Daily Archives: November 24, 2015

bhagavath SrI rAmAnuja wrote 9 masterpieces – SrI bhAshyam, vEdhAntha sAram, vEdhAntha dhIpam, vEdhArtha sangraham, gIthA bhAshyam, nithya grantham, SaraNAgathi gadhyam, SrIranga gadhyam and SrIvaikuNta gadhyam.

The first three are related to brahma sUthram, the fourth deals with selected verses from vEdhAntham, the fifth is a vyAkyAnam on bhagavadh gIthA and the sixth deals with the daily rituals (specifically thiruvArAdhanam) to be carried out by srIvaishNavas.

The last three are the lifeline of our sidhdhAntham – They are a very lucid explanation to the swarUpam of SaraNAgathi and how to observe it. gadhyam means prosaic and thrayam means three. Since there are three gadhyams in this series, collectively they are called us gadhyathrayam. Our pUrvAchAryas gave lot of prominence to the three gadhyams. It is for this reason that even those who do not have the ability to grasp the meanings of the other granthams, should learn about these three gadhyams from their AchAryas. In this fast world, sometimes it may be difficult for the AchAryas to teach the meanings fully to their disciples. Hence an attempt is being made to explain the features of the three gadhyams through this series of articles.

  srIranga nAchchiyAr and srIranganAthan – srIrangam

SrI rAmAnuja – SrIrangam

SrI rAmAnuja chose the panguni uthram day, which is the thirunakshathram for periya pirAttiyAr at srI rangam, to surrender himself to the dhivya dhampathi and thus showed the way for his  disciples to follow. It is on this day that both SrIranganAthan and SrIranga nAchchiyAr share one simhAsanam (throne) and bless the thronging devotees. It is the only day when the dhivya dhampathi sit next to each other, in the whole year. With SrIranga nAchchiyAr by his side, SrIranganAthan sheds his tough stance and softens up to the devotees. Hence SrI rAmAnuja chose this day.

Initially he surrenders to periya pirAttiyAr, then to namperumAL. This is expounded in SaraNAgathi gadhyam. Then he recites srIranga gadhyam, which is specially devoted to namperumAL at srI rangam. In the third gadhyam (SrIvaikuNta gadhyam) he describes the features of SrIvaikuNtam so that the prapannan (the person who performs the act of prapaththi or SaraNAgathi) would know the importance of the place where he would go to, on attaining mOksham (liberation from samsAram or materialistic realm).

periyavAchchAn piLLai

The meanings that are being attempted here are based on the vyAkhyAnam of paramakAruNikar, srI periyavAchchAn piLLai. There are 23 chUrNais in SaraNAgathi gadhyam (a chUrNai can be taken roughly as a paragraph). We shall give the meanings of words in each chUrNai and then give an overall summary of what SrI rAmANuja has conveyed in it, through periyavAchchAn piLLai’s vyAkyAnam. We are also thankful to vELukkudi SrI u vE krishNan swamy’s kAlakshEpam series which is of great help in understanding the wonderful vyAkhyAnam of periyavAchchAn piLLai.

We will start seeing the English translation for this wonderful grantham.