Bhakthi is bhAvam. bhAvam is the foundation on which bhakthi stands upon. Hence it is not surprising to see that one being firm in bhAvam and Bhakthi will see everyone as bhagavathar and everything with an association with the bhagavan. Even in our day to day lives, if we get our bhAvam right, we can be anywhere.
In the Srimad Ramayanam, we see that Bharata comes to Chitrakoota to see ramachandra prabhu. He sees Rama with his bare hair tied as a knot where there should be a crown, his body clothed in bark dress with no gold ornaments adorning his hands, fingers or neck.
For one who needs to sit on a throne in a palace, he is now sitting on a piece of rock. In the palace, he would be made happy with song and dance instead in this forest he is made to listen to growls of Lions and tigers. One who is fit to live in a palace is now living here in the forest with no support at all. When the subjects in his kingdom are asking for support from Sri Ramachandra prabhu, can he be sitting here in the forest in the middle of animals and in what way this is right, asks Bharata of Sri Ramachandra.
For one who needs to sit on a throne in a palace, he is now sitting on a piece of rock. In the palace, he would be made happy with song and dance instead in this forest he is made to listen to growls of Lions and tigers. One who is fit to live in a palace is now living here in the forest with no support at all. When the subjects in his kingdom are asking for support from Sri Ramachandra prabhu, can he be sitting here in the forest in the middle of animals and in what way this is right, asks Bharata of Sri Ramachandra.
Immediately Ramachandra prabhu asks bharata as to why should he thinks like this? If Ayodhya is your kingdom, for me this is forest kingdom - vanarajyam. If the subjects in ayodhya form the residents of Ayodhya, for me the animal inhabitants of this forest are my subjects. This rock is my throne. For your palace there is a small roof, however for me, the entire sky is the roof. There is a dancer which is the peacock which makes me happy with its dance. The kuil will sing and make me happy. I am happy here. The tiedup hair in a knot is indeed the crown on my head. The deer skin clothes I wear on my body are my royal clothing, says Sri Ramachandra.
If we change our dristi i.e., the way of our seeing, then everything will be alright. But having a crown on his head, if he does not enjoy it and instead feels it is a burden on his head, will it be alright for him? If one is not able to understand and respect the goodness of what he is having, then even though it is available it is of no use.
In 100 degree fever, when the body is shivering, whilst chanting bhagavannama keerthanam and it seems in a place called badarikashraman where there is ice all around, some will be in tapas in the middle of it all. Likewise I am performing tapas there. Otherwise in the midst of extreme heat, just like Arjunan who in the middle of panchAgni performed tapas when we change the bhAvam, there is happiness. No need to feel sad or cry then. But having everything, then if we keep on saying I dont have anything then there is always dukham. If one always keeps thinking he needs to have more and more, he indeed is the poorer. One who thinks that what he has is itself a lot more than what he needs is the one who is happy and content.
if an ordinary mortal feels so, azhwar with his heart sees the place Srirangam where he feels that the bees are all singing "Ranga Ranga" always. All the peacocks are dancing like the bhagavathars, the fishes whose eyes dont blink are like the bhagavathars who dont sleep, day and night notwithstanding sleep or tiredness are always singing the praises of bhagavan. In a place where there is the perumal porappAdu, it will return to the sannadhi at 2 am. If going to Jeeyapuram, will start in the night, get down in the kollidam kAveri. Can one who is bound with sleep to overtake him, can he perform seva to the perumal. Likewise during the rApathu, paghazhpathi marghazhi mAtham uthsavams, there is no chance of sleep. For whom are involved with the bhagavath karyam, they will not have sleep as a luxury at all nor they will not feel the presence of something called sleepiness within them. Likewise as fishes who do not sleep and have their eyes open, the bhagavathars here do not sleep at all and their eyelids dont blink. There is no time for the eyelids to close it seems.
Bhagavathars perform arinamasankeerthanam, for such a harinamasankeerthanam it is bhAvam that is important and not the sangeetham itself. But arent they performing the singing in the melodious swaram. Usually in the temple there will be the veena kutchEri, even the arayar will sing by putting the tAlam. Even in the thAyyar koil sannidhi, in the closing time of the night, after the thirukAppu they will play the veena, isnt it. Then the peacock danced and the kuil sang with Sruthi - "kuyilinam koovum sOlai", so beautifully the kuil bhagavathar is singing here.
