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Srimate SrivanStakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

                                      TiruvArAdhanam    

         The importance of worshipping the Lord daily need not be emphasized. 
"TiruvArAdhanam" as it is called, occupies an extremely significant part of the 
Sri VaishnavA's daily agenda, perhaps the most substantial item thereof. Just 
like Sandhyavandanam, Brahmayagyam etc., Bhagavat ArAdhanam too is an 
indispensable part of our daily routine, never to be forsaken for any reason, 
except when one contracts "Asoucham" or "theettu". This is evident from a host 
of texts in the Shruti, Smriti and itihAsAs. The hallowed Rigveda emphasises 
the obligatory nature of such worship-"pra va: pAntam andhasO dhiyAyatE mahE 
shoorAya VishNavE cha archata". Shounaka Mahrshi, quoting this, lays down the 
mode of such worship in detail, as a "nitya karma"-" ShounakOham pravakshyAmi 
nityam Visnvarchanam param".
 The PAncharAtra, for its part, tells us that ritualistic worship of the Lord 
with devotion is to be performed daily-
"nityam cha Etat VaisvadEvAdivat Bhagavat ArAdhanam".  
Emphatic confirmation, if at all needed, comes from Sage Vyasa, who tells us 
that worship of the Lord affords us greater merit than any Vaidika karma: he 
exhorts us therefore to perform ArAdhanam daily-
"na VishnvArAdhanAt puNyam vidyatE karma vaidikam
 tasmAt anAdi madhyAntam nityam ArAdhayEt Harim".
The dire consequences flowing form non-performance, due either to laziness or 
even oversight or ignorance, include a birth among lowly pigs, apart from 
rendering the offender liable for a spell in Hell-
"YO mOhAt athavA AlasyAt akritvA VishNu poojanam
 bhunktE sa yAti narakAn sookarEshu abhijAyatE".
Not a single day should we stay, nor should we partake of even water in a 
village, town or house, where the Lord is not worshipped daily, says the 
ParAsara SamhitA-
"VishnvarchA rahitE grAmE VishnvarchA rahitE grihE
  na kuryAt anna pAnAdi na tatra divasam vasEt".
Further, the term "YAjI' in the Bhagavat Gita sloka
"man manA bhava mad bhaktO mad YAjI mAm namaskuru" 
very obviously refers to the TiruvArAdhanam to be performed daily by everyone. 
And when we say "everyone" it indeed means everyone, without differences of 
gender, caste or status, economic or spiritual. While those eligible to recite 
the Shruti can use the same in the Lord's worship, those ineligible may resort 
to the Tantric mode of performing TiruvArAdhanam. For instance, when the 
husband is away or unwell, women can do this on the former's behalf, limiting 
themselves to nivEdanam of food cooked for the Lord, without using Vaidika 
mantrAs and without touching the images of the Lord (whether vigrahAs or 
SAlagrAma mUrthIs) says prakritam Srimad Azhagiasingar's Ahnika grantham 
("BhartrumatInAm bhartru AgyAya atra pravritti: anugyAyatE-- tadapi kEvalam 
nivEdana Eva"). 

Such is the significance of this karma, that our Acharyas, beginning with Sri 
Bhashyakara, have laid down specific modes of ArAdhanam, for the benefit of 
people like us,who know not how to adulate the Lord. The "nityam" is one of the 
nine works of Sri Ramanuja, dealing in detail with this ritual, the very title 
emphasizing the need for its daily performance.  

Why should we perform Bhagavat ArAdhanam? It should be enough reason for us 
that the Shruti, Smriti and Acharyas unanimously tell us that we should. 
However, apart from the need for implicit obedience to the Scripture, it is our 
love for the Lord that prompts us to offer Him worship. When our affection for 
someone abounds, we feel the need for doing something for them, as an 
expression of our love and care. It is paternal love for our progeny which 
makes us scoop up the child in our arms, hug it, smother it with kisses, croon 
to it and indulge in similar acts exhibiting our emotions. How do we display 
our love to the Paramapurusha, who has, out of His infinite mercy, given us 
this human birth, resides within us inseparably in an endearing gesture of 
eternal love and care, provides us with a reasoning intellect enabling us to 
choose a strategy for liberation most suited to us, makes us progress along the 
path of choice and ultimately confers upon us the coveted fruit of kainkaryam 
in Paramapadam?
How do we demonstrate our gratitude and boundless affection for the Lord (not 
that He requires such demonstration), who hovers protectively over us all the 
time, unseen but definitely there, ensuring that we come to no harm in any 
fashion, willing to overlook all our misdeeds if only we would repent and turn 
over a new leaf, aiding and assisting us all as an omnibus relative-- a father, 
mother, brother, friend, wife and son, all rolled into one?

