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srI:

srImathE rAmAnujAya nama:

Copyright 2007-2008

All Rights Reserved

Oru Mithuname Uththesyam

Written by

Sri U Ve Prathivadi Bhayankaram Annangarachariar Swami

Abridged Translation by madhurakavi dAsan TCA Venkatesan

First Edition: 2007


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srI: Oru Mithuname Uththesyam

srImathE rAmAnujAya nama: Ed.1

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam

http://www.acharya.org

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Oru Mithuname Uththesyam

1. The Divya Dampathis are called a 'mithunam' (a pair). In the many religions of this

world, it is unique to Srivaishnava Sampradhayam that we take refuge in the divine pairof the Lord Narayana and His pirAtti Sridevi Nachchiyar.

The tattva trayam is chit, achit and Ishvara. In this, the chit refers to the chetanas. Thechetanas are set into three groups - baddhar, muktar and nityar. Those stuck in the oceanof samsara are known as baddhas (samsaris) - that is, those who are unable to free

themselves from the timeless achit. Those who free themselves from the samsara are

called muktas. Those who never set foot in this samsaric world and are always with Himin His divine abode (nitya vibhUti) and performing eternal service to Him are called

nityas or nityasUris.

2. In the chetana tattva made of baddhas, muktas and nityas, a group called mumukshus is

also acknowledged. Those who have the interest to be freed from the attachments of this

world are called mumukshus. Even though they are samsaris, their greatness is theirdesire to be freed from samsara. Hence their special name called mumukshus. Thisdesignation is shown in Upanishad statements such as "mumukshurvai sharanamaham

prapadhye".

Mumukshus have to know three Rahasyas - Thirumantram, Dvayam and Charama

Shlokam. Thiruvashtakshara mantram is known as Thirumantram. Dvaya mantram is

designated as Mantra Ratnam. It is also known as the rahasya that has to be constantly

remembered/repeated - anusandhana rahasyam. This name has been mentioned inAcharya Hrudhayam, Third Prakaranam - "ivaRRukku manthra vidhyanusandhAnamAna

rahasyangaLOdE sErththi".

3. The Dvaya mantra is very special when compared with the other two rahasyas. There

are two important reasons for this. 1. In Thirumantra and Charama Shloka, there is no

talk about Piratti. In his Mumukshuppadi, when explaining the meaning of akAram, Pillai

Lokachariar says "rakshikkum pOdhu pirAtti sannidhi vENdugaiyAlE idhilE srIsambandham anusandhEyam". Thus, it is gathered that there is no explicit reference to

Sridevi in Thirumantram. In Charama Shloka too, there is no mention of Thayar. In

Dvayam, there are two parts called Purva Kandam and Uththara Kandam. At thebeginning of both, the term that stands for Piratti "Sri" is present, which is special. 2. Just

as the mother's breast amongst all other body parts is most important to an infant, so tooare the divine feet of the Lord most important to prapannas. The mention of the Lord's

divine feet is present only in the Dvaya rahasya. This too is special about it. Thus, thesetwo specialities show the greatness of Dvaya mantra.

4. It was mentioned that at the beginning of both Purva Kanda and Uththara Kanda, theterm that stands for Piratti, Sri, is present. Why is it present at both these places? Does it

mean the same at both places or does it mean different things? Such questions naturally

may arise here.


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At both places, the term Sri does not occur independently. It joins with 'matup' and stands

as an adjective for Narayana. In the Purva Kanda, it occurs as 'Sriman Narayana' and inthe Uththara Kanda it occurs as 'Srimate Narayanaya'. The meaning of the Purva Kanda is

that 'I surrender at the divine feet of Lord Sriman Narayana who is always with Periya

Pirattiyar, who never leaves His divine chest ("agalakillEn iRaiyum enRu alarmEl

mangai uRai mArbA - Nammazhvar's Thiruvaymozhi)'. The meaning of the UththaraKanda is that 'I seek to gain all kinds of service to Sriman Narayana who is always with

Periya Pirattiyar. And that I should gain no connection to the happiness obtained in that

service.'

5. Let us fully analyse the meaning of the first kanda; then the meaning of the second

kanda; and then both together.

The meaning of Sri could be wealth etc, but here it is taken to be the name of Periya

Pirattiyar. "srIriti prathamam nAma lakshmyA:" is the pramANa for this. Amarakosamstates "lakshmI: padmAlayA padmA kamalA srIr haripriyA". Alavandar too said

"srIrityeva cha nAma te". There are six vyutpattis stated for the word 'Sri' giving rise tosix meanings. Of these, two vyutpattis and their two meanings are considered important.

