai --)

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Here, AzhwAr dwells further on the unapproachability of the temple, where the Lord presides. He states that in this KshEthram, where the Narasimha Moorthy with mighty jaws and sharp, shining teeth destroyed the AvaishNavA, HiraNyA, the climbing flames of the wild fire reach skyward and the powerful wind spreads the heat and smoke all around and makes it extremely difficult to find one's path under one's feet to continue with the pilgrimage.

Even today, it is not easy to make a journey up the hills unless one is accompanied by a group of like-minded devotees. AzhwAr's determination to reach ' unreachable" places is well known. Once, he stayed for six months at the foot hills of Thiruneermalai for the surrounding floods to subside and then he ascended the hill to perform the mangaLAsAsanam for the Lord of Thiruneermalai.

Paasuram 6: yerintha paimkaNN ilangu --

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 In this paasuram, Thirumangai states that the DevAs were frightened out of their wits at the intimidating appearance of the Lord as Narasimhan during the time of His incarnation to destroy the offending HiraNyan.

During that time, the Lord had eyes that were red from the flames of fire (anger) radiating out of them. He had a gigantic face of a lion, sharp and huge teeth. The DevAs were unable to comprehend this adhbhutha and spine -chilling roopam of the Lord and ran away out of fear.

Thirumangai says that today, in this residence of the HiraNya -samhAra moorthy, bands of tigers hide in the crevices among the dense thickets of bamboos growing on the hillsides and wait to attack the unsuspecting elephants that roam in the forest. The AzhwAr begs his mind to meditate upon that adhbhutha KshEthram of the Lord , where His valour and anger were displayed in equal measure.

Paasuram 7: (munaittha seeRRam viNN sudappOy ---)

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Until the above (sixth) pasuram, the overawed Thirumangai dealt with the HiraNya SamhAram and the Lord's terrifying appearance at that time. Now, the AzhwAr shifts his attention to the anugraha roopam of the Lord responding to His dear devotee as PrahlAda Varadan. During the time of His avathAram to destroy HiraNyan , the flames of His anger rose up and up and reached Satya Lokam , where BrahmA has his abode. The residents of Satya Lokam and BrahmA were overtaken by fear at the spreading flames of anger of the Lord. After the samhAram of HiraNyan , PrahlAdA approached the Lord at he behest of MahA Lakshmi and the Lord's anger was replaced by the great affection for His devotee. He became thus a santha Moorthy; MahA Lakshmi , BrahmA and other DevAs were able thereafter to approach the Lord.

Thirumangai points out that in the thiruppathi of the peaceful Lord , the only sounds of the day competeing with each other loudly and shutting out any other sounds are the noise arising from the cracking of the bamboos exposed to wild fire, the shattering sound of the overheated stones as a result of the same fire and the shoutings of the excited hunters with bows chasing the animals that try to escape from the spreading ground fire. The AzhwAr requests his mind to concentrate on the glories of the Ahobila KshEthram, the abode of Saantha Narasimhan.

Paasuram 8: (Naatthazhumbha Naanmuhanum --)

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Here, Thirumangai AzhwAr describes the changes in the Ahobila KshEthram after the HiraNya SamhAram. He now finds the chathurmukha BrahmA and MahEswaran eulogizing Lord Narasimhan one after another for extended periods. Their tongues have become thick from that unceasing exercise of sthothram of the Saantha NarasimhAn's soundharyam and anantha kalyANa guNams.

The Lord's rage over the misdeeds of HiraNyA had subsided. There were no flames of kOpam originating from BhagavAn Narasimhan. The only flames to be seen at the Ahobila kshEthram now were the forest fires caused by the friction of dry bamboo bushes strikinging each other in the hot wind. That fire cause the dry seeds of the near by Vaahai trees to explode loudly and serve as fuel to feed the ongoing fire. Thirumangai AzhwAr asks his mind to meditate upon this kshEthram presided over by Saantha Narasimhan.

Paasuram 9: Nallai NenjE ---)

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This is a gem of a paasuram that is used daily during the Sannidhi Saatthumurai at Ahobila Matam. This paasuram and the subsequent palasruthi paasuram of Thirumangai AzhwAra are the firs two paasurams recited during the occasion of saathumurai in front of Maalolan seated in the silver mantapam. I will attempt to give the word by word meaning of these two important paasurams.

The ninth paasuram is a profoundly moving one:

Nallai nenjE naam thozhudhum nammudai namperumAn allimAthar pulha ninra aayiram thoLanidam nelli malhikkalludaippa pullilai aartha atharvaai silli sil yenru ol aRaatha SingavEL kunramE

PadhArthams:

nenjE! - Oh, my mind nallai - you are indeed filled with auspicious qualities as a result of your meditation on our Lord of Ahobilam in response to my appeal . Nammudai NamperumAn - the one, who has specially blessed us with His darsanam is our Sarva SwAmi.

alli maathar pulha ninra aayiram thoLan - He is the thousand-shouldered asritha vathsalan , who is embraced by the lady (mahA Lakshmi), who appeared in the lotus flower at the milky ocean during the time of churning for Amrutham.

(aayiram ThOLAn) idam -- The preferred place of residence of this aasritha Vathsalan as Lakshmi Narasimhan ( MaalOlan ) is the KshEthram of AhObilam.

In that kshEthram, Nelli trees grow to uncommon heights and during that growth, their long roots penetrate the stony ground (nelli malhi kal udaippa) and generate a loud noise.

In that kshEthram, the sound of the rustling of long leaves of coconut palm trees , date palm trees (eeccham tree) and the palmyrah trees by the wind are heard (Pul ilai aarndhu).

In that KshEthram, the mountain sides resonate with the sharp, awry and loud sound of the crickets rubbing their legs in unison in anticipation of their mating season (athar vaai sil yenru ol aRAtha SingavEL kunram).

Three kinds of sounds are heard by the AzhwAr at AhObilam (Viz)., Kalludaippu oli , pullilai oli and silliyin silloli. The combination of those three sounds makes the KshEthram awesome to experience. Thirumangai's celebration of the untamed, natural beauty of AhObilam is most beautiful.

