SrimatE rAmAnujAya nama:
SrimatE varavara munayE nama:
Sri KulaSekharAzhwAr Vaibhavam
kumbhE punarvasau jAtam kEraLE chOLapaTTaNE |
kaustubhAmSam dharAdhISam kulaSekharamASrayE||
I salute the great kulaSekarA, who gloriously ruled the CherA kingdom , who
is the amSa of the Kaustabua jewel which decorates the beautiful chest of
Sriman nArAyaNA, who was born in the land of kEraLa, in the capital city named
kollinagar (vanjikkaLam), during the month of mAsi on the day of the punarvasu
star.
ghushyatE yasya nagarE rangayAtrA dinE dinE |
tam aham SirasA vandE rAjAnam kulaSekharam ||
That person (king), inside whose capital city the word(s) ?ranga yAtrA?
(journey to SriRangam) are being uttered everyday, I bow my head down to that
kulaSekharA.
Akin to the SlokAs mentioned above, and as is mentioned in the vaibhava
SlokAs, and based on the teachings of the elders and pUrvAchAryAs, this AzhwAr
was born in the land of KeraLa, in the capital city named ?kollinagar?, to the
king named drdhavratan, 27 years after the advent of kaliyuga, in the 28th year
of ?parAbhava?, during the tamil month of mAsi, on a dvAdasi Thursday, on the
asterism of the punarvasu (punarpUsam) in the capital city of ?tiruvanjikkaLam?
- the city getting its name from the queen herself, as the Royal Prince. The
king, seeing the radiance on this infant-prince, called him ?KulaSekharan?,
meaning that he will be the chief or head of his clan (kula).
This illustrious prince had all the due samskaras (Upanayanam, etc) performed
on him by his father, the king. He learnt the four Vedas, the 6 angAs, also he
mastered all the texts on good, just governance mean for kings. He became a
champion in the different arts of war, he was simply hero from every direction.
Looking at the greatness of his son, the king made his son the royal prince
officially (what is the right word, can one be coronated to be a prince??)
Once he became the royal prince, as per the dharmas meant for a kshatriya,
kulaSekhara grew in power by the day, went in full force to the Chola and
PANdiyA kingdoms and invaded them just to see them become mere barons
(sitrarasargal). He thus became the leader of all the three major dynasties,
and was glorified as ?kollikAvalan kUdalnAyagan kOzhikkOn kulaSekharan? [
Perumal Thirumozhi 2-10]. The very happy drudhavratA decided to have a
coronation ceremony and make his son the next King, before retiring to the
forest to lead a life of vAnaprastam.
The new king, who felt sad that his father retired to the forest, quickly
recovered thanks to the soothing influence of his noble ministers. He became
excellent in his job, leading a kingdom like ?rAmarAjya?. He got married, named
his son after his own father, and his daughter was given two names: ilai (as an
amsA of niLAdEvi) and Serakulavalli.
This glorious king started to show deep interest in spirituality, ?Who is the
one god who gave us this life birth, who can give us the next birth and even
salvation??, who is that original, complete God???. He studied the shrutis and
the smrtis with the greatest scholars, and analyzed the inner meanings of all
those texts, and became engrossed in them. Lord Sriman nArAyaNA, after seeing
this great devotee, blessed him with ?mayarvara madhi nalam? (blemishless
knowledge), and showed him his forms, qualities, creations, etc. Sri
KulaSekharA became overwhelmed with jnAna and bhakti, made his mind devoid of
any confusion, and became the greatest devotee of Lord Sriman nArAyaNA. This
kulasEkharAzhwar, who is now deeply immersed in the kalyANa gunAs of perumAL,
became deeply attracted to the rAmA and krishNA avataras among perumAL?s
vibhAvatArAs and among the archAvatArAs, he developed strong attraction towards
Lords of Srirangam, tiruvEnkadam, tirukkannapuram, tirucchithirakUdam and
tiruvitthuvakkOdu. He used to listen to discourses on rAmAyaNA all the time,
and he treated the SriVaishnavas with all love and respect. He started to lose
interest in his job as the king.
