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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00043 Mar 2003

 
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SrI:
SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:
Dearest Srivaishnavas,

KulasEkarAzhwar was born as a prince to ChEra king Dhidavrathan and
nAdhanAyagi in the month of mAsi and the nakshatram of punarpoosam (same as that of Lord Rama). Today is this AzhwAr?s Thirunakshathram. The child when born looked divine and made everyone happier and cheerful. The entire kingdom was in a jubilant mood. The kid was named kulasEkaran and when he grew he was taught all sAstrAs, epics, arts, Tamil and Sanskrit and was also given training on fighting, Horse riding, Elephant riding, etc. In each endeavour, he excelled and came out in flying colours. When Dhidavrathan became old, kulasEkaram ascended the throne and since then he was ruling like Lord Sri Rama and brought in RamaRajyam to his kingdom. People were very happy and here was rich harvest throughout the year; there were regular rains and there was only subheeksham. Hence the citizens had great amount of love and respect for their king kulasEkarA.

Once without knowing kulasEkarA's strengths, the neighbouring kings (Chola and pAndyA) came to fight and during the battle kulasEkaran won with no difficulty. Impressed PandyA king gave his daughter to kulasEkarA for marrying her. kulasEkarA was blessed with a son (whom he named dhidavradhan) and a daughter ILai.

One night, The Lord wished to divert kulasEkarA's attention to Him and he appeared as Lord Tirupati Venkatachalapathi in the king's dream and blessed him. The king was overwhelmed with the Lord's love and became silent and was only thinking of the Lord at all times. He became totally like water in Lotus leaf (Water never wets the Lotus leaf) and was ruling the kingdom without any attachment; He was spending his time more and more on Thiru vArAdhnam and Bhajans and listening to stories of Rama and KrishNa. He even started disliking the battles since he did not like to see more loss of lives in the battle. He started singing in Tamil and sanskrit with full of love and Bhakti in praise of the Lord.

He spent his most of the time only on religious activities and attending discourses. Once when the UpanyAsakar was narrating Rama RavaNa yuddham where the battle was going on for a long time and RavaNa was giving a tough fight, kulasEkara was so much attached to the story and it the discourse he ordered his Army General to immediately organise to send the soldiers, elephants and horses and the king was also making himself ready for the battle to give a helping hand to Sri Rama. The upanyAsakar and all others were totally perplexed and could not say anything. The upanyAsaker at last came to the king and said" O, mighty king, We need not go. The Lord Rama has already killed rAvaNa and is on his way back to AyOdhyA for his pattAbhishEkam". That made the king silent and he came to normalcy; Such was kulasEkarA's bhakti for Rama. It is told Lord Rama appeared in his dream that night and said" kulasEkarA, I am deeply moved by your readiness to offer me help in the battle. Since you are having blind affection and live for me , you did not realise my Strength and parAkramam. We can win asurAs with no effort; You are acting just like LakshmaNA, who is also attached to me deeply. From today you will be called kulasEkara perumAL like ILayaperumAL LakshmaNA. Even today he is revered as kulasEkara perumAL. The pAsurams he sang were compiled under "perumAL thirumozhi". One can see his feeling of deep regret for not being born during RamA's time in his pAsurams.

As he was getting more and more involved in Bhagavadh Bhakti and Bhagavadha Bhakti and was spending all his time in such activities, the ministers were not clear as to how to bring the king back to his administration. The king had even consecrated a Golden statute of Sri Rama in the palace where he was spending most of the time with other pundits and upanyAsakALs.

Once during a Ramanavami day (the birthday of Sri Rama), the king was
astonished to see a big nice Navaratna mAlai which had adorned Sri Rama
missing. He was confused as to how somoen can come inside the palace with so much security and so many people around. The ministers were asked; One of them (may be the chief minister) hesitantly stammered to say" May be ..O .king........one of upanyAsakALs, or these scholars ...could..........have.....taken...." He did not even finish his statement. The king was shivering and was literally shocked to hear that statement as if he has stepped on a Red hot burnt iron; He could not believe his ears as to how these minister can even think of these GREAT BHAKTAAS as ones who could have flicked; "What are you saying? Are you talking about these adiyArs of Sriman NARAYANA. Are you not ashamed to say that? Is your tongue still alive? How dare you think them as thieves when their love is only for the Lord and they consider the Gold and dust the same; Those UTTHAMARGAL - Do you think they have stolen the MAALAI? . He did not stop with that. He called someone to bring a pot wherein he had arranged to place a poisonous snake; Bewildered ministers obeyed. He showed them the pot with the snake inside. He said and prayed to the Lord" If the mAlai has been taken by one of the BhaktALs, let the snake bite me; If not, I will come out unscathed.". He put his hand inside the pot. The snake NEVER TOUCHED his hand. The minister came out openly saying "we are very sorry and we beg your pardon. We are the ones who removed the MALAI and put the blame on BhaktA so that you will start disliking them and will concentrate on administrative matters. Please forgive us for this
irresponsible act."

Such was his love and reverence on Bhagawathas. He has written special ten for Bhagawatha sEshathvam in His perumAl Thirumozhi.

In one of his paasurams , he revealed to us that those , who wear the dust from the feet ( Thondar adippodi) on their heads do not need GangA snAnam to wash away their sins :

aadip paadi arangavO yenrazhaikkum
ThondaradippodiyAda naam peRil ,
Gangai neer kudainthAdum vEtkai yennAvathE ?

In another paasuram, Azhwar states that his hairs stand on end
over the thought of those BhagavathAs , who enjoy Sri Ranganaathan
as the Kodhanda PaaNi and get goose pimples :

..tiNNa maamathiL TennaranganAm meysilaik karumEhamonRu
tamm nenjil ninru thihazhap pOy mey silippavar tammayE
ninainthu yenn manam mey silirkkumE

In another paasuram of PerumAL THirumozhi , AzhwAr expressed his deep desire . He revealed that his prayer was to lose his mind in devotion to the BhagavathAs , who sing and dance with aanandha paravasam about the glories of the Lord of Sri Rangam with the beautiful eyes reminding one of the beauty of the soft , red lotus flower . He wanted to become one of the BhagavathAs to get closer to the Lord of Sri Rangam (Thondar vAzhvukku maalayuRRathen nenjamE ) .

Let us get back to his history. Sorry for the digression. We were lured by the Bhagawatha sEshathvam of AzhwAr.

KulasEkarA thought silently after listening to all this and understood the underlining concern of his ministers for the kingdom and the rule. He immediately decided to bring his son into the picture and trained him for some time before he started off his Divya Desam pilgrimage throughout India singing Lord's Glories and GuNAs.

He visited almost all the temples and he lost his heart for Sri Rama. He has sung lullabies for Sri Rama as "RaghavanE ThAlElO!". He has even sung pAsurams on Devaki's misfortune of not able to enjoy kaNNan's leelA's and "thollai inbam" (naughty Kannan?s divya chEstithangaL) which yasOdhA was blessed with. One can greatly be moved by his pAsurams where in he longs for being born as a step in Tirupathi Lord's
temple or a fish in the Holy pushkaraNi or a seNbhaga tree in
Tirupathi(standing in front of the temple) or a Big stone which can not be removed so easily; He even wished to be born as a servant holding the Golden Bowl in front of Sriman nArAyaNan to spit the water after washing, gargling and cleaning His mouth in the morning. Such was his desire to serve the Lord ceaselessly and that too from a king!. [One can imagine our plight with so little(or no) material possessions and with that few pennies in our wallet we walk with so much pride, with arrogance with even a very little achievement in our lives (which too is possible only with His grace).]

He lived till 67 years and then reached His abode and it is also told that his daughter ILai followed her father kulasEkara perumAn and was also blessed with the Lord's ThiruvaruL.

As mentioned earlier, this AzhwAr had dreamt about pilgrimage to Srirangam every day from his kingdom. He gave up his kingdom finally and moved to Srirangam and reached the Lord's sacred feet there. He blessed us 105 marvellous pAsurams in his PerumAL Thirumozhi known for their depth of Bhakthi . The first three of his ten decads are about Azhagiya MaNavALan Sri RanganAthan.

In the first decad , KulasEkarA longs for the day, when he would be able to stand in the courtyard of Sri RanganAthan hugging the two ThirumaNatthUNNkal (huge pillars in His sannidhi)- that one can see even today in Srirangam. These two pillars are known as the marriage pillars. They are recognized as a pair representing the fragrance of Sri RanganAthan. The BhakthAs overcome by the Lord's beauty hold on to them to maintain their balance, when the flood of the Lord's beauty hits them as they stand in the ThirumuRRam of the Lord :

KadiarangattharavaNayil paLLIk koLLUM MaayOnai, maNat thUNE paRRi ninru yenn vaayAra yenru kolO vAzhtthum nALE

(when will that day arrive, when I can stand holding the two marriage pillars in the sannidhi of Sri RanganAthan and praise Him with all the power of my tongue?).

In the third decad , AzhwAr explains the transformation in him as his mind fell in love with the BhaagavathAs of Lord RanganAthan . He says that he developed VairAghyam [detachment] and lost interest in pomp and circumstance and discarded all perishable pleasures that are fleeting. He says that he avoided from then on all those who confuse their body with their AthmA and equate the perishable worldly pleasures with the divine Bliss of relating to the Lord. In the sixth paasuram of this
decad , Azhwar states with conviction:

yemparatthar allArodum kUdalan
umbar vAzhvai onRak karuthalan
TampirAn amararkku , Aranganahar
EmpirAnukku Yezhumaiyum pitthanE

(Meaning ) : I will not associate with those, who have are not the servants of the Lord like me. I will always stay intoxicated with the love for my Lord of Nithya Sooris, who is at His Periya Koil
at Srirangam .

A sample pAsuram to taste the sweetness and longing desire of AzhwAr for ThiruvEnkatamudaiyaan and be there in Tirumala in any form whatsoever.

AznAtha selvatthu arambaiyargaL thaRsoozha/
vAnALum selvamum; maNNarasum yAn vENdEn/
thEnAr poonchOlai thiruvEngadatthu chunaiyil/
meenAi piRakkum vidhiyudaiyOnAvEnE/

Such a wonderful pAsuram. adiyEn requests all those who can read Tamil to read these 105 pAsurams of PerumAl Thirumozhi today and it takes only about 30 minutes at a maximum.

kulasEkarAzhwAr thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Regards
Namo narayana
dAsan

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