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 ARCHIRADHI MARGAM 
Archiradhi is one of the 18 rahasyas of Sri Pillai Lokacharya. Thistext describes the path to Vaikunth taken by a muktatma. This writtenin Manipravala Style and grouped in four prakaranas (or chapters). Thefirst chapter address the typed of world and the longings of the soulto reach paramapadam. The second chapter describes the path the soultakes to reach paramapadam. The third chapter gives a detailed accountof the Vaikunthanatha starting with the thirumeni all the way down tothe toe nails. The final chapter describes a sample conversationbetween the muktatma and Perumal, before the atma is admitted intoVaikuntham.The translation presented here is from Ms.M. S. Ramesh's book on DivyaDesams published by TTD.----------------------Sri Pillai Lokacharya wrote 18 rahasyas i.e. books expounding thefundamental vaishnavite philosophy and shastras. The Archiradhi is onesuch rahasya, written in manipravala style i.e. a mixture of Sanskritand Tamil. It is believed that there are four ways or paths to attainmoksha. They are:1.Garbhagathi2.Yama gathi3.Dhooma gathi4.Archiradhi gathiThe first three are for ordinary, sinful mortals where the soul has ogo through Narakanubhavam i.e. hell before attaining moksha, if at allit is blessed as to attain moksha. Archiradhi gathi however describesthepath to moksha exclusively reserved for mumukshus i.e. great souls.Archiradhi means a praiseworthy, gathi means path to paramapada.Archiradhi gathi has four prakaranas (chapters). This describes the pathtaken by a muktatma (gnani) while ataining moksha. More or less thedescription given here of the route to Vaikuntha compares with whatNammalwar described in Soozh visumbu adi.Chapter 1:Lakshminayakan, the rahasya says is the master of the entire world. Theworld consists of nitya vibhooti and leela vibhooti. Nitya vibhooti isParamapada. The rest of the world is leela vibhooti. The people livingin the nitya vibhooti are also referred to as those residing in Boghavibhooti that is to say, they are staying in Paramapada enjoying thecompany of Baghavan. They are under the suzeranity of Baghavan Who rulesthem seated under a white umbrella. That is to say God is the solemonarch in Paramapada. He is the ultimate and only master. The use ofthe words "Ekatha pathram" i.e. a white umbrella is used to denote theusual insignia of a king. In other words, it refers to EkaChatradhipatyam or sweta chatradhipatyam.Those who are staying in leela vibhooti are in direct contrast to thelucky residents of Paramapada. Unlike the people in Paramapada thoseliving in leela vibhooti are not accustomed to implicit obedience oforders. While those in Paramapada would bend their heads out of respectbefore the sincere devotees of Perumal, those in leela vibhooti will
 
behave in the exact opposite manner and will show scant respect for thepious devotees. Instead each and everyone of them claim that they arethe master. Having made the tall claim that they are the masters, theythink that all the things in the world belong to them. While those inParamapada worship only one God i.e. Narayana as the Supreme Lord, insharp contrast those living in leela vibhooti sing the praises of anynumber of gods. In short, people in Leela vibhooti suffer from"aharnkara" and "mamakara" i.e. from the illnesses of arrogance andattachment.It is said that the behaviour of the people in leela vibhooti will be asfollows:Unlike the people in Paramapada these residents will lay claim to fameor name. They are not intelligent. Unlike those in Paramapada whose bodyhas a shining glow of purity, those living in leela vibhooti have asinful body. While those in Paramapada will be praised by the devas asgreat souls and will always have the sole objective of doing kainkaryai.e. service to God, not so much to please themselves as to please Him,those in leela vibhooti do not know what it is to render service to God.Instead, they become the slaves of Manmadha and run behind sensualpleasures. They do not realise that God is the one and only whole truth.They do not bow down before the Perumal who holds the chakra and theshanku in His hand. Instead they follow the path dictated by theirbodily pleasures. Instead of saying that their sole objective andpurpose in life is to attain God, they find various methods to getseparated from God and to go far away from God. They escape the longreach of the benign helpful hands of Bhagavan. They get lost in theevanascent pleasures of the world and go far away from the grace of theGod.The above is the description of the people residing in the leelavibhooti as given by Sri Pillai Lokacharya in his book. It is painfuland amazing that this description of the world given so long ago shouldhold good even today.Pillai Lokacharya says