One day, when he was listening to a discourse on rAmAyaNA, the bhAgavatA was
going through the line from the AraNya kANDam, ?there were these 14,000
rAkshasAs standing on one side who were instigated by the nose-cut SurpaNakA,
and the lonely Sri rAmA standing on the other side, with no help? after hearing
which Sri kulaSekharA, who was immersed in the nectar of rAmAyaNA, thinking
that rAmA was in danger right at that moment, declared, ?when the Lord is in
such great danger, we have to help Him with all that we could?, thus
commanding all his forces to get prepared for battle and he himself started
going towards LankA!! All his subjects and courtiers were clueless, without
knowing what to do. Then the bhAgavatA, who was an expert on rAmAyaNA, went to
the king and said, ?Flash news!! The great Lord Sri rAmA single-handedly
vanquished all the 14,000 rAkshasAs and got sItA back who eased Him with her
loving hug, and everything is OK?. Hearing this, the AzhwAr decided not to
proceed
anymore thereby, recalling all his forces.
Since then, the bhAgavatA used to talk mostly about the episodes where Lord
Sri rAmA was victorious without any trouble, and constricted the episodes where
the Lord was in danger, as tightly as possible. Once, since he was engages in
some other important task, the bhAgavatA sent his son instead. His son, without
knowing the nature of kulasEkharA, discussed the abduction of sItA by rAvanA in
detail. Once kulasEkharA heard that, he declared, ?I shall go to lankA right
away and defeat rAvaNA and his forces and bring the mother back?, and started
traveling towards lankA along with his forces. Again, with all his subjects
remaining clueless, the AzhwAr dived into the ocean and that is when Lord
SrirAmA, along with MythilI and lakshmaNA appeared in front of the AzhwAr and
explained that he defeated rAvanA and everything is fine, sending him back.
Thus, the AzhwAr who had deepest interest in the itihAsA and purANAs,
realized the glories and greatness of Srirangam, decided to visit that holy
place, and even set his date. His (loyal, noble) ministers and courtiers agreed
that if this AzhwAr visits Srirangam and sees Lord Ranganatha, he would never
return. They convened and came up with a master-plan. What is that plan?? Since
our king knows that serving the devotees of the Lord is even greater than
serving the Lord Himself, he took supreme joy and interest in serving the
SriVaishnavAs visiting him. Thus, whenever the king wanted to leave for
Srirangam, SriVaishnavAs were invited by the ministers, thereby making the king
to not leave. This can be observed in his taniyan, ?ghushyatE yasya nagarE
rangayAtrA dinE dine? (inside whose capital city the word(s) ?ranga yAtrA?
(journey to SriRangam) are being uttered everyday).
Some of the ministers felt jealous looking at the SriVaishnavAs with all
liberty, going around his palace, his courtroom, and even restricted areas
meant for privacy without any interruptions. They decided to evoke some hatred
towards the SriVaishnavAs in the mind of the King. Thus, on a SriRamanavamI
day, when everybody was busy with the tirumanjanam of the deity, the ministers
stole the most precious pearl garland meant for the lord and hid it in some
secret place that nobody would know. After the tirumanjanam got over, the
priests noticed that the expensive pearl garland was missing and informed the
king. The king called all his ministers and asked them to look for that
ornament and find the culprit. The ministers, taking advantage of that
situation said, ?One of the SriVaishnavas roaming around freely in this palace
should have taken the Ornament?, thus blaming the SriVaishnavas. Our AzhwAr was
deeply annoyed, and said, ?the devotees of the Lord will never do such silly
acts
even once; I shall prove that to you all right now?. He ordered his loyals to
bring a silver pot with a venomous snake inside. He then put his hand inside
the pot and said, ?If any of the SriVaishnavAs have the cheap desire to steal
things, let this snake bite me, on the other hand if the SriVaishnavas are the
purest of the pure, then let my hand be unattacked?. The snake which was bound
by satya and dharma, didn?t attack his hand, but was just tame. Seeing this,
the ministers realized that they have no other go but surrender and accept
their folly. They gave the pearl garland back and penitently prayed to the
AzhwAr. The AzhwAr said, ?it is not enough if I alone forgive you, since you
all did apachAra against the SriVaishnavAs, the only way is to surrender to
them and do service to them lifelong?, which the ministers happily accepted.
