Sloka 22
The worship of devAs and Humans at TirumalA
Meaning
My dear Swan Friend! TiruvEnkaDa Malai is very renowned. The humans from below climb this hill to reach the Lord’s sannidhi. The celestials (svargibhi:) descend down to TirumalA to worship Him. Once they reach TirumalA, their tamo and rajo guNams take leave and their sattva guNam dominates.
Their feelings about lofty status as celestials and lowly status as humans (tAratamyam) disappear fully. Every one receives the phalans that they sought.
The celestials and the humans stay in one sARRumuRai ghoshTi and worship the Lord. Oh dear Swan, when you are in that ghoshTi, your rajo and tamo guNams will disappear and your sattva guNam will become prominent. You can worship as one of the members of that group of devotees of TiruvEngaDamuDaiyAn (Sundarasimham e-book # 94) . Please do not worry that you do not have the capability to worship Him in the perfect manner. Please perform Kaimkaryam according to your Sakti (yathA Sakti). That would be adequate to receive His anugraham.
The key instruction is : “madhu- vijayaina : saparyAm tvam ca SaktyA kAmam kuryA:”.
Sloka 23
Sighting of the river SvarNamukhi
Meaning
Oh My dear Friend Swan! You will find a river named Kanaka MukharI (SvarNa mukhi) flowing not far from anjanAdri (Tirumalai) in the southern direction (anjanAdre: ArAt dakshiNAm kanaka mukharIm drakshyasi). Since it is summer time, the volume of water flowing in that river would have dwindled and you will see therefore many islands of sand in between the flowing water. These islands of sand appear as though the river wishes to invite you to rest on its shoals (tvat nivAsa icchayA stoka unmagna sphurita puLinAm) for a short time to reduce the fatigue from your long flight. SvarNa MukharI river collects the flowers from the trees of the forest near by (yA AsannAnAm vana viTapinAm prasUnAni upaharati) and assembles them in to bunches with its hands made up of its waves (vIci hastai: upaharati). The river presents them to Lord Sivan for His ArAdhanam of TiruvEngaDamuDaiyAn (vana viDapinAm prasUnAni ardha indu mauLe: arcA heto: upaharati). This is for sure.
Comments
Few miles south of Tirumala, Sivan was meditating without awareness of any thing around Him. Sage Agastya arrived at this place and Sivan was not aware of the revered Sage’s presence. When Agastya asked Sivan later about the reason for Sivan’s lack of awareness, Sivan replied that he was performing MaanasIka ArAdhanam for Sriman nArAyaNan, who was standing on Tirumala as TiruvEngaDamuDaiyAn and as a result failed to notice the arrival of the Sage. PurANams thus say that Sivan is performing ArAdhanam for Lord VenkaTeSa at Tirumala and the Kanaka MukharI river brings flowers from the forest trees for that ArAdhanam.
English Commentary by Sri Oppiliappan Sadagopan
Courtesy: Smt Jayanthi Sridharan (Carnatic vocalist)
