srI mahAlakshmI’s motherly nature

SrI:  SrImathE SatakOpAya nama:  SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:  SrImath varavaramunayE nama:

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The next day pAtti takes parAsara and vyAsa to srIrangam temple via North Uththara vIdhi (street). As soon as they enter the temple. vyAsa and parAsara finds a sannidhi on their right side.

vyAsa: pAtti, whose sannidhi is this?

ANdAL pAtti: vyAsa, this is srI ranganAyaki thAyAr Sannidhi.

parAsara: pAtti, but we only saw srI ranganAtha yesterday in the procession.

ANdAL pAtti: Yes, parAsara. That is right. It is because, srI ranganAyaki thAyAr does not come out of her Sannidhi. Even srI ranganAtha has to visit her, if he wants to see her.

parAsara: Oh! ok pAtti. That means, we need to visit her all the time. Now, we have one more reason to visit the temple, whenever we are in srIrangam.

After the dharsan of thAyAr, they come out of the Sannidhi.

ANdAL pAtti:  Let me ask a question to both of you. When you both return home late in the evening after playing games, how do your father react?

vyAsa: pAtti, He gets angry during those times.

ANdAL pAtti: Do your father punish you then?

parAsara: We rarely get punished pAtti. Whenever he is angry, our mother stops him from punishing us.

ANdAL pAtti: Just like that, we may do things which perumAL might not want us to do and he may feel like punishing us for it, during those times, thAyAr talks to perumAL and protects us from the punishment.

parAsara: Then you are right, pAtti. She is like our mother.

ANdAL pAtti: Atleast, namperumAL carries weapons though it is for our protection, but thAyAr carries lotus flowers only since she is very soft-natured. To reach perumAL you need to cross ranga-ranga gOpuram, then nAzhikettAn vAsal (entrance), then garudar Sannidhi, dhwajasthambam and then srI ranganAtha’s sannidhi. But As soon as you enter from North uthra vIdhi (street), you reach thAyAr Sannidhi. Thats how close she is to us.

vyAsa: yes pAtti.

ANdAL pAtti: Even as Mother sIthA, she saved kAkAsura from srI rAma. kAkAsura, son of indhra, took the form of a crow and troubled her. srI rAma was going to punish him. But she mercifully saved kAkAsura from srI rAma. Similarly, she saves all the rAkshasis in the asOka vanam after srI rAma killed rAvaNa. hanumAn wanted to kill them all for the troubles they gave her. But she kindly saves them and explains to hanumAn that they were helpless at that time and had to execute rAvaNa’s orders. Thus, out of motherly affection, she tries to protect every one constantly.

sIthA pirAtti saving kAkAsura

sIthA pirAtti surrounded by rAkshasis

parAsara and vyAsa: Hope she can also save us all the time pAtti.

ANdAL pAtti: She certainly will. She will always recommend to perumAL to protect us as that is her primary duty.

parAsara: Is that all she does pAtti? I mean “talking to perumAL in favour of us”?

ANdAL pAtti: Well. She does that until perumAL accepts us. But once perumAL accepts us, she also sits with perumAL and enjoy our devotion and service towards them.

vyAsa: How is that pAtti?

ANdAL pAtti: Its very easy to understand. When you serve your parents, do you just serve your father?

parAsara: No, pAtti. Both mother and father are equally dear to us. We would like to serve them both.

ANdAL pAtti: Yes – you got it. Similarly, thAyAr helps us to reach perumAL by recommending to him. But once we reach perumAL, she also accepts our loving devotion along with perumAL.

thAyAr and namperumAL – together on panguni uthram day

parAsara and vyAsa: Wow! This is very easy to understand pAtti. We hope to hear more next time. We want to go out and play now for some time.

parAsara and vyAsa then runs out to play!

Author: jayakrishNan rAmAnuja dAsan – edited by sArathy rAmanuja dAsan