In the previous paasuram, Thirumangai referred to BrahmA and ParamEsvaran eulogizing Lord Narasimhan at the time, when he was not united with His Devi.

In this paasuram, AzhwAr celebrates the Lakshmi samEtha Narasimha roopam ( MaalOlan ). He is embraced by MahA Lakshmi and the bhakthAs can approach Him now with ease as Sriya: Pathi. The most merciful Mother of us is next to Him to intercede for us. Thirumangai is in a very happy mood over that darsanam of the Divya Dampathis in the united form and points that auspicious state to us and asks us to approach the Lord of AhObilam with reverence and ease.

Paasuram 10: (senkaNALi ittu irainjum---)

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senkaNALi Ittu irainjum singavEL kunruduya yengaL Isan empirAnai irumtamizh nooRpulavan MangayALan mannu tol seer vandaRaithArkkaliyan semkayALan semcholmAlai vallavar theethilarE

Here, Thirumangai AzhwAr reveals that those, who learn, recite and understand the meaning of the ten paasurams offered by him to the Lord of AhObila KshEthram would never come across any inauspiciousness in their lives.

Those blessings come the way of the above bhAgyasAlis because of the bhakthi and kaimkarya sampath of the AzhwAr, who is rightfully revered as Kaliyan or the one , who did away with the cruelty of Kali purushan. The AzhwAr is also " sem kai aaLan " or the one , who has unlimited kaimkarya Sree as a result of his Bhagavadh kaimkaryam since the time of his initiation by the Lord Himself.

semkaNN aaLi ittu irainjum yengaL Isan -- The Lord, our sarva Swami presiding over AhObilam is sarvOpakAri and the red eyed lions prsent Him with ivory tusks of the elephants at this KshEthram.

empirAnai iru Tamizh nool Mangai aaLan, mannu tol seer vandu aRai taar Kaliyan -- the ruler of Thirumangai , Kaliyan wearing the garland of flowers inhabited by the honey drinking bees and known for his kaimkarya Sree sang sacred poems on the Lord of AhObilam, which are known for their poetic excellence and depth of devotion.

(Kaliyan) sem sol maalai vallavar theethu ilar -- Those bhakthAs, who reflect on the profound paasurams known for their depth of meaning and intensity of devotion would be saved from any type of taapams during their existence on earth. No inauspiciousness will come their way due to the power of these verses eulogizing Lord Narasimhan of AhObilam.

Sri RanganAtha SatakOpa Yatheendhra dhrushtam Lakshmi Nrusimha satajith karuNaika paathram I Sriranga Veera RaghurAtt SatakOpa hrudhyam VedAntha Desiak Yatheendhramaham PrapathyE II

Thirumangai AzhwAr ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam. Oppiliappn Kovil VaradAchAri sadagopan

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 44thJeeyar 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

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Although the Lord has chosen to appear in many avathArams, NrusimhAvatharam is considered an exquisitely 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'd 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

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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 He (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 this sort, 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 salvation) 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.

On this Aani Svathi day, the day of the constellation associated with Sri Lakshmi Nrusimhan, It gives me great pleasure to cover the remaining 5 paasurams of Kaliyan saluting NrusimhAvathAram. In my last posting, It was my privelege to focus on the six paasurams, three by PeriyAzhwAr, two by NammAzhwAr and one by Thirumazhisai. In yet another posting in this series, I summarized the exhilarating experience of Thirumangai's KshEthrAdanam to Ahobilam through his ten paasurams.

The five Thirumangai paasurams on Sri Lakshmi Nrusimhan covered in the current posting are affiliated with the following five divya desams:

1. Thiru SaaLagramam --Periya Thirumozhi 1.5.7

2. ThiruvEnkatam -- Periya Thirumozhi 1.10.5

3. Thiru Vaikuntha ViNNagaram-- Periya Thirumozhi 3.9.2

4. Thiru ArimEya ViNNagaram -- Periya Thirumozhi 3.10.4

5. Thiru ThEvanAr Thohai --Periya THirumozhi 4.1.7

This posting will cover the SaaLagrAma KshEthra paasuram .

THIRU SAALAGRAMA PAASURAM

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This KshEthram is in Nepal. It is located 60 miles west of Khatmandu on the banks of Gandaki river. Like upper AhObilam this divya Desam is not easy to reach. One has to travel by narrow foot paths in a sparsely populated area. Much of the year, the ice covered roads make the journey difficult.

The daring Thirumangai AzhwAr reached this "inaccesible" Divya Desam with AshtAksharam on his lips and performed MangaLAsAsanam to Sri Moorthy and His consort Sri Devi of this svayam vyaktha KshEthram. Among the 12 paasurams associated with this divya Desam, ten are by Thirumnagai and the remaining two are by PeriyAzhwAr. one of the ten SaaLigrama KshEthra paasurams of Kaliyan pays tribute to NrusimhAvathAram.

A majority of Kaliyan's SaaLagrAma paasurams pay tribute to RaamAvathAram. It has been suggested that Thirumangai was focusing quite a bit on RaamavathAram here, since the Name of this Divya Desam (SaaLagRAAMAM) includes in it the Raama nAmam. Coming back to the Paasuram dealing with the NrusimhAvathAram (PTM 1.5.7), AzhwAr visualizes Lord Nrusimhan as Visva rUpee and salutes Him as it were by the first naamam of Sri VishNu Sahasra Naamam, Om VisvAya Nama : This paasuram is as follows:

yEnOr anja venchamatthuL ariyAi pariya viraNiyanai oonErahahalam pilavu yeduttha oruvan thAnE iru sudarAi vaanAi theeyAi maaruthamAi malayAi alai neer ulahanaitthum thAnAi thAnumAnAn tan SaaLagramamamadai nenjE

This paasuram might have inspired Swami Desikan to state in his Sri Sookthi, "ThrilOkyam yEthath akhilam Narsimha Garbham". PrahlAdA pointed out to his father, "YengumuLan Hari". He was attesting to the SarvAntharyAmithvam of the Lord . In the second part of his SaaLagrAma paasuram , Thirumangai salutes that all pervasive, VishNu svarUpam of Nrusimha mUrthy eulogized by PrahlAdan.

