Vaiwaswatha Manu is the one who brought Lord Ranganathar from Brahma Loka to Ayodhya. In the same lineage Ikshvaaku, nAbAgan, Ambarishan, yuvAnasvan, mAnthAda, saudhAsan, Sagaran, Bhageerathan. After than in the same lineage, a king by name katvAngar lived. katvAngar is also mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatham.
King Parikshit had a curse, in 7 days a snake will bite him and he will die. Parikshit put a snake around the neck of a Maharishi. Was the Maharishi truly performing tapas or just acting? Parikshit was in thirst for water and so he went and asked the Maharishi. He shook the Maharishi to wake him up from SamAdhi, the rishi was called Sameekar. The rishi never asked why he was woken up not move, so King Parikshit intending to find out whether the rishi was truly in dhyAnam or not took a dead snake lying nearby with his arrow and put it around the rishi's neck and left. The rishi's song Sringi came there and saw this and became very angry. A King is bound to do good things for the welfare of the people and protect them. My father was simply performing tapas, Sringi thought having come to the forest, but this king humiliated him and put a dead snake around his neck. Sringi quite angry and showing his power pronounced a curse, 7 days from now from the bite of the snake called Daksha this king will die. Sameekar advised his son that he did a wrong thing, he should not have cursed the king as your tapas powers will go down, please go to the king and let him know of this curse.
As soon as Parikshit was let know of this curse, he was happy. Why because, Parikshit himself was ashamed at his act which was done hastily. As he himself had seen Lord Sri Krishna even when he was in the womb of his mother and having belonged to a family where his grandfather Dharmaputra had been so close to Sri Krishna, being born into such an illustrious family, Pariskhit was regretting that he was the victim of the Maharishi's anger or curse. As he was consoling himself, this curse is the correct one for me and I am taking this, without even wanting to find a process (prayascittam) to be liberated from his curse, immediately leaving his kingdom to his son, Janamejayan made haste to the shores of River Ganga. He thought he could find sadhus there who will show him a way to attain liberation.
When Pariskshit was on the banks of River Ganga, it just so happened that Suka Brahmam had also come there. But we cannot say that, it must have been the bhagavan's kripa or prerana that Suka Bhrahmam had come there. Pariskhit cries that he has only 7 days left and what can he do in just 7 days to get liberated? Can one do dhyAnam or yogAbhyAsam or tapasya in just 7 days? I have heard that several rishis have performed rigorous tapas, without food and water or sleep, neither in 1 birth or several births or years have not been able to realise bhagavan or just not even be able to see the feet of the bhagavan or even felt the jyothi of the lotus feet of the lord.
"anEka janma samsiddhiHi bahunAm janmanamantHe" it is said, having said this I just have only 1 week. What can I do in just 1 week, in this birth how can I be liberated. Then Suks Bhramam tells the story of one to console him. Who?
Its about King katvanga, born in the Ikshvaku line, this king was curious to know whats going to happen to him and how long he would live but he found that he had just one muhurtham (just about an hour) to live and in that muhurtham he attained Jnana. Thus Suka brahmam consoled King Parikshit that he still had 7 days left and he could definitely attain liberation. There was a king by name Alarkan, he even gave his eyes for one who tricked him to give. Queen Kaikeyi in the ramayana had asked Dasaratha that he was born in the Ikshvaaku line, in your lineage we find that one who had offered a piece of flesh to a bird, alarkan had donated his very eyes and by Lord Ranganathar's grace got back his eyes and therefore was called kAkustan and Lord Rama was also called kAkustan.
