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Thiru Adhyayana Uthsavam : Part XX( Sri Vaikunta EkAdasi day)

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • January 9, 2002 


SrI:

SrI RanganAtha ParabrahmaNE Nama:

Dear BhakthAs: This would be one of the last of the three 
postings on the recently concluded Thiruadhyayana Uthsavam 
at the Sri RanganAthA Temple at Pomona , NY. 

Here is a summary of the happenings on the important
day of Sri Vaikunta EkAdasi or Moksha EkAdasi.adiyEn
thanks Sri Sampath Rengarajan for helping me with 
a full recall of the events that took place .

On Sri Vaikunda ekadasi day, the very first sEvratthi 
arrived at 3:30 AM . The nityanusandhAnam commenced 
at 4:30 AM with the ghOshti of 40 sEvartthis. Around 5:30 AM , 
there were more than 80 sEvratthis lined up on both sides 
leading to the Garuda sannithi ,which is a distance of 100 feet 
from the Main Sannidhi of Lord RanganAthA.

The amarar'a athipathi ,  Sriyapathi Sri RangEswaran beamed 
with joy at the sight of His devotees assembled at Brahma
Muhoortham  that special day and left Garbha gruham for 
the main hall to the accompaniment of the full throated 
recitation of the Final ThiruppAvai Paasuram "vagak kadal 
kadaintha Maadhavanaik Kesavanai " first followed by 
the chanting of chathur vEdham passages.

At about 5:30 AM, Sri Ranganathar entered through 
the specially constructed Sri Vaikunda vAsal along
with about 100 sEvarthis. He came around the sanctum
to the main entrance of the Temple and proceeded to
the southern entrance symbolizing  AyirakkAl mandapam
(thousand pillared maNTapam at Srirangam ).

Many sEvartthis arrived now and recieved the blessings of 
Sri Ranganathan , who was ready to take on the role of
Mumukshu entering Sri Vaikuntam. 

At around 9:00 Am. " ManiyakArar" ( an important executive in
the Srirangam Temple administrative hierarchy responsible 
for the conductance of the uthsavams in the traditional way )
was adorned with mariyAthi and parivattam as he brought 
with great reverence the vastrham of the Sri Rangam moolavar 
and Uthsavar Sri Namperumal. The Prabandha ghOsti procedded 
in front of the MaNiyakkArar carrying these sacred vasthrams
from Srirangam and was followed by vEdha gOshti .The vasthram 
went around the temple along with 100 sEvartthis and
was duly recceived by the temple bhattars. Sri Ranganatha 
Moolavar and uthsavar of Pomona Temple adorned the vastrhams of 
Sri Rangam Perumals on this Sri Vaikunta EkAdasi day. It brought 
tears in the eyes of many as the strong presence of Sri Ranganatha 
was felt through the "special pefume " that is unique for 
any vasthram associated with Periya perumAL of Srirangam.
At one time , the dhObhi for Periya PerumAL 's vasthram
alone can identify the PerumAL taking temporary residence at
Thiruppathi hills based purely on the dhivya gandham of
the VeshTi worn by the ArchA Vigrham staying near KonEri
fountain .


Around 10:30 AM , after mangala hAratthi for Arayar( Sri Usha
NArAyanan ), She performed an Arayar sEvai for the firsdt 
ThiruvAimozhi paasuram (UyarvaRa-- pAsuram .Similar to 
the tradition at Srirangam , thambiranpadi vyAkyAnam 
( commentary fr the Paasurams used by Arayars ) was 
used by Sri Thirukkudanthai Sampath Rengarajan to
explain briefly the importance of Aryar sEvai for 
uyar vara paasuram.(i.e)., the first line conveyes 
the meaning of pranavam  and the second line conveys 
the bagawan sabdhham and the third line the para Vasudeva 
sabdham and the last line the nasmas sabdhham of 
the Sri VaasudEva manthram , the most sacred of all
the manthrams (PraNavam).. namo bhagawathE vAsudEvaAya".
Right after that , irAppthu began with the thiruvAYmozhi
chanting. There were 20 people on the gOshti that day.
On the evening of Sri vaikunda ekAdasi the sARRumurai was
done with Sri ArA amuthe pathigam in a very moving and 
traditional way. It was very touching and fulfilling.
During the day of Sri Vaikunta EkAdasi, 1,000 Mumunkshus
(people desirous of Moksham ) entered the Sri Vaikunta 
Vaasal (gate) and felt fulfilled.
 
The next day , the paRayanam was concluded with the sARRU murai 
using " kangulum pagalum pathigam " where the Mother movingly
asks the Lord to tell her about the Lord's intentions 
rgarding her daughter, who has lost her mind over RanganAthaa. 
There were some 10 gOShti members who were singing in praise 
of muhil vaNNan's naamam . On December 28th , many sEvArrhtis 
and an army of kainkkaryaparALs started arriving from 
all states. On the night of December 28th , eleborate arrangemets 
were made by these kainkaryapraLS untill the next morning (2:00AM)
for the biggest event of the year (viz)., Swamy NammAwhwAr mOksham. 
The path of travel to the mOksham was made 12 floursent lamps  
with  six on each side to resemble a total of 12 sooriayns 
or Suns lighting the  way . The entire temple was made roomy 
for accomodating as many sEvartthis possible. Our sincere 
Thanks to all those kanikaryaparaLs Sri Arun, Sri Kesvan, 
Sri Aravind Sai, Sri Ramanan ,Sri Srikanth, Sri Narasimhan, 
Sri Ramesh Ragavan, Sri Sarathy, Sri PArtha Srinivasan, 
Sri Srivatsan, Sri Prasad, Sri Krishna Kanumalla,Sri Chandra, 
Sri Niranjan, Sri Satyan, Sri Rengarajan and the priests ,
who helped in conducting this major uthsavam  in the most
traditional manner .

adiyEn will describe the Swamy NammazAr Moksham in
the next post and follow it up with the Paasurams 
used by aRayars at Srirangam during the Thiru Adhyayana 
Uthsavam next. This series would conclude with those postings.

Sri RanganAtha ParabrahmaNE Nama:
Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SaThakOpan





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