Parasara Bhattar's Vaibhavam

Thanks to        http://www.sadagopan.org/acharyans/ac10.htm
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Parasara Bhattar's Vaibhavam   

As the chief preist of Sri Ranganatha and as the one born out of the grace of the Lord of Srirangam, ParAsara Bhattar blessed us with the guru parampara starting from Nanjeeyar and the vyaakhyaana jkarthaas of Thiruvaimozhi. As the son of KurathAzhvAn and AndAL , he was very dear to Acharya RaamAnujA . At this time, when Acharya RaamAnujA's birthday is two days away, it is appropriate to reflect upon the glory of the Sishya paramparA of RaamAnujA starting from EmbAr and continuing with Parasara Bhattar , Nanjeeyar , NampiLLai and the others in that line.

Paraasara Bhatar blessed us with twelve works, ten in sanskrit and two in Tamil besides his nirvAhAs on some passages of the Divya Prabhandham. The book by Dr. S.Padmanabhan, the nephew of the 43rd Jeeyar of DevanAr ViLAgam Azhagiya Singar on Sri Parasara Bhattar is a scholarly study for those of us , who want to follow up on his works. Those of you, who wish to acquire a copy can do so by writing to Sri Bahradvaj Jaganath and making a small contribution.

The summary on the works of Paraasara Bhattar are:

1. Ashta slOki , 8 terse verses on the three Rahasyams of Sri VaishNavAs. Using long meters, Bhattar hinted at the depth of the subject matter. The metres used by Bhattar are SikhariNi, Saardhula Vikridhitham and Sragdharaa.

It is interesting to compare Swami Deikan"s usage of these three long metres in his works. Among the total of 862 slokams of Swami Desikan used SikhariNi 28 times, Saardhula vikridhitham 35 times and Sragdharaa 82 times.

Metres used by Bhattar in Ashta slOki& Swami Desikan in his works
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It is fascinating to recognize that the entire Nyaasa Vimsathi is set by Swami Desikan in the long SragdharA metre. The subject matter is about the glories of Prapatthi, a topic of great interest to this group. Swami Desikan placed 5 key slOkAs of the total 32 slOkaas of Nyasa Tilakam in the same Sragdharaa meter. The entire Garuda PanchAsath was set in this meter. As we know, the five aksarAs of Garuda Manthram took the form of the five VarNakams of the sthothram on the Veda Maya Purushan, Garudan. He used this metre to conclude his salutation to Acharya RamAnujA in his YathirAja Sapthathi (SlOkaas 69, 70& 71).

Swami Desikan chose SikhariNi metre for one of the decads of DayA Sathakam ( slOkAs 61-70 ). The subject ofcourse is the SrinivAs aanukampaa flowing like the river of sugar cane juice. Swami placed two of the Hayagreeva sthothram verses and four of the saraNAgathi verses (Nyaasa Tilakam on Sri Ranganatha) in this sacred meter. Swami used this powerful metre to celebrate the greatness of the Sri Sookthis of Acharya RaamAnujA ( SlokAs 49-60 ) in his YathirAja Sapthathi.

Swami Desikan used Saardhula Vikridhitham for the entire thirteen verses of DasAvathAra Sthothram. YathirAja sapthathi received 8 verses in this metre and fourteen more scattered in Dayaa sathakm (2) , VairAgya Panchakam (1) , Sri KaamasikAshtakam (1), Bhu sthuthi (1) and Nyasa Tilakam (9).

Bhattar used 45 kinds of metres in all of his sthothrAs containing 337 verses. The top three usage among the 45 metres are: Saardhula vikridhithA (55), VasanthatilakA (43) and SikhariNi (34). In comparison, Swami Desikan used 22 metres in his 862 slOkAs. His most frequent usages among metres are: Vasantha TilakA (266), short AaryA (116) and SragdharA (82). That covers over 50% of the total slOkAs of Swami Desikan.

Bhattar's works: # 2
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Bhagavad GuNa DarpaNa: This is a celebration of the SaguNa Brahmam aspect of Sriman NaarAyaNaa and the important tenets of Sri VishitAdvaitham.

Work # 3: Bhattar's celebration of Sri Devi (Sri RanganAyaki)
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The 61 stanzas of this sthuthi celebrate the glory of Mahaa Lakshni. Bhattar dwells at length about Mahaa Lakshmi's pleading for us (Purushakaara aspect) before Her Lord and suggests that the Lord's glory is dependent on Her.