that God sees this sorry state of affairs ofpeople living in leela vibhooti. He does not throw up His hands andgive up hope. He does not also leave them to their fate. As He isassociated with them ever since the origin of Creation He thinks of waysand means of correcting and salvaging these erring souls which havetaken the wrong path. He, Who, is the friend, philosopher, guide andprotector of the entire creation is ever busy in trying to rescue thesepitiable souls. He makes them realise the ills of this world. He withHis abundant grace blesses these poor souls. Ever since His kataksharests on them, these poor souls start raving for salvation. They learnthe beauty of advesha (universal love). They adopt vairagya. They areblessed with gnana and viveka. They seek a good acharya and with hishelp want to be inititated into doing kainkaiya (service) to the Lord.The futility of this life with its ills, hits them in the eye. Theyrealise that life in this world is comparable to the life of a helplessfrog caught in the mouth of a snake. They understand they are like a doecaught in a forest fire running hither and thither not knowing wheresafety lies. They realise their fate is none better than that of ahelpless ant caught between the two ends of a burning stick. They are
 
like a rudder less ship tossed about in the turbulent waters of the sea.They realise they are torn asunder by the five senses.Similar thoughts were expressed by Thirumangai alvar in his PeriaThirumozhi (Pasuram 2022). Thirumangai alvar as is well known was achieftain. He had therefore enjoyed the pleasures of a king. In thispasuram, he is seeking moksha from God. While addressing God he criesout of the depths of his heart that he is like a tree on the bank of ariver which runs the risk of being washed away during heavy floods. Hesays he is like a person who rushed to the roof top to escape from theswirling flood waters only to find that he had to share that haven witha vicious snake! He compares himself to a frightened ant caught on apiece of wood which is burning furiously at both ends. He adds he islike a fox which is caught in a flood in the forest. He says he isworried to distraction and seeks the help of God to rescue him from thisworld and confer moksha.Similar thoughts are expressed by Pillai Lokacharya while describing thethoughts of a reformed enlightened soul of leela vibbooti. With God'skataksha when enlightenment dawns, the poor soul hates his surroundings.His feeling of distaste to the life in this world is similar to thefeeling of revulsion that Sita Devi had when in Ashoka vana she wassurrounded by the despicable demonesses. They realise the folly inpursuing good clothes and good food. They are able to clearly understandthat life is not permanent as they thought and that is only a maya andshort lived emphemeral glory. The realisation makes them turn a newleaf.Having turned a new leaf, the individual devotee is impatient. He islooking forward to the day when he will be emanicipated and blessed withsalvation. He will be looking forward to the day when he could attainthe divine lotus feet of the Perumal. Every day's delay makes the hungerfor attaining the Lord more severe. As he is not able to see God, eachday looks like thousand pralaya kalam. The eye sight and the powers ofspeech get weakened. He looks forward only to the day when he can giveup his mortal coils. Such is his impatience and eagerness to reach God.>From the day the person changed his habits and started directing histhoughts towards God, God became ever more keen to rescue him. Even asthe devotee started showing scant respect to his body and wanted to shedthe mortal coils and looks at God and says that he will not leave Himtill such time as he attains Him, that is to say he reaches the stage ofparama bhakti and wants to give up his body as he feels that the body isthe cause for all the sins, Perumal tries to teach patience to him andimpresses upon him that the same body which he hates can be made toadopt practices which will take him towards salvation. The devoteeadopts saranagathi from that day. The devotee bends his head inveneration and devotion so as to reach the divine feet of the Lord. TheGod takes it as His prime task to see that the devotee attains hisobjective. All the time, God is thinking as to how He could help thisdevotee who is striving to attain salvation. He realises that withenlightenment the devotee is having a body which is as harmless as asnake from whom the venom has been taken out. Yet the devotee ismortally afraid that as long as he had got a body and there is aprakrutisambanda, it is possible that he may commit sins. God realises thesefears of the devotee and tries to guide him in the proper path so as toattain moksha.
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