Tribute to NammAzhwAr : Thiruviruttham

[Guest guest]

Dear BhakthAs of Sriman NaarAyaNA :

 

Sri MadhavakkaNNan is continuing with the blesesd

kaimkaryam of posting his translations of the individual

paaasurams of Thriuvaimozhi . I will provide some additional

material dealing with the mood of NammAzhwAr that provides

the frame work of AzhwAr's anubhavam of BhagavAn and

His consort as SaraNya dampathis and his

SaraNAgathi to them .

 

I will refer to te works of paramapadha vaasis

UtthamUr Sri Veeraraghavaacharya Swami , PrathivAdhi

Bhayankaram ANNangarAcchArya Swamy and the sUthrams of

AchArya Hrudhayam in these postings besides references to

relevant Veda manthrams .

 

Traditonal view holds that the four Sanskritic Vedas

correspond to the spirit of the four Prabhandhams of

NammAzhwAr ( Tamizh MaRais) . Thiruviruttham is related

to Rg Vedam , ThiruvAsiriyam to Yajur Vedam ,

Periya ThiruvandhAthi to Atharva vedam and

Thiruvaaimozhi to Saama Vedam . There is a common

thread that runs across the four Sanskritic Vedams

that are mirrored in the four Prabhandhams of

NammAzhwAr . We will focus on them without emphasis

on tight matching the individual Vedams to their

counterpart prabhandhams in these postings .

Wherever appropriate , we will quote the Veda Mantrams

that would have a close kinship to the spirit of

the paasurams of ThirukkuruhUr SatakOpan .

 

Artha Panchakam : Jn~Ana and ajn~Ana Panchakams

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In an earlier postings during the celebrations for

ANDAL , we covered the topic of artha panchakam

in the context of the messages in Thiruppaavai

paasurams ( Bhakthi Archives ) . We will take off

from there and focus on the pentads of jn~Athavya

(that which should be known ) ajn~Anam and jn~Anam .

 

NammAzhwAr instructed us that Bhagavadh Vishayam

is important and samsAram is unimportant . He wanted us

to have the vivEkam (discriminating Knowledge)

about the sorrows of samsAram and the blessedness

of Bhagavadh anubhavam .

 

VedAs are described as " traiguNya VishayA vedA : ".

ther topics are (1) thyAjyam (2) upAdhEyam

and (3) niradhisayAnandham .ThyAjyam deals

with items that have to be cast aside , shaken off .

upAdhEyam is associated with the acts that make

us firmly hold onto the most important entities

and principles such as BhagavAn's sacred feet

thru mUla Manthram , dhvayam and carama slOkam

( Rahasya thrayams ) as revealed to us by our

AzhwArs and AchAryAs . NiradhisayAnandham

( anthamil pErinbam ) is the bliss of Moksham

resulting from saraNAgathi with its five angAs

that incorporates ThyAjyam , UpAdhEyam

and leads to niradisayAnandham .

 

Five Jn~Athavya ajn~Anams ( Panchakams )

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1. PARASVAROOPA AJ~NAANAM : Forgetting the

Lord and His consort through samsAra klEsams

( Bheethis ) as referred to by NammAzhwAr ,

" maRanthEn unnai munnam " .

 

2. AATHMA SVAROOPA AJ~NAANAM : " NammAzhwAr's

paasura vaakhyams describing this category of

ajn~Anam are : " yaanE yennaiaRiyahilAthE " .

 

3. VIRODHI VISHAYA AJN~AANAM : SatakOpan's

aruLiccheyal vaakyams in this context are :

" Odiya muzhanRum uyirkaLE konREn uNarvilEn "

 

4. UPAAYA VISHAYA AJN~AANAM : Lack of knowledge about

the means is referred to here . PaarAnkusA's blessed

words are : " piRavi nOyh aRuppAnENilEnirunthEn " .

 

5. PURUSHAARTHA VISHAYA AJN~AANAM : Here the reference

is to the wrong kind of knowledge that leads one astray

and results in not eulogizing the SaraNYan . AzhwAr's

anguish is expressed as : " Azhiyankai ammAnai

yEthtAthayartthu " .

 

The artha pancha ajn~nam results from the rajO and tamO

guNAs .GeethAchAryan has elaborated on them in His

instructions to ArjunA in the SamsAric battle field

of KurukshEthram . The dominance of Satthva guNam

leads to Jn~Anam characterized by its pentad .

 

JN~ATHAVYA JN~AANA PANCHAKAMS

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NammAzhwAr instructs through his prabhandhams ,

the five branches of Jn~Anam that should be known

by the seekers of liberation from the samsAric terrors.

 

1. PARASVAROOPA JN~AANAM : the abhyAsam ( ways of practise)

to recognize Him as being seated in one's heart cavity

( " ninnai nenjil uyyum vahai uNarnthEn " ).

 

2. AATHMA SVAROOPA JN~AANAM : The development of

discriminating knowledge to know the nature of

that , which is seated in one's heart cavity as

antharyAmi brahmam ( " ninRa onRai uNarnthEnukku " ).

 

3. VIRODHI VISHAYA JN~AANAM : An understanding of the

enemies that stand in the way of aathma svarUpa jn~Anam ,

the chathrus or VirOdhis and an understanding of them

is referred to here . AzhwAr's words are : " ahaRRa

nee vaittha maayavallaimpulankaLAmavai nankaRinthanan ".