So beautifully is the kuil singing and the peacock is dancing and with such sruthi suddham the bees are singing "ranga ranga", the fishes whose eyes dont close and are jumping with joy in the water. When the fishes get happiness, the dolphin will jump higher whereas the small fishes will jump a little above the water! Now the fishes are happy. It will be a great happiness to see at the same time a lot of fishes jumping over the water.
"koNdal mIthaNavum sOlai", "kuyilinam kUvum sOlai" - who has come here? When Sri Ranganathar who started from Ayodhya, Sri Ramachandra prabhu looking at Sri VibhishanAzhwar says, that which was bought forth by Manu from bhrama lOka and all the elders from my lineage who performed aradhana is the prabhu - Ranganathan. He then instructs Sri VibhishanAzhwar to take this Ranganathan to Sri Lanka and perform pooja, saying so Sri Ramachandra prabhu gave him the Ranganathar - "Aradhaya jagannAtham ikshvAku kuladeivatham".
Sri VibhishanAzhwar taking the ranganathar in his hands travelled to Sri Lanka and even the perumal when he started from Ayodhya had made the sankalpam of going to Lanka only. Isnt Sri Ramachandra prabhu a perumal bhakthar? So he has sent the perumal to Lanka as was his desire. But why has Ranganathar settled here. Was it because the King called Dharmaverma performed tapas on Sri Ranganathar here, it is not that alone which made Ranganathar stay here, but mainly because Ranganathar himself liked this place. He felt the beauty of the River Kaveri flowing here.
There is cool breeze from the River Kaveri, there is green fertile vegetation all around. There are pearls and corals brought forth from the surging River Kaveri. So beautifully the peacocks dance, cuckoos sing and the kondai fishes play here.
So VibhishanAzhwar is not keen on leaving this place, also the perumal is in a sleeping posture as well. If only a cool breeze or a beautiful song is there, that is when usually a sleeping posture is seen.
Simply because King Dharmaverma did tapas here was not solely a reason for staying here, it is because he started liking Srirangam very much and the beautiful surroundings. Till now it was said that the perumal nithyavAsam place was Srivaikuntam.
From Srivaikuntam in order to uplift the ordinary mortals, even through the perumal being a veda swaroopi and sastra swaroopi, HIM not being satisfied performing the rama krishna vibhavAdhi avatArams, still not being satisfied with that now arose in archAvatAra thirumEni, HE has made Srirangam as his main abode. The vaikuntam itself is only being a visited place. Srirangam became HIS permanent abode. Whenever he feels so, he will go to vaikuntam and come back here.
Hence he is, "aNdar kOn amarum sOlai! - such a perumal, for HIM the resting place is the sOlai - Srirangam, being said here as a sOlai rather than a kshEtram. It is so beautiful being filled with nature. Kaveri has a beautiful name called "Ponni" or "thAmara parani". "ponni" meaning that there is a gold mineral in this kAveri river, that is why in tamil it is called ponni. Such a beautiful place, the place of tanjai which is the source of food, azhwar sings as "chennal kavari veesu", such a pradesam where there is abundance of grains being sowed and reaped. Where there is abundance of peacocks, cuckoos, bees and fishes is where our Sri Ranganathar is residing.
For those who want to go on a vacation, they would take leave of 10 days or so and visit kshetrams. There are people who would like to see the wonders of the world. Likewise some will have desire of seeing the nature present in this world, they would want to tour the areas of the world where there is an abundance of natural beauty. They can go on boat rides, visit forest areas. Atleast with that desire, can you not come to Srirangam. Being such a place where there is so much nature, will you not come to see Ranganathar atleast in that manner.
"aNdar kOn amarum sOlai aNi Thiruvarangam" - are we not seeing that the peacocks, cuckoo, fishes, bees are performing seva there and these do not have the six senses and also singing "ranga, ranga" there. The six senses given to us are for singing the glory of the perumal. Even the nature and the nature's creatures are performing seva to the perumal.