This incident has been cited in his thanian, ?Arangedap parananbar koLLArenRu
avargaLukkE vArangodu kudappAmbil kayittavan?.
Later, kulaSEkharAzhwar lost desire to continue with his role as a king where
he has to deal with falsehoods, therefore coronated his son dhrutavarman as the
next emperor and fulfilled his long-cherised dream of visiting Srirangam. He
stayed there for many years, worshipped namperumAL, and got his daughter
married (sErakulavalli) to that namperumAL as she was being captivated by the
beauty of that azhgiya manavALan and considered him to be her own manavALan
(groom). He constructed the third prakAra for the service of Lord Sri
RanganAtha and he performed many bhagavat-bhAgavata kainkaryams. To this day,
the third prakAra is known as ?Kulasekaran Street? in Srirangam.
kulaSEkharAzhwar then went on a pilgrimage to other divyadEsams namely,
tiruvEnkadam, tirukkannapuram, tirucchithirakUdam, tiruvitthuvakkOdu and had
darshans of the presiding deities. He also visited tirukkurugUr, worshipped
Swami nammAzhwAr, after which he proceeded to mannArkOvil which is also known
as ?brammadEsam?, performed service to Sri RajagOpAlan for some years, before
attaining paramapadam at the age of 67.
When enjoying the presiding deities of all the temples he went to, he wanted
to spread and share the joy that he was enjoying within. PerumAL tirumozhi is
the fruit of his desire to spread joy to everybody in the form of prabandams.
It is widely known that the wonderful Sanskrit text named ?MukundamAlA? was
authored by Swami KulaSEkhara bhagawAn. But, none of the achAryAs including
PeriyavAchAn piLLai, who had written extensive commentaries on the
divyaprabandams (and other works of their pUrvAchAryas including stOtra rathnA
) have not written a single line of commentary on mukunda mAlA. Not only that,
till SwAmi ManavALa MAmuni?s time, none of the achAryAs have quoted or
acknowledged even a single line from mukundamAlA. Because of which, it cannot
be wrong to say that mukundamAlA was not authored by kulasEkharAzhwAr, but one
of his descendants in his CherA dynasty with the same name, whose time was just
a few years before that of SwAmi ManavALa MAMuni.
Now, let us try to summarize the meanings of verses from PerumAL tirumozhi.
After the most compassionate Lord Sriman NArAyaNA blessed him with blemishless
knowledge (mayarvaRa madhi nalam), because of the jnAna and bhakti gained, our
AzhwAr had the strongest desire to enjoy Lord Sriman NArAyaNA, he was very
impatient to even wait till getting to VaikunTam, he wanted to see the Lord
immediately. Therefore he wanted to worship Sri RanganAthA, who has not only
the same qualities but also affability (after all, he is in our planet!!), but
then, he was caught in the mundane duties as a king, and also bhAgavata
kainkaryam (ranga yAtra dinE dinE) which proved to be hassles of sorts (from
seeing the beautiful deity of Sri RanganAthA). Expressing that languish/yearn
he sings in the first tirumozhi, ?When will the day come when I can visually
enjoy the blackpearl resting in the beautiful jewel that is Srirangam???, ?aNi
arangattil paLLi koLLum karumaNiyai adiyEn kaNdu kaLippadhu ennALO???.
The stages of prapatti that occur to the devotee of the lord, which are:
1) anukUlya sankalpam (determination to act /do what pleases the Lord)
2) prAthikUlya varjanam (refrain from acts that cause displeasure to the
Lord)
3) The strong faith that Sriman Narayana will bless and protect us
4) Give him all due respects as he is our only saviour
5) Surrendering our soul to Him
6) Understanding that it is not in our hands to attain Him, and
therefore entrusting him with the responsibility of giving us Moksham.