"srIyate iti srI: ; srayate iti srI:" - the first one states that She is seeked by all; and the

second one states that She in turn seeks the Lord. The Lord is completely independent

and therefore He may get very angry with the chetanas seeing their sins. To prevent thatShe has to mediate with Him on their behalf and make them join Him. This is how She is

seeked by the chetanas. In order to fulfill the chetanas pleas, She in turn seeks Him and

pleases Him. These are the meanings that are obtained from these two vyutpattis.

Therefore She is seeked first for Her role as a mediator. Even though "Sriman Narayana

charanau" is one phrase, our pUrvAchAryas separated that as the divine feet of Sri and

the divine feet of Narayana.

6. As pramANa for this, we will consider the Sri Suktis of Ramanuja, Bhattar and

Vedanta Desikan. Vedanta Desikan comments that Ramanuja's Sharanagati Gadyam isthe explanation for the Dvaya mantra. In the beginning of the Sharanagati Gadyam, a

surrender to Sri is given as a separate statement - "bhagavan nArAyaNabhimatAnurUpa

... asharaNayasharaNyAm ananya sharaNa: sharaNamaham prapadye". In the fifth

statement, the surrender to Narayana is given separately - "akhila heya pratyanIka ...shrImannArAyaNa! tvatpAdAravinda yugaLam ... sharaNamaham prapadye". Here, the

first prapatti made to Sri is purushakAra prapatti and the second prapatti made to

Narayana is done as the means. This is not only clear in the source text, but is also madeopenly clear by Vedanta Desikan in his Gadya Bashya.

7. Bhattar wrote Ashta Shloki as an explanation for the Rahasya Traya. In that work, in

the 5th and 6th shlokas - "netrutvam nitya yogam:" and "IshAnAm jagatAm" - it isclearly shown that seeking Sri is for Her role as a mediator. In shloka 5, netrutvam is the

same as purushakAratvam. Here, Bhattar shows the meaning of the first part of Dvaya

mantra through "netrutvam nitya yogam samuchita guNajAtam tanukhyApanam


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chopAyam kartavya bhAgam" and the meaning of the second part of Dvayam starting

with "atha mithuna param prApyam". In the sixth shloka, through "IshAnAmjagatAmadhIshadayitAm nityAnapetAm shriyam samshriyatya", he shows purushakAra

prapatti separately; through "anghrI harerAshraye" he shows the means separately; and

starting with "shriyA cha sahitAyAtmeshvarAyArthaye", he shows the prayer for service

to the divine couple together which is the meaning of the second part of Dvaya.

8. Therefore, surrendering to Piratti for mediation, surrendering to the Lord as the means

and seeking to perform service to them both are the three meanings that form the twoparts of the Dvaya mantra. Desikan too has shown these meanings only, in his Gadya

Bashya. Thus, the meanings seen by pUrvAchAryas for Dvaya is shown to be - in the

first part, seeking Her for mediation alone and in the second part service to Her and theLord together. Mediation is an irrefutable nature for Sri. Purvacharyas have shown the

statement "lakshmI: puruShakAratve nirdiShTA paramarShibhi:, mamApi cha matam

hyetat nAnyathA lakshaNam bhavet" for this. Desikan also shows that Her nature ofmediation has been explained by Bhattar in his Sri Guna Ratna Kosha shlokas such as

"piteva tvatpreyAn janani".

9. It is not right that purushakAratvam and upAyatvam are present together in the sameentity. PurushakAratvam is mediating on someone's behalf. Upayatvam is the power to

give something on their own. If a person is able to give something on their own, it is

inappropriate that they plead with someone else to make that happen. For example, aperson asks for and collects funds for good deeds such as building a temple or digging a

water tank or building a home for the poor. If a person has enough money, he gives all

the funds needed for that by himself. If he is not able to do that, then he recommends tosomeone who can do that, to support the good causes. There are those who give some andalso recommend to others for the same. However, it is not right for someone to

recommend to another to give exactly what he is already giving. If Piratti has the power

to give moksha by Herself, then that power would be complete with Her. If that is thecase, why would She plead with the Lord who is capable of giving out punishment, when

She Herself is incapable of that? She is full of kindness only - what would stop Her from

just giving out moksha? Seeing that all Sastras soundly say that She mediates on behalfof the chetanas, it is clear that She cannot be associated with being the means. Vedanta

Desikan was the leader amongst acharyas who asserted this. Let us see what he has said

in both Tamil and Sanskrit works.