Thirumangai visualizes the Lord's ugra svarUpam, when he jumped out of the pillar in HiraNyan's sabhai. AzhwAr says that every one was afraid of that fierce form of Vaikunta Kanteeravan (Naarasimha Vapu: SreemAn). "YenayOr anja ari aayi" can be intrepreted to mean also that every one except the garbha bhagavathan, PrahlAdan, was afraid of Nrusimha svarUpam. That illustrious Lord of unmatchable valour (oruvan thAnE) destroyed the arrogant HiraNyan in a fierce battle by tearing the asuran's fat chest into two (vemsamatthu pariya IraNiyanai oon aar ahalam piLavu yeduttha oruvan thAn).

In the second half of this paasuram, Thirumangai reveals to us the truths housed in Brahama SutrAs and Upanishad passages about the sarvAntharyAmithvam of the Lord . For instance, Brahma Sutram 1.3.1 clearly states "DhyubhvAdhyayatanam svasabdhAth" (The abode of heaven and earth (mentioned in MundakOpanishadh II.2.5) is verily Brahman, because the unique term used about Brahman occurs therein. The above referred Upanishadic passage says: "He in whom the heaven, the earth and the sky are woven, the mind also, with all the vital airs; know Him alone as the Self, and leave off other words, He is the bank (sEthu) of the immortal".

Thirumangai instructs us that the Akshara Brahman (Imperishable Brahman) referred to in BrihadAraNyaka Upanishad and Brahma sutrA 1.3.10 is the support for the two flames (moon and Sun), sky (aakAsam), fire (agni), wind (vaayu), oceans , the universes and their beings through His aathma svarupam . Brahma sutram (1.3.10) states, " AksharamambharAnthadhruthE: " (The imperishable, referred to in Br. Upanishad III.8.11 is the supreme Brahman, because we find it declared in this passage supports even that which is the end of ether). The profound statement of Yaj~navalkyAin Br. Upanishad in his discussions with Gargi is what the AzhwAr might have in mind, when he recognized the sarvAntharyAmithvam , Visva rUpam of Nrusimhan as:

" -----oruvan thAnE iru sudarAi , vAnAi theeyAi mAruthamAi malayAi alai neer ulahu anaitthum thAnAi thAnumAnAn tan SaaLagrAmamadai nenjE "

Here, AzhwAr salutes the Divya MangaLa vigraha visishtan, Nrusimhan, who through His aathama svarUpam became the two lights (Sun and the Moon) , Sky (vaan) , fire (Thee) , wind (Maarutham) , mountain (malai), ocean with billowing waves (alai neer aayi), entire universe and all its beings (ulahu anaitthum aayi).

The corresponding message found in Br. Upanishad is: " That which is above the heaven and below the Earth, which is also between the heaven and Earth, which is in the past, present and future, that is woven as warp and woof in the AkAsA".

I will cover the other paasurams of Thirumangai on Nrusimhan associated with the Divya Desams of ThiruvEnkaTam, Vaikuntha ViNNagaram, ArimEya - ViNNagaram and DEvanAr thohai in the subsequent postings.

Thirumnagai AzhwAr's first 100 verses (Mudal patthu) are extraordinary in scope and content. They set the stage as it were for the rest of his AruLichcheyals to flow like a river of nectar.

In the first thirumozhi of this patthu (VaadinEn), the incomparable benefits that accrued to him from the AshtAkshara UpadEsam from the Lord Himself are saluted and the glory of NaarAyaNa naamam is celebrated.

In the second Thirumozhi (VaalimAvalatthu), AzhwAr begged his mind to reach the divya desam of Thirupirithi (NandaprayAg) and worship the archA mUrthy there revered as Parama Purushan.

AzhwAr visualized the Lord of this Thiruprithi as KsheerAbdhi nAthan(at ThiruppARkadal), the adhAra sakthi of all avathArams (AvathAra mUla sthAnam). Here, the Lord is indeed reclining in the bhujanga sayanam pose as in the divya dEsam, ThiruppARkadal, which can not be visualized by our mortal eyes. At Thirupirithi, AzhwAr seems to suggest that we can enjoy Parama padha nAthan to our heart's content in the ArchA form with out j~nAna chakshus at this divya dEsam.

In the third Thirumozhi (MuRRa mUtthukkOl), he pointed out that all of us should travel to BadrikAsramam, the place of residence of the DevathA of AshtAkshara manthram, much before old age cripples us and limits our movement.

In the fourth Thirumozhi (YenamunAhi), he uses the description of BadrikAsrama divya dEsam dear to him to instruct us that AshtAksharam can bless us with every thing that we desire. There is nothing that it can not do for us.

In the fifth Thirumozhi (Kalaiyum Kariyum), he reaches SaaLagRAAMA kshethram, the place of residence of all mUrthys, and explained to us that the darsanam of Sri mUrthy there would yield us the equivalence of the blessings arising from the reciting of the thousand names of the Lord. One of the Paasurams salutes Sri Nrusimha BhagavAn (1.5.7) and that paasuram was covered in the previous posting.

In the sixth Thirumozhi (VaaNilA muRuval), He recognized NaimisAraNyam, where the Lord is present in the form of the forest where all the noble sages performed the great sOMa Yajnams. He assessed that all of his sins would disappear there, because of the sanctity of this Divya Desam.

In the seventh Thirumozhi (AngaNmA j~aalam anja), he moved southward from the mountainous north to AhObilam and through ten exquisite paasurams coverd in an earlier posting saluted the Lord of AhObilam hills.

Here, he was awe struck by the fierce beauty and the inaccessibility of the HiraNya SamhAra KshEthram and revealed that Azhagiya Singan, the bhaktha sulabhan presides over this divya dEsam.

In the eighth Thirumozhi (Kongialarndha malar), he begged his mind to reach the blessed divya dEsam of ThiruvEnkatam and explained to us that ThiruvEnkatamudayAn is the unfailing object of refuge for those, who sought His lotus feet as their sole protection.

In the ninth Thirumozhi (ThAyE TanthayE yenru) and the tenth Thirumozhi (kaNNAr kadal soozh Ilangai), Kaliyan continued with his salutation to the Lord of saptha giris. Here, he enjoys the anishta nivrutthi (banishnent of inauspiciousness) as a result of the built-in power of the "Nama: sabdham" of "NaarAyaNAya Nama:" portion of the AshtAkshara mahA manthram.