Work # 4: Sri Ranganatha Sthothram
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This is said to have been composed, when Bhattar had to leave Srirangam, when he angered the chOlA king and stayed at Thirukkhoshtiyur. There he used 6 slOkAs to reflect upon his great loss arising from his inability to have the daily darsanam of Sri Ranganatha.

Work #5: Sri Rangaraajasthavam
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He folowed the tradition of his illustrious father, the author of Pancha sthavAs, and composed this long sthavam with 232 verses. The first half deals with the glories of Srirangam, the supermacy of the Lord there and His Anantha KalyANa GuNams and the beauty of river Cauveri. The second half deals with the subjects that were discussed this week and the last in our forum (Viz): the upanishadic basis for Sri VaishNavaNava SiddhAntham, the nature of Moksham et al.

Works #6, 7, 8, 9 and 10
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Many of Bhattar's work are lost and are available in either fragments or thru the quotation of other AchaAryAs. These are KriyA DeepA (Like Nitya GranthA), Tattva RathnAkarA (masterly treatise on TattvA), AdhyAthma khaNda dvaya VivaraNA, Lakshmi KalyANa. The last work celebrating the marriage of MahA Lakshmi to Sriman NaarAyaNA deals with SaraNAgathi, the position of Sri Devi in Sri SampradhAyam, the supermacy of Divya Dampathis revered as Lakshmi NaraayaNA , Sridharan and Maadhavan.

The other two sanskrit works lost to us or available in shreds are the commentary to SulabhOpanishad, which was elaborated on by Swami Desikan in his Sarvaarthasiddhi and stray verses of Thirumanjana KattiyangaL recited even today at the great temple at Srirangam by the descendants of ParAsara Bhattar there. This starts off as a dialog between the Lord and his devotee and goes onto celerate the glories of the Lord during His Thriumanjanam.

Works 11 and 12 in Tamil
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The commentary on Kaisikha PurANam earned him the honor of being carried on a palanquin by the brahmins of Srirangam around the streets of that city of the Lord (Brahma Ratham). The remaining work in Tamil is the celebrated commentary on the 21st paasuram of ThirunedunthAndakam , which converted the Advaitha achArya to Sri VaishNavism and earned him the title of Nam Jeeyar from ParAsara Bhattar. The rest of the Tamil works are the ones known from Thiruvaimozhi commentaries as Bhattar NirvAhams.

The greatness of Bhatar , the beneficiary of RaamAnujA's grace
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Achaarya RaamAnujA had a significant influence on Parasara Bhattar as his teacher. On this day that is two days away from the celebration of the jayanthi of Achaarya RaamAnujaa, it is appropriate to dwell at length on the works of a great acharyA, Bhattar, who followed the footsteps of the illustrious guru of his father and his own acharya, Embaar.

Bhattar's philosophical contributions to Sri SampradhAyam have been brilliantly summarized by Dr. Padmanabhan and chapter 5 of his monograph deals with this subject. The role of Karma and the Lord's will in relation to it are covered here. Other topics covered that is pertinent to the recent discussions are: The nature and means of MokshA, the Sesha-Seshi bhavam, the concept of Sri, the concept of Avathaarams, Iconic forms of the Lord et al.

Some passages quoted by the author regarding Bhattar's views on SaraNAgathi that may be of interest to the current discussions are:

1. Vishnumaayaa can be crossed only when Prapatthi is performed.

2. " O Ranganatha! I resort to You , who are my refuge --I am devoid of any knowledge or action or devotion ; nor I am aware of any icchaa (desire), the proper eligibility (adhikaarA), the feasibility of such a hope etc. Full of sin and foolishnes and with a confused state of mind, I request you to be my saviour." (Verse 89 of Sri RangarAjasthavam.

3. In the 102nd verse , Bhattar once again performs SaraNAgathi this way:

"I have been made your burden and responsibility (Bhara) by my AchAryAs . I have also orally declared that I seek refuge. Therefore, it behoves You to accept me as your entrusted burden".

4. In his ashtaslOki, the verses 6,7 and 8 deal with Prapatthi. Sixth verse is about the Prapatthi to Sri Devi as the means to the end of resorting to the Lord. In the 7th slokam, he explains the meaning of Carama SlOkam. In the 8th verse, he declares his prapatthi, " where he expresses his inability to implement the Karma, Jnaana and Bhakthi yogAs as means of salvation. Even regarding Prapatthi, he is unable to follow it because of his utter helplessness and lack of firm conviction of its implementation. Still the hope of being saved by the Lord, He being the final means, sustains him ".

Subhamasthu , Svasthirasthu .

AzhwAr, EmperumaanAr , AcharyAL thiruvadigaLE SaraNam ,

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan