||    Ananada RaamAyaNam    ||

It is so delightful to learn about the eulogy of Sri Ramachandra by Lord Siva in Anandha RaamAyaNam (AR) from Srimathi KrishNamAcchAri"s posting. For a long time, I had the impression that these were verses from Raama KarNAmrutham, composed by one of the peetathipathis of Kaanchi KamakOti Peetam. He gave up his pontifical status and retired to the banks of one of the tributaries of Cauveri river and had jeeva samadhi with the Raama taraka nAmam on his lips on the river bed of Veerasozhan. Now I am glad to know that number of the verses similar to that quoted in the Saara KhAndam of AR inspired this Rama BhakthA (BhodEndrAL) of recent times.

Sri KrishNamAchAri's comments on the first naamam of Sri VishNu sahasra Naamam triggered a lot of thoughts. I am happy to share them with you, while congratulating Sri KrishNamAchAri on his pious endeavour.

First of all, ParAsara Bhattar's intrepretation of the NaamA, "Visvam" as FULL in all rspects is extraordinarily symbolic. The sAnthi Paatam and the first manthram of IsAvAsya Upanishad immediately springs to my mind. The sAnthi paatam declares:

Om PoorNamadha: poorNamidam
poorNAth poorNamuduchyathE I
poorNasya poorNamAdhAya
poorNamEvAvasishyathe II

The profound statement of the Visva VyApi (VishNu) is celebrated by this sAnthi paatam:

" That is Whole ; This is Whole ; from the Whole , the Whole becomes manifest. From the Whole , when the Whole is negated , what remains is again the Whole. "

The poorNathvam and the SampoorNathvam of the Visvathomukhan is saluted here echoing the first nAmam of Sri VishNu Sahasra Naamam.

The half of the first manthrA of this Upanishad goes on to dwell more about the Lord and His universe and how He pervades them after creating them:

Om IsAvAsyam-Idam Sarvam
Yath kimcha JagathyAm Jagath I

This portion of the manthram states that " All this , whatsoever moves in this Universe , including the Universe itself , is pervaded or enveloped by the Omnipresent Lord " . The root " Vis " to enter informs the meaning of Visvam . His poorNathvam is celebrated thus thru the first Naamam as indicated by Sri KrishNamAchAri. The Purusha Sooktham portion, " sa bhoomim VISVATHO vruthvA " is another echo from this first nAmam.

Many Subsequent nAmAs of VSN will elaborate on this Visva Murthy: (722nd Naamam). He is saluted as VisvaKarmA (50th Naamam). Visvasrut (240th naamam), Visva rEthA (89th naamam), Visvabhukvibhu: (241st nAmam), Visva YOni: (242 & 270th nAmams) and finally VisvAthmA (227th nAmam). The last nAmam is the closest in spirit to the FIRST nAmam of Visvam. Since Sri KrishNamAchAri will be covering the meanings of these nAmAs at length later, I will not elaborate further on them except to hint at the connectivity in meanings associated with the First nAmam.

The other connection of the First nAmam is to the oldest Vedam , Rg Vedam. We find the profoundly meaningful word " Visvam " by itself and with suffixes and sandhis appearing NINETY times in the different Khandams of Rg Vedam. I will cover illustrative Rks of Rg Vedam which start with " Visvam " in my next posting.

I agree with the observations of both Professor VasudhA NarAyaNan and Sri Sudarshan. Thanks to your introduction, I came to know more about AR and the many beautiful verses composed by the author, whether he is Sage Valmiki or otherwise. The literary scholars establishing the authorship of particular slokams in Srimadh RaamAyaNam are still having trouble about interploated slokams.

I agree with Sri Sudarshan in that it does not really matter, whether AR was composed by Sage Valmiki or not. The enjoyment of Rama Charitham as told by this Rama BhakthA is the most important thing as long as the author's rendering is suffused with Bahkthi. The variations on the theme can be taken as this BahkthA's rasAnubhavam. NammAzhwar's observation in Thiruvaimozhi , " KaRpAr IrAmapirAnai allAl MARRUM karparO --" , is a testament to the glory of this PurNAvathAram , that has enchanted many minds from time immemorial.

Regarding discrepancies from Adi Kavi's version in the story line Swami Desikan composed Hamsa SandEsam , which has no connection to any incident found in Srimadh RaamAyaNam. Saint ThyagarAjA similarly composed an opera known as NowkA Charithram dealing with Sri KrishNA's pranks that has no connection to Srimadh Bhagavatham. In a similar vein , the twists in the story line of AR are perfectly within the accepted norms of the poet 's freedom to take off from ancient texts. The "twists and turns" in AR and its variance with Sage Valmiki's version can be understood from this context.

Inview of all these points, I do not think that you should feel depressed over your efforts to study AR and share with the rest of us passages and slokams that you found inspiring. Please do continue your " labor of Love " and we look forward to learning more about another Rama BhakthA's tribute to Sri RamachandrA as enshrined in AR.

Best Wishes ,
V.Sadagopan

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