It is in the tenth Thirumozhi, we find the AzhwAr's salutation to Lord Nrusimhan (1.10.5) following his earlier namaskaraNams to this avathAram at the divya desams of SaaLagrAmam and AhObilam. We will cover this particular ThiruvEnkatam Paasuram celebrating ThiruvEnkatamudAyAn as BhagavAn Narasimhan in this posting.

Paasuram 1.10.5 of Periya Thirumozhi

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thooNAyathanoodu ariyAi vanthu thOnRi pENA avuNan udalam piLanthittAi sENAr ThiruvEnkata maamalai mEya kONAkaNayAi ! kurikkoL yennai neeyE

(Padha Arthams):

thooN aayi: by becoming the pillar first (as sarvaAnthAryAmi )

athan oodu: and then incarnating in the middle of that pillar (stambham)

ari aayi: as half-lion and half-man ( Nrusimha roopiyAi )

vanthu- having entered (that pillar ) in a trice and stayed there

thOnRi -- (and then ) jumping out of it as NrusimhAvathAran

pENA avuNan udalam pilanthittAi : to tear into two the body of the asuran, HiraNyan -- who did not recognize your parathvam -- with your nails alone.

In the second half of this paasuram, Thirumangai AzhwAr makes a personal appeal to the Lord of Saptha Giri , who has taken up his residence at ThiruvEnkatam from his erstwhile provenance of ThirupaaRkadal, to remember him and to bless him as He blessed PrahlAda before as Saantha Narasimhan.

sEN aar : at the tall peaks of ThiruvEnkatam hills visible over a considerable distance

mEya: (You as ) the one has nitya vaasam there

kOLL --( with Your ) majestic form

naakam aNayAi : (after leaving your adiseshA bed in the milky Ocean), Oh , sEsha sAyee !

nee yennai kuRikkoLL : Please remember to bless me out of Your own sankalpam (now that You have moved over to the lofty hills of ThiruvEnkatam from your restful and soft bed of Adhi sEshA at the milky ocean) just as You blessed the long-suffering PrahlAdhhA during your avathAram as Nrusimhan.

Here, AzhwAr reflects on the Lord leaving His moolasthAnam at KsheerAbdhi (milky ocean) and rushing to enter the Jaya sthampam in the court of the disrespectful asuran (HiraNyan) to validate the statement of His bhakthan (PrahlAdhan) that "Hari is everywhere; He is in this pillar and also in that blade of grass". You tore apart the offending asuran with the sheer power of Your sharp nails.

Now that You have descended from Your comfortable bed at the milky ocean and taken up permanent residence on top of ThiruvEnkatam hills to perform Your duties as the DayA sindhu to tend to the well being of the "SaraNAgatha sasya maalinee" (the rows and rows of the crop of saraNAgathAs) , You must remember me and bless me !

The Lord hailed later by Swami Desikan in his dayA sathakam as " Pala vitharaNa dhaksham , pakshapaathAnabhij~nam , praguNam anuvidhEyam " (efficient in giving the boons besought , totally impartial , one known for His renowned kalyANa guNAs and easy to approach/bhaktha sulabhan) responded immediately to Thirumangai's soulful plea for special attention. He entered the AzhwAr's mind and shone there. He thus responded with alacrity to Thirumangai's sincere pleading.

In the next paasuram (Periya Thirumozhi 1.10.6), the joyous and grateful Thirumangai thankfully acknowledged the pervasive presence of ThiruvEnkatamudayAn in his mind with the statement,

" min aar muhil sEr ThiruvEnkatam mEya yen aanai yennappan yen nenjil uLAnE "

(meaning): The Lord of ThiruvEnkatam with the lustre of the dark blue rainy cloud incorporating the golden hue of lightning in its midst is my Lord. He is my nithya bhOgyan, the insatiable nectar of every moment. He is now taken up His residenence in my nenju (the cave of my heart). The usage of the words "Min aar muhil sEr ' to describe the aprAkrutha hue of the Lord is highly evocative. The Lord has the dark bluish hue of the water-laden clouds of the rainy season. Sri Devi (AlarmEl mangai) residing forever on His chest has the bright golden color of a flashing lightning. The combination of their hues is that of "Nava megha garbhA SowdhAmini" {new dark blue cloud of the rainy season incorporating the gold colored (HiraNya VarNAm) lightning in its midst}.

Thirmangai celebrated the NrusimhAvathAram at ThiruvEnkatam in this exquisite manner and received the instantaneous blessing of the Lord of the seven hills.

I will cover the three reamining Nrusimha Paasurams of Thirumangai dedicated to the ThirunAngoor Divya desams in a subsequent posting.

I will continue with the remaining three paasurams of Kaliyan on BhagavAn Nrusimhan in the context of his MangalAsAsanams of the three ThirunanAngoor Thiruppathis. Prior to that I will include a brief summary of the eleven ThirunAngoor Thirupathis. Just as Sri Anbil SwamigaL has provided a valuable introduction to the nine DwarakAs, I hope this information would be useful to a future sEvArthis to these divya dEsams celebrated by Kaliyan through 112 exquisitely beautiful and bhakthi-laden paasurams.

The two divya dEsams of ThiruvAli -Thirunahari and Thiru KaazhiccheerAma ViNNagaram are very close to these eleven divya desams. There are 43 paasurams on ThiruvAli -Thirunahari (42 by Thirumangai alone) and ten for KaazhiccheerAma Vinnagaram. Thirumangai's birth place Thirukkurayaloor is near by and it is understandable that he performed MangalAsAsanam on these 13 divya desams with many (165) paasurams.

Each Thai AmAvAsyai day, the archa mUrthys of the 11 Thirunangoor Divya Desams come together and offer sevai to Thirumangai and through him to us for his magnificient vaachika kaimkaryam. There are separate mantapams side by side for each of the eleven EmperumAns and they spend a day with Thirumangai there. Thirumangai AzhwAr is seated on Hamsa Vaahanam during this occasion befitting his role as ParakAla Naayaki.

