In the world today, any wonders or any art or any building we see that amazes us, we seem to find out that in such and such time, such and such a king did this. Kallanai was built by the king Karikala Chola. He may have constructed out of his desire. But behind the construction of such an artistic building or dam there would have been an architect or a creative artist who would have planned, designed or executed isnt it. By and large we never get to know their names. We only come to know the details of the time period of the particular king when this was constructed. But in Srirangam temple, in the periyathiruvadi "GarudAzhwar" sannadhi, there is a beautiful mantapam made out of wood.
There will be 4 pillars and on top 8 kalasams. This wooden mantapam is called "paraman mantapam". How did this mantapam get the name "paraman mantapam"? When the Vijayanagara kings were ruling here, there were two important people one called Varanatharayar and the other called vAlanatharayar and vAlanatharayar out of his desire created this mantapam in the sannadhi of GarudAzhwar. But the king out of sheer gratitude did not name the mantapam after himself or after the kingdom or after his guru and not even after the name of perumal in the temple himself such as ranganathar, nacchiar or andal mantapam. But the main wood worker who created this beautiful mantapam was called "paraman" and vAlanatharayar named this mantapam after paraman.
There will be 4 pillars and on top 8 kalasams. This wooden mantapam is called "paraman mantapam". How did this mantapam get the name "paraman mantapam"? When the Vijayanagara kings were ruling here, there were two important people one called Varanatharayar and the other called vAlanatharayar and vAlanatharayar out of his desire created this mantapam in the sannadhi of GarudAzhwar. But the king out of sheer gratitude did not name the mantapam after himself or after the kingdom or after his guru and not even after the name of perumal in the temple himself such as ranganathar, nacchiar or andal mantapam. But the main wood worker who created this beautiful mantapam was called "paraman" and vAlanatharayar named this mantapam after paraman.
Azhwar comes along singing the tirumalai for the perumal. "Indiralokam alum acchuvai perinum venden", said azhwar, "Adalal peraivi venden" also said azhwar. Perumal said, either I have "moksham" with me or this "world" with me, I have chittrinbam or pErinbam both, but if you do not desire neither, whats your opinion. When this was asked to azhwar, azhwar asks that he wants to be part of the temple as one among. Thus he calls it as the third vibhUthi. Inside the temple by identifying a kainkaryam and keeping himself with the perumal. Srirangam itself being a bhooloka vaikuntam, there is a difference here. In the saksath Srivaikuntam there is no procession or uthsavam for the perumal there but within this temple all this is very much there and therefore the azhwar desires to stay here itself. Looking at perumal he offers pasurams after pasurams. "moyththa valvinaiyuL ninRu mUnRezhuththu udaiya pErAl kaththirabandhum anRE parAngkathi kaNdu koNdAn iththanai adiyar AnArkku irangkum nam arangkanAya piththanaip peRRum andhO! piRaviyuL piNangkumARE" - this being a vishnu dharmam grantham, the greatness of namakeerthanam is being told by azhwar. Whilst telling this, there is a story about "Kaththirabandhu", "kaththirabandhum anRE parAngkathi kaNdu koNdAn" says azhwar. Whilst telling about Srimad bhagavatham itself, "Srimad Bhagavatham nama purana brahmasamhitam" will come. There is a puranam called bhagavatham, there is a puranam by the name of bhagavatham which is as great as the vedas. But if we beautifully split it and read it goes like this, "idam bhagavatha nama puranam brahma samhitam" - Bhagavatham is telling about the greatness of the nama and it is a puranam.
Srimad Bhagavatham is told by Suka brahmam to Parikshith. For Parikshith himself, how this name came to being is, when he was a child in the womb of uttara, there was a sankalpam that the complete pandava dynasty to be wiped out of its roots by aswathama and he programs the brahmastram at Parikshith. Uttara comes running and performs sarangathi to the bhagavan, "pAhi pAhi mahAyOgin devadeva jagathpathE". Bhagavan sends his sudarsana chakra in response to the brahmastram. Before this once Arjuna comes and does saranagathi to the bhagavan similarly, "pAhi pAhi mahAyOgin bhakthAnAm abhayankaraHa", then the brahmastram is coming onwards, bhagavan tells arjuna to program another astra and then both get nullified. Here also with his sudarsana chakra, bhagavan having destroyed the brahmastram could have stopped it coming close to the child isnt it. But with the sudarsana chakra, bhagavan keeps himself in the womb of uttara. He protects the child with himself as the shield.
The reason behind this is, parikshith being a paramabhagavatha, for the company of such a bhagavatha, the bhagavan is ready to even live inside a "mothers womb". As a "vajra kavasam", the bhagvan protects parikshith. After coming out of the womb, whenever the child parikshith meets anyone, he thinks of the swami who was with him inside his mothers womb and thinks of the swami who had 4 hands, beautiful face, lotus shaped eyes, wearing vaijayanthi garland and wonders if they could be the same. As he kept on meeting many swamis and kept inquiring within himself, he came to be known as parikshith. His parents had actually named him as "VishnurAthan". Next what he did was, he went on a hunting expedition, there was a maharishi by name sameekar who was in meditation.