Bhagavat ArAdhanam or ritualistic worship provides us an outlet for our 
enduring emotions towards the Lord. It furnishes us with an ideal way of  
expressing our ecstatical feelings, where He is concerned. Such worship is born 
out of "anubhava janita preeti" or the ecstasy of the individual soul, forever 
enchanted by all the Lord has done, is doing and will surely do for us poor 
mortals. It is the end-product of an enduring enthralment occasioned by the 
innumerable auspicious attributes of the Lord, each of which affords us 
indescribable delight. ArAdhanam is the compulsive reaction of all those who 
are bewitched beyond measure by Emperuman's glorious and magnificent form, 
which makes them lose themselves in its enjoyment, similar to a small boy let 
loose in a toyshop with a bewildering variety of playthings.

It is this daily and blissful experience which prepares us for the eternal 
enthralment of service to the Lord at SriVaikuntam. It is a daily dress 
rehearsal, so to say, to what we are destined to do at our ultimate abode. When 
we bathe the Lord tenderly in scented water, pure milk, honey etc., we should 
relive the experiences of Sri Yasoda Piraatti and Sri PeriyAzhwar, who attained 
incomparable heights of bliss through such ministrations to the toddler 
Krishna. When we offer Him a dress of silk after the bath, we should be 
reminded of the glorious garments Sri Kousalya must have dotingly dressed her 
darling in. When we offer Him a lighted lamp, we should be struck at the 
incongruity of showing a feeble and flickering light to one who is the ultimate 
in luminiscence ("Narayana parO jyOti:"). When we place before Him our humble 
offering of cooked food, we should be reminded of the love and devotion with 
which both exalted BharadvAja Maharshi and the humble Sabhari fed Him, in their 
own inimitable ways, and the equal gusto with which He partook of both the 
sumptutuous feast offered by the former and the modest jungle fruits tendered 
by the latter. When we offer flowers at His feet, we should remind ourselves 
that the best and the most precious bloom He would relish is our souls-"the 
Atma vastu". And that the other types of flora which would delight Him are the 
qualities of ahimsA, sense control, truthfulness, mercy, etc., which we should 
strive to cultivate. When we recite before Him stOtrAs for His pleasure, we 
should mentally place ourselves in the footprints of Azhwars and Acharyas, 
whose magnificent offerings, in verse and prose, in an uncontrollable 
outpouring of overwhelming love, affection and adoration, stand as guiding 
Beacons of Bhakti, till date. And when we finally put Him to bed, at the end of 
the daily quota of loving ministrations, we should be reminded of the 
magnificent snake who forms His eternal bed-- soft, supple, sinuous, lithe, 
fragrant, broad and beautiful-- and the myriad ways in which he appropriates 
the opportunities of service to the Lord-
"ChendrAl kudayAm, irundAl singAsanamAm
  nindrAl maravadiyAm-neetkadaluL endrum
 puNayAm maNi viLakkAm poompattAm
 pulgum aNayAm TirumArku aravu".

Thus, Bhagavat ArAdhanam is only a daily practice session, to remind us 
constantly of the indescribable bliss that awaits us, as PrapannAs, at the end 
of this birth. For all that, it is none the less real, for kainkaryam to the 
arcchA moorti, whether it be at divyadEsams or at one's own home, is as 
pleasurable as that to the Paramapadanatha at Srivaikuntam, as both Sri Kalian 
and Swami Desikan have attested. We should offer every arghyam or pAdyam or 
other ministration/ upachAram lovingly, imagining in our mind's eye the Lord 
accepting the same with alacrity and delight-delight akin to that occasioned to 
the mother by the infant, who puts a morsel of its own baby food into the mouth 
of the feeding parent, though its inexpert hands might spill most of the morsel 
enroute to the mouth. The performance of TiruvArAdhanam in the prescribed 
fashion ("gyAna vidhi pizhayAmE") is thus capable of affording us as much 
delight as perhaps that of nitya sUrIs, the permanent residents of 
Srivaikuntam, making us conform to the description of  Sri Nammazhwar-"nila 
thEvar"-Gods on Earth. 