These 11 temples and their details are:

1. Thiru maNimAdakkovil is five miles east of SeerhAzhi railway station, which is the arrival point to visit these temples by train. KaazhiccheerAma Vinnagaram is half a mile from this railway station, where ThAdALan presides with Mattavizhum Kuzhali NaacchiyAr.

As an aside ,ThirukkAzhiccheerAma ViNNagaram is famous for number of things. First, the presiding deity (ThaadaLan) is Thrivikraman giving us the sEvai with panchAyuthams. Second, there is a beautiful ArchA mUrthy of Sri Raamachandran with maravuri (dress made of barks) worn during his vana vAsam with Janaki MaathA and Sowmithri. Third, this is where Thirumangai defeated Thiruj~nana sambhandhar in a poetic contest with his superior skills as a poet and received as a prize the "VeRRi vEl" and the title "Naalu kavi paNdithar". Fifth, OushadhAdri here is famous because of Swami Desikan's deep affection for the presiding deity , Selva Daiva Naayakan, just as Selva PiLLai of Melkote was dear to Sri RaamAnujA .

Coming back to Thiru maNimAdakkOvil, NandAviLakku PerumAL and His consort, Pundareekavalli ThAyAr rest under PraNava VimAnam. The Lord is also known as NaranArAyaNan. Thirumangai starts his first Paasuram majestically by addresing the Lord as, " NandhA viLakkE aLatthaRkariyAi NaranaaraNanE ---". Thirumangai celebrates the Lord as the eternal lamp with undimishing Jyothi and as the one whose kalyANa guNAs can not be assessed fully. He visualizes the Lord as the NaarAyaNan , who performed upadesam to him, the Naran and addresses the Lord as NaranArAyaNan.

AzhwAr celebrated the Lord as gajendra Varadan who responded with alacrity to to the call for help by the king of elephants, when the crocodile grabbed its legs in the lotus pond. AzhwAr salutes the Lord as UpEndran , PoothanA samhAran , VathsAsura anthakan , KaaLiya nardhanan , the teaser of young Gopis and as the winner of Nappinnai's hand in a svayamvaram through the destrcution of the seven oxen.

2 .Thiruvaikuntha ViNNagaram: The Lord's name here are VaikuntanAthan, ThaamaraikkaNNan and Nediya PirAn. Thaayar is saluted as Vaikunthavalli ThAyaar. They sit under the Anantha Satya Varthaka vimAnam.

In this sthalam, Thirumangai celebrated the Lord as NrusimhAvathAran. In the first paasuram , the AzhwAr briefly salutes the Lord as Narahari (salam konda IraNiananathu ahalam maarvam keendu). He refers to the Lord as the Nrusimhan, who tore the chest of the egotist, HiraNyan, who though that he was a svathanthra purushan, who controlled his own destiny.

After devoting one line to Nrusimhan in his eight-lined paasuram, Thirumangai is overcome with the feeling to enjoy NrusimhAvathAram more. Hence, he devotes the entire second paasuram to the mangaLAsAsanam of BhagavAn Nrusimhan. AzhwAr recognizes this divya dEsam as the preferred vAsasthalam of Lord Narasimhan. AzhwAr explains why this divya dEsam is especially dear to the Lord . He states that this KshEthram has sarva samritthi (prosperous by all counts), (Viz)., worldly wealth, presence of the Lord , Veda Samritthi , naadha samritthi , vichAra saasthra samritthi through the inhabitation of the scholars who are living embodiments of the Vedaas , their upAngAs and Tarka , VYAkaraNa , Neethi saasthrAs.

AzhwAr devotes th first three lines of the second paasuram to the description of NrusimhAvathAram and the destruction of Bhagavatha ApachAri, HiraNyan:

tiNNiyathOr ariuruvAi tisai anaitthum nadunga dEvarOdu tAnavarhaL tisaippa IraNiyanai naNNI avan maarvu ahalatthu uhir maduttha Naathan nAdOrum mahizhthinithu maruviurai koyil ------

All the ten directions reverberated with the ear-piercing sound of the Lord , when He jumped out of the sthambam, when HiraNyan mockingly hit it in response to his son's statement that the Lord is everywhere. The attahAsam and the garjanam of the Lord echoed in every direction and the dEvAs as well as the asurAs were filled with a sense of terror. They did not know the cause of that thunderous sound shattering the sky and earth. The adhbhutha Kesari ran towards HiraNyan and grabbed him. Then the Vaikunta Kanteeravan placed the wriggling HiraNyan on His lap and with His sharp nails tore apart the chest for the asuran"s offenses against His bhakthan. AzhwAr concludes that this KshEthram, Thiru Vaikuntha ViNNagaram, is the preferred residence of the Vaikunta Kanteeravan.

In the Bhagavatha mELa nAtakam, PrahlAda charitham, Melattur Venkatarama saasthri, a predecessor of saint Thyagaraja describes the awesome experience of the world during NrusimhAvathAram in a telling manner:

katuvadi keta keta keta mani putami atharagA jatini saptha saagaramulu saala kalakaka atukatukuku alatanusuntataripetharakaa asurulata vikithamai Narahari aavaginchunu

The aakAsam reverberated with the mighty sounds and shook; the seven oceans had tsunAmi waves and the waters were agitated profoundly. the earth shook . The asuraas were terror stricken at the moment, when the Lord jumped out of the Jaya Sthambham of HiraNyan's darbhaar hall. The sound and fury associated with the avathAram has been captured by MelattUr Bhagavathar in a manner described by Thirumangai.

3. Thiru ArimEya ViNNagaram: Here the uthsavar is chathurbhuja GopAlan; the mUlavar is KudamAdu kUtthan. ThAyAr"s name is Amrithagatavalli. Vimanam is Ucchasringam.

