Periya Thirumozhi- 1.5- SaaLagraamam - a doubt.

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Dear Swamin(s)

 

the postings of Sri Madava kannan on Thirumozhi is extremely good and

it really thrills and brings inexplicable joy for those esp, who know

the pasurams.

 

i also suggest our friends to keep the tamil version(orignal poems) of

the Arulicheyal and read it along with his great work(kaimkaryam).

 

in the meanwhile, i have a small doubt.

 

in the last pasuram, Alwar says "Salagramathu ADILGALAI"

 

as for as i have understood the word "adigal" means a follower or

a great follower of lord (like our alwar himself)

 

why should alwar then refer Emperuman as "salagramathu adigal"

 

i am sure that i have misconceived the real meaning.

 

please clarify.

 

best regrds

 

K.M.Narayanan

 

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Sri:

 

Dear Sri Narayanan,

 

What a lovely name! It reminds me of ajAmilan. NarayanA! Thanks a lot

for your sweet words on my rambles. "As AzhwAr gave liberty to me

"pidhaRRuminE", I am doing what little I (mis) understand.

 

Your doubt on "SaaLagraamatthu adigaLai" in the last pAsuram, I

understood (mostly I am wrong!) as the Emperumaan of SaaLagraamam -

because adigaL in this context does not mean "adiyaars" i.e BhagawathAs;

it means: the Lord (?- How?) The reference for me is: GandhiyadigaL; We

do not refer to the servants of Gandhi nor do we refer to feet of

Gandhi. (Perhaps, in this pAsuram, we can refer to the adigaL (Feet) of

SaaLagraamam Emperumaan. But the hitch is AzhwAr refers to SaaLgraamam's

(the Divya dEsam's) adigaL (Lord). So in all probability, the word

refers to Emperumaan (Lord) of SaaLagraamam.

 

Where else we can get this clarified? only from Sri Sadagopan or Sri

Anbil Ramaswamy? (mama, please!)

 

Narayana Narayana

 

Narayana dAsan Madhavakkannan

 

 

 

----Original Message Follows----

"Kazhiyur Mannar Narayanan" <nkazhiyur

srivaishnavan, bhakti

Re: Periya Thirumozhi- 1.5- SaaLagraamam - a doubt.

Tue, 09 Feb 1999 04:20:40 PST

 

 

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>Your doubt on "SaaLagraamatthu adigaLai" in the last pAsuram, I

>understood (mostly I am wrong!) as the Emperumaan of SaaLagraamam -

>because adigaL in this context does not mean "adiyaars" i.e BhagawathAs;

>it means: the Lord (?- How?) The reference for me is: GandhiyadigaL; We

>do not refer to the servants of Gandhi nor do we refer to feet of

>Gandhi. (Perhaps, in this pAsuram, we can refer to the adigaL (Feet) of

>SaaLagraamam Emperumaan. But the hitch is AzhwAr refers to SaaLgraamam's

>(the Divya dEsam's) adigaL (Lord). So in all probability, the word

>refers to Emperumaan (Lord) of SaaLagraamam.

>

>Where else we can get this clarified? only from Sri Sadagopan or Sri

>Anbil Ramaswamy? (mama, please!)

>

>Narayana Narayana

>

>Narayana dAsan Madhavakkannan

>

Dear Sri MadhavakkaNNan and Sri NaarayaNan :

 

At the outset of this note enjoying

the postings of Saalagraama Paasurams of

Kaliyan , let me say that Sri madhavakkaNNan's

intrepretation is correct .I will first

summarize the mind set of Thirumangai ,

when he arrived at the divya dEsam

of SaalagrAmam and how it led to

the phala sruthi containing the words,

"Saalagraamatthu adikaLai ".

 

 

The questions that Sri NaarayaNan raised and

Sri MadhavakkaNNan responded to are very

legitimate aspects of understanding/analysing

the use of Tamil words by Tamil Pulavara like

Thirumanagai .After all his other name is

naalu kavip pulavar .Context and sandhi are

important to intrepret the words they use .

 

I know there are many Tamil Scholars in this

group like Srimans Dileepan , Rengarajan ,

Varadhan , Anbil Swamin , Viji Triplicane et al .

Since my dear friend Sri MadhavakkaNNan referred to

my name as a reference , I have no choice but to

respond .Rest of the members more knowledgable

than myself are invited to comment and enrich

the discussions.

 

Thirumangai is a great rasikar of Sri RaamAvathAram .

