KSHETRA FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER 2008

SRI RANGAM PART I

Our motherland, Bharatha desha is full of kshetras, rivers, rishis, sadhus, yogis, ashramas, dharmathmas, paramahamsas, pathivrathas, Vaishnavite and saivite shrines. Hail Motherland India! The most chaste land of all lands. From badrikashrama in the North to Thirupullani ( Rameswaram) in the south India is full of temples and shrines. These temples can be classified into three types:

1) Those built by Rushis like Agasthya etc---------Aarsha Prathishta

2) Those worshipped by Devas like Indra etc ------Deva Prathista

3) Those established by human effort-----------------Manushya Prathishta

The sanctity of Rushi prathista is greater than manushya prathishta.

The sanctity of Deva prathista is greater than rishi prathishta.

The power and sanctity besides also depends not only on the prathista but on the power of bhakthas. Badrachalam came to be known to the world because of Ramdass and Puri Jagannatham of Jayadevar. Thus the kshetras sung by the azhwars came to be known as Divyadeshams. The Divyasuris as the azhwars are called praised the Lord through their Tamizh Vedam called Divya Prabhandam. Thus the word “ Divyam” is associated with the azhwars. The temples where they extolled are thus called Divyadesams.

Amongst all these Divyadesams the greatest is SriRangam. It is the very first temple which is a Svamvyaktha one. Svamvyaktha denotes that the Lord ( The archa murthy) was not sculpted by an artist but incarnated on His own Will. Badrikashramam, Tirupathi, vanamamali, pushkaram, naimishranyam, pandaripuram, Kanchipuram, SriMushnam are all Svamvyaktha kshetras. Srirangam stands first in the list. It is the Adi kshetra. This kshetra is located in TamilNadu on the banks of the river Kaveri. Rather it is an island with kaveri running on both sides and ChandraPushkarani in the middle. Here the Lord is Seshashayi, lying on the 1000 headed serpant-AdiSesha. He is in the Yoga nidra. The Lord has several shayanams ( Slumber)

1) Yoga shayanam 2) Bhoga Shayanam 3) sthala shayanam 4) jala Shayanam 5) Chala shayanam 6) Darbha shayanam 7) Uththana shayanam 8) Veera shayanam 9) vatapathra shayanam

Bhoga shayanam denotes the Lord after creation with Brahma in His nabhi, 11 rudras 12 adithyas, 8 vasus and His entire family of 33crore Devas.This is as in Tiruvananthapuram. Stala shayanam is the Lord lying on land as in Mahabalipuram near Chennai. Jala shayanam is the Lord lying in Pralaya Jala. Chala shayanam is the Lord in a swing as in our homes. Darbha shayanam is Tirupullani Rama who lay down on blades of darbha waiting for the Samudra Raja to surrender for the purpose of Sethu bandhana. Sharngapani of kumbakonam is Uththanashayi as He is in the posture of Rising up a little bit from His cosy snake bed. Rama at Chitrakoota lay with one leg on another which is referred to as Veera shayanam. At SriVilliputhur the Lord lies on a Banyan Leaf ( Aalilai) which is reffered to as Vatapathra shayanam.

Of all these our SriRanganatha takes up Yoga shayanam without Brahma or the Devis. This is before shrishti during pralaya where He has in his Kukshi ( Navel) the entire world).