Here, Thirumangai had the darsanam of the Lord with His two dEvis on either side pleading for the erring chethanAs:

thirumadanthai maNN madanthai irupaalum thihazha ttheevinaigaL pOyahala adiyavahatkkenrum aruL nadanthu ivvEzhulahatthavar paNiya vaanOr amarnthEttha irundha idam -----------Nangoor ArimEya ViNNagaram vaNangu mada nenjE

The Lord responds readily to the pleas of His two dEvis and forgives the aparAthams of the chEthanAs at this Divya Desam. Swami Desikan has celebrated the special pleading by Sri Devi and Bhu Devi in the following two slokams of DayA sathakam to ilustrate the intercession of the two dEvis on our behalf:

samastha jananeem vandhE chaithanya sthanya dhAyineem I SrEyaseem SRINIVAASASYA KaruNAmiva RoopiNeem II

vandhE Vrushagireesasya mahisheem VISVADHAARINEEM i tathkrupA prathigAthAnAm KSHAMAYAA vAraNam yayA II

4. Thiru dEvanAr thohai: This is the fourth of the ThirunAngUr divya dEsams. It is located at a distance of four miles from SeerkAzhi in the south eastern direction. Under the Sobhana VimAnam, DaivanAyaka PerumAL and Kadal MaamahaL nAcchiyAr offer darsanam in ninra thirukkOlam. The dEvAs assembled in big numbers here to confer on the ways to fight the asurAs, who tormented them. Hence the KshEthram got its name. The ThAyAr's name suggests that She is the daughter of the King of Oceans (Kadal MaamahaL) and incarnated during the time of churning of the milky ocean for nectar. Hence, AzhwAr appropriately addresses the Lord here as Maadhavan or the consort of MahA Lakshmi , whose auspicious glances support and sustain the world as indicated by AaLavandAr's salutation " " jagath samastham yadapAnga samsrayam " . She resides at the chest of the Lord and thus gives Him the names Maadhavan, MaalOlan (Lakshmi Nrusimhan) and, Lakshmi NArAyaNan .

In this kshEthram known for the PirAttis , who are the root causes of their Lord's glory , Thirumangai begs his mind to salute the Lord, whose anger was quenched by MahA Lakshmi through her suggestion for PrahlAdA to approach Her angry Lord :

OdAtha aaL ariyin uruvam athu kondu anru ulappil mihu peruvaratthu IraNiyanai paRRi vAdAtha vaLL uhirAl piLanthu avan mahanukku aruL cheythAn vAzhumidam------------------ arimEya ViNNagaram vaNangum Mada NenjE

Padha Arthams:

anru: on that day , when the Lord had to keep PrahlAdA"s statement as true

athu --the most wonderful form

odAtha aaLL ariyin uruvam kondu - (you took the most wonderful form) of indefatigable Nrusimhan

ulappu il mihu peru varatthu IraNiyanai paRRI-- (and) grabbed the dushta asuran , HiraNyan , who was famous as the possessor of countless boons from semi-Gods

vAdAtha vaLL uhirAl piLanthu -- (and) tore him apart with the power of your sharp and strong nails that know no fatigue .

avan tan mahanukku aruL seythAn vAzhumidam -- This is indeed the place of residence of the one (Nrusimhan), who blessed the child of that asuran, HiraNyan .

5. ThiruvaNN PurudOtthamam

Under Sanjeevigraha VimAnam, PurushOtthaman stands at this kshEthram with His consort revered as PurushOtthama Naayaki.

The Lord is celebrated in the 15th chapter of Bahgavadh Gita as PurushOtthaman and gives there the clues to recognize Him.

He says : sarvasya chAham hrudhi sannivushtO mattha: smruthirj~nAnamapOhanam cha I vedaisccha sarvairahmEva vEdhyO VedAntha kruth Veda vidhEva chAham II

(Meaning): I reside in the hearts of all chEthanAs. Memory , perception and loss of that faculty arise from Me. I am verily that which has to be comprehended by all vEdAs. I am indeed the author of vEdAnthA, and the knower of the vEdA am I.

He goes on to say: " AthOsmi lOkE vEdE cha prathitha: PurushOtthama:". Therefore, am I in the world and in the vEdAs celebrated as the PurushOtthamn (the highest and the noblest PurushA).

Earlier in that chapter of Srimadh Bhagavadh Gita , PurushOtthaman has said that the Yogis striving for perfection see Him dwelling in their heart cavities , but the unrefined ( akruthAthmana: ) and unintelligent (achEthasa:) , even though striving , see Me not .

Thirumangai, as a Parama Yogi, understood very well the PurushOtthama doctrine of the Lord of ThiruvaNN PurudOtthamam. One name of Thirumangai was " AruL Maari ". He wasindeed the recipient of ManthrOpadEsam from the Lord Himself. Therefore , the AzhwAr understood the PurushOtthama Vibhoothi of the Lord as revealed by the Aadhi Kavi ValmIki , when he dwelled upon the PurushOtthama LakshaNam of Sri RamachandrA : " Aanrusamsyam anukrOsa: srutham , seelam , dhama : yama: RaaghavAn sobhayanthE shat guNA :" Scholarship , culture, sadhAchAram , forbearance , self-control , SaraNyathvam are the six guNAs that characterize the PurushOtthamathvam of Raaghavan according to ValmIki. Thirumangai has celebrated Sri RaamA as PurushOtthaman in many of his paasurams including the ones at ThiruvaNN PurudOtthamam.

6. Thirucchemponchey Kovil

This divya desam is considered as the central gem of the 11 ThirunAngUr divya desams (Naayaka MaNi). The presiding deity (uthsavar) is PEraruLALan (Varadhan). The mUlavar is Sempon RanganAthan. ThAyAr is Allimaamalar NaacchiyAr. Thirumangai placed 10 paasurams at the lotus feet of these ArchA Moorthys.

Thirumangai salutes the Lord with His consorts , Sri Devi and Bhu dEvi. He recognizes Him as the water-laden, dark cloud of the rainy season, which cools us off from the scorching heat of the taapams of SamsArA. In the first paasuram , AzhwAr declares that all his anxieties are over now that he has had the sevai of PEraruLAlan with Sri Devi and Bhu Devi at Thirucchemponsey kovil.

AzwhAr suggests that the Lord acquired His name as pEraruLALan (the great boon giver), because of the presence of Sri Devi an Bhu DEvi on his sides. AzhwAr declares that he ahd the darsanam of the Lord with ubhaya NaacchimArs (kandu), held that vision in his heart (kondu) and had his salvation as a result (uynthu ozhindEnE).