When this knowledge is possessed by the prapannan ,

then he fully comprehends the nature of the five senses

that drag him away from Bhagavadh Vishayam .

 

4.UPAAYA VISHAYA JN~AANAM : The knowledge of

the means to avoid the cycles of births and deaths

through the practise of Bhakthi yOgam or Prapatthi

yOgam . The prayer for knowledge of the means

to avoid rebirth is couched in AzhwAr's moving words:

" iruL tarumaa gyAlatthuL inippiRavi vEndAm " .

 

5. PURUSHAARTHA VISHAYA JN~AANAM : The right knowledge

that it is throughb His KrupA that we become blessed

and the mahA visvAsam in Him as the never-failing

saviour is referred to here . AzhwAr's word-clue is :

" avanathu aruLAl uRal poruttu yennuNarvinuLLE

irutthinEn " .

 

The predominance of satthva guNa prAchuryam leads

to the blessed state of acquisition of Jaathavya

panchaka jn~Anam through performing SaraNAgathi

under a qualified AchAryA . This way , one gets

the katAksham of Madhusoodhanan at the time of

birth ( jaayamAna kaala katAksham ) and becomes

imbued with Satthva svarUpam and becomes

mumukshu .

 

TWO KINDS OF SAMBHANDHAM

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One is achith sambhandham and the other is

NaarAyaNa sambhandham .The former produces haani

and danger by invoving us in the afflictions of

samsAram . The latter ( NaarAyaNa Sambhandham )

showers us with auspiciousness that are lasting

and underlines our unchangable relationship

to our Lord ( " ThirumAlE naanumunakku pazhavadiyEN ")

and leads to Moksham .

 

The two categories of people , who overcome the ajn~nams

and become enriched with the five kinds of Jn~Anams

are : (1) karma khAnda nishtars and (2) BhagavathAs/

Thondars . They are called alternatively as anthaNar

maRayOrkaL and adiyAr thondarkaL/saara vitthukkaL .

 

The anthaNar maRayOr is saluted by AzhwAr as ,

" theeyOmpu kaimmaRayAr , thuNai nool maarvinanthaNar" .

The NaarAyaNa paarAyaNAs or the Thiru nAraNan thondars

are called Koyilil vaazhum VaishNavan or " aNi arangan

ThirumuRRatthu adiyAr , Thiru NaaraNan thondar " .

 

NammAzhwAr describes himself as the Thiru NaaraNan

murratthu adiyaar .The thirst for KaNNan ( KrishNa

thrushNA ) of SatakOpan is saluted by Parasara Bhattar

this way : " rishim jushAmahE KrishNa thrushNa

tattvamivOdhitham " . Using the Vedic analogy ,

ParAsara Bhattar compares NammAzhwAr , the Rishi

doing yaj~nam as the embodiment of Bhagavadh prEmai

in his Sri RangarAja sthavam .

 

NammAzhwAr and AchArya Hrudhayam

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NammAzhwAr is the VaguLa bhUshaNa bhasakarOdhayam

in the words of the AchAryA ,who blessed us with

AchArya Hrudhayam . He is the sunrise

that dispels ajn~nam and nourishes the artha panchaka

jn~Anam in us through his aruLiccheyalkaL . He is

our pramAthA . His birth was hinted by SukAchAryA

in Bhaagavatham through his never -failing words as

a Rishi ( Aarsha pramANam ) .He said that in kali yugam ,

several NaarAyaNa paarAyaNAL will incarnate on

the banks of TamraparaNee river , KruthamAlA river,

Payasvinee river , CauvEry river and MahA nadhi in

Dramida dEsam . The birth of NammAzhwAr at ThirukkuruhUr

on the banks of Taamraparanee river is alluded to here .

 

The salutations of AchArya Hrudhaya grantha karthA

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This great pramAthA ( NammAzhwAr ) , who used

pramANam ( saasthrAs ) to establish the supremacy of

Sriman NaarAyaNA as pramEyam ( the one to be understood as

the jagadh kaaraNam ,RakshaNamm and SamhAram ) .

 

The exact words in AchArya Hrudhayam are : "SataraiOtti

mathAvaliptharkku ankusamittu , nadAviya kooRRamAi "

ninRavar SatakOPar .These words break into following

four subdivisions :

 

1.SataraiOtti (2) Mathavaliptharkku(3) ankusamittu

and (4) nadAviya kUrramAi .

 

He is SatakOpar , one who angrily drove away the sata

vaayu or Satars , who engaged in propagating darsanams

of their own , which used sushka tarkams that wont stand

up before the parathvam of Sriman naarAyaNA .Therefore ,

he engaged in the relentless effort to set things

straight and drove away kudhrushtis /Satars from

propagating ajn~Ana panchakam . This is the meaning of

"SataraiOtti " , which SatakOpa stands for .

 

Mathavaliptharkku and ankusamittu : Being ParAnkusA ,

he controlled the rampaging elephants running around

causing destruction thru their spread of vipareetha

Jn~Anam with the use of ankusam (goad ) .

 

nadAviya kooRRamAi : He was the mrthyu ( kooRRam or

samhAra mUrthy ) to the samsAric afflictions of

chEthanAs , who was in the range of his eye sight

or those who read his prabhandhams and declared ,

" tvadh paadha mUlam saraNam prapadhyE " in

recognition of him as the divya PaadhukhA of the Lord .

 

AzhwAr's samslEshams and VislEshams

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(To be continued )