svami manavala mamuni's vaibhavam - 7

From the Bhakti List Archives

• November 17, 2001


srImathE SaTakOpAya namah
srImathE rAmAnujAya namah
srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah
srImathE vara vara munayE namah

dear bhAgavathAs,

in the last post, i had paraphrased details of
svAmi maNavLa mAmuni's life till the time svAmi
PB aNNa became his sishya. Now, I will continue
with the paraphrasing.

>From this posting onwards, I am going to use
the other names of svAmi maNavALa mAmnuni -
etiher periya jIyar or just jIyar.

jIyar wanted to worship the Lords of thirumalai
and kAnchipuram once again, and after obtaining
permission from Lord ranganAthA, left for
the yAtra along with numerous sishyAs including
svAmi PB aNNa. First, they went to kAnchipuram
to worship the Lord that gives and gives to
His devotees - pEraruLaaLan - Lord vardarAja.
svAmi maNavALa mAmuni gave us two wonderful
slOkAs in sanskrit and 2 pAsurams that describe
the temple and the Lord. I paraphrase the
sanskrit temple first -

"I fall at the feet of the Lord who is surrounded
by srIdEvi and bhUdEvi under the puNyakOti
vimAnam, after worshipping the holy
pushkariNi that is opposite the bali pIta,
Lord vENugOpAla, Lord gnyAnap pirAn, srI
bhattarpiraan, srI saTAkOpa, srI kali kari 
thirumangai AzhvAr, thirumazhisaip pirAn,
periya nambi, emperumAnAr, the mudhal AzhVArs,
the mudalis that guard the entrance, the
abhishEka maNtapam, perundEvith thAyAr,
thiru Azhi AzhvAn, thiru anantAzhvAn,
chakkaravarthi thirumagan, kariya mANikka
varadar, thiru madap paLLi, periya thiruvadi,
azhagiya singar, sEnai mudanmaiyaAr,
and the thiru aththi mAmalai".

This slOka describes the layout of the temple
as it was during svAmi maNavALa mAmuni's time.
One can see the most of the same layout 
even to this day in the temple.

Another slOka is as follows - " I medidate
on the LOrd whose feet are Lotus feet,
the one who is Lakshmi vallabha, whose
divind body glows with the light generated
by the divine ornaments, whose beautiful hands
tells us not to worry and has the gadhA,
sankha and chakra, and the LOrd of hasthigiri"

Then, he also composed dEvarAja mangaLam -
that beautiful maNgaLa stOtra for the LOrd,
a slOka of which we recite every day -
asthi srIsthu na kasthUri vAsanA vAsithOrsE
srI hasthigiri nAthAya dEvarAjAya maNgaLAm.

After he performed the maNgaLAsAsanam, the
kAnchipuram srIvaishNavAs gave jIyar a maTam
to stay, and requested him to give upanyAsams
on thiruvAymozhi and rahasyas. jIyar stayed
at kAnchi for sometime, during which the annual
brahmOtsavam happened. svAmi performed
maNgaLAsAsanams to the Lord during the 10
days of the utsavam on the vAhanams. During
this time, erumbi appa came from shOlingar
to pay his obeisances to svAmi.

the srIvaishNavAs at kAnchipuram requested
svAmi to establish a learned person at
kAnchipuram from whom they can continue
their learning the rahasya granthas and
the sampradAyam. jIyar commanded vAnamAmalai
jIyar svAmi to bring him svAmi 
appAchchiyAr aNNa. This svami was  a 
learned scholar and a great srIvishNava
that was a descendant of svAmi mudaliyANdAn.
jIyar commanded him to reside at kAnchi
and perform the darsana nirvAham on his
behalf from kAnchi. Further, the local
people gave this svAmi a vigraha called 
"azhaiththu vAzhiviththavar", one of the
shat bErAs of the kAnchi temple, that is 
to this day present in the sannadhi of this
thirumALigai.

After this, jIyar and his sishyAs left
kAnchipuram and reached thirumalai after
worshipping at thiru-k-kadigai (shOLingar).

In thirumalai, a slOka has been given to
us by elders again, that describes the temple
layout as it was during that time - The
paraphrasing is as follows -

"One should worship the big bali peeTA
after that the maNtapam known as yamunaith
thuraivar (named after ALAvandAr by srI
ananthAzhvAn svAmi, where performed 
pushpa kainkaryam to the Lord of thirumalai),
then the entrance that is near the shenbaga
tree (called shenbaga vrksha vAsal),
srI garudA, the thiru madap paLLi, the
thirumAmaNi maNtapam, the Ananda nilaya
vimAnam that is covered with gold, sEnai
mudanmaiyAr, rAmAnuja, the Lord nrsimha 
and then Lord rAmA. After that, one should
worship the Lord of thiruvEngadam, the one
who has faultless glory, the one who has
beautiful thirumArbu (chest) that is the
abode of Lakshmi and whose eyes are like
beautiful lotuses".

In the next post, I will paraphrase some
incidents from jIyar's life that deal with
some of the kainkaryas that he performed at
thiruvEngadam.

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvdigaLE saraNam,
adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,
varadhan


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