ThiruvEnkaDa (Thiruppathi) divya desam Part 2. Poetic garlands by AzhwArs to Lord VenkaTEswara

Transcription

1 ThiruvEnkaDa (Thiruppathi) divya desam Part 2. Poetic garlands by AzhwArs to Lord VenkaTEswara Preface: According to the Bible, God created man in His own image. In Hinduism there is no such model for creation of man. It is said that in Brahma s assembly line, babies are synthesized, their fates determined according to their karma, and sent out into the world to live their lives as ordained. It was difficult to visualize an abstract God and hence man had to make icons of different gods so that ordinary people can have a concrete image to worship. Man did not have a model to create the image of God and naturally he created the images of God in his own image. Having done that, he started attributing all divine qualities to those images, embellished them with ornaments, and started worshipping them once the sanctity of those images was recognized. In addition, poems and songs praising each god were written and sung in addition to establishing rituals of worship. Such practice has stood the followers of Hinduism in good stead till now and is seen to hold for the future too. Devotion was expressed in songs portraying surrender to the Lord. Let us examine in this article some of those poems and songs sung by AzhwArs (ancient devotees of Vishnu) in praise of Lord VenkaTEswara. ThiruvEngaDam and its presiding deity have been eulogized in 202 verses by 10 of the 12 AzhwArs. Sri ANDAL: She, the darling foster-daughter of PeriyAzhwAr (and BhUmidevi s avataram), was bent on loving Lord Ranganatha and ultimately merged with the Lord in Srirangam through intense devotion. She wrote the 30 verses of ThiruppAvai and another 143 verses collectively called nacciyar thirumozhi. In the latter collection there is a decad titled ViNNIla melappu wherein ANDAL summons the dark blue clouds that appear prior to the rainy season to go as a messenger on her behalf to Lord VenkaTEswara, the lord of the tirumalai hills. The first verse in that decad goes as: வ ண ண ல மல ப ப வ த த ற ப ல மகங க ள தண ண ர ப ய வங கடத தன த ர ம ல ம ப ந த ன கண ண ர கள ம லக க வட ட ல த ள ச ரச ச ர வ ன பண ண ர ம ஈடழ க க ம இத தமக க ர பர ம ய? NDP 577 1

2 ViNNIla melappu virittarpol megangal tennirpay venkatatten tirumalum pondane kannirgal mulaik kuvattil tulisorac corvenai pennirmai IDazhikkum idutamakkor perumaiye? Meaning: Oh, dark blue clouds in the sky, covering the space below like a canopy, did the Lord of thiruvengadam (wherein clear waterfalls are abundant) come with you? No? By not being with Him I am shedding tears which collect on my chest and I am getting miserable. Is it dignified for Him to deprive me of my femininity (in making me pine for Him without a positive response from Him)? ANDAL being the only female AzhwAr could truly portray her love as a woman to the Lord expressing the true emotional backdrop. She even takes the liberty of accusing the Lord of neglect and undignified behavior in not acceding to her request to be united with her. She sends the rain clouds as a messenger to the Lord of ThiruvEngaDam. In this attempt she is taking a page out of the poet KALidAsa s lyric poem MEghadUta (Cloud Messenger) wherein the YakSa sends the clouds gathered on the Vindhya Mountains to carry a message to his lovelorn wife in the Himalayas. ANDAL considers the clouds as her sakhi or friend. In the remaining 9 verses in the decad she describes that she has lost all her charm, sleep, and appetite in thinking about the Lord. She says she will keep uttering the praise of the Lord and wait for His arrival. Her splendorous diction and sumptuous similes throughout are amazing. She compares her emaciation to that of a wood apple whose contents have been eaten away by mosquitoes leaving just a bare shell. Further she compares herself to the mature leaf that grows all summer long that falls at the advent of rain. Even the midnight breeze is so painful for her to bear in the absence of her Lord. She then commands the rain clouds to bring back the Lord s reply message. ANDAL refers to the Lord of ThiruvEngaDam in 16 verses in all. KulasEkara AzhwAr: He was a king of the cera country (the current KEraLA) in the 8 th century CE. He was highly devoted to Lord Rama, had unbounded respect for the devotees of the Lord, and special attachment to the temples at Srirangam and Tiruppathi. He devoted fulltime to the service of the Lord after ceding the throne to his son. He sang 10 lullabies to Rama, the famous ones ending in raghavane talelo. He is called KulasEkara perumal. His main literary work is called perumal thirumozhi containing 2

3 105 pasurams, 11 of which were on Thiruppathi. Let us experience what he says about Thiruppathi with a sample pasuram. கம பமத ய ன கழ த தகத த ன மல ர ந த இன பமர ம சல வம ம இவ வரச ம ய ன வண டன எம பர ம ன ஈச னழ ல வங கட ம ல மல தம பம ய ந ற க ம தவம ட யன ஆ வ ன! NDP 681 kambamada yanai kazhuttagattin melirundu inbamarum selvamum ivvarasum yanvenden emberuman Isanezhil vengada malaimel tambamay nirkum tavamudaiyen AvEnE! Meaning: I do not desire to have the opulence, pleasure, and the kingdom that go with the high seat on the mighty elephant. If I have earned the fortune to become the flagpole or a pillar on the beautiful hill of thiruvengadam ruled by the Lord that would be my immense pleasure. Here we have a king and he does not care about the prestige and perquisites which go with mighty royalty. In the 11 verses that he sings about Tiruppathi he declares that he would rather be the flagpole (dwajasthambam) in front of the temple of the Lord at Tiruppathi. That is the kind of invaluable merit he attributes to thiruvengadam. SwAmi PushkaraNi Temple entrance What else does KulasEkara perumal want to be in the golden thiruvengadam hills? He does not want wealth but would rather be a stork inhabiting the KOnEri lake in the hills. He does not want beautiful damsels dancing in his court but would rather be born as a fish in the pond (SwAmi PushkaraNi) in the hills. He would like to be a flower bush bearing senbaga flowers and perhaps the wild river (Swarnamuki) in the hills. He would also like to be the one of the stone steps walked over by the devotees climbing the hill while going to worship the Lord. That is selfless devotion without expecting anything in return (materially speaking!). He does not want the Lord s favor to conquer other kingdoms but would want to be in the proximity of the Lord. Imagine that! Thirumazhisai AzhwAr: According to a legend he was born (as a lifeless piece of flesh) to a sage and a celestial dancer (either Urvasi or KanakAngi according to different 3

4 legends) and was abandoned at birth. Raised by a lower caste couple he was tagged with that label. But he rose to great heights with the grace of the Lord. He performed some miracles and his esteem rose among the higher caste folks as a result of divine grace. He even commanded the presiding deity of Kanchipuram to desert the place to teach a lesson to the king, which the Lord obeyed to please His devotee. He is considered the manifestation of the discus (cakram) of the Lord. He sang a total of 216 verses out of which 15 were on the Lord of the thiruvengadam hills. Let us examine one of those. வங கட ம வ ண ண ர த ழ வத வ ம மய ம மய ல வங கட ம மய வ ன ந ய த ர ப பத வ ம -- வங கட ம த னவ ர வ ழத தன ன ழ ப ப ட த ட ட வ னவ ரக க ப ப ன ம ல NDP 2429 VEngaDamE vinnor tozhuvaduvum meymmaiyal vengadame meyvinai^noy tirppaduvum vengadame tanavarai vizat tannazhip padaitottu vanavaraik kappan malai Meaning: VEngaDam is worshipped by the celestials. VEngaDam will cure the ills of perennial birth as the truth gets revealed. VEngaDam is the hill which is inhabited by the Lord who annihilated the demons with His discus weapon and saved the celestials While devotion is the principal theme of the pasurams Thirumazhisai AzhwAr does not neglect to describe the beauty of the environs around the hills of ThiruvEngaDam. He says that the Lord enters his heart through the waterfalls which make a thundering noise on the rocks below. The detailed descriptions of the landscape in the hills such as the trees, flower bushes, river, rocks, and the native fauna he provides are like a journalist s report. He tells the devotees to go to the vengadam hills and worship the Lord in order to get rid of their sins. NammAzhwAr: He (9 th -10 th century CE) is considered the manifestation of VishvaksEna, the commander-in-chief of Lord Vishnu. He was born motionless too and did not eat nor grow. According to the prevailing story he was left in a cradle under a 4

5 tamarind tree near the temple by his parents in AzhwArtirunagari (also known as KurugUr). The child later crawled out of the cradle and sat under the tree in meditation for 16 years. He got divine grace and dictated pasurams on all the divya desams for which his disciple, another AzhwAr named Madurakavi, functioned as the scribe. In all he sang 1296 pasurams (by far the most by any AzhwAr) out of which 52 were on Tiruppathi. Let us read one such here. ப க ன றக லங கள ப யக லங கள ப க க லங கள த ய தந தய ய ர க ன ற ய ன ன ந ன டந தன வ ட வ ன ப க ன ற த ல ப கழ ம வ லக க க ம ந த ன! பரம, தண வங கட மக ன ற ய தண ட ழ ய வ ரந ற கண ண ய ன NDP 2965 (2.6.10) POginRakAlangaL poyakalangal pogukalangal taytandaiyuyi raginra yunnai nanadainden viduveno paginra tolpugazh muvulagukkum nadane! ParamA, tanvengada meginray tanduzhay virai^naru kanniyane Meaning: In the present, past, and the future times I secured you as my mother, father, and life itself. In such a case would I let you go easily? You are the famed Lord of the three worlds, oh Supreme! You dwell in the cool VEngaDa hills wearing the sweetsmelling tulasi (Ocimum sanctum) garland NammAzhwAr exhorts that forever we should do selfless service staying close to the Lord of ThiruvEngaDam, the hill that reverberates with the sound of streams. He calls the Lord father of his father s father. He says that the goddess alar mel mangai will not leave the seat on the Lord s chest (agalakillen iraiyum enralar mel mangaiyurai marba!). The sages and angels congregate to worship the Lord. He considers himself a slave who has no refuge other than the Lord s feet (pugalonrilla adiyenun adikkizh amarndu pugundene!). All 1296 verses of his in general, and the 52 verses on Tiruppathi are a treasure-house of devotion that all VaishNavaites extol. He is verily called nam AzhwAr (our AzhwAr). Sethuraman Subramanian mahakavi@nc.rr.com 5