10. The fourth statement in his thirteenth rahasya grantha called Rahasya Ratnavali:

"sarva svAminiyAy sarvEsvaranukku sEshamAy sahadharmachAriNiyAna periya

pirAttiyAr iththalaiyil vAthsalya adhisayaththAlum aththalaiyil vAllapyaadhisayaththAlum purushakAramAyk koNdu ijjIvargaLukkuth thanjcham AgiRAL". He

wrote a commentary for this rahasya himself which is called Rahasya Ratnavali

Hrudhayam, where he explains this sentence in detail. He concludes there with "pirAtti

sAparAdharAnavargaL ellArukkum sAsithAvAna sarvEsvaran abimatham koLLamAttAdhE thayangkAdhapadi avanudaiya pithruthva prayukthamAna UshmaLI

bAvaththai 'uchitai rUpAyairvismArya' ennumpadiyAkki ivargaLai avan thiruvadigaLilE

sErththu 'thannadiyAr thiRaththagaththuth thAmaraiyALAgilum sidhaguraikkumEl


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ennadiyAradhu seyyAr' ennumpadi paNNik koNdu 'bhaveyam sharaNam hi va:' enRu

aruLich seydhapadiyE ivargaLukku rakshA hEthu AgiRAL enRapadi". Here it isimportant to note the use of the phrase "rakshA hEthu AgiRAL". From this it is shown

that the Lord is the one giving the protection (raksha) and She only becomes the cause of

that (hetu) through Her mediation.

11. There are many statements similar to this in Desikan's Tamil works. But we will stop

with this. Now, let us look at his Sanskrit works. In his Chatushloki, Alavandar says

"shreyo na hyaravinda lochanamana: kAntA prasAdAdrute samsrutyakshara vaiShNavaadvasu nruNAm sambhAvyate karhichit". With this, it is said that without Sri

Mahalakshmi's favor, no good will come out of any path including that leading to

moksha. To show how Piratti's favor leads to good, Vedanta Desikan gives anexplanation in his Bashya. With the statement "moksha prade bhagavati mumukshUNAm

ghaTakatayA eSHA tiShTatIti sarvasammatam", he says that everyone agrees to the fact

that the Lord alone gives moksha and Piratti provides only the mediation.

12. Desikan has also said more. "paripUrNAnubhavapradAna samkalpastu bhagavata:svasyaiva vA, sapatnIkasya veti yathApramANam bhavatu:, sarvathA vaiShNava

adhvashreya: pradatvamasyA ihochyamAnam na viruddham" - with this, he says, Hisbeing the means is His decision to give the complete experience to the mumukshu; let the

pramANa show whether He makes that decision by Himself or along with Piratti; but

there is no way it does not fit that She helps with the means to moksha. Through this, it isclear that Desikan will not even tolerate the question whether the decision to give moksha

is His alone or whether Piratti can do it also. The use of "yathApramANam bhavatu"

shows that he does not have any adverse opinion here.

13. In this prakaraNa, he also says "asti karmArhaphalate patyau krutya dvayam shriya:,

nigrahAvAraNam kAle samdhukshaNamanugrahe". The meaning of this is - the Lord is

the one who gives the fruits of the karmas; Piratti has two things to do: if He is going topunish, then She prevents that through appropriate means; if He is going to show

kindness, then She makes that grow even further.

14. Even though Vedanta Desika, who is Kavitarkika Kesari, has made this so clear, there

are some who either are confused that Piratti too can be the means or even when their

confusion is removed, due to old habits, keep writing "mithunamE upAyam". Not

stopping at that, they also said that it is this idea that made an acharya write "upAyavELaiyOdu bhOga vELaiyOdu vAsiyaRa oru mithunamE uththEsyam".

15. It becomes our duty to explain the truth to those who don't understand it. The divyasUkti "AshrayaNa vELaiyOdu bhOga vELaiyOdu vAsiyaRa oru mithunamE uththEsyam

ennumidam solliRRAyiRRu" is present in Idu 36000padi Mahapravesham. The phrase

used here is 'AshrayaNa vELai' and not 'upAya vELai'. It has already been made clear in

the passages above, how the divine couple are seeked during the time of surrender andhow they are seeked during the time of service. Vedanta Desikan's divine words have

shown these very clearly. During the time of surrender, it is appropriate that She is

seeked - not as the means but as the one who will mediate - where is the confusion here?


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16. Just as the divine couple are the target for service as said in the second part of

Dvayam, where is the issue in saying that they are the target when being seeked as well,as said in the first part. However, there is a difference. Seeking the Lord is done with Him

as the means. Seeking Sri is done with Her as the mediator. This difference has been

shown clearly by all acharyas including Desikan. To evade all that and to incorrectly use

the Sri Sukti of Idu is unfair.

The rest of the book has some additional comments and points out errors in certain works

of his time.

Azhvar Emberumanar Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Sharanam

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