In his first tirumozhi which starts with the word ?iruLiriya?, the AzhwAr is
talking about bhagavath- anukUlya sankalpam (determination to act /do what
pleases the Lord) and in the second tirumozhi (starts with ?thEttarum?) he
talks about bhAgavatha anukUlya sankalpam (doing things to please the
devotees). As a direct consequence of his strong attachment to the Lord and His
devotees, he loses contact with people who are attached to their bodies
(dEhAthbhimAni) and people who are attached to material things
(vishayapravaNar), therefore he develops prAthikUlya varjanam, and he sings
about that in his third thirumozhi, (starts with the word ?meyyil?). Now, after
he has strongly developed bhagavat-bhAgavata anukUlyam and prAthikUlya
varjanam, he is yet to attain Lord Sriman NArAyaNA. Therefore he thought, ?the
Lord thinks that I am still attached to this world, and hence he is delaying in
offering salvation, therefore I shall sing on the Lord of TiruvEnkatam who is
none other than the
same Sri Ranganatha, on whom I sang my first three thirumozhi texts?. In his
fourth thirumozhi (starts with, ?oonERu?), He wants to convey to the Lord of
ThiruEnkatam that he has no desire for anything belonging to this world and the
celestial world, he would rather become even the most mere object in
TiruvEnkatam and somehow see his beautiful beautiful, coral-like lips (pavaLa
vAi). Even after obtaining all these qualities, he is yet to attain the supreme
Lord Sriya: patI. He furthermore develops Akinjanchanyam (having nothing in
possession to get him Moksha) and ananyagatitvam (no other mode of salvation
but Sriman NArAyaNA) and conveys his position go the Lotus feet of the Lord of
ThirutthuvakkOdu in his fifth tirumozhi (starts with ?tharuthuyaram?).
Even after all this, since he is yet to attain the Lord, he becomes extremely
sorrow, and gets to the level/mood of pirAtti (lover), and talks about those
feelings of love with the lord as his consort in his sixth thirumozhi
(?Ermalar??), just as Swami nammAzhwAr sang ?minnidaimadaivA? (ThiruvAimozhi
6-2) and Sri Thirumangai AzhwAr says ?kAdhil kadi.....? (Periya Thirumozhi
10-8). He feels sorry and sad that he had wasted his lifetime until then by not
knowing about the Lord, and therefore he sings the 7th thirumozhi (AlainIL?) in
the mood/bhava of dEvaki when she felt sad for having missed Lord Krishna?s
childhood pastimes after the slaying of Kamsa. After the mood of dEvakI, he
gets in to the mood of Kausalya and sings a lullaby to Lord SrirAmA in his 8th
Thirumozhi (the famous ?mannupugazh??) at the divyadesam called
ThirukkaNNapuram. Next he attains the mood of Dhasaradha, and laments, ?Oh!!
although I have enjoyed His Childhood pastimes, I myself have become the reason
for not
being able to enjoy His pastimes in His youth by sending Him to the forest?,
through the words ?dasaradhan pulambal? in his ninth thirumozhi (starts with
?vanthALiNai..?).
Having expressed his yearnings for the Lord in the first nine Thirumozhis, he
gets to the divyadEsam named ?Thirucchithira koodam?,gets all his desires
fulfilled, and gets to the mood of Sri VAlmIki bhagawAn, who experienced Lord
SrirAmA right from His appearance till His ascent to VaikunTa. Our AzhwAr, with
his supremely clear knowledge, sings the 10th Thirumozhi (starts with
angaNedumadhiL....). Since he displayed extreme love and affection for Lord
SrirAmA in both his own life, as well as his works (prabandams),
KulaSEkharAzhwAr is reverently addressed as ?KulasekharapperumAL?. He says
?padiyAykkidandhunpavaLavAi kANbEnE..? (I would rather become a step in the
staircases on Thirumala and see your beautiful lips..) by which he means that
when performing devotional service to the Lord, he has no pradAnabhOgam (desire
for fruitive results), but to only see the Lord (un pavaLavaai). It is because
of which, in all the temples of the Lord, the steps in front of the deities
(inside
the sanctum sanctorum) are called ?kulasekharan padi?.
Sri KulaSEkharap perumAL thiruvadigaLE Saranam.
AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE Saranam
adiyen dAsan,
Kidambi Soundararajan.
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