Meditation is not something one does by trying, one should realise the state of meditation. What does this mean? We usually say we are going to sleep and do not say we are going to try to go to sleep. Sleep is natural state and the state has to come on its own isn't it. Once that state comes, then we cannot sit anymore as the head will start to fall. Then we will go off to sleep. So if one keeps trying to meditate from start to finish it wont happen, the meditative state has to come by itself. Once that meditation is realised, then the body will not have any emotions. Let me tell you an example. If you have been sitting in a same posture for a long time, when you try to get up you will face some difficulty. The blood circulation would have come down in that area. We usually say that our legs have become numb. When an ant bites such a numbed part, you will not feel the sting at all. When the blood circulation happens again all over including the legs, everything then becomes normal. The whole body has a bhAvam called "aHam", (this is not "ahankAram" not an ego). This bhAvam called "aHam" starts from the heart and keeps going all over the body. But if this "aHam", we can bring it back into the home of the heart and there if meditate upon the bhagavan who is present inside as "antaryAmi", whatever happening in other parts of the body will not be known. This state is what we call "samadhi". Because of being in this state, in the Srimad Bhagavatham, Jadabharathar when he was even being made as offering in the Kali temple, he still was quiet and did not get affected. If we go to a doctor and ask where is the heart within our body, he correctly shows the place, also shows where the lungs, liver, brain etc. But when asked where is the mind, where are the thoughts coming from, the doctor does not know. But in the vedanta sastras, it is said that both the place where the origination of the thoughts happen as well as the atma are the same and within the heart only. The thoughts actually arise from the place where the atma is situated.
If we can understand from todays life, we see that many people have mental disease called depression. If we go and ask this to the depression people, they will say that there is a pain in the center of the heart and its very painful here. The reason is in this place thoughts are arising like anything, sleep is not coming and there is no answer to these thoughts that keep on arising. They are unable to stop the flow of thoughts. When these thoughts accumulate and dont stop and when one does not have sleep night or day, then there is a stress that develops in this place and they get pain in that place, and because the pain develops in thay place, we say that the source of the mind is in the heart. Again the same place where the mind originates from, this is where the prAna too originates. Wherefrom the mind and prana originate, there is the source of the atma. We thus can understand meditation in a light manner isnt it.
In the Srimad bhagavatham, the rishi sameekar is in meditation. King Parikshith was thirsty and approached Sameekar and asked if he can get water somewhere. He shook him but the rishi being in samadhi did not feel anything. Parikshith was surprised, he cannot sit like this and wondered whether this sage was acting. He wanted to investigate. There was a dead snake nearby, taking this with his arrow put this around the neck of the sage. But even then the rishi Sameekar was still in meditation. Then Parikshith concluded that the rishi was truly in samadhi. So initially we find that having investigated who that swami was with him in the womb, he came to be known as parikshith. Secondly he does this test on rishi Sameekar whether he is truly in samadhi or acting. Thats also why he came to be known as parikshith. He also does a third test. When he was certain that his death will come in 7 days, what he needs to do in these 7 days, Parikshith keeps thinking in various ways. Why he had to face death within 7 days? Because when he put the dead snake around the rishi sameekar, the rishi son sringi, even as a small child was a maharishi and tapsvi. He felt that his father being in state of samadhi in his own ashram inside the forest, someone has come and put a snake around his fathers neck and therefore got angry. He had attained siddhi with the Gayathri mantra and pronounced a curse, "whomsoever has put this snake around my fathers neck, 7 days from today with the bite of a snake called tatshakan, will die. His father sameekar tells sringi that Parikshith is a very good king, good people will not always be good sometimes beyond them 1 or 2 thoughts will come out as bad. Bad people also will not stay bad always, they will also get good thoughts now and then. Beautifully vazhuvar said in tamil, ''Gunam naadi kutramum naadi avatrulMigai naadi mikka kolal", if we look for a 100 percent good person we will never get. Thats why "Gunam naadi kutramum naadi avatrulMigai naadi" - see which is more in one! If there is more good in him, then ok, accept him. "Parikshith is very good person, somehow his mind went like this. Dont take this into account, go to the king and let him know that you have pronounced a curse like this and if he can do some parihAram or prayaschittam let him do", said Sameekar. Secondly he does an upadesam looking at his son he says, with great difficulty controlling our mouth, eyes, ears, nose, prana, asana and controlling thus is to beget moksha. All this tapas if we dont like someone curse him or the other, we may not like anyone and how many curses will you give. How then should we perform our tapas. Tapas is to attain the bhagavan only and we should not use that to do bad to anyone in the world.
Subham!
Radhe Radhe
Read more translations of the other episodes at: http://aranganinarumai.blogspot.com/
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