When he reaches SaalagRAAMAm , he is immediately

struck by the word RAAMA ( the Taaraka , pOshaka

naamam ) housed inside the name of the Divya Desam .

He rememberd the sahasra naama phala sruthi slOkam :

 

Sri Raama RaamEthi RamE raamE manOramE

Sahasra naama tatthulyam Raama Naama varananE

Sri Raama Naama VarAnana Om Nama Ithi

 

Lord SivA was responding there to the query

of His dear Consort , Paarvathi , who had

asked : What is the laghu upAyam(laghu aarAdhanam)

to salute (meditate ) on the glories of the thousand

names of VishNu .Her husband revealed the secret

and gave Her the UpadEsam : The One word (naamam ),

" Raama " is equivalent in mahimai compared to all

the thousand names of Sri VishNu sahasra naamam .

 

Reminded by the Raama naama mudrai inside

the name of the divya dEsam of SaaLag-RAAMA-m ,

Thirmangai took the counsel of the Lord ,

who resides in the HimAlayan snow ( KailAsam )

and focussed on the celebration of Sri Raamachandran

in the very first paasuram and identified

the divya dEsam as the one that houses (grAmam)

the Lord , who constructed sEthu and travelled over it

to Lankhai to cut off the ten heads of the Mahaa-

aparAdhi RaavaNan in the battle field :

 

" malai koNdu alai neer anaik katti mathiL neerilankai vALarakkar

talaivan talai patthu aRutthu uhandAn SaalagRAAMam adai nenjE "

 

In the second paasuram , AzhwAr continued

with the celebration of the valour of the Raghu Veeran:

 

" Ilankai podiyA vadivAi saram thuranthAn "

(the one who transformed the great city of

Lankai into dust with the power of His arrows ).

 

In the third Saalagraama paasuram, AzhwAr pointed out

that the Jagath-kAraNa vasthu is offering sEvai for us

in the form of Sri RaamA (arakkarkku yej~AnRum salavan )

there.

 

In the fourth Paasuram , Raama Naama dhyAnam continues :

" tErA arakkar thEr veLLam seRRAn ".In the fifth paasuram,

azhwAr's mind shifts to the incident with SoorpaNakA ,

another RaamAvathArA incident .Thereafter, he shifts to

Sriman NaarAyaNA's other incarnations such as

KrishNan , Narasimhan and the BhakthAs , who

crowd SaalagrAmam to have the blessings of

Sri Raaman , who with the power of His KodhaNdam

sent an arrow to pierce the seven Saal trees

to convince the doubting SugrIvan about His

strength to handle Vali in battle .The divya

desam of " Saala + gRAAMAm " was once full of tall Saal

trees (dense wood trees like teak )associated with

the incident in the avathAram of the Raghu Veeran .

 

He now arrives at the Tenth (phala sruthi) paasuram

containing the word " SaalagRAAMAtthu adikaLai" .

He told us that his paasurams ( Tamil Maalai)

coming out of his vaak are about saluting "SaalagrAmatthu

adikaLai " paRRiyathu . He said " SaalagrAmatthu adikaLai oli

seytha Tamizh maalai ivai " ( these paasurams arising out of

his mouth are about the Sarva Swami presiding over

the divya desam of Saala gRAAMAm , Sri RAAMAchandran ,

the recitation of whose name is equivalent to

the recitation of the thousand names of Sriman

VishNu-NaarAyaNan . So he suggested to the

VirakthAs ( ulhatthu aarAr )and VivEkis( aRivu

udayAr) , who want to have the boon of residence

in Sri Vaikuntam recite his SaalagRAAMA Paasurams

celebrating Mainly RaamAvathaaran .

 

The recommendation of his Phala sruthi is " nall naadu

arasu aaLa ,pEr aayiram OdhuminkaL " ( O wise and vairAgyasAlis !

If you want to live in our Lord's Sri Vaikuntam , please

recite these paasurams about our Sarava Swami with

thousand names at SaalagrAmam . They are equivalent to reciting

the thousand names of the Lord of Sri Vaikuntam ) .

If you can not do that , atleast recite these ten paasurams

of mine about the archA mUrthy of SaalagrAmam in any haphazard

manner ( ivayE pithaRRuminE) not worrying about

Krama paatam .

 

Thus , "SaaLagrAmatthu adikaLai " means about

the Jagath-kAraNa , Jagan Mangala mUrthi ,

the Sarva Swami residing at Saalagraamam

as Sri Raamachandran .

 

The other intrepretation that comes to my mind

is the Ponnadi of the Lord . When one has sEvai of

the Lord in ArchA , the eyes have to move

PaddAdhi KesAntham ( From the sacred feet of the Lord to

the Face having the glorious dark tresses of kEsam .

Thirumnagai followed that Krama sEvai and focussed

on the sacred feet of the Lord .

 

Yet another intrepretation is the visualization

of what is under and on the KaDaki river bed

( Nadhiyin adiyil uLLavai ).Those resting there are

the SaalagRAAMA mUrthams . Surrounded by

RaamA mUrthams and KrishNa mUrthams

and Nrusimha mUrthams , AzhwAr thinks

of Saalagraamatthu adikal as the Lotus

feet of Sriman NaarAyaNan .

 

NaarAyaNa , NaarAyaNa , NaarAyaNa

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri SadagOpan

 

P.S : Divya prabhandham is indeed an anubhava

grantham !

[Guest guest]

DEAR SWAMIN(S)

 

what a deep understanding of the arulicheyal By Sriman Sadagopan .

 

we are indeed blessed ("punniyam seithavare") to have such an excellent

kuzhaam(group) like this bakthi lists to discuss bagavatanubhavams.

 

Poliga, Poliga Poliga

 

Nitya shree Nitya mangalam.

 

Regards

 

K.M.Narayanan

 

 

 

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Sri:

 

Dearest Sri Mani,

 

What a narration! I did not mean Sri PVP's. No doubt, his is always a

the greatest commentary. But your anubhavam of it- and your post is a

good one. We thorughly enjoyed.

 

You have ste an exmaple to youngsters and your parents have set n

example to all parents. It is the wy one brings us the kids by not only

telling them , also by showing them with our own actions/ nithya

karmAnushtaanangaL, that we will pass the treasure that we are bequethed

with to our younger generations.

 

Narayana Narayana

 

Regards

 

Narayana dAsan Madhavakkannan

 

 

 

----Original Message Follows----

Mani Varadarajan <mani

Re: Periya Thirumozhi- 1.5- SaaLagraamam - a doubt.

Wed, 10 Feb 1999 12:58:31 -0800 (PST)

 

bhakti

 

 

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[Guest guest]

We are really blessed to have members who ask such

good questions and give equally good and profound

answers. It is very heartening to see such discussions

started by Sri Madhavakkannan's Periya Thirumozhi

kainkaryam.

 

His post on the first thirumozhi (vaadinEn) induced

me to read the commentary of Sri Periyavaaccaan Pillai.

This vyaakhyaanam is truly a gem of a work; the more

one reads it, the more one feels that even the title

"vyaakhyaana chakravarthi" (emperor among commentators)

is not a suitable plaudit for the great acharya.

 

Coming back to the vaadinEn paasuram, where Alvar bemoans

his past and declares his good fortune at receiving the

divine name "Narayana", Sri PVP comments on the word

"naamam" (name), and the proper conditions for reciting the

Lord's name:

 

By specifically using the word "name", this paasuram

says that the "right place" is whatever place one is in,

the "right time" is whenever one desires to say it,

and the "right person" is simply one who declares

"Let's say it!".

 

Nanjiyar once asked Bhattar, "Does one have to be pure/

purify oneself (ritually or otherwise) before reciting

the tirumantram?"

 

"No," he graciously replied. "Should one take a dip in

salt water before taking a bath in the Ganga? Its greatness

gives you everything you need; won't this itself

(the tirumantram or the Ganga) remove all the impurity

that you think disqualifies you?"

 

[original below]

 

What a wonderful statement of the greatness of the mantram!

Never be hesitant or concerned about your purity or worthiness,

the commentary says.

 

thirumangai aazhvaar thiruvadigaLE SaraNam

 

Mani

 

------------

 

Original text:

 

"naamam" engaiyaalE irundhapadiyE udhdhESyam, iccai

piRandhapOdhE kaalam, colluvOm enRavan adhikaari

engiRadhu.

 

"thirumanthram collumpOdhu prayatharaaykkoNdu colla

vENumO vEndaavO?" enRu jeeyar bhattaraik kEtka,

 

"vENdaa", enRu aruLicceydhaar. "gangai aadappOm avanukku

naduvE oru uvarkkuzhiyilE muzhukippOkavENumO? in nanmai

ellaam uNdaakkappugukiRadhu, keezhayOgyathai iththanaiyum

pOkkamaattaadhO?" enRu aruLicceydhaar.