pEy azhwAr pAsuram and "Vishnu and Siva"

[Guest guest]

Dear bAgwathALs,

 

Thanks to Sri PD for his posting on this pAsuram. About six months ago,

a colleague of mine who is a staunch advaitin asked me to provide him

with the meanings of this pAsuram as they appear in the preface of the

notes by Dr Radhkkrishnan on his commentary on Sri VenkatEsa perumAL.

I did some reasearch on this that time and compiled a lenghthy analysis

comprising of vyAkyAnams of Sri periya vAchchAn pillai, Sri puththur

swamigaL's urai and my own interpretations of these. Since it is very

long, I will just give the highlights of it here.

 

Sri PV Pillai says

 

"Onru sAthakamAna vEshaththaiyum marrOnRu siththamAna vEshaththaiyum

okka tharippathE !ithu oru seelavaththaiyE" enkirAr.

 

ie Lord is adorning these two "vEshams" of "sith" and "sAthakamAna oru

vEsham" both in one, simply to exhibit that the kalyAna gunAs of this

combination was created by his vaibavam only (ie.. was his incarnation

only). The word "vEsham" here is important. It means that these forms

are vaibavams of Lord for one cause or the other. Again he says

(implies) that he is only showing the kalyAna gunAs of this vEsham in

thiruvEngadam and not presenting HIMself in this "vEsham".

 

 

However puththur swamigal deals this particular pAsuram in length and

denies the shaivite/advaitic claim that Lord VenkatEsawara is in the

form of "Shiva and Vishnu combine" in here. HE first says that azhwA,

in the flow of his pAsurams dealt that thiru viN NagarAn and three

other deities have the kalyAna gunAs of thiruvikrama (one of LORD'S

vaibavam) in the previous pAsuram namely the 62nd pAsuram. (Refer my

today's post on Thiru viN Nagaram for the same). Similarly azhwAr went

ahead to explain that thiruvEngadan exhibits the kalyAna gunAs of this

duality avathAram known as "Sankara nArayana avathAram" also present

in HIM as a "part" of HIM. Puthur swami empahsizes that azwar in no

way says that this is a replica of "shiva vishnu combine" but only says

that HE contains the "kalyAna gunAs" of this duality avathRam of Lord

Vishnu in HIM as a "mere part" of HIM. He further draws our attention

to same pEyazwAr's pAsuram no. 97 where azhwar says that

 

" Maa malarAn vAr sadiyAn enru ivarkatku ennaththAn amO imai"

 

ie both BrahmA and Shiva can never be compared to Vishnu as they are

never equal to HIM in anyway. This being the case, as clearly argued,

azhwAr never meant what is being derived in shaivite/advaitic schools.

Taking part of moonRAm thiruvandhAthi (bits and pieces of a literature)

to arrive at one'e own conclusion may sometime not yield the true and

correct meanings of the same.

 

I will be pleased to post the lengthy discussion only when I complete

my other tasks on thala purAnams committed.

 

pEy azhWar thiruvadikaLE charaNam

adiyEn

Sampath Rengarajan