Azhwars tell us how such ArAdhanam is to be performed. Sri Nammazhwar is so 
particular that all flowers should be utilised for adorning the Lord's tirumEni 
and tiruvadi, that he tells us to gather blooms from all eight directions for 
the purpose-"endisayum uLLa poo koNdu Etthi ugandu ugandu". He also lists the 
various upachArAs that are to be offered to the Paramapurusha-

"mEvi tozhudu uymmin neergaL VEda punida irukkai
 nAvil koNdu achuthanai gyAna vidhi pizhayAmE
 poovil pugayum viLakkum sAndamum neerum malindu
 mEvi tozhum adiyArum bhagavarum mikkadu ulagE"

The Lord is to be adulated with  choice words of praise (like the Purusha 
Sukta) that Vedas reserve for the Supreme Being. The best of scented smoke is 
to be offered to the Lord after a ceremonial bath, with the Veda mantra, 
"dhoorasi dhoorva dhoorvantam dhoorvatam yOsmAn dhoorvati...." and He is to be 
courteously shown a lighted lamp, as an auspicious item, to the accompaniment 
of the Mantra, "uddeepyasva JAtavEdO apagnan nirritim mama...". The best of 
flowers are to be showered on His tiruvadi, to the recitation of Mantra Pushpam 
(extracts from the four Vedas, itihAsAs, purANAs, divya prabandAs, poorvAcharya 
Stotras, etc.). The Lord's tirumEni is to be adorned with fragrant and cool 
sandalwood paste. He is to be propitiated with water time and again, in the 
form of arghyam, pAdyam, Achamaneeyam, SnAneeyam and pAneeyam. These are some 
of the offerings Sri Nammazhwar prescribes during TiruvArAdhanam. 

Rather than search for external implements for worship, Sri Nammazhwar prefers 
to offer extremely personalised upachArAs to the Lord. Secure in the knowledge 
that He would relish these much more than any other external and ostentatious 
paraphernelia, Sri Nammazhwar offers his own mind, made extremely cool and 
fragrant with constant thoughts of the Lord, in the place of sandalwood 
paste-"poosum sAndu en nenjamE". Considering even the smooth sandalwood to be 
too rough for the Lord's extremely soft and delicate tirumEni, Azhwar considers 
his own mind to be a much better substitute.  Rather than search for some 
flowers suitable for Emperuman and string them together into a garland, Azhwar 
finds a garland of verses much easier to fashion and more to the Lord's liking, 
substituting a "Poo mAlai" by a much sweeter, fragrant and poignant "PAmAlai". 
While flowers by nature wilt and fade after a day at the most, Azhwar's garland 
of verses remains eternally fresh and fragrant, which is another reason for his 
preference-"punayum kaNNi ennudaya vAsagam sei mAlayE". These divine and 
delightful verses serve not only as an adornment for the Lord's chest, but also 
double as glorious and glittering garments for His dressing up-"vAn pattAdayum 
akhdE". Woven as they are in various metres, with the warp of devotion, these 
Prabandas form the apparel of choice for Emperuman. Azhwar says that much more 
than glittering ornaments sculpted out of precious metals like gold and silver, 
a single gesture of supplication with joined palms-an "anjali"-would serve as 
the best of jewelry for the Lord. It is the surrender of our soul in the 
ultimate gesture of Prapatti that the Lord deems to be the most valuable of 
adornments. It is hence that Azhwar says, "dEsamAna aNikalanum en kai kooppu 
seigayE".

It is TiruvArAdhanam such as the one practised by Azhwar that occasions the 
maximum delight to Emperuman, much more than any characterised by the offering 
of items acquired at considerable cost. What He looks for is sincerity, 
devotion, love and piety: He bothers little about how much we spend and much 
more about how much of our thoughts are on Him.

We thus find that it is our duty, albeit a delectable one, to worship the Lord 
daily and that, in the process, the use of our internal organs as aforesaid, 
affords Emperuman great delight. The Lord calls him a thief, who eats daily 
without offering the food first to the Universal Provider-'stEna Eva hi sa:". 
It is for this reason that our Acharyas mercifully initiate us into the process 
of Bhagavat ArAdhanam, during Pancha SamskAram, in the fond hope that we would, 
from that day, perform ArAdhanam continuously. When we do the karma sincerely 
and with devotion, we would be able to discern a distinct smile on the face of 
the Lord who adorns our homes. Whatever be our occupation, whatever be the 
timings we have to observe in our profession, when we find time for a hundred 
other personal and official errands, we ought to accommodate Bhagavat ArAdhanam 
too in our daily schedule, not as something to be performed per force or out of 
a sense of obligation, but something to be done prompted solely by love, 
affection and adoration for the most magnificent of beings, one who delights in 
hearing our voices raised in praise, much as a parent would in hearing his 
toddler's first words, hardly intelligible but eminently satisfying all the 
same.

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana 
Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:
Dasan, sadagopan


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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