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Poygai ,Bhutham and pEy AzhwAr Birth day Tributes: part 2

From the Bhakti List Archives

Sadagopan • October 30, 1998 


Dear BhakthAs :

Yesterday , we started paying our tributes to 
Poygai Azhwar and his avathAra sthalam(Part 1). We will
complete that today and continue with the SaarArtham
(quintessence) of the lives of the other two Mudal AzhwArs .
Earlier postings on Sri DeahaLIsa sthuthi has 
covered the meanings of their moving paasurams . 

ThiruvehhA Divya Desam :The birth Place of Poygai
**************************************************
The Lord here  appeared here to overpower the fury 
of His daughter-in-law, Sarasvathi , who was determined to 
destroy the Yaj~nam of Her Husband at Kaanchi . She was
angry that Her husband started the Yaj~nam without inviting Her .
Our Lord formed a dam across the fast flowing Vegavathi
river (Sarasvathi) and with one of His foot stopped Her
rapid and destructive flow. She came to Her senses and even
today , She sits at the foot of the Lord , Her Father-in-Law
wth folded hands in a mood of penitence . 

Swami Desikan's tribute to the Lord , who rested 
right in the middle of the Vegavathi river to protect
His son's Yaj~nam is a moving one poignant with meaning .
He describes the Lord as abhangura: sEthu or the dam
that can not be moved or destroyed .It is eternal . Any
one travelling across it can safely reach its other shore ,
Sri Vaikuntam without doubt .

The dam(sEthu) at ThiruvehhA is a matchless dam
in the entire world ( JagadEka sEthu) .As an ever present dam 
across the ocean of SamsAram , He quells the fearsome tsunami 
waves that break on it . This is the VishNu sEthu .He symbolizes
the deekshA that he undertook to inquire about our welfare
(Yoga KshEmam vahAmyaham ) and thus lives upto His name,
YathOkthakAri (Sonna VaNNAm seytha PerumAL) . 

In RaamAvathAram , He declared His dhIkshA 
as "SaraNAgatha Rakshakan " or "SaraNAgatha ThrANa vrathi ". 
In KrishNAvathAram , He guranteed that He will banish
all of our paapams , if we surrender unto Him 
and promised to give us the boon of Moksham .
He asked us not to fret about the samsAric afflictions .
That is the DhIkshA of KrishNAvathAram.In Varaaha avathAram ,
He promised to lead the dear ones that think of Him ,
when they are firm of mind and body , by His own hands
to paramapadham at the time , when they are not in 
control of their senses and limbs (during their last moments
on His earth ). These are the dhIkshAs of the YathOkthakAri 
of ThiruvehhA .  

As background , BrahmA had HayamEha DhIkshA 
( vow to perform AsvamEdha Yaagam ).He begged for 
the Lord's intervention so that his Yaj~nam 
will not be destroyed by the fast flowing 
Vegavathi(Sarasvathi). Our Lord's DhIksha is to act 
as told and hence He eliminated the danger (vyApadham ) 
from Sarasvathi by spreading Himself on His bed of AdhisEshan .
With the swift turn of one of His lotus feet , He stopped 
the flow of the furious Sarasvathi in the form of the river .

When Bhattar of this temple at ThiruvehhA uses 
his hand lamp to show us the beauty of that bent left foot 
of this reclining Lord , please spend some time absorbing 
the message of that foot of the  Lord .He looks at us with 
great affection and intensity . He appears to ask us as to 
"what He can do for us , who have now arrived at His site ,
to still the turbulent waves in our hearts " . Please rest 
your eyes on that turned foot pushing the high waves 
of the river and the chastised Sarasvathi Devi perfroming
Kaimkaryam to Her Father-in-Law at the side of that turned foot .

The smiling Thirumuhamandalam (Face) of the Lord looking 
at us from our right side in contrast to the Bhujanga Sayanams
of Srirangam and many other kshEthrams , where our Lord
looks at us indirectly from the left is an unforgettable 
experience . Darsanam of this smiling , reassuring  face
is janma saapalyam . Swami Desikan points out that 
the Lord of this divya desam is "saraNam upagathAnAm
aadEsakAri " ( One who obeys the commands of those
who performed SaraNAgathi unto Him like Thirumazhisai
AzhwAr ). 

Swami Desikan reveals further that He destroys
the parithApam( wretchedness arising from SamsAric ills)
of the denizens of His universe (sarva JanthO: ) by presenting
Himself in front of them( Sammukha:) at ThiruvehhA .He is
thus the UpAyam and He is present as the fruit (phalan)
 on the top of Hasthigiri as PeraruLAlan .Thus the Lord 
fulfills His two duties : 
(1) to destroy the sufferings of the SaraNAgathAs
(2) to bless them with the desired boons . The first duty
is performed at ThiruvehhA and the second one is carried
out on top of the elephant-shaped hill (Hasthigiri) , where
Brahma performed his AsvamEdha Yaagam and had the darsana
soubhAghyam of the Lord arising out of the Yaj~na kuntam .

The 7 divya desams receiving MangaLAsAsanam from Poygai AzhwAr
***************************************************************
These sacred sites blessed by the anubhavam of Poygai Azhwar
are: ThiruvehhA ,Srirangam, ThiruviNNagar, ThirukkOvalUr ,
ThiruvEnkatam , Thirupparamapadham and ThiruppARkkadal.
The last two divya desams can not be seen by us
mortals and can only be seen by those like AzhwArs ,
who have the power of Tapas .

I will mention briefly the Passuram of Poygai 
that salutes ThiruviNNagar's OppilAappan 
along with the Lord of his birth place , ThiruvehhA :

" vEnkatamum viNNagarum vehhAvum ,ahkAtha
pUnkidangil neeLL kOval ponnaharum ,naan kidatthum
ninRaan IrundhAn kidanthAn nadanthAnE ,
yenRaal kedumAm idar " 
--77th paasuram of Mudal ThiruvandhAthi

This is a wondeful Paasuram performing 
MangaLAsAsanmam to four archA EmperumAn's
in the postures( ThirukkOlams ) of Standing 
(Thiruvenkatam/(ninrAn ), sitting ( ThiruviNNagar/
IrundhAn)).Here , He presented Himself as
the seated Sri VaikuntanAthan especially for 
the AzhwAr ; normally , He offers His sevai
in the standing posture as In ThiruvEnkatam .
After the standing and seated sEvai , the AzhwAr 
is blessed with the reclining(KidanthAn )
sevai at ThiruvehhA  and the strient walking
sevai as Thrivikraman at ThirukkOvalUr .

AzhwAr states in this paasuram that he has no
doubt about all of our idars( anxieties and
obstacles) being destroyed by remembering
these four divya desams , where the Lord offers 
sevai as NinRAn , IrundhAn , KidanthAn and nadanthAn .
AzhwAr asks us to get the boon of the removal of 
Idars by just chanting " ninRAn -IrundhAn-
KidanthAn-nadanthAn " .In his very first paasuram ,
Poygai has stated the purpose of his eulogy :
idar aazhi neenguhavE yenRu " .His goal as AchAryA
was to appeal to the Lord to banish the ocean of
misery(dukkak Kadal ) tormenting us as samsAris .
In the above 77th paasuram , AzhwAr gives us a simple
recipe to banish that miserable ocean of SamsAram .

In the next part , let us offer our salutations to
BhUtham and pEy AzhwArs .

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan