Recently , Sriman Ram Gopalaswamy had asked a question about AshtAksharam , Dvyam and the avathaaram of the Lord as Nara-NaarAyaNan at BadrikAsramam . Sriman Mani Varadarajan has answered the first two questions . I will attempt to answer the third one . It just so happens that ANDAL in her NacchiyAr Thirumozhi Paasuram 2.1 gives us the clue : " Naamam aayiram yEttha NinRa NaarAyaNAnaranE ---" in the first quater of the paasuram . ANDAL , who should know the mysteries of Her Lord's avathAra rahasyam identifies Him appropriately under the collective name of " NaarAyaNAnaranE " in one breath. She does not split His naamam into NaarAyaNE and NaranE . { I want to digress to slaute the aasthika couple , Sriman and Srimathi KrishNamAchAri engaged in commenting upon Sri VishNu Sahsara naamams ( naamam aayiram yEtthi nirkum Bhakthar Sri KrishNamAchAri ) and his dharma pathnI , Srimathi KrishNamAchAri, who has been joyously engaged in enjoying the Sri Sookthis of our ANDAL . I must confess that her translations are better than my original writing . She is going to write about this particular Paasuram next . Thanks to both of them for their valued Kaimkaryams } . Now coming back to the Salutation ," NaarAyanAnaranE " , we have to transport ourselves on this Aani SravaNam day morning to the sacred ground of BadrinAth , 10,350 feet high on the banks of the sacred AlakanandhA river . We offer our worship there to the Veda Purushan , GarudAzhwAr first at " SimhadwArA " before entering the main temple to offer our prostrations before the mUrhtys there . Badri Vruksham is the Ilandai tree , which is dear to MahA Lakshmi . Legend has it that the Lord did tapas ( penance ) under that sacred tree , when he incarnated as Sri BadrinArayanan to educate /iniitate the people suffering from the terrors of SamsAram through Sri AshTaakshara manthra UpadEsam to them . That Ilandai tree is not visible according to legend in Kali yugam . Sriman NaarAyaNA incarnated as a Tapasvi with JatA , with conch and chakrA in His upper hands and Yoga MudrAs in His lower hands and sits in padmAsanam . On His right side are KubEran , Garudan and on His left are Sage Naradhar , NaarayaNar and narar et al . It was the Lord's intent to demonstrate that Tapas is needed to secure the blessings of Athma Jn~Anam and to demonstrate to His avathAra Purushaas , Nara and NaarAyaNaa , how to conduct the life of a Tapasvi in a Aasramam observing Guru-Sishya Paramparai ( Gurukula Vaasam ) to secure the fruits of the pursuit of Brahma VidhyA . DEvAs , Rishis and Common people (SamsAris ) were also the object of this demonstration . NarA and NaarAyaNA incarnated as asampUrNa avatArams in Satya YugA to Dharma DevA and Murthy Devi , the daughter of Daksha PrajApathi . These two children performed Tapas in NaimisAraNyam first and then in the hills known as GandhamAdhanam and finally arrived at BadrikAsramam for initiation by Sriman NaarAyaNA Himself. In the DwApara Yugam , they continued the Guru-sishya paramparai thru the PurNAvatharam of Lord KrishNA and His sishyan, ArjunA . Thus ," the NaarAyaNA naranE " vaakhyams of ANDAL refer to the previuous avathArams of the Lord and the AshtAkshara manthram that has reached us thru AchArya Mukham . It is interesting to observe that in this temple of Sriman NaarAyaNA that moved Thirumangai so much at the very beginning of his Periya Thirumozhi , there is a sannidhi for Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan at the back of the main shrine and there are additional sannidhhis for Sri VedAntha Desikan and Bhagavadh RaamAnujA . The AchArya paramparai is well saluted there in the context of the Guru-Sishya relationship . Daasan , SadagOpan
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