In yet another paasuram , AzhwAr states that the Lord of Semponseykoil is like the compassionate mother responding with alacrity and concern to alleviate the sufferings of her child .Avyaja KaruNai of the Lord in His role as Daasarathi is referred to here by the AzhwAr.

7. ThiruttheRRiambalam

At this divya desam, PerumAL's naamam is SenkaNmAl and His naacchiyAr's name is Semgamalavalli. He gives us darsanam in bhujanga sayanam. Kaliyan salutes Him as aapath sahAyan in his ten paasurams. he gives prominence to NeeLA deVi in more than one paasuram. In one, he is awed by the valour of the Lord, who destroyed seven mighty oxen to win the hand of Nappinnai .

Azhwar remembers that the Lord took all that trouble to win Nappinnai as His bride. What did he do ? The father of Nappinnai had seven strong black oxen with dangerous, curved horns like scimitars, mighty temper, strong legs and fierce apppearances. Any one, who wanted to compete for the hands of Nappinnnai had to subdue those bulls in combat. All those, who contended to get Nappinnai's hand in marriage were gored by the bulls in their fights. Nithya Noothana YuvA (KrishNA) entered the bull ring , subdued and destroyed the bulls. He became the winner of this KanyA sulkam and married Nappinnai, who is none other than NeeLA Devi saluted by NeeLA sUktham as , " NeeLAm dEveem saraNamaham prapadhyE sutharasitarasE nama: GruNAhi--" and " MahA dEvyai cha vidhmahE VishNu pathnyai cha dheemahi".

May we obtain the blessings of SenkaNmAl KaNNan through the grace of Nappinnai piratti celebrated by AaNdAL in Thiruppavai as well.

8. Thiru MaNikkodam

PerumAL and ThAyAr's naamams are Sri MaNikkoda nAyakan and Thiru MAmahaL NaacchiyAr. Kaliyan points out that this divya dEsam in the middle of the fertile Cauvery delta is full of all auspiciousness (Sarva Sampaths):

poompunal Ponni muRRum puhundhu pon varaNda yenghum tEmpozhil kamazhu NaanGoor ThirumaNikkudatthAnE

"odhalar pozhil ThirumaNikkUda nAthAr" stands under the Kanaka vimAnam on the banks of divine Cauveri river and gives us His blessed darsanam with His Devi. AzhwAr recognizes Him as "Pinnai sevvitthOL puNarntha venthai" (the Lord , who is in union with Nappinnai pirAtti). He also salutes Him as Jaanaki RamaNan:

perumahaL pEthai mangai tannOdum pirivilAtha ThirumahaL maruvu Naangoor ThirumaNikkUdatthAnE

AzhwAr salutes the wife of Raghu vamsa tilakam and the dear daughter of the king Janaka, who is the embodiment of dharmam and J~nAnam here as the NirdhOsha KalyANa guNa svarUpi and the cause of the auspiciousnes of the Lord of this Thiruppathi. AzhwAr recognizes Him as "Moovaril mUrthy mudalvan" (the first among the trinity). He concludes his tribute to this KshEthram by pointing out the blessed people, who have the darsanam of the Divya dampathis here would be blessed with all auspiciousness in their lives on earth and will enter Sri Vaikuntam thereafter.

9. ThiruveLLakkuLam (aNNan kovil)

This divya dEsam is celebrated as DakshiNa Thiruppathi. This is the birth place of Kumuda valli NaacchiyAr , who married Thirumangai and was instrumental in transforming him into a Sri VaishNavan. Under the shade of TatvathOdaka vimAnam , KaNNan gives us His darsanam with His pirAtti , PoovAr ThirumahaL NaacchiyAr. Thirumangai's saraNAgathi here is a moving one. He addresses the Lord endearingly with the epithet, aNNA and prays: ThiruveLLakkuLatthuL aNNA ! adiyEN idari kaLayAyE , nediyAyai! adiyEn idar neekkE !". He continues to implore the Lord to remove all the obstacles standing in his way to get moksham. His moving prayers shows his aathuram and intense desire to obtain the divya dampathi's blessings:

" aanAi adiyEnukku aruL puriyAyE !

ThiruveLLakkuLatthAnE !yellavidarum kedumARu aruLAyE !

SeerAr pozhil ThiruveLLakkuLatthuL AarAvamudhE ! AdiyErkkaruLAyE !

MaalE ! yen valvinai theerttharuLAyE !

ThiruveLLakkuLatthuraivAnE ! aavA ! adiyEn ivan yenru aruLAyE ! " .

These paasurams have been intrepreted by our pUrvAchAryAs as the commentary on the the second section of the sacred Dhvaya nmanthram. Kaliyan is understood to have prayed to the divya dampathis for pUrNa kaimkarya anugraha siddhi through Dhvaya manthram (PadmAsahAya saraNAgathi manthram according to Swami Desikan). This sacred dhvaya manthram is considered as the dawn for the dark night of praLayam (KaaLa raathri) by Swami Desikan (PrathyUshathAm bhajathi samsruthi KaalarAthrE:).

May we understand and practise the meanings of these paasurams of Kaliyan that are close to the Dhvaya manthram and obtain the anugraham of the aNNan Koil divya dampathis!

10. ThirukkavaLampAdi

This thiruppathi is at a distance of seven miles from SeerkAzhi. Here, Sri GopAla KrishNan stands under Svayambhu vimAnam with His dEvis, Madavaral Nangai, Sengamalvalli nAcchiyAr , RukmiNi and SatyabhAmA awaiting His bhakthAs. This temple has AarAdhanam only once each day at 10 AM. It is very much different in this aspect from other temples with pancha kaala pUjas. Close to this divya dEsam is ThirukkurayalUr, the birth place of Thirumangai AzhwAr. Three furlongs off from ThirukkurayalUr in the opposite direction of ThirukkAvaLampAdi is Mangai matam, where AzhwAr conducted TadheeyAradhanams to Sri VaishNavAs to win the hand of Kumudavalli NaacchiyAr. At ThirukkurayalUr, there is a beautiful and majestic archA mUrthy of BhagavAn NarasimhAn. One can relate Thirumangai Azhwar's names, adayAr seeyam and arattu amukki, to that of Lord Lakshmi Nrusimhan. Seeyar means a Lion. AdayAr means mARRAr or those , who are bhagavadh dvEshis (enemies of the Lord). Like Sri Nrusimhan, Kaliyan with his sword and shield as well as the spear went after the enemies of the Lord like a Lion goes after its prey. Thus he shares the guNam of Nrusimhan. Arattu amukki means the one who crushes the ones , who have ill will towards the BahgavathAs. Here again , we can see the guNa saamyam with the Lord Nrusimhan.

Coming back to ThirukkAvaLampAdi thiruppathi , one of the Pancha KrishNa kshEthrams of ChoLa naadu , Thirumangai performed SaraNAgathi to KaNNan , Just as ArjunA did at KurukshEthram:

" yacchrEya: syanniscchitham brUhi tanmE sishyasthEham maam tvAm PRAPANNAM "

Arjuna in the state of Aakinchayam begged the Lord to do whatever that He considered appropriate and auspicious for him as a Sishyan and Prapannan. Tirumangai in a similar mood of utter helplessness appealed to the Lord nine times in his paasurams and recognized Him as his upAyam for the rakshaNam:

" KaavaLampAdi mEya KaNNanE kaLai kaN neeyE ! "

May we seek the blessings of Sri Gopala KrishNan and Mada varal mangai ( MahA Lakshmi ) in the manner in which Thirumangai showed us the way and perform SaraNAgathi and benefit!

11. ThiruppArthan PaLLi

This divya dEsam is at a distance of two and half miles from ThirunAngUr. The ArchA mUrthys are Sri tAmaraiyAL kELvan and Sri tAmarai nAyaki. They stand under nArAyaNa vimAnam. In addiiton to the ten paasurams of Thirumangai, there is a eleventh paasuram for tis KshEthram by Poygai AazhwAr in Mudal ThiruvandhAdhi.

tAmaraiyAL kELvan means that He is the Lord of MahA Lakshmi . We can also intrepret this name of His to mean that He is the one, who listens to the sipArisu of Sri Devi to forgive our trespasses and grats us Moksham . In this context ParAsara Bhattar has saluted MahA Lakshmi's greatness in his guNa rathna kOsam as exceeding that of Her Lord :

Sriya: sree: ! Sri RangEsaya ! tava cha hrudhyAm Bhagavatheem Sriyam tvathoapyucchai: vayamiha PaNAma: sruNatarAm I dhrusou tE bhooyAsthaam sukha taraLatArE sravaNatha : punarharshOthkarshAth spurath bhujayO : kanchukasatham II

(meaning): My Lord ! Sri ranganAthA ! You indeed are the one enhances the beauty of Your dEvi ( Thiruvukkum ThiruvAhiya selvan ). She is your prANa nAdi (Life force). She is equal to You in Her six guNAs such as J~nAnam , Balam , tEjas, Isvaryam et al. We assess that She excells You through Her guNam of PurushakAram.

Sri parAsara Bhattar was indeed the purOhithar of tAmaraiyAL kELvan (Sri RanganAthA). If any pone can understand the relative excellence among the divya dampathis, he is eminently qualiifed to do so! Hence, he bluntly stated about Her superiority in this way.

Ahirbudhnya Samhithai slOkam states that BhagavAn and Lakshmi are sarva sEshis When one approaches them through the upAyams of Bhakthi and /or Prapatthi, one obtains j~nAnam that is equivalent to paripUrNa brahmAnubhavam. This arises from the orientation, "oNN tAmaraiyAL kELvan nOkkum uNarv ". When approached in this manner, We recognize the presence of the Divya Dampathis as antharyAmi Brahmam without any separation and are a unitary principle as stated in the samhithai slOkam:

nArAyaNa param Brahma sakthirnArAyaNee cha saa I vyApakAvathi samslEshAth ekatattvamivOdhithou II

He is the Lord, who went after the nectar of femininity, while the dEvAs focussed on the nectar that would make them free from old age and death (ViNNavaramudhuNa vamudhil peNNamudhunda emperumAn). She is the nectar of nectars that arose out of the milky ocean. His love for Her will not permit Him to ignore her sipArisu ( PurushakAram ) for us, the erring jeevans. He demonstrates His dayA svarUpam in response to Her recommendation and intercession and blesses us with Moksham. Swami Desikan explains this extraordinary relationship between the divya dampathis this way in Sri Rahasya traya Saaram:

" InnamudatthamudAlirangu ThirunAraNanE manniya van SaraN maRROr paRRInRi varippavarkkE "

Thirumangai remembere d the special anugraham of ParthasArathy to ArjunA and entered into the role of parakAla nAyaki and reminded the Lord that "she" will follow the model of AalrmElmangai , who vowed not to leave Her husband's chest even for a fraction of a second (AhalahillEn).

The paasurams of Paarthan PaLLI are throught he mouth of the mother of ParakAla nAyaki. The mother reminds the Lord that her young and beautiful daughter is intoxicated with His beauty and is spending all of her time awaiting His arrival. The mother is clearly worried about the obsession of her daughter and describes her daughter's pitiable plight to the Lord of Parthan PaLLI:

naadiyenrnuLLam konda nAthan yenrum nAnmaRaigaL tEdi yenrum kANamAttA selvan Yenrum siraikoLL vandu sEdulavu pozhil koLL nAngai dEvadEvan yenrenrOdhi paatam sEr melladiyAL PaarthanpaLLI pAduvALE

The mother says that her daughter insists that tAmaraiyAL kELvan has come by and entered her heart. She says that the vEdAs are searching for Him everywhere not knowing that their EmperumAn has taken up residence in her heart She blurts out that the vEdAs are dismayed. She spends all her time decorating herseldf with ankle ornaments (silampu) and other jewelery awaiting your arrival. In between, she is singing about the glory of Your Thiruppathi and Your kolatthirumEni (beautiful form). Thirumangai described his deep love for Sriman NArAyaNA of this KshEhtram through the words of his mother here.

May we all be blessed by Thirumangai's tributes to the ArchA mUrthys of the eleven ThirunAngUr divya desams and benefit from shtira bhakthi to the divya dampathis!

AzhwAr ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam Oppiliappan Kovil VaradAchAri SadagOpan

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