Even today when the perumal is coming for a porappAdu, there will be a drizzle of rain. Why because when you sprinkle some water with cowdung in front of your home, the varuna bhagavan also thinks that he should shower across all the streets. There is wind blowing, why beacuse when you take the broomstick to sweep the ground only in front of your home, the vayu bhagavan thinks he should sweep all the streets where the porappAdu will take place. The vAyu bhagavan performs the
seva likewise. When the nature itself is so intent on performing seva here, it is HIM who has created these in the first place.
There is a bhaktar in brindavan who would sing beautiful krishna keerthanams he is both a poet and a bhakthar combined. Meaning when bhakthi as well as the bhagavath prasadam showered upon them will bring forth such poetic tendencies within. Listening to this bhakthar the king of that province became very happy. The King desired that he must do something for him. More than his krishna bhakthi, the king was more interested in the songs that he has sung. What to do for him, the king thought. The king decided that he should name the place where he is staying with the name of the bhakthar. But the bhakthar got angry and was not happy with this. Did you or me create this pound of sand? Can we create even a grain of this sand by ourselves. We can probably research what is in this sand, but can we create the sand itself. You can research what is in this air, but can you create air in this world. Can someone stop the planets rotating around this world. How are the planets or navagrahas located and staying in their places and being bound by what? There is one who has created all this. Isnt this well nigh foolishness to keep your name or my name for a place created by HIM. So no need of all this name.
What is bhakthi?
It the gratitude we show to the bhagavan.
You have given the mouth, tongue, eye, ears, hands and legs, the six senses, this human birth, so even when you are consuming your food you should say that this is because of your kripa I get all this and not my intelligence. The swallowing of this food is because of your kripa and the greatest of all, the kripa is the factor of being able to digest the food, the process of digestion that takes place without my effort.
THIS IS YOUR ULTIMATE KRIPA, THE GREATEST ONE
YOU HAVE SHOWERED UPON ME!!!
There is a latent heat inside the body which is ever present and whatever food that is consumed, without fail it does the job of digesting the food.
HOW?
Some may ask, that if we do not work, will the god provide food for us. It may be thought of as an intelligent question. But no one said that without work, bhagavan will provide food for us. This has not been told by any matham or any acharyan or any bhakthar. Only when you do hard work, will food be provided to you.
But what they said was that when you swallow in the food, it goes inside your body and then gets digested. Who does this?
If for a body that has been deceased, if they put rice inside that cold body will food go inside. Even if you push the food through inside the body with a stick, will it get digested?
Its not great that you get the food, it is when the food is being swallowed and resides in the bag called stomach and then the action of digestion is initiated within the stomach -
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT?
It is the earth given to us by HIM, the seeds given by HIM, the water provided by HIM and the foodgrains grow from it. Then the air provided by HIM and the food thus consumed should be offered as a prasad to HIM.
nivEdanam is not making the bhagavan to eat all the food offered. It is showing the food to HIM.
Even for us, we say that you presented this clothes for me and I am wearing it. As we usually say the dress, the chain you purchased for me is what I am wearing. The car that you bought for me is on which i am going to places daily. Likewise to the perumal we should say, the earth that you created, the food that has grown and has been provided by your grace which, upon being cooked, I am showing it to you first before I am about to eat it. If the food is not consumed in this way, then what is the benefit from the food consumed.
Ok, you may ask the question that perumal is somewhere and you are somewhere. Can you daily show this food to the perumal in Srirangam and then eat?
No, we do not say that, it is enough you are saying "Ranga".
Whatever sAnidhyam is present in the divyamangala swaroopam, the archAvatAra thirumEni of the perumal, that sAnidhyam is PRESENT FULLY IN HIS NAMA.
As you are saying, aranga, "ranga", the sAnidhyam is in the NAMA.
So whilst eating, can you please keep chanting "NAMA" atleast. Thinking of his kripa, eat - says azhwAr.
"aNdar kOn amarum sOlai aNi Thiruvarangam ennAm"
"miNdar pAyndhuNNum sORRai vilakki nAykku iduminIrE"