Then there was King Dileepan. Dileepan did not have any children for a long time and therefore he goes to his kula Guru, Vasistha and asks for a boon to beget a child. Go and do service to Kamadhenu's calf Nandini. King Dileepan took care of Nandini and performed his service in a devout manner. Just as sastras follow behind the vedas, King Dileepan and his wife followed the divine calf Nandini as the example given in Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa. Such was the devotion and King Dileepan was blessed with a son called Raghu and based on this vamsam (dynasty),
Kalidasa makes a great poem Raghuvamsam. Ajan was born of Raghu. Dasaratha was then born of Ajan. Ramapiran (Lord Sri Rama) was born of Dasaratha. Why was Lord Sri Rama born of Dasaratha. Because King Dasaratha comes to Vasistha and says that even though he has whatever he needs, he is childless and therefore he wants to perform a putrakAmesti yagna and Vasistha says, yes definitely he will beget children. Performing a putrakAmesti yagna will beget children as in the Srimad Bhagavatham, there was a king by name Angan who performed putrakAmesti yagna and he got a child by name venan who was not very intelligent. So having performed a putakAmesti yagna doesnt mean you will beget an illustrious child. So with what confidence does Vasistha say, In the divine world of Narayana, Lord Narayana has decided to make his appearance in bhooloka and he needs a befitting father. A lion can only be born out of a lion and not a pig or a dog. So if a mahatma has to be born, it has to be out of a father who is well suited to bear him. Vasistha already knew from his mind's eye that Lord Narayana has selected to be born of King Dasaratha and therefore with that confidence tells Dasaratha that he will beget a child.
So Sage Vasistha asks Dasaratha to perform the putra kAmeshti yAga. After Dasaratha and the whole of Rama Avatar being over, Rama goes into the River Sarayu after granting place in the Vaikunta to each and every being in the Kingdom of Ayodhya. Rama asks Hanumar also if he would come to Vaikunta but Hanumar says if he came to Vaikunta he cannot listen to bhajan, discourse or namasankeerthanam, but would rather stay in bhooloka and wherever there is katha, recitation, namasankeerthanam happening he will be present there. Rama also tells Vibheeshana to go to Lanka and rule the kingdom and presents him with the "Ranga Vimana" telling him that he will attain untold happiness. His own brother lifted kailash with his hands, can not Vibheeshana carry Ranga Vimana in his? Although Vibheeshana had in his mind to take this Ranga Vimana to Lanka, however it landed in Srirangam.
Vedanta Desikan makes a grantham called Hamsa Sandesham. In that he mentions only after Sri Ranganathar came to this place, the place came to be called as Srirangam. What was the name before that then, it was actually called "SESHA PEETAM". This was told by Rama to Seeta. Sesha peetam has a Chandra Pushkarini and everyone is praying here, reason being in this Sesha peetam, Sri Ranganathar will be coming to stay from Ayodhya which "I have heard being told by the forebearers of my clan" says Sri Rama to Seeta. What is this Chandra Pushkarini? Even today as you circumambulate the temple there will be a sannadhi for Kodanda Rama and near that there is a pushkarini which is called Chandra Pushkarini and is quite an important theertham in Srirangam.The 27 stars of Chandra are being told as the wives of Chandra and if we include the star named Abhijit which is the 28th wife of Chandra. Out of these 28 stars, Chandran favourite was the Rohini star. The rest were dejected at this and went to the father of all the stars, Daksha Prajapathi and complained that their husband Chandran was more fond of Rohini than them all. So Daksha pronounced a curse upon Chandra with a kshaya roga. Chandra shivered at the curse and went to Sage Brighu and asked, 'Swami! My Father-in-law Daksha pronounced this curse upon me and I have got this disease in my body'. Chandran being the most handsome person (as everyone would say to someone who looks beautiful that "he looks like chandran"), the rays of chandran will produce a coolness to everyone's mind as well as introduce peace into everyone's mind. As the day is heated up by the sun, when evening comes the coolness of Chandra will get rid of the heat of the day.
Poorna chandran or the raga chandran that comes in the sharat kala in the sky gives a lot of peace and is very beautiful too. Any poet be it from whatever period of time has never stopped extolling the loveliness of the moon. Such being the loveliness of the chandran, he was worried that he himself was the subject of this disease and went to Sage Brighu and asked for the deliverance from this curse. Sage Brighu advised chandra to go to Bhooloka and create a pushkarini in his name and if he takes bath daily in that pushkarini he will be cured of this disease. So that's why this theertham near the side of the Kodandarama sannadhi was created. As this theertham was created by chandran it has come to be called as chandra pushkarini. Towards the east of the theertham, he installed the Jambukeshwar idol. In the South Vysasa and Vasistha were installed. In the North Mahalakshmi was installed. As a result of chandra taking bath daily and performing japam in this place, he was removed of the disease and he was restored to his formal beauty. Even today the Moon waxes and wanes for every 15 days and on the day of Pournami becomes a full moon as we see in the sky. Whomsover takes a bath in this chandra pushkarini will become releived of disease. Chandran is the source of the mind. In our mind there is fear, mind has a depression all this will be removed if one takes bath in the chandra pushkarini. Mind will be filled with enthusiasm. In one on the banks of this chandra pushkarini does charity, japam or pooja it will beget great benefits and punyam. In this chandra pushkarini will the Lord Ranganathar will come and sit on the sesha peetam.
In Karnataka we have the talakaveri, (also called sahyajaparuvam) and there the Sage Agastyar performs tapas and he has a desire that there should be a River as famous as Ganga in the South as well. Once when Sage Agasthya was perfoming his tapas on the banks of talakaveri, Brahma on his swan passing by landed on the talakaveri seeing a lot of Gooseberry and tulasi trees, sat down and meditated upon Lord Vishnu. From one of the Gooseberry tree, saksath Lord Narayana came before him and Brahma performed the pooja with his kamandala. Looking at the scene, Sage Agastya seized the opportunity to carry the water from the padham of Lord Vishnu. Just as Bali Chakravarthy washed the Lord Trivikrama padham, the same padham was being washed here with the waters of the Talakaveri by Lord Brahma. Sage Agasthya poured the water into his Kamandala. This is also Vishnu pada theertham just like the Ganga. This was what Agasthyar wanted to be brought into South India as a river. Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma ask Sage Agasthya as to why he was performing tapas here in talakaveri and Agasthyar told them of his desire. So Lord Vishnu told that the water that the Sage had already captured in his kamandala will form a river wherever it is sprinkled and that will be the equivalent of the River Ganga.
Now just as Sage Agasthya was thinking where to sprinkle the water, suddenly a crow came from nowhere and grabbed the kamandala and dropped it in the very spot where talakaveri was. Then suddenly there was a flood of water from that spot and kaveri started flowing. Thats why the river is called Sahyaja. But Sage Agasthyar got angry as he was planning to find a good place to pour this water and this crow from nowhere disrupted his plan. He kept chasing the crow and in the present day Rockfort (Malakottai) in Trichy, the crow came to stay. When Sage Agastya went to find where the crow was, he could see an elephant face, big ears Lord Maha Ganapathi sitting there. As soon as the crow had become small, Sage Agasthya without yet realising the Maha Ganapathi gave a knock on the head and we see even now the bump on the head of Lord Maha Ganapathi. Then realising and seeing Ganapathi, he regretted that he had knocked on the head and as a repentance he knocked on his own head as well. Thats why even today whenever we see the Lord Ganapathi we knock on our heads. That Ganapathy which brought the Kaveri to Srirangam, where there was a king by name Kaveran who took the Kaveri to poompuhar and because this King Kaveran built the banks for this river and thus came to be known as River Kaveri. So Kaveri flows around the seshapeetam, ranga vimanam and paravasudevan Lord Ranganathar without touching them forming an Island that is Srirangam. So even if one were to have the darshan of Kaveri near the Bhavani or go to Kaveripoompattinam in Poompuhar and have a darshan of Sangameshwar there or have a dip in the Kaveri and perform pooja, tapas, dhanam, dharmam or dhyanam on the banks of this holy river, Lord Sri Ranganathar being amidst the Kaveri and the Chandra Pushkarini one will surely beget whatever they desire for and their wishes will verily be fulfilled!
Radhe Radhe!
Radhe Radhe!
