thirup pAvai - munnurai - part 1

[Guest guest]

Dear bAgwathALs,

 

Sri ANDAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam

 

We are planning to present the understanding for the

thaniyans and *some* of the

major aspects of thirup pAvai (of the 30 verses), in the coming

days. This will be a team effort posted by both Sri Varadhan and

adiyEn. Please tune in to look for the postings. We request

learned bAgwathALs to step in and add to it whenever they feel

necessary. We donot know if we can simply complete this task

within this month of mArgazhi. This is perumAL and godhA

pirAtti's work and we simply pray to them and hope that they will

bless us with atleast somewhat basic understanding of these verses

and provide meaningful discussions.

 

An incident from achArya vaibavam comes to mind. It is

very important to note from the kalAshEbhams of achAryALs that

azhwAr's pAsurams are not easy to do vyAkyAnams without anubavam.

Sri PradivAdhi Bayankaram SwamigaL used to do vyAkyAnam for 3 hours

non stop for one Pasuram of thiruppAvai. When Sri Ramanujar was

approached by the sishyALs to do vyAkyAnam for thiru vaay mozhi,

it is believed that he said, " I may not want to do it by myself.

(Later on the first vyAkyAnam was delivered by his direct disciple

thirukurukoor piLLAn). Because there is a potential scope that

these nools are to be learnt by everyone by their own anubavam and

that it is very apt that there should be so many vyAkyAnams that

must come out for these from each generation of achAryALs. The

understanding of this must continue to grow. (meaning each time a

soul reads it and feels it (anubavam) they may come out with an

unique bagwath anubavam and such will become vyAkyAnam). For

brahma sudhram there is a definite vyAkyAnam and hence my bAshyam

is delivered for that. If I write a vyAkyAnam like that for the

thirumozhis, the future generation of SrivaishnvaLs may fix their

mind in it and say that this is the only valid vyAkyAnam.

instead, I desire that each one have their own anubavam." In fact

the second of the five last (commandments) rules of Sri Ramanujar

was understood by some schools like these. ie., azwar aruLich

cheyalai pravarpiththaL.

 

When bagwath Sri Ramanujar would say like that, we donot

even think that 4000 divya prabhandam is just a one layer seyyuL

with literal meanings from the words as they merely appear. We

donot even dare presenting one simple meaning and cocluding it as

the only meaning or of that sort. i.e., We recognize the

importance attached to it by Sri Ramanujar, when handling this

tamil vedam. We recognize the existance of so many (atleast 3

layers of) meanings and would attempt to see these verses from the

kalAkshEbams we have heard from different schools. We will simply

attempt to present an infant ramblings of our understanding of

this sAgaram known as 4000 divya prabhandham. We would attempt to

present them with these in our minds such that this ghOsti can

enjoy it.

 

It is believed that Thirup pAvai is the only prabhandam of

4000 divya prabhandham that is written in most of the major indian

languages and all Srivaishnavas around the globe do anusanthAnam

of these 30 verses irrespective of their language. The pAsurams

are written in many languages so that one need not even know tamil

and yet they can simply read it in their language and still spell

the words of the pAsuram in Tamil. ie., as similar to chanting a

mantra. All over the world (6 crores) (approximately 60 million)

of tamil speaking people living in 63 countries as well do

anusanthAnam of these verses during this month. Thus it is worth

a try to attempt to understand this one more time.

 

 

It is important to discuss the introduction prior to the

verses themselves for any kavi or kAvyam. We attempt to present

the various vyAkyAnams on the essence of thirup pAvai as to what it

contains and some related aspects of our achArya vaibavam prior to

discussing the verses from thirup pAvai. This is like an

executive summary (second part will be posted by Sri Varadhan) but

these are little longer than a professional one. Please forgive

us of any apachArams that may have occurred while attempting

to discuss these. We intend to post only the details of our

understanding from PV pillai and Sru Puththur swamigaL's father's

vyAkyAnam and other kAlakshEbhams. We donot intend to get into any

arguments and would merely present the details. So please forgive

us if we donot answer your questions in the open net.

 

Sri ANDAL thiruvadikaLE saraNam

Sri Boomi dEvi thAyAr samEtha Sri Oppiliappan thiruvadikaLE

saraNam